Menier Chocolate Factory News

Glenn Carter* (Jersey Boys, Jesus Christ Superstar, Whistle down the Wind), Stephen Rahman Hughes* (Emmerdale, Dream Team, Bombay Dreams, West Side Story), David Thaxton (Passion, Les Miserables) and Matt Willis (Wicked, Flashdance, Footloose and BRIT award winning member of Busted), join the previously announced Lee Mead (Wicked, Legally Blonde, BBC Series Winner of Any Dream Will Do) to complete The West End Men. All four will be joined by special guest star Kerry Ellis* (Wicked, Oliver, We Will Rock You, Born Free Tour with Brian May) for the limited run at the Vaudeville Theatre from 25 May to 22 June.

According to Deadline.com, The Weinstein Company has hired Matthew Ponsoldt to pen a film adaptation of the musical Pippin. No film version of Pippin has ever been produced.

Lee Mead (Wicked, Legally Blonde, BBC Series Winner of Any Dream Will Do) will be joined by special guest star Kerry Ellis for selected performances (Wicked, Oliver, We Will Rock You, Born Free Tour with Brian May) in The West End Men, running at the Vaudeville Theatre from 25 May until 22 June, with press night on 3 June 2013. The West End Men is directed by the award winning Mitch Sebastian (The Rat Pack Live from Las Vegas) and produced by Milton Morrissey Ltd, Jason Haigh Ellery and in association with Paul Tyrer & Jamie Clark for The Booking Office. Further casting will be announced shortly.

From 13 May 2013 Anna-Jane Casey will join the West End cast of Billy Elliot the Musical at the Victoria Palace Theatre to play Billy's dance teacher Mrs Wilkinson. Also joining the cast are Kevin Wathen as Billy's brother, Tony, Howard Crossley as George and Alexander Loxton as Older Billy.

The full cast is announced today as rehearsals begin for the West End transfer of the stunning Menier Chocolate Factory production of the Sondheim/ Furth musical Merrily We Roll Along. Directed by triple Olivier Award winner Maria Friedman, previews begin at the Harold Pinter Theatre on Tuesday 23rd April.

Award-winning theatre company, Son of Semele Ensemble (SOSE), will present the west coast premiere of Our Class, by Polish playwright Tadeusz S?obodzianek, in an English version by Ryan Craig. Directed by Matthew McCray, Our Class opens April 6th at the Atwater Village Theatre.

Tickets go on sale today for the world premiere of new stage musical From Here to Eternity. The show will preview at the Shaftesbury Theatre from 30th September with Press Night on 23rd October 2013. Tickets can be bought from FromHereToEternityTheMusical.com or by calling box office on 020 7379 5399.

As an undergraduate theater major in the early 1970s, I heard music everywhere. It seemed to pour out of every office and workspace around the department. (And in the LP era, if you wanted more than the radio, this meant schlepping a twenty pound record player and a dozen or so albums from your home to the campus, sometimes requiring back-and-forth trips from the car. If you go to that much trouble, you want to keep the music playing.) In the hushed costume shop with its quietly industrious all female staff, Broadway ruled, with Stephen Sondheim's recent Company and Follies in heavy rotation. It was 'men only' in the scene shop where I listened to male balladeers like James Taylor and Gordon Lightfoot while unhappily working off assigned crew hours. Jazz classes (my favorites) in the dance department were conducted to the pre-disco sounds of Isaac Hayes and the Temptations. And late night cast parties were never complete without spins of Bette Midler's first two albums.

On the day that rehearsals commence for its forthcoming production of Travels with My Aunt, the Menier Chocolate Factory is delighted to announce that Iain Mitchell and Gregory Gudgeon will be joining the previously confirmed cast members, David Bamber and Jonathan Hyde. Adapted for the stage by Giles Havergal and directed by Christopher Luscombe, the production has a strictly limited 8 week season, 2nd May to 29th June.

Chris Larkin joins David Bark-Jones, Maureen Beattie, Simon Bubb, Danielle Flett, Geoffrey Freshwater, Neil Pearson, Thomasin Rand and Sasha Waddell in the UK tour of Michael Frayn's multi- award-winning backstage comedy Noises Off, directed by Lindsay Posner. Following its acclaimed run at The Old Vic and then at the Novello Theatre in the West End, Noises Off will tour theatres across the UK and Ireland from tonight, 27 March 2013. New dates have also been confirmed, which include Birmingham New Alexandra Theatre, Cardiff's Wales Millennium Centre, Glasgow King's Theatre and the Wycombe Swan.

La Jolla Playhouse presents the next selection in its acclaimed Without Walls (WoW) series, ACCOMPLICE: SAN DIEGO, written by Tom Salamon and Betsy Salamon-Sufott and directed by Tom Salamon. Part game, pArt Theatre and using the city as its stage, this exciting interactive experience will take place in San Diego's Little Italy district, tonight, March 26 - April 14, 2013.

A Finborough Theatre commission, the European premiere of the hit Off-Broadway musical ROOMS - A Rock Romance, plays at the Finborough Theatre for a limited four-week season from Tuesday 23 April 2013, directed by multi-award-winning director Andrew Keates.

If you haven't had the chance to catch up on your theater news, look no further than today's recap of all things theater - exclusive features, interviews, reviews and more! - around the Broadway World for the week of March 18!

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced Finn Wittrock as The Actor, Sarah Wayne Callies as The Actress, and Shuler Hensley as The Critic in the Kennedy Center production of The Guardsman in the Eisenhower Theater May 25 to June 23, 2013. Based on the 1910 comedy by Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnar, The Guardsman features a new literal translation by Richard Nelson and is directed by Gregory Mosher. The press opening will take place on Thursday, May 30 at 7:30 p.m.

David Auburn's Pulitzer-winning drama, Proof,takes place on a decrepit back porch in Chicago and tells the story of Catherine, the perhaps exceptionally talented and perhaps unbalanced daughter of a similarly exceptional mathematician. Proof runs at the Menier Chocolate Factory until April 27 2013.

Tickets will be on sale from 9am on Wednesday 20th March for the Menier Chocolate Factory's forthcoming production of Travels with My Aunt from 2nd May to 29th June, for a strictly limited 8 week season. Adapted for the stage by Giles Havergal and directed by Christopher Luscombe the cast features Jonathan Hyde and David Bamber.

Henry Goodman plys the role of Arthur Winslow in Terence Rattigan's The Winslow Boy, which will open at The Old Vic tonight, 19 March 2013. Directed by Lindsay Posner, Rattigan's compelling play is based on the true story of a father's fight to clear his son's name when he is expelled from Naval College after being convicted of theft.

Due to popular demand, La Jolla Playhouse announces a one-week extension for its upcoming Without Walls (WoW) production of ACCOMPLICE: SAN DIEGO, written by Tom Salamon and Betsy Salamon-Sufott, directed by Tom Salamon, now running March 26 through April 21.

Gerard Alessandrini's, FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: ALIVE AND KICKING, which received unanimous raves from critics and audiences alike, broke all box-office records at the 47th Street Theatre, and won spots on the Top Ten Lists of Time Magazine and the Associated Press, will wind up its current edition at the 47th Street Theatre on Sunday, April 28, in order to make room for The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre's own season, as required by the show's lease agreement with the theatre. In a statement, Mr. Alessandrini said, "We knew from the start that the theatre could only be ours until the end of April. Although we hate to leave town when we're a hit, I actually think this is a perfect time for us to wind up "Alive and Kicking", which has been a thrilling return to New York for us, to take a brief break; and to begin plans to return with another edition later this year." The show, which has recently added extended parodies of Cinderella and the movie version of Les Miz, is also a Critic's Pick for The New York Times, The Daily News and New York Magazine. This edition stars Lindsay Nicole Chambers, Natalie Charle Ellis, Scott Richard Foster, Marcus Stevens and David Caldwell on piano. DRG Record's cast recording FORBIDDEN BROADWAY; ALIVE AND KICKING! The UN-Original Cast Album, is available in stores, on iTunes and Amazon.com.

The Menier Chocolate Factory has announced Travels with My Aunt from 2nd May to 29th June, adapted for the stage by Giles Havergal and directed by Christopher Luscombe.