Oscar Wilde News

Lantern Theater Company continues its record-smashing 24th season with The Tempest by William Shakespeare. Lantern Artistic Director Charles McMahon will direct a cast that includes some of Philadelphia's finest actors: Chris Anthony, Peter DeLaurier, J Hernandez, Dave Johnson, John Lopes, Bi Jean Ngo, Ruby Wolf, and Frank X. Performances run Thursday, March 15 through Sunday, April 29, 2018; a full schedule is included in the fact sheet below. Theater critics and members of the press are invited to request tickets for opening night on Wednesday, March 21 at 7 p.m. by contacting Anne Shuff at ashuff@lanterntheater.org.

Book-It Repertory Theatre brings The Picture of Dorian Gray to Seattle this June. Directed by Victor Pappas, the famously dark 1890 novel by Oscar Wilde was adapted for the stage by Judd Parkin.

New Hampshire Theatre Project's Youth Repertory Company will present The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde's hilarious comedy of manners, on March 23-31, 2017 at West End Studio Theatre in Portsmouth NH.

One Eyed Jacks welcomes, for one night only, Alexis Michelle, one of the last queens left standing on RuPaul's Drag Race Season 9, in her new one woman show ALEXIS, I AM!

The new season of talks and events at the NT will include a series of events related to The Lehman Trilogy; Deputy Artistic Director of the National Theatre Ben Power will discuss The Stages of a Translating a Play, starting with the literal translation through to the challenges and rewards of writing an adaptation. Actors Adam Godley, Ben Miles and Simon Russell Beale will then reflect on the challenges and rewards of performing in the production, whilst The Lehman Trilogy Up Close: Talks and Show Package will offer the opportunity to see and explore the show through a series of talks, discussions and exclusive demonstrations, with contributions from academics, theatre-makers and performers.

Today Southbank Centre announces its 2018/19 performance, dance and comedy programme, celebrating the reopening of its restored and redesigned cultural venues, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, and welcoming new and returning companies to its stages.

New York City based theatre podcast, Your Program Is Your Ticket, presents a special series of theatre interviews with artists from the 2018 Frigid Festival in New York. Award-winning playwright and podcast creator, Sean Chandler, hosts the interviews which include playwrights, directors, and actors, and features local, national, and Canadian artists.

'Kinky Boots' overcomes a formulaic, predictable storyline with energetic performances and Cyndi Lauper's outstanding score. The national tour features outstanding work from its trio of stars: Lance Bordelon as frustrated shoe factory owner Charlie Price, Jos N. Banks as enterprising drag queen Lola, and Sydney Patrick as spitfire factory worker Lauren. The show plays at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza though Sunday, February 25.

Currently on the road with Walk the Moon, indie group Company of Thieves arrive with their highly anticipated EP, Better Together - their first effort since 2011. Premiering on Consequence of Sound, the release features three new tracks, as well as a gorgeously stripped back rendition of fan-favorite, “Oscar Wilde”.  

Co-Artistic Directors of Morphic Graffiti, Luke Fredericks and Stewart Charlesworth, today announce casting of the 'Bright Young Things' for their new adaptation of William Wycherley's restoration comedy The Country Wife. Luke Fredericks directs EastEnders' Eddie Eyre as Harry Horner, Call the Midwife's Leo Staar (Harcourt), West End stars Siubhan Harrison (Alithea) and Nancy Sullivan (Margery Pinchwife) with Daniel Cane (Sparkish), Mabel Clements (Lucy/ Dainty Fidget) and Joshua Hill (Dorilant) completing the company. Thrust into the excesses and seductions of late 1920s London: a city exploding with a heavy mix of jazz, gin and scandalous affairs the production, opens at Southwark Playhouse on 4 April, with previews from 28 March, and runs until 21 April. Full casting still to be announced.

Pardon me Alan Turing is an important piece of theatre and has the legs to go a lot further than its Auckland or Wellington season. The story needs to be told on a international stage.This play manages to find the right balance. The humour seduces you, then the themes confront you.

The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations. Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play's major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways.

Classic Spring is delighted to announce real-life father and son, Edward and Freddie Fox, are to play fictional father and son in Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband, from 20 April at the Vaudeville theatre. Also starring, in the role of Mrs. Cheveley, is Frances Barber. Directed by Jonathan Church, An Ideal Husband will play at the Vaudeville Theatre 20 April to 14 July 2018, before opening the Theatre Royal Bath Summer Season on 18 July to 4 August 2018.

Orlando Shakespeare Theater (Orlando Shakes) in Partnership with UCF presents William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night February 21 - March 23, 2018 in the Margeson Theater. Performed in traditional Elizabethan style by an all-male cast, Twelfth Night will play in repertory with Shakespeare in Love. Tickets ($25 - $50) to both productions are available now by calling (407) 447-1700 ext. 1, visiting www.orlandoshakes.org, or in person at the John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center (812 East Rollins Street).

The Watermill Theatre announces the cast for a new adaptation of THE RIVALS, Richard Brinsley Sheridan's classic comedy of desire, intrigue and romantic delusion. Adapted by Beth Flintoff, whose credits include Henry I of England and Oscar Wilde on Trial (Reading Between The Lines Theatre Company) and Greenham: 100 Years of War and Peace (Rosa Productions), this lively new version will be directed by Jonathan Humphreys whose credits include The Mighty Walzer (Manchester Royal Exchange) and Romeo and Juliet (Sheffield Crucible). THE RIVALS will run at The Watermill Theatre from 15 March to 21 April.

The professional ensemble of Brunswick's Theater Project once again demonstrates its affinity for drama with classic literary origins. Its 2018 production of The Picture of Dorian Gray, adapted by Merlin Holland and John O'Connor, offers a convincing, often compelling account of Oscar Wilde's famous novel.

Actress Kerry Ellis took over BroadwayWorld UK's Instagram this weekend, giving us a sneak peek at the current UK tour of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Playwright Rob Urbinati had a clever idea with DEATH BY DESIGN: Take the sophisticated and witty banter of the characters of Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde and drop them into the middle of an Agatha Christie murder mystery. In order for all of this to work, he wrote it as a farce. Edward Bennett (Bill Clausen), a playwright, and his actress wife, Sorel (Ashleigh Pedersen) have just had a disastrous opening night and they've escaped London to hunker down in their country digs, only to have their peace shattered by the arrival of one unexpected screwball guest after another. When one of the guests is murdered, the manor's maid is determined to solve the crime.

Fresh off their reunion tour and currently on the road with Walk the Moon, indie group Company of Thieves premiere their new song, 'Window' on Billboard. 'Window' is the second release from their forthcoming EP,  Better Together, due February 23rd.