Menier Chocolate Factory News

Neil Morrissey will join the cast of RELATIVE VALUES, at the Harold Pinter Theatre, from Monday 26th May until Saturday 21st June, taking over the role of Crestwell from Rory Bremner, whose 10 week run ends on Saturday 24th May.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: HERE LIES LOVE, THE FABULOUS MISS MARIE and TOO MUCH SUN begin today off-Broadway!

Anna-Jane Casey, Sophie-Louise Dann, Damian Humbley and Ben Lewis will star in New York's longest running comedy revue, FORBIDDEN BROADWAY, which returns to the Chocolate Factory from 19 June. This updated version of the show showcases some of the best productions from both Broadway and the West End, including The Book of Mormon, Once, Matilda, Wicked and Miss Saigon!

Douglas Rintoul returns to the Unicorn to direct Sara Kestelman in Tove Jansson's beautifully crafted, The Summer Book, in an adaptation by Jemma Kennedy. This year marks the centenary of Jansson's birth and this unique story captures much of the writer's own experience of her youth. The show runs Sat 7 - Sun 29 June 2014 with press night set for Thu 12 June at 7.30PM in the Unicorn's Clore Theatre.

The full cast has been announced for Guys and Dolls, the first musical to be staged at Chichester's Festival Theatre this summer following a major redevelopment.

Chichester's Festival 2014 opens with a major revival of Hugh Whitemore's award-winning glimpse into the unconventional life of celebrated English poet and novelist Stevie Smith.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: CABARET, starring Alan Cumming and Michelle Williams, opens on Broadway tonight!

Following the recent 15th birthday celebrations for MAMMA MIA! in London, there will be major cast changes from Monday 9 June 2014. Rebecca Lock will be joining the cast as Rosie, Alasdair Harvey as Harry, Charles Daish as Bill and Alice Stokoe as Sophie Sheridan and Lloyd Green as Sky.

59E59 Theaters welcomes The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford to Brits Off Broadway with the US premiere of SIMON GREEN: SO, THIS THEN IS LIFE, created by Simon Green and David Shrubsole, performed by Mr. Green, with musical arrangement and accompaniment by Mr. Shrubsole. SIMON GREEN: SO, THIS THEN IS LIFE begins performances on Tuesday, May 20 for a limited engagement through Sunday, June 1.

The Chocolate Factory is delighted to invite you to The Life of the Party - A Celebration of the Songs of Andrew Lippa, a spectacular evening with one of Broadway's most exciting composers and lyricists. It takes place 27 May - 14 June 2014 at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

Best known for his recurring role as DI Mike Burden in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, accomplished stage, TV and film actor Christopher Ravenscroft teams up with Rhiannon Sommers, acclaimed for her portrayal of Mary Shelley in Bloody Poetry at Jermyn Street Theatre in 2012, for the first ever revival of Arthur Wing Pinero's The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith.

Nominees are The Sound of Music (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Tell Me On A Sunday (St James/Duchess Theatre) and Merrily We Roll Along (Menier Chocolate Factory/Harold Pinter Theatre)

Harry Burton will direct a new production of I Found My Horn, a play by Jasper Rees and Jonathan Guy Lewis, at the Trafalgar Studios (Studio 2) from tonight, 1 April - 3rd May, with the press night on Wednesday 2 April, 7pm.

The YALE INSTITUTE FOR MUSIC THEATRE has selected two original book musicals to be developed in an intensive lab setting in New Haven, June 3-15. Afterland, with music and lyrics by Benjamin Velez and book and lyrics by Kathryn Hathaway, will be directed by Mark Brokaw; and Clouds are Pillows for the Moon, with music by Tidtaya Sinutoke and book and lyrics by Ty Defoe, will be directed by Leigh Silverman. The Institute culminates with open rehearsal readings of each project, presented as a part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, on June 14 and 15.

Neil Patrick Harris will return to Broadway in the new production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the musical with book by John Cameron Mitchell and music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, directed by Michael Mayer. The limited engagement, featuring Lena Hall (Kinky Boots, lead singer of The Deafening), will begin previews tomorrow, Saturday, March 29 for a Tuesday, April 22 opening night at the Belasco Theatre (111 West 44th Street). Scroll down to learn more about the cast and members of 'The Angry Inch' band, plus check out interviews with the company!

Full casting is announced today for Tony Award-winning Broadway musical In The Heights, which receives its London Premiere in a brand new production in The Large at Southwark Playhouse from Friday 9 May

Due to the demand for tickets for the nine week season currently playing at Hampstead Downstairs, ending on 17th May, Hampstead Theatre is delighted to transfer Simon Gray's quartet of plays upstairs to the Main Stage for a three week run in repertory from 28th May to 14th June.

Chichester's Festival 2014 opens with a major revival of Hugh Whitemore's award-winning glimpse into the unconventional life of celebrated English poet and novelist Stevie Smith.

Following the sell-out success of its workshop as part of Vibrant 2012 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, and as part of the Finborough Theatre's acclaimed Celebrating British Music Theatre series, the world premiere of a new musical adaptation of the classic French novel Therese Raquin opens at the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre for a four week run, opening tonight, 25 March 2014 (Press Night: Thursday, 27 March 2014 at 7.30pm), starring Julie Atherton and Olivier Award nominee Tara Hugo.

Five years after Simon Gray's death, Hampstead Theatre is delighted to present this extraordinary cycle of his work: premieres of three unperformed plays alongside a revival of Japes, the play that started it all off. The plays will be performed in repertory over 9 weeks, featuring four stories based on the same characters, in the same situation but all telling a different story with opposite conclusions.