Last night, the Sheridan Smith-starring revival of FUNNY GIRL opened at the Savoy Theatre in the West End. The transfer follows a sold-out run at the Menier Chocolate Factory, and the show is booking until October 8. Smith takes on Barbra Streisand's iconic role of Fanny Brice, the Brooklyn singer and comedienne who became a Broadway sensation under producer Florenz Ziegfeld. The cast also features Darius Campbell as Nicky Arnstein, Marilyn Cutts as Mrs Brice, Maurice Lane as Mr Keeney, Valda Aviks as Mrs Meeker, Gay Soper as Mrs Strakosh, Natasha J Barnes as Emma/Mrs Nadler, Bruce Montague as Florenz Ziegfeld, and Joel Montague as Eddie Ryan.
The 2016 Drama League Award Nominees for Outstanding Play, Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and the much-coveted Distinguished Performance Award were just announced this morning at Sardi's, by Aladdin stars Adam Jacobs, Courtney Reed and James Monroe Iglehart.
Check out the full list of nominees below!
National Theatre Live has announced that a selection of their most celebrated and acclaimed broadcasts will be returning to cinemas in 2016. These broadcasts will feature Tony Award winner & host of 'The Late Late Show' James Corden, Academy Award nominee Benedict Cumberbatch, 'Elementary' star Jonny Lee Miller, Academy & Tony Award winner Helen Mirren and more! New 'live' events will be announced soon for the fall 2016 season. For more information, visit www.NTLive.com.
The West End transfer of Funny Girl, receives its first preview tomorrow night, 9 April 2016 - with opening night on 20 April, at the Savoy Theatre. Michael Mayer directs Sheridan Smith as Fanny Brice, Darius Campbell as Nicky Arnstein, Marilyn Cutts as Mrs Brice, Maurice Lane as Mr Keeney, Valda Aviks as Mrs Meeker, Gay Soper as Mrs Strakosh, Natasha J Barnes as Emma/Mrs Nadler, Bruce Montague as Florenz Ziegfeld, and Joel Montague as Eddie Ryan.
The European premiere of The New Group's critically acclaimed Off-Broadway production, The Spoils, a razor-sharp new comedy written by and starring internationally acclaimed actor Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice), will transfer for a strictly limited season at London's Trafalgar Studios, from 27 May to 13 August, with press night on 2 June.
As expected, the 40th anniversary Olivier Awards showered trophies on the sensational Gypsy. Imelda Staunton and Lara Pulver's performances and Mark Henderson's lighting were recognised, and the production took Best Musical Revival. But there were surprises elsewhere, with starry shows like Benedict Cumberbatch's Hamlet going home empty-handed, Nicole Kidman losing out in the Best Actress race, and an underdog win for Pat Kinevane and Fishamble's Silent at Soho Theatre - all welcome given concerns that changes to the Oliviers voting process might favour long-running West End shows and/or A-listers Here are some of the night's major hits and misses.
Sonia Friedman Productions announces today that tickets for the long awaited UK premiere of Tony Award-winning musical Dreamgirls go on sale this week. The brand new production begins preview performances at the Savoy Theatre from 19 November with Opening Night on Wednesday 14 December 2016.
Following last month's big news that GLEE and THE WIZ LIVE!'s Amber Riley will star as 'Effie' in the UK debut of DREAMGIRLS this winter, the star sat down with the Daily Mail's Baz Bamigboye to discuss her journey to the iconic role.
Starz today announced Richard Eyre's adaptation of Ronald Harwood's critically acclaimed play THE DRESSER, starring Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins, will premiere on STARZ on Monday, May 30th at 9 PM ET/PT.
Atlantic Theater Company has announced commissions of six new plays by Jocelyn Bioh, Jennifer Haley, Paola Lazaro, Qui Nguyen, Heidi Schreck, and Simon Stephens and Mark Eitzel.
Amphibian Stage Productions (Kathleen Culebro, Artistic Director) will show a film of the National Theatre's production of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Back by popular demand, screenings will be on Wednesday, April 6 at 11am and 7pm, and Saturday, April 9 at 1pm in partnership with the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. This will be the fourth National Theatre Live screening of Amphibian's 2016 season.
It was announced today that James Charrington will join leading live entertainment marketing and advertising agency Dewynters as Chief Executive Officer on 11 April 2016. James will replace Bob King, outgoing CEO, who left on 1 March 2016 but will continue to work as a creative consultant to Dewynters until 31 August 2016. Anthony Pye-Jeary, co-founder of Dewynters, will stand down at the end of May 2016.
Author extraordinaire J.K. Rowling took to Twitter on Monday to dispel a rumor that her forthcoming West End play HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD is eyeing a big screen debut.
Is there a crime when the blood is just bits of computer code? Is there abuse when the victim is just an avatar? That and more is at the heart of Jennifer Haley's compelling play The Nether, beginning its 5-week run at Stage West on Thursday, March 10.
The Almeida Theatre announces the cast for the world premiere of Boy, a new play by Leo Butler, directed by Sacha Wares. The cast is Mohammad Amiri, Osmain Baig, Ruby Bridle, Emilio Doorgasingh, Terina Drayton, Aeran Fitzgerald, Frankie Fox, Ellie Mai Gallagher, Bayleigh Gray, Zainab Hasan, Duramaney Kamara, Asiatu Koroma, Wendy Kweh, Lev Litvinov, Georgie Lord, Angel Loren, Teann McDonnell, Eugenie-Alexia Mulumba, Sarah Niles, Demi Papaminas, Imogen Roberts, Abdul Salis, Morgane Tapia,Peter Temple and Matthew Wellard. Boy will run at the Almeida Theatre from 5 April until 28 May, with a Press Night on 12 April.
Sheridan Smith, star of the current West End production of FUNNY GIRL, turned to Twitter to announce that she would be unable to perform at last evening's performance. Today, producers of the musical issued the following statement on her absence
Sonia Friedman Productions is today celebrating as the full Olivier Awards Nominations list included 20 potential winners for productions the company is behind.
Following critical acclaim at the Savoy Theatre, the Chichester Festival Theatre revival of Guys and Dolls will be extending its run at the Phoenix Theatre from 19 March 2016. Casting for the West End extension includes multiple Olivier Award-winning actress Samantha Spiro (Hello Dolly) as Miss Adelaide, Richard Kind (Disney/Pixar's BAFTA award-wining Inside Out) as Nathan Detroit and Oliver Tompsett (Wicked) as Sky Masterson. Continuing in their roles from the Savoy to the Phoenix Theatre are Siubhan Harrison as Sarah Brown, and Gavin Spokes as Nicely Nicely Johnson.
