Nicholas Hytner News

With 11 Tony ® Award nominations including Best Musical and Best Director of a Musical & Best Choreography for Bill T. Jones, the producers of Fela! have announced plans for a groundbreaking domestic and international tour of the critically acclaimed production launching in the fall of 2011. Lead producer Stephen Hendel has enlisted CAMI Spectrum's Margaret Selby in association with CAMI Theatricals' Gary McAvay to book the tour in the following US cities: Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tempe, and Washington. International engagements in Amsterdam, Melbourne, Paris, Rotterdam, Sydney and Toronto will also be scheduled.

Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall will appear in a Liverpool run of Antony and Cleopatra. She will play Cleopatra opposite Jeffery Kissoon in the Everyman Theater production, which will feature direction by Janet Suzman. Perormances will begin October 8 and run through November 13.

Alban Berg's modernist masterpiece Lulu returns to the Met, starring Marlis Petersen as the scandalous femme fatale and conducted by the Met's newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi.

Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall has been confirmed to be appearing in a Liverpool run of Antony and Cleopatra. She will play Cleopatra opposite Jeffery Kissoon in the Everyman Theater production, which will feature direction by Janet Suzman. Perormances will begin October 8 and run through November 13.

So far this season, Susan Graham has triumphed in Berlioz's Damnation de Faust at Lyric Opera of Chicago, in Strauss's Rosenkavalier at New York's Metropolitan Opera, in Mahler's Rückert-Lieder with the San Francisco Symphony, and in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas on a West Coast tour.

Alban Berg's modernist masterpiece Lulu returns to the Met, starring Marlis Petersen as the scandalous femme fatale and conducted by the Met's newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi.

Verdi's La Traviata returns to the Met with Angela Gheorghiu reprising her acclaimed interpretation of Violetta, a role the New York Times called a 'supercharged star turn' when she performed it in 2006.

Tony & Oliver award winning playwright Alan Bennett's highly acclaimed new play THE HABIT OF ART, directed by Nicholas Hytner, will be filmed live at the National Theatre in London on Thursday, April 22nd and broadcast by satellite to cinemas worldwide.

Tony & Oliver award winning playwright Alan Bennett's highly acclaimed new play THE HABIT OF ART, directed by Nicholas Hytner, will be filmed live at the National Theatre in London on Thursday, April 22nd and broadcast by satellite to cinemas worldwide.

So far this season, Susan Graham has triumphed in Berlioz's Damnation de Faust at Lyric Opera of Chicago, in Strauss's Rosenkavalier at New York's Metropolitan Opera, in Mahler's Rückert-Lieder with the San Francisco Symphony, and in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas on a West Coast tour.

The hugely successful pilot season of NT Live will end with a special addition to the schedule: a live broadcast of Boucicault's brilliantly funny comedy LONDON ASSURANCE, starring Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw in Nicholas Hytner's sell-out hit production on June 28 at 7:00PM.

Due to overwhelming demand in the U.K., the National has decided to add a bonus fifth NT Live event this season, the sold-out hit play, London Assurance. Starring Fiona Shaw and Simon Russell Beale, directed by NT Artistic Director Nicholas Hytner.

Actor and new GLEE heartthrob Jonathan Groff will star with the award-winning Simon Russell Beale in a new production of Ira Levin's comic murder thriller Deathtrap, beginning performances in London on August 21

Tony & Oliver award winning playwright Alan Bennett's highly acclaimed new play THE HABIT OF ART, directed by Nicholas Hytner, will be filmed live at the National Theatre in London on Thursday, April 22nd and broadcast by satellite to cinemas worldwide.

Houston Grand Opera closes its 2009-2010 season with Nicholas Hytner's laurence Olivier Award-wining production of Handel's XERXES. XERXES opens on Friday April 30 with performances through May 14.

Rossini's rarely performed Armida has its Met premiere on April 12 with a gala performance of Mary Zimmerman's new production. Renowned soprano Renée Fleming stars as the mythological sorceress, Armida, one of the greatest virtuoso roles from the bel canto repertory. Fleming is joined by Lawrence Brownlee, who sings Armida's chief love interest, Rinaldo, and five more tenors in the roles of the crusader knights. José Manuel Zapata portrays Rinaldo's deadly rival Gernando.

Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet returns to the Met stage for its first performances since 1897, with the powerful pairing of Simon Keenlyside in the title role and Marlis Petersen as Ophélie. Keenlyside's acclaimed interpretation of Hamlet in Geneva, London and Barcelona finally arrives in the United States, with a performance in the Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser production that was hailed by the British press as 'magnificent . . . sheer vocal genius.' Petersen, who steps in for Natalie Dessay, brings her haunting portrayal of Ophélie to the Met; she earned praise for the role during a 2006 run of Hamlet in Düsseldorf. Louis Langrée conducts a cast that includes Jennifer Larmore as Gertrude, Toby Spence in his Met debut as Laërte, and James Morris in the role of Claudius. Jane Archibald, in her Met debut, sings the role of Ophélie on April 5 and 9. The creative team is rounded out by Christian Fenouillat with set designs, Agostino Cavalca with costume designs, and Christophe Forey with lighting designs, all in their Met debuts. Performances run through April 9, with the March 27 matinee shown worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD

Rossini's rarely performed Armida has its Met premiere on April 12 with a gala performance of Mary Zimmerman's new production. Renowned soprano Renée Fleming stars as the mythological sorceress, Armida, one of the greatest virtuoso roles from the bel canto repertory. Fleming is joined by Lawrence Brownlee, who sings Armida's chief love interest, Rinaldo, and five more tenors in the roles of the crusader knights. José Manuel Zapata portrays Rinaldo's deadly rival Gernando.

Verdi's La Traviata returns to the Met with Angela Gheorghiu reprising her acclaimed interpretation of Violetta, a role the New York Times called a 'supercharged star turn' when she performed it in 2006.

Tony & Oliver award winning playwright Alan Bennett's highly acclaimed new play THE HABIT OF ART, directed by Nicholas Hytner, will be filmed live at the National Theatre in London on Thursday, April 22nd and broadcast by satellite to cinemas worldwide.