Shakespeare & Company News

Theatre Philadelphia proudly announces the debut of Philly Theatre Week with 70 organizations, 80 events and 268 performances between February 8 to 18, 2018. This new 10-day celebration will showcase the vibrant and diverse theatre scene in the tri-state region, and help make theatre even more accessible to the community.

Shoreditch Town Hall today announces further productions in the venue's spring programme, which brings together work exploring the themes of identity, time and place. This June sees the UK premiere of ANU & CoisCeim Dance Theatre's These Rooms, an intense, immersive blend of theatre, dance and visual art by David Bolger, Owen Boss and Louise Lowe. The work is co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW, the UK's official arts programme for the First World War centenary, LIFT and Shoreditch Town Hall, and tells the story of 15 civilian men who were killed in house-to-house raids by British soldiers on a single Dublin street on 28 April 1916, five days into the Easter Rising. Prior to this, acclaimed theatre-maker Christopher Brett Bailey returns to Shoreditch Town Hall, where he previously performed in Wedding, with a new solo show, Suicide Notes… The Spoken Word of Christopher Brett Bailey; Hackney-based Access All Areas presents MADHOUSE: re:exit, an underground adventure by five learning disabled artists; and the critically acclaimed magician Vincent Gambini performs a work-in-progress of his new piece, The Chore of Enchantment.

Stage Entertainment has confirmed that due to exceptional public demand over 100,000 new tickets will go on sale today (Friday 26 January 2018) at 12noon GMT for TINA, a new musical based on the life of legendary artist Tina Turner. Officially opening at the Aldwych Theatre on 17 April 2018, with previews beginning on 21 March 2018, the show is now booking to 20 October 2018.

The cast and creative team has been announced for the World Premiere of The ToyBoy Diaries, the new British musical that is to be the first production staged in 2018 at the critically-acclaimed Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester.

TINA, a new musical based on the life of legendary artist Tina Turner, has made a boom at the box office according to The Daily Mail's Baz Bamigboye. The columnist reported this evening that due to skyrocketing sales at the box office, the musical has released an additional 100,000 tickets for the show. The newly released tickets will extend the run of the show, now booking through October 2018.

Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking family drama is the first play in our American Legacy series. Dedicated to modern classics that lend perspective to stories from our past, this series seeks to draw a connection between our culture's history and the events of today.

Casting is announced for the world premiere of Old Fools by Tristan Bernays, a surprising, touching and often humorous tale about a couple, one of whom is living with Alzheimer's, and their enduring efforts to hold their relationship together through the years.

The Marsh welcomes a new solo show to the Berkeley stage, What They Said About Love by Steve Budd, which was awarded the Best of Fringe at the 2016 San Francisco Fringe Festival. In this absorbing solo show, Steve wonders why other people can and why he can't tie the knot. Budd sheds light on how people meet and make it to the altar, the push and pull of relationships, singles who can't seem to settle down, and more. The Oakland based actor captures the physical and vocal nuances of more than a dozen Bay Area characters, using their own words taken from hours of interviews, and weaves in his relentless search for the one. What They Said About Love, directed by Mark Kenward and developed with David Ford, will be presented 8:00pm Fridays and 8:30pmSaturdays February 2-March 3, 2018 (press opening: February 9) at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. For tickets ($20-$35 sliding scale, $55-$100 reserved), the public may visit www.themarsh.org or call The Marsh box office at 415-282-3055 (open 1pm-4pm, Monday through Friday).

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company continues the Debut Season at The Otto M. Budig Theater with Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, by Todd Kreidler, based on the screenplay by William Rose, playing January 26- February 17, 2018. This production marks the script's Cincinnati premiere, and is directed by D. Lynn Meyers, the Artistic Director of Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati. The cast includes CSC Associate Artists Darnell Pierre Benjamin and Kelly Mengelkoch alongside Barry Mulholland, Annie Fitzpatrick, Caitlin McWethy, Ken Early, and Thursday Farrar. The production is sponsored by Frost Brown Todd, BB&T, and Moerlein Lager House.

Florida Repertory Theatre extends Alan Ayckbourn's farce about matrimonial discord, How the Other Half Loves, starring Tony Award nominee and Broadway and screen veteran, Paxton Whitehead through February 3, 2018.

Olivier Award winner Andy Karl will star in a benefit reading of CHASING THE RIVER by Jean Giebel. Karen Carpenter (Delia & Nora Ephron's Love Loss and What I Wore) will direct the presentation at The Pershing Square Signature Center's Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre on Monday January 29th(7pm).

Ars Nova one of the most adventurous Off-Broadway companies (New York Times), piece by piece productions and Z Space present the world premiere of The Lucky Ones, a new musical by The Bengsons and Sarah Gancher (Hundred Days), commissioned and developed by Ars Nova.

Inspired by current world events, a new adaptation of Moli re's classic comedy Tartuffe is set to premiere as the West End's first dual language theatre production, performed in both English and French. The seventeenth century comedy moves to America, where a French film tycoon finds his life uprooted by a radical American evangelist.

Based on Mussolini's famous persecution of homosexuals, musical drama San Domino by Tim Anfilogoff and Alan Whittaker tells the story of a group of men sentenced to five years confinement for degeneracy on an island fortress of San Domino.

Laura Linney will make her London Theatre debut in Pulitzer Prize-winning Elizabeth Strout's My Name is Lucy Barton, directed by Richard Eyre at the Bridge Theatre. Running from 2 23 June 2018 with opening night on 6 June at 7pm, this haunting dramatic monologue is adapted by Rona Munro from Strout's 2016 New York Times best-selling short novel of the same name.

Anna Francolini and Gerard Horan will join previously announced Jonny Labey, Zizi Strallen and Will Young in the company for Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom The Musical. Based on Baz Luhrmann's classic film that inspired the world to dance, Strictly Ballroom The Musical will begin performances at the Piccadilly Theatre on Thursday 29th March 2018 (Press Night Tuesday 24th April).

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) has announced the Spring 2018 PUBLIC SHAKESPEARE INITIATIVE line-up of special evenings exploring the ideas and themes of some of Shakespeare's most challenging and essential works. Highlights of this programming include a look at the outsiders within Othelloand The Merchant of Venice with Stephen Greenblatt and Kwame Anthony Appiah; sneak peeks of Robert O'Hara's Mobile Unit production of Henry V and the Shakespeare Works artist development program; a discussion about the production history of Othello and putting it on stage for today's contemporary audience with James Shapiro and Ayanna Thompson; and special invited performances of As You Like It by the Hunts Point Children's Shakespeare Ensemble.

Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking family drama is the first play in our American Legacy series. Dedicated to modern classics that lend perspective to stories from our past, this series seeks to draw a connection between our culture's history and the events of today.

A new art exhibition, installed at the legendary Cornelia Street Caf , 29 Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village, featuring the paintings of world-renowned New York City-based artist Robert Cenedella, will officially open to the public on January 24, 2018, with a reception from 5:30 - 7:00 pm. The exhibition will be up through the end of February.

Following multiple sell out shows both nation and world-wide, 'One of the best musicals ever written' (Sunday Times), Blood Brothers written by award-winning playwright Willy Russell, is coming back to St Helens Theatre Royal this September as part of the show's Autumn 2018 tour.