Menier Chocolate Factory News

Kitchen Theatre Company begins its 24th Season on September 10, 2014 with the world premiere of an outrageous new comedy, The House by Brian Parks. Downsizing couple, Martyn and Shanny, have struck a For Sale By Owner deal with upsizing couple, Lindsay and Fischer. The empty nesters are set to move to a condo, and the young couple is ready to move in and start a family. But a house full of everything a family accumulates is a lot to pack, so the new owners have given the sellers a few weeks to finish the job.

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: RED EYE OF LOVE begins off-Broadway, Patrick Page can't stop being bad at 54 Below, Michael Cerveris goes to NOLA and more!

The Park Theatre has announced the casting of Matthew Kelly and Simon Greenall in Snapdragon Productions' forthcoming production of Toast by Richard Bean. Snapdragon previously produced the successful Thark with Clive Francis and The Dead Wait.

The Menier Chocolate Factory has announced that its upcoming season will include productions of ASSASSINS by Stephen Sondheim & John Weidman, BUYER AND CELLAR by Jonathan Tolins & starring Michael Urie, plus AN EVENING WITH JOAN PLOWRIGHT.

Here's the first picture of Olivier Award winner David Bedella as razor-wielding madman Sweeney Todd and Sarah Ingram his pie-making partner in crime, Mrs Lovett, in an intimate new production of the Tony Award and Olivier Award-winning musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) has announced fall programming at OBERON, featuring limited engagements of exciting work by groundbreaking artists. The lineup for October and November includes POOL (NO WATER) by Mark Ravenhill, created by One Year Lease Theater Company and directed by Ianthe Demos; SHIDA, a new musical in development, written and performed by Broadway powerhouse Jeannette Bayardelle and directed by Andy Sandberg; and RUBY WAX: SANE NEW WORLD, written and performed by the incomparable comedienne and actor Ruby Wax.

Guys and Dolls - a joyous and vibrant celebration of Prohibition-era New York - marks a series of firsts when it bursts onto the Festival Theatre stage at Chichester this summer, running now through 21 September 2014. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production below!

The full-fledged, full-scale stage musical adaptation of Barry Manilow's classic COPACABANA is set for a new UK tour kicking off later this Fall according to a new announcement.

In 2012, Phyllida Lloyd's all-female production of Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse placed the play in a women's prison. It stunned audiences on both sides of the Atlantic and challenged the idea of 'who owns Shakespeare?' In one of the schools workshops around the production, teachers heard one of their students, a girl, speak in public for the first time. It couldn't end there.

The Old Globe today announced the full cast and creative team for the World Premiere of Bright Star, a new American musical featuring music by Edie Brickell and Steve Martin, lyrics by Brickell, and book by Martin, based on an original story by Martin and Brickell. Directed by Walter Bobbie, Bright Star will run September 13 - November 2, 2014 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run September 13 - September 27. Opening night is Sunday, September 28 at 7:00 p.m. Single tickets go on sale on Friday, August 8 at noon.

Cynthia Erivo (I Can't Sing!, The Color Purple) returns to the West End alongside Cassidy Janson (Avenue Q, Wicked, Candide) in the European premiere of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Dessa Rose, running at Trafalgar Studios (Studio 2), today 29th July - Saturday 30th August 2014. Press night is Thursday, 31st July, 7pm.

A few months ago, it was announed that Joanna Froggatt, known for her role as DOWNTON ABBEY maid 'Anna,' would star as 'Becca' in the London premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire's RABBIT HOLE. The play was set to begin previews at the Vaudeville Theatre on September 11. But recently, The Stage reported that this date has been postponed due to 'scheduling issues.' Producers Creative Management and Productions, James Quaife Productions, and Celia Atkin released a statement saying 'Our production of Rabbit Hole will be postponed from the planned September opening at the Vaudeville Theatre as due to a late shift in schedules, it is unable to go ahead at this time.'

Following a sold-out and critically acclaimed run at the Menier Chocolate Factory, the theatre is delighted to announce its "breathtakingly funny" (Guardian) production of FORBIDDEN BROADWAY will transfer to the West End's Vaudeville Theatre on Tuesday 9th September - 22nd November, with press night on Monday 15th September at 7 pm.

DRG Records just kicked off the release of Gerard Alessandrini's Forbidden Broadway: Comes Out Swinging! (2014 Un-Original Cast Album), produced by Grammy Award winner Hugh Fordin, yesterday at Barnes & Noble (150 East 86 Street). The cast along with writer/creator and director Gerard Alessandrini and longtime Forbidden Broadway illustrator and CD cover artist Ken Fallin, were on hand to sign the CD and for performances. BroadwayWorld takes you inside the special event below!

Olivier Award winner David Bedella will play razor-wielding madman Sweeney Todd and Sarah Ingram his pie-making partner in crime, Mrs Lovett, in an intimate new production of the Tony Award and Olivier Award-winning musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Due to huge demand and critical acclaim, the Menier Chocolate Factory has announced that the run for its production of FORBIDDEN BROADWAY has been extended to Saturday, 30th August, 2014.

DRG Records just kicked off the release of Gerard Alessandrini's Forbidden Broadway: Comes Out Swinging! (2014 Un-Original Cast Album), produced by Grammy Award winner Hugh Fordin, yesterday at Barnes & Noble (150 East 86 Street). The cast along with writer/creator and director Gerard Alessandrini and longtime Forbidden Broadway illustrator and CD cover artist Ken Fallin, were on hand to sign the CD and for performances. BroadwayWorld brings you photos from inside the big event below!

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: It's a night for movie adaptations! FINDING NEVERLAND begins in Boston, and SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE opens in the West End, with A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, starring Gillian Anderson, also launching tonight across the pond!

Sundance Institute and the LUMA Foundation today announced that the two organizations will again collaborate to host the second Sundance Institute | LUMA Foundation Theatre Directors Retreat in Arles, France, July 29 through August 11. The Retreat is one of 10 residential programs hosted by Sundance Institute this summer, collectively representing 15 weeks of support and mentorship for promising independent artists in theatre and film from the United States and around the world.

In its tenth anniversary year, the Chocolate Factory celebrates by creating a brand new production of the show that put it on the map in 2004, FULLY COMMITTED, the whirlwind culinary comedy set in one of Manhattan's hottest restaurants, where the city never sleeps and the phone never stops ringing! A decade later, with the masses clamouring for entry to dining hot spots du jour such as Chiltern Firehouse for their own taste of the A-List, and celebrity chefs salivated over as the new rock stars, FULLY COMMITTED is as fresh as ever.