Alexi Kaye Campbell News

Shame and repression hinder homoerotic love in 1958, but it's easy, nasty love that's the bugbear when we cut to 2008 in Alexi Kaye Campbell's THE PRIDE.

This June, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts will present The Pride, a stylish, witty and affecting play that alternates between two very distinct time periods and the lives of three characters whose fate is destined by their eras.

Legendary American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim's masterwork Merrily We Roll Along is revisited in a new production under the direction of Tony Award nominee Michael Arden (Spring Awakening) set for the Bram Goldsmith Theater stage at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts from tonight, November 23, through December 18.

In the opening scene of 'The Pride,' we immediately understand two things about the men on stage: they are British, and they are uncomfortable. It's 1958. Oliver says hello to Philip. The conversation is taught, small, and as light-hearted as two people 'with nothing in common' can muster. In this middle-class London home, it is not what these polite people say to one another, but what they don't say--or, perhaps, can't say--that drives Alexi Kaye Campbell's sentimental split-period piece. When Philip's wife says she feels something in the room, the light bulb in your head goes off, and the tension makes sense.

Legendary American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim's masterwork Merrily We Roll Along is revisited in a new production under the direction of Tony Award nominee Michael Arden (Spring Awakening) set for the Bram Goldsmith Theater stage at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts from November 23 through December 18.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, is pleased to announce the recipients of the first round of the 2016 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards. The awards, totaling $580,000, allow 15 productions extra time in the development and rehearsal of new plays with the entire creative team, helping to extend the life of the play after its first run. Two more rounds of recipients will be announced later this year.

HighTide Festival, internationally renowned for discovering some of the UK's best new playwrights and producing new plays, has today announced the full ancillary programme for the 2016 Festival (8-18 September) - its 10th anniversary. Spanning performance, music, visual arts, literature and talks, it also includes world premiere productions from new and established HighTide writers. For the full festival programme, visit www.hightide.org.uk

?Daniel Evans this week brings to a close his critically acclaimed seven year tenure as Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres. 

Where was Michael Arden when Christopher Fitzgerald's face was on camera while his name was announced?

Last night Alexi Kaye Campbell's new play, SUNSET AT THE VILLA THALIA, directed by Simon Godwin, had its press night at the National's Dorfman Theatre. The show features design by Hildegard Bechtler, lighting design by Natasha Chivers, music by Michael Bruce, movement by Jonathan Goddard and sound design by Tom Gibbons. The cast includes Christos Callow, Sam Crane, Glykeria Dimou, Elizabeth McGovern, Ben Miles, Pippa Nixon and Eve Polycarpou. 

London is never short of theatre temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From Shakespeare and Rattigan to new musicals and an Edward Snowden play, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld's reviews...

Tony Award-nominee Michael Arden has just concluded a weeklong research and development session led by Broadway and television star Tituss Burgess, Tony Award-winners Steve Kazee and Marissa Jaret Winokur, and Tony Award-nominee Valarie Pettiford (Fosse), in advance of a new production of the Stephen Sondheim masterwork Merrily We Roll Along, set to hit the stage of the Bram Goldsmith Theater at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts November 22, 2016 through December 18, 2016. Casting for the fall production will be announced at a later date. Check out photos from the session below!

Over 300 performances of more than 50 different programs of theater, dance and music featuring local and world-renowned talent are on tap for the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts' 2016/17 season, among them a production of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, helmed by SPRING AWAKENING director Michael Arden.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles unveiled its 2016-17 season today, included in which is a production of the legendary composer's musical MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, to be helmed by Tony nominee Michael Arden.

Rehearsal images have been released for Alexi Kaye Campbell's new play, SUNSET AT THE VILLA THALIA, directed by Simon Godwin, which premieres at the Dorfman Theatre from 25 May, with press night 1 June.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) has just announced Academy Award nominee Diane Lane will return to Broadway to play 'Ranevskaya' in a new production of The Cherry Orchard. Ms. Lane made her Broadway debut as a child, in the 1977 revival of The Cherry Orchard.

Confronting, heartbreaking, and also hilarious, THE PRIDE draws the audience into two worlds, 50 years apart, highlighting that the horrific denial of love was not such a distant memory and still remains a challenge.

New work by Lee Hall, David Hare, Bryony Kimmings, Lucy Kirkwood, Nina Raine, Gillian Slovo and Alexander Zeldin, and contemporary revivals of two of the NT's most celebrated 20th century premieres - Amadeus and Angels in America - are among the forthcoming productions at the National Theatre announced today by Rufus Norris.

Alexi Kaye Campbell's Olivier Award-winning The Pride is a remarkable reflection on gay identity and sexual liberation, from the repressive past to the more liberated present day. Darlinghurst Theatre Companypresents the highly anticipated Sydney Premiere on 9 February at Eternity Playhouse as part of the 2016 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Sheffield Theatres today announce that Daniel Evans will step down as Artistic Director. He leaves the company in June 2016, to take over as Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre.