Menier Chocolate Factory News

From 10 October 2011 Stephen Ashfield (Emmett) and Ben Freeman (Warner), will be joining Carley Stenson (Elle Woods), Natalie Casey (Paulette) and Peter Davison (Professor Callahan) in the Olivier Award winning show Legally Blonde The Musical, which is currently booking until 27 October 2012 at the Savoy Theatre.

Two River Theater Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst, launches its new season with Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Tony Award nominee Sam Buntrock and starring Obie winner Michael Cumpsty and Tony Award nominee Kathryn Meisle as Benedick and Beatrice.

Walnut Street Theatre opens its landmark 203rd season with Andrew Lloyd Webber's ASPECTS OF LOVE. Directed by award-winning Director Bruce Lumpkin, this all-new production filled with passion, love and loss begins previews on September 6th, opens on September 14th and runs through October 23rd on the WST Mainstage.

Frantic Assembly today announced the full cast for their touring production of Abi Morgan's new play LOVESONG.

Seventy six years after its movie release, Top Hat will receive its world stage premiere at the Milton Keynes Theatre on 16 August 2011 where it opens for the start of an initial 17 UK week tour prior to an anticipated West End transfer in spring 2012.

The London revival of Parade, the acclaimed Broadway musical by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry and award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown, will play a 6-week season in the atmospheric new double-chambered Vault theatre space at Southwark Playhouse, from Wednesday August 10 - Saturday September 17.

Scott Bakula, the actor arguably best known for his role on Quantam Leap, has been announced to join Caroline Quentin, Andy Nyman, and Caroline Quentin in the premiere of Saul Rubinek's Terrible Advice at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

Part of the Finborough Theatre's Celebrating British Music Theatre series Blue Shale Theatre in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre by arrangement with Samuel French Limited presents PERCHANCE TO DREAM 'A Musical Romance' Devised, Written and Composed by Ivor Novello. Directed by Max Pappenheim. Musical Direction by Ross Leadbeater. Designed by Gregor Donnelly. Sound by Edward Lewis. Cast: Taube Brahms. Michael Burgen. Clare Louise Connolly. Laura Hanna. Amanda Hootman. Annabel Leventon. James Marchant. Rachael McCormick. Martin Milnes. Kelly Price. Claire Redcliffe. Robert Rees. James Russell. Gemma Sandzer. Katy Treharne. Details of the cast for PERCHANCE TO DREAM are below. Please also note the correct date for the press night of LULLABIES OF BROADMOOR which also plays during September. The press night is Venus At Broadmoor and The Demon Box - FRIDAY, 2 SEPTEMBER 2011 AT 3.00PM The Murder Club and Wilderness - FRIDAY, 2 SEPTEMBER 2011 AT 7.30PM and not Friday 1st September as previously stated. The Finborough Theatre's acclaimed 'Celebrating British Music Theatre' series continues with Ivor Novello's most romantic musical, Perchance to Dream, opening at the Finborough Theatre for a limited run of eight Sunday and Monday performances on Sunday, 4 September 2011 (Press Night: Monday, 5 September 2011 at 7.30pm). This rediscovery is the first professional London production in more than 25 years, and also commemorates the 60th anniversary of the death of composer Ivor Novello. Spanning the Regency, Victorian and post-war eras, and featuring a score filled with some of Novello's most ravishing songs including Love is My Reason, When I Curtsied to the King, A Woman's Heart and the classic We'll Gather Lilacs, Perchance to Dream is a classic Novello musical - an escapist 'musical romance' whose original 1945 run in the West End played for 1,022 performances. In 1818, Sir Graham Rodney, an impoverished womaniser, is the owner of Huntersmoon, a magnificent old country house, but seeks relief from his life of leisure by masquerading as the dread highwayman "Frenchy". Just at the moment when he finally finds love, the law runs him to ground with tragic results. A generation later, his estate has passed to the wrong side of the family and tragedy strikes a second time. More than a century must go by before the ghosts of Huntersmoon can finally be laid to rest... Welsh-born composer, author and actor Ivor Novello (1893-1951) was one of the most eminent British entertainers of the 20th century. As a composer, he trained in Cardiff, Gloucester (alongside eminent British composers - Ivor Gurney and Herbert Howells) and at Magdalen College School, Oxford. His musicals include Glamorous Night, Careless Rapture, Crest of the Wave, The Dancing Years, Gay's the Word and King's Rhapsody; his more than 250 songs include Keep the Home Fires Burning, I Can Give You the Starlight, Waltz of My Heart, And Her Mother Came Too, The Land of Might-Have-Been, Why Isn't It You and Primrose. His plays include Symphony in Two Flats, I Lived With You and The Truth Game. As an actor, he was one of Britain's first major film stars, appearing in over twenty films including The Call of the Blood and playing the title role in the original silent version of Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger; while his long stage career included many of his own plays and musicals. Novello's musical legacy is commemorated in the Ivor Novello Awards, established in 1955 to honour excellence in British music writing. This production commemorates the 60th anniversary of his death. Director Max Pappenheim recently assisted on Beating Heart Cadaver and The Goodnight Bird at the Finborough Theatre. Directing includes The Charmed Life (King's Head Theatre), An Evening With Opera (Southwark Cathedral), Arcadia and Sweeney Todd (Rugby School), and, as Musical Director for Open Door Opera, The Enchanted Child (Edinburgh Festival and St John's, Smith Square). The cast includes Taube Brahms Kindertransport, The Way Of The World, Redemption Over Hammersmith Broadway, A Woman Of No Importance (LAMDA); Michael Burgen All Male Iolanthe (Union Theatre and Wilton's Music Hall), Alice in Wonderland (Erasmus International Theatre), Zaide (Sadler's Wells), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (New Vic Theatre), Sweeney Todd (Union Theatre); Clare Louise Connolly Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Next Door's Baby (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), Six Characters In Search Of An Author (Headlong), The Crimson Petal And The White; Laura Hanna A Short History of the Royal Court (Royal Court Theatre), Into the Woods, Hedda Gabler, Romeo and Juliet (LAMDA); Amanda Hootman Epsom Downs, Her Naked Skin (Guildford School of Acting); Annabel Leventon The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night (Royal Shakespeare Company), Pillars Of The Community (National Theatre), Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell (Old Vic and Apollo Theatre), New Tricks; James Marchant The Same...But Different (Pleasance Islington), The Straits (Paines Plough), Waking The Dead (BBC); Rachael McCormick Oliver! (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane); Martin Milnes Utopia Limited (Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Festival, Buxton), The Yeoman Of The Guard (Tower of London), Promises And Lies (Birmingham Rep), The Andrew Marr Show (BBC); Kelly Price Zack (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), The Misanthrope (Ambassadors Theatre), A Little Night Music (Menier Chocolate Factory and Garrick Theatre), Chicago (Cambridge Theatre), Guys and Dolls (Donmar Warehouse and Piccadilly Theatre), Desperately Seeking Susan (Novello Theatre), Waterloo Road, Doctors; Claire Redcliffe When We Are Married (Garrick Theatre), Great Expectations, Tom's Midnight Garden (Library Theatre, Manchester), Question Time (Arcola Theatre), EastEnders (BBC); Robert Rees Peter Pan (New Wimbledon Theatre), All the Fun of the Fair (Garrick Theatre), State Fair (Finborough Theatre and Trafalgar Studios), Shakespeare Sonnet Walk (Shakespeare's Globe); James Russell Namaskar, Quality Street, Miss Lily Gets Boned (Finborough Theatre), Lewis (ITV); Gemma Sandzer Les Miserables (Palace Theatre), HMS Pinafore (King's Head Theatre), Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone; Katy Treharne The Phantom Of The Opera (Her Majesty's Theatre). The Celebrating British Music Theatre series at the Finborough Theatre In 2006, the Finborough Theatre began the Celebrating British Music Theatre series with a sell-out production of Leslie Stuart's Florodora. Productions since then have included sell-our rediscoveries of Lionel Monckton's Our Miss Gibbs, Harold Fraser-Simson's operetta The Maid of the Mountains, A 'Gilbert and Sullivan' Double Bill featuring Gilbert's play Sweethearts and Sullivan's opera The Zoo, Dame Ethel Smyth's opera The Boatswain's Mate, Sandy Wilson's The Buccaneer, Oscar Asche's Chu Chin Chow, and Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley's The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd.

Walnut Street Theatre opens its landmark 203rd season with Andrew Lloyd Webber's ASPECTS OF LOVE.

Parade, the acclaimed Broadway musical by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry and award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown, was nominated for nine Tony Awards on its premiere in 1998 - winning Best Book and Best?Score - and subsequently won both the Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for Best New Musical.

On Sunday 9 October 2011, for one night only, there will be a special one-off concert performance of Stiles and Drewe's new musical SOHO CINDERS at the Novello Theatre, in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust. The concert will feature an all-star cast, including Kerry Ellis, Hannah Waddingham, Beverly Rudd, David Bedella, and Sandi Toksvig

The Wilma Theater is pleased to present the United States Premiere of Our Class, written by one of Poland's leading playwrights, Tadeusz S?obodzianek (ta-DAY-use swo-bode-ZYAN-eck), in an English version by Ryan Craig, directed by the Wilma's Artistic Director Blanka Zizka.

The world premiere of 'BROTHER LOVE'S TRAVELLING SALVATION SHOW', a theatrical concert, devised by Malcolm Spencer and directed and choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood, began a nationwide tour on 8 April this year and completed the tour in May. The show, a celebration of Neil Diamond, stars Brian Conley, Darren Day and Ben James-Ellis.

Robert Lindsay and Joanna Lumley will lead the cast in Trevor Nunn's production of James Goldman's The Lion in Winter. The Lion in Winter will run from 4 November - 28 January, with press night on 15 November 2011. The Lion in Winter is produced by the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company. Further casting will be announced shortly.

Joining Ralph Fiennes, who leads the company as Prospero in Trevor Nunn's Theatre Royal Haymarket Company production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, are Nicholas Lyndhurst as Trinculo, Chris Andrew Mellon (Sebastian), Michael Benz (Ferdinand), Tom Byam Shaw (Ariel), Jim Creighton (Adrian), Ian Drysdale (Francisco), Elisabeth Hopper (Miranda), Andrew Jarvis (Gonzalo), James Simmons (Alonso), Giles Terera (Caliban), Julian Wadham (Antonio) and Clive Wood (Stephano) as well as Steven Butler, Eke Chukwu, Meline Danielewicz, Gisele Edwards, Hayley Ellenbrook , Grahame Fox, Charlie Hamblett, Jami Reid-Quarrell and Itxaso Moreno.

Joining Ralph Fiennes, who leads the company as Prospero in Trevor Nunn's Theatre Royal Haymarket Company production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, are Nicholas Lyndhurst as Trinculo, Chris Andrew Mellon (Sebastian), Michael Benz (Ferdinand), Tom Byam Shaw (Ariel), Jim Creighton (Adrian), Ian Drysdale (Francisco), Elisabeth Hopper (Miranda), Andrew Jarvis (Gonzalo), James Simmons (Alonso), Giles Terera (Caliban), Julian Wadham (Antonio) and Clive Wood (Stephano) as well as Steven Butler, Eke Chukwu, Meline Danielewicz, Gisele Edwards, Hayley Ellenbrook , Grahame Fox, Charlie Hamblett, Jami Reid-Quarrell and Itxaso Moreno.

Whether you've been living under a rock for the past week, or you're just in the mood for a recap of everything theatre, BroadwayWorld's new feature, 'This Week in Pictures' is here to satisfy your end of the week fix. Take a look below to catch up on the latest happenings from the Great White Way to the West End (and everywhere in between) with coverage of press events, rehearsals, opening nights and more! For last week's biggest events: visit THIS WEEK IN PICTURES: June 25- July 1!

Casting has been announed for a major London revival of Parade, the acclaimed Broadway musical by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry and award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown.

After two sold-out runs at London's Menier Chocolate Factory, LOSING IT transfers to West End's Duchess Theatre from August 31 to October 1. The West End transfer is produced by David Babani.

Following on from the Menier Chocolate Factory's acclaimed productions of Sunday in the Park with George and A Little Night Music, Stephen Sondheim's latest musical, Road Show opened last night, July 6. This production is directed and designed by the Tony Award Winning John Doyle and features David Bedella, Michael Jibson, Jon Robyns, Gillian Bevan and Glyn Kerslake.