The Donmar Warehouse News

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Today's big news: Write Act Repertory's new musical LILI MARLENE opens tonight at St. Luke's Theatre!

The line between the dramatic world on stage and the real world off stage can seem very thin. Shows written hundreds of years ago speak to today; others hit even closer to home, depicting actual events happening right now. The latest offering from the Donmar Warehouse speaks to the latter. Setting the high drama of the Kids Company scandal against an operatic score, Committee... (A New Musical) is a bold endeavour but one which doesn't quite hit the right notes.

Academy Award nominee Uma Thurman (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, 'Imposters') will make her Broadway debut this fall in The Parisian Woman, the electrifying new power play by 'House of Cards' creator Beau Willimon (Farragut North, Ides of March), directed by Tony Award winner Pam MacKinnon (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Clybourne Park).

Eliot Feld's KIDS DANCE, called 'a New York City treasure' by The New York Times, makes its annual visit to The Joyce for six performances, June 8-11.   The remarkably poised, scrupulously schooled, and impeccably rehearsed whiz-kids, numbering 60, ages 11-17, will delight audiences young and old with Feld classics Meshugana Dance and The Jig is Up, along with two Feld works created especially for Kids Dance: Upside Dance and the new Pointing, a premiere for four young ladies en pointe.  And, continuing his commitment to expanding the repertory with works created expressly for youngsters, Feld will present two new dances: The Wild Current by Laura Careless set to a collage of music that ranges from Debussy to the Native Jazz Quartet, and ?It's The Effort That Counts a collaboration by Conner Bormann, Riley O'Flynn, and Stephanie Terasaki, in which the rhythms are provided by a metronome.

Sam Mendes is currently in discussions to direct Disney's live-action adaptation of PINOCCHIO. As BWW previously reported, Peter Hedges will pen the script for the film, with Chris Weitz and Andrew Miano producing.

Sonia Friedman, Colin Callender and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions, producers of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, have today confirmed that the production will have its Broadway premiere in the Spring of 2018 at the newly renovated Lyric Theatre in New York.

Eliot Feld remains committed to creating a repertory of dances created especially for young dancers.  For the June 8-11 season of Kids Dance, Feld will premiere works by Laura Careless, and a second new work by a trio of young choreographers who are graduates or seniors at Juilliard: Conner Bormann, Riley O'Flynn, Stephanie Terasaki. 

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot will receive a rare New York revival this spring at The Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa (66 East 4th Street) with previews beginning March 9th, 2017 for a limited Off-Broadway engagement through March 26th.  Opening Night is set for Monday, March 13, 2017 at 7pm.

George Bernard Shaw's 1923 play about the rise and fall of Joan of Arc closes the Donmar's autumn season, following One Night In Miami. Its main focus is female emancipation, highlighting the struggles that Joan faced to make her way through a man's world - as well as doing her best to stay true to her religion and loyalty to her country.

'Inmates, coming through.' That's our introduction to Phyllida Lloyd's landmark trilogy, as the homogenised prisoners are steered through the audience by prison officers. But this extraordinarily empathetic project, developed with Clean Break, gives those inmates individual voices and means of expression, while the all-female cast that inhabit them gives new voice to three familiar plays.

NBC has announced that on Monday, October 17th, Liev Schreiber will visit TODAY to talk about starring in Broadway's LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES. The actor will appear during during the 9 - 10 am hour of the morning show.

NBC has announced that on Monday, October 17th, Liev Schreiber will visit TODAY to talk about starring in Broadway's LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES. The actor will appear during during the 9 - 10 am hour of the morning show.

National Theatre Live is thrilled to bring three of its most popular titles back to cinemas this fall – Academy Award nominee Benedict Cumberbatch and “Elementary” star Jonny Lee Miller in Frankenstein on October 25; Cumberbatch in Hamlet on November 15; and the celebrated National Theatre production of War Horse on December 6. For more information, visit www.NTLive.com.

How does one put words into the mouths of titans? It was something I struggled with mightily as I was writing One Night in Miami At times, I regretted even taking on the challenge of trying to speak in the voices of Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke, Malcolm X and Jim Brown. But the importance of the special friendship between those men left me with a feeling of obligation to see my attempt through to fruition.

Tony and Olivier Award-winning director Michael Grandage and Tony and Olivier Award-winning scenic and costume designer Christopher Oram are confirmed for the creative team of Frozen, a new musical based on Disney's Academy Award-winning musical film, slated to open at Broadway's St. James Theatre in spring 2018.  

Born seconds apart, Darren and Sinead, aka Pig and Runt, live in a fantasy world all of their own in Cork City. Trash TV, disco beats and a load of cheap booze have fuelled this obsessive friendship. But as they go for their 17th birthday binge, reality violently collides with their fantasy and their world begins to crumble.

According to The Daily Mail's Baz Bamigboye, Phil Daniels will return to James Graham's THIS HOUSE, opening at the Garrick Theatre, following its upcoming run at Chichester's Minerva Theatre. Also joining the cast are Steffan Rhodri, Lauren O'Neil, and Kevin Doyle. 

Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland are set to star in Italian director Paolo Virzì's English-language debut film THE LEISURE SEEKER.

Full casting is today announced for the world premiere of the new musical GROUNDHOG DAY, which previews at the Old Vic from July 11 with a press night on August 16. Carlyss Peer will play Rita Hanson, alongside the previously announced Andy Karl in the role of Phil Connors. Eugene McCoy plays cameraman Larry, and the ensemble cast includes Leo Andrew, David Birch, Ste Clough, Roger Dipper, Georgina Hagen, Kieran Jae, Julie Jupp, Andrew Langtree, Vicki Lee Taylor, Emma Lindars, Antonio Magro, Carolyn Maitland, Kirsty Malpass, Lisa Mathieson,  Jenny O'Leary, Leanne Pinder, Mark Pollard, Damien Poole, Jack Shalloo, Andrew Spillett and Spencer Stafford.

British director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Skyfall, Spectre) will be the president of the International Jury of the Competition at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival