Frankie Bradshaw News

James Dacre, the Artistic Director at Royal & Derngate Northampton, has announced the theatre’s new Made in Northampton season, featuring eighteen productions. The programme encompasses plays, musicals, a feature film, On Demand theatre, podcasts and a new interactive digital work.

Sometimes a new play comes along that has all the right ingredients for a delectable theatrical recipe.

Rose Theatre's Artistic Director, Christopher Haydon, has announced the first Rose Productions in the 2022/23 Season, beginning on 9 September with the London premiere of Anthony McCarten's The Two Popes starring Anton Lesser and Nicholas Woodeson.

Families are complex and the relationships between parents and children and siblings themselves is a rich basis for drama. Beru Tessema’s new play House of Ife is a tense and fascinating insight into the dynamics of a British-Ethiopean family, living in London, and navigating life and personal grief in the wake of the sudden death of the eldest son, Ife.

An energetic retelling of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedy, Hamlet, is performing in the Dorfman Theatre until 6th April 2022 and as part of a tour to state schools in Liverpool, Wolverhampton, South Essex and Sunderland.

A Curve, Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Mayflower Theatre Southampton co-production. Beautiful – The Carole King Musical, will visit Theatre Royal Brighton from Tuesday 29 March to Saturday 2 April.

At one point in Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, Carole declines a request to sing with a band, because she can't imagine anyone would want 'to hear a normal person sing'. As it turns out, millions of people want exactly that, and the show starts and ends with Carole performing her smash-hit album Tapestry at Carnegie Hall.

Leicester’s Curve, Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Mayflower Theatre Southampton have announced the company of talented actor-musicians joining their new UK tour of Beautiful – The Carole King Musical. Opening at Curve on Monday 28 February 2022, the company will be led by Molly-Grace Cutler (The Worst Witch, Girls Don’t Play Guitars, We’ll Live and Die in these Towns) as Carole King.

The National Theatre today announces new productions for all three South Bank stages this summer: Jack Absolute Flies Again in the Olivier theatre, Much Ado About Nothing in the Lyttelton theatre and All of Us in the Dorfman theatre with tickets on sale to the public from Thursday 10 March.  

Hamlet's dad is dead. His uncle has taken over the kingdom and married Hamlet's mum. The whole world feels like it's turned upside down. A ghostly encounter reveals a dreadful deed has been done. Should Hamlet take revenge?

A brand new production of the award-winning West End and Broadway show, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, visits Theatre Royal Brighton from Tuesday 29 March to Saturday 2 April. This new tour is co-produced by Curve, Leicester, Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Mayflower Theatre Southampton.

Leicester’s Curve, Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Mayflower Theatre Southampton today announced the company of talented actor-musicians joining their new UK tour of Beautiful – The Carole King Musical.

After being cancelled last year, the traditional musical extravaganza at the Rose Theatre is back with a bang. Typically for the festive production, Beauty And The Beast brings together professional actors along with talented performers from the Rose Youth Theatre for a magical production.

Pam Gems' Piaf – a Nottingham Playhouse and Leeds Playhouse co-production, reopened the theatre this summer, after an extended period of closure due to the COVID-19 lockdowns.  Garnering rave reviews, Adam Penford's production tells the extraordinary life story of the sensational, world-renowned singer Edith Piaf, who began her career singing on the streets of Paris.  

When Booker Prize-winner Julian Barnes saw The Lemon Table early in its world premiere run, he gave his seal of approval to the adaptation of his short stories. A fine accolade for adaptor and star Ian McDiarmid, best known for his role as Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars films, Olivier and Tony award-winning performances, and 12 years as the Almeida Theatre’s artistic director.

Curve, Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Mayflower Theatre Southampton have today announced plans to launch a new UK tour of the Olivier, Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, opening at Curve in February 2022.

Amelia Kinu Muus and Stanton Wright will star as Bella and Beast respectively in a new version of Beauty and the Beast by Ciaran McConville, with music and lyrics by Eamonn O’Dwyer, opening at Rose Theatre.

The cast is made up of all RADA graduates with Branagh playing Andrew Crocker-Harris. He will be joined by Kemi Awoderu (Taplow), Joseph Kloska (Frank Hunter), Lolita Chakrabarti (Millie Crocker-Harris), Wendy Kweh (Dr Frobisher), Victor Alli (Peter Gilbert) and Sarah Eve (Mrs Gilbert).

Under Haydon's stewardship, the Rose's own work will be the priority, as demonstrated by the five Rose Originals in this upcoming season, but there will always be room on the theatre's stage for the country's leading touring shows as well.  This season's Rose Originals are a blend of new plays tackling significant contemporary issues and well-known titles reinvented for today.

Pam Gems' Piaf – a Nottingham Playhouse and Leeds Playhouse co-production – tells the extraordinary life story of the sensational, world-renowned singer Edith Piaf. Her most famous songs include La Vie en Rose and Je Ne Regrette Rien, though the international star began her life singing on the streets of Paris.