Lee Hall News

Circa has announced their 2014 line-up, a diverse programme of the best of New Zealand and International work for audiences of all ages!

On Friday 22 November 2013, 18 year performing arts student Rebecca White from Croydon will join the cast of Elton John and Lee Hall's Billy Elliot the Musical at the Victoria Palace Theatre in the West End. By answering what does it feel like when you are dancing?, the question asked of Billy Elliot in his audition for the Royal Ballet School, Rebecca was chosen from over 1600 competition entries to perform as part of the internationally award-winning show.

Today in 2008, Billy Elliot opened at the Imperial Theatre, where it ran for 1312 performances. Billy Elliot the Musical is a musical based on the 2000 film Billy Elliot. The music is by Elton John, and book and lyrics are by Lee Hall, who wrote the film's screenplay. The plot revolves around motherless Billy, who trades boxing gloves for ballet shoes. The story of his personal struggle and fulfillment are balanced against a counter-story of family and community strife caused by the UK miners' strike in County Durham, in North Eastern England. It won ten Tony Awards and ten Drama Desk Awards, including, in each case, best musical.

Today, 13 November 2013, 11 year old Bradley Perret from Juan les Pins, France will become the thirty-fifth boy to play Billy Elliot in the West End and the first French-born boy to play the title role. Also joining the cast today will be 11 year old, Freddie Butterfield from West Yorkshire, as Billy's best friend Michael. Check out the photos below!

The stage premiere of Shakespeare in Love will open at London's Noel Coward Theatre in the summer of 2014. This new play will be adapted for the stage by Lee Hall from the screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard. Declan Donnellan will direct and the production will be designed by Nick Ormerod. Shakespeare in Love will be produced by Disney Theatrical Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions.

The Phoenix, the New Theatre Company founded by long-time PICT artistic director and founder Andrew Paul and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre founder and former director of theatre initiatives at the August Wilson Center, Mark Clayton Southers, will debut with a four week run of Joe Penhall's provocative, caustically funny, Olivier Award-winning play Blue/Orange. The production will star acclaimed actors David Whalen, Sam Tsoutsouvas, and newcomer Rico Parker, with direction by Andrew Paul and scenic design by Mark Clayton Southers. Blue/Orange, sponsored by founding Phoenix Board Member and noted arts philanthropist Richard E. Rauh, plays tonight, November 1-23, 2013 at the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, 937 Liberty Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh.

Tom Hardy will star as Elton John in Rocket Pictures' Rocketman, and Focus Features has come aboard to give the film a major U.S. release, producers announced today.

ANDREA MARCOVCCI is turning sixty-five this November! The tour kicks into high gear when it arrives on the east coast where Andrea debuts at both Joe's Pub (at the Public Theatre) in New York City and The Landmark Theatre in Pt. Washington, NY (Andrea's only scheduled Long Island appearance.) Plus - a return, after eight years, to the Emelin Theatre in Mamaroneck, NY and an appearance at the new RRazz Room in New Hope, PA (More details below). What better way to celebrate her birthday, than to honor the singers and songwriters of the 1940's and '50's that inspired the current Queen of Cabaret. The new show, "Moonlight Cocktail," began in Los Angeles at Tom Rolla's Gardenia in preparation for Andrea's debut at Michael Feinstein's latest club - Feinstein's at the Nikko in San Francisco, and went on to an acclaimed engagement at Davenport's in Chicago.

The Phoenix, the new theatre company founded by long-time PICT artistic director and founder Andrew Paul and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre founder and former director of theatre initiatives at the August Wilson Center, Mark Clayton Southers, will debut with a four week run of Joe Penhall's provocative, caustically funny, Olivier Award-winning play Blue/Orange. The production will star acclaimed actors David Whalen, Sam Tsoutsouvas, and newcomer Rico Parker, with direction by Andrew Paul and scenic design by Mark Clayton Southers. Blue/Orange, sponsored by founding Phoenix Board Member and noted arts philanthropist Richard E. Rauh, plays November 1-23, 2013 at the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, 937 Liberty Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh.

Amber Martin, Tori Scott, Never Sleep Alone, Nikki M. James, Erin Markey, Bridget Everett, Andrea Marcovicci, Lady Rizo, Julie Klausner, Our Lady J, Tammy Faye Starlite, Jackie Hoffman, Sandra Bernhard and Pam Ann are set for the 'Women of Comedy and Cabaret' series at Joe's Pub at the Public, running October to December 2013. Details below!

Amber Martin, Tori Scott, Never Sleep Alone, Nikki M. James, Erin Markey, Bridget Everett, Andrea Marcovicci, Lady Rizo, Julie Klausner, Our Lady J, Tammy Faye Starlite, Jackie Hoffman, Sandra Bernhard and Pam Ann are set for the 'Women of Comedy and Cabaret' series at Joe's Pub at the Public, running October to December 2013. Details below!

Long-time PICT artistic director and founder, Andrew Paul and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre founder and former director of theatre initiatives at the August Wilson Center, Mark Clayton Southers have announced Pittsburgh's newest professional theatre company, The Phoenix. The mission of The Phoenix is to explore the issues facing our diverse and rapidly changing world through the language of theatre. The name is purposeful. The phoenix was a mythological creature that crossed borders finding a home in many cultures from ancient Greece and Egypt to Turkey, Persia, Russia, Tibet, China and Japan. It was and is a symbol of renewal, new life emerging from the ashes of the old in a never-ending cycle of death and rebirth.

This week thirty young dancers will take to the stage at the Victoria Palace Theatre as Ballet Girls in the West End production of Billy Elliot the Musical. Earlier this month the show announced the release of over new 570,000 tickets taking booking to 16 May 2015 during which time the internationally award-winning production will celebrate 10 years in the West End. Check out the photos below!

Sarah Brocklehurst Productions in association with Jermyn Street Theatre presents Steven Berkoff'S RELIGION & ANARCHY, an evening of Steven Berkoff shorts, with co-directors Steven Berkoff and Max Barton, running tonight, 24th September - 26th October at the Jermyn Street Theatre. Press Night 26th September 7.30pm.

The b*tch is definitely back! Before a stirring and pristine 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me' halfway through a 90-minute, five-star iTunes Music Festival show broadcast on Apple devices the world over earlier today, Elton John shared some pointed words following a few audience guffaws and jeers at his proclamation of adoration for and dedication to Simon Cowell's international boy band sensation One Direction: 'I love Harry, I love One Direction. F*ck off, all right?' Meow! But, as for the show? Wow! Especially the new songs.

Over 570,000 tickets are released for sale today, 6 September 2013, taking booking for Billy Elliot the Musical to16 May 2015 during which time the internationally award-winning show will celebrate 10 years in the West End. Check out the photos below!

Live Theatre's Artistic Director Max Roberts today announced the cast for his next two 40th birthday productions. The line-up will see Joe Caffrey and Riley Jones, who have just completed a nationwide tour of The Pitmen Painters, take to the stage in both plays.

The cast of a season of short plays by maverick writer, director and actor Steven Berkoff has been announced. Fresh from her departure from Eastenders as Jean Slater, Gillian Wright will star, with Anthony Barclay, Lucy Hollis, Tom Lincoln and Clive Mendus. The season will present five world premieres and will be co-directed by Berkoff himself and Jermyn Street Theatre Associate Director Max Barton.

Sarah Brocklehurst Productions in association with Jermyn Street Theatre presents STEVEN BERKOFF: RELIGION & ANARCHY, An evening of Steven Berkoff shorts Co-Directors - Steven Berkoff & Max Barton, 24th September - 26th October Jermyn Street Theatre. Press Night 26th September 7.30pm.

Today, 17 July 2013, 10 year old Elliott Hanna from Liverpool, will become the thirty-fourth and youngest boy ever to play Billy Elliot in the West End. Also joining the cast will be 10 year old Demi Lee from Middlesborough, as Billy's dance teacher's daughter Debbie. Now in its ninth year at the Victoria Palace Theatre, Billy Elliot the Musical was recently awarded its fifth Olivier Award - the BBC Radio 2 Audience Award voted for by the theatregoing public. Earlier this year Billy Elliot the Musical welcomed its 4 millionth patron to the Victoria Palace Theatre where the show has now extended booking to 21 June 2014.