Kate Waters News

The National Theatre has announced 15 productions of new plays and fresh adaptations by leading writers.

Regent's Park Theatre have today confirmed full casting for their production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar. The production played two sell-out seasons at the Open Air Theatre, winning both the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival and Evening Standard Award for Best Musical, before transferring to the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2018. It will embark on a North American tour from October.

Why do these women box? What are they boxing for? What does boxing give them? And what do they stand to lose? All of these questions helped to shape and hone the play. Fighting for representation and having autonomy over their own bodies were grave challenges that our Victorian lady boxers faced. They were also the same struggles faced by women to have female boxing legitimised, respected and funded as a sport (with the battle still raging on).

1869. Deep in the heart of Victorian London is a theatre where only the strongest survive. Controlled by men and constrained by corsets, four very different women are drawn into the dark underground world of female boxing; each finds an unexpected freedom in the ring.

Andrea Levy's epic, Orange Prize-winning novel bursts into new life on the Olivier Stage. A company of 40 tell a story which journeys from Jamaica to Britain through the Second World War to 1948, the year the HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury.

Regent's Park Theatre have today announced principal casting for their productions of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar, alongside the full creative team for Evita.

Andrea Levy's epic, Orange Prize-winning novel bursts into new life on the Olivier Stage. A company of 40 tell a story which journeys from Jamaica to Britain through the Second World War to 1948, the year the HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury.

National Theatre has announced its listings for May - October 2019. Check out the full lineup below!

The Royal Shakespeare Company has today announced further casting for its forthcoming double-bill of Restoration plays, John Vanbrugh's The Provoked Wife and Thomas Otway's Venice Preserved. The Provoked Wife, directed by Phillip Breen, plays in repertoire from the 2 May 2019 with Venice Preserved, directed by Prasanna Puwanarajah, running from 24 May 2019 in the Swan Theatre.

The National Theatre has announced its upcoming lineup for the first half of 2019.

Royal Shakespeare Company Associate Artist Alexandra Gilbreath returns to the company in Phillip Breen's riotous new production of John Vanbrugh's restoration comedy The Provoked Wife. Alexandra last appeared at the RSC as feisty courtesan Angellica Bianca in the 2016 production of The Rover by Aphra Behn. Other leading roles for the RSC include Hermione in The Winter's Tale, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Rosalind in As You Like It, Kate in The Taming of the Shrew and Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Ever wondered what goes into creating your favourite productions? Those moments of magic (or macabre) where you go 'How did they do that?!' In our new Special Effects series, we'll be discovering how the worlds on stage come to life by exploring the worlds off stage, talking to the creatives and crews from some of the UK's biggest shows and theatre companies. This month, we're looking at stage blood and effects in two infamously bloody shows. We spoke to the Company Stage Manager on Michael Grandage's The Lieutenant of Inishmore and the Designer of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Tamburlaine, who shared their practices (and a few secrets).

Legendary actor Ian McKellen is on the mend after a leg injury which prevented the actor from performing in a weekend performance of the West End production of Shakespeare's King Lear.

Award winning actor Sir Ian McKellen sits down with Christiane Amanpour in the Duke of York Theatre for a one on one interview. Currently, McKellen is starring in the title role of Shakespeare's King Lear. He sat down with Amanpour to discuss his career on stage and screen as well as his gay rights activism.

The cast of King Lear at the Duke of York's Theatre includes Kirsty Bushell (Regan), Richard Clews (Gentleman Informer / Old Man), James Corrigan(Edmund), Sinead Cusack (Kent), John Hastings (Curan / Doctor), Anthony Howell (Albany), Lloyd Hutchinson (Fool), Jake Mann (Burgundy / Lear's Knight), Michael Matus (Oswald), Ian McKellen (King Lear), James Millard, Johanne Murdock, Jessica Murrain, Claire Price (Goneril), Daniel Rabin(Cornwall), Caleb Roberts (King of France), Scott Sparrow (Albany's Man), Luke Thompson (Edgar), Anita-Joy Uwajeh (Cordelia), John Vernon andDanny Webb (Gloucester).

£5 tickets to King Lear will be made available as part of Chichester Festival Theatre's Prologue scheme for 16-25 year olds.

Get a first look at rehearsals for Europe's first pop-up Elizabethan theatre - Shakespeare's Rose Theatre set to open later this month in York.

For the wounded soldiers of WW1, imagination is their only escape. Yet as they're transported to the fantastical lagoons and pirate ships of Never Land, allegories of the war they've left behind are ever present. George Llewelyn Davies, later killed in action in 1915, was one of the children who inspired J. M. Barrie to create the iconic character of Peter Pan. Remembering him, and a generation of Lost Boys, the production enchanted young and old alike during its original, critically acclaimed run.

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre's revival of their 2015 Olivier Award-nominated production, Peter Pan launches the 2018 season in the final year of the First World War Centenary Commemorations.

Today, on the birthday of William Shakespeare, full details have been announced for Europe's first ever pop-up Shakespearean Theatre - SHAKESPEARE'S ROSE THEATRE - which makes its debut in the historic city of York in June. Preparations are well underway for a ground-breaking 'Summer of Shakespeare'.