Underbelly News

Underbelly fires its starting pistol for this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe announcing the tantalising first five shows on sale. These shows offer eager fans the chance to milk that early Fringe fix with a fantastic selection from the cream of comedy, circus and cabaret.

Artistic Director, Gregory Doran, today announced the Royal Shakespeare Company's (RSC) Winter 2019 season which includes the world stage premiere of a new musical adaptation of The Boy in the Dress, based on the best-selling novel by David Walliams with songs by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers. The new musical, directed by Gregory Doran, plays for eighteen weeks in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from November 2019 to March 2020.

Underbelly Festival Southbank - Central London's home of affordable live entertainment - today announces the first 74 acts of a 2019 line-up which features four new programming strands, as well as its first three headline shows.

King's Head Theatre, London, the award-winning producer of F*cking Men and 5 Guys Chillin', presents the world premiere of Tom Wright's Undetectable, directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair MBE. Undetectable will run at King's Head Theatre from 13 March to 6 April 2019, with a press night on Friday 15 March.

Every February for the past two years, JAG Productions has invited African-American theatre artists to spend a week in White River Junction, Vermont to further the development of a new play or solo performance. Over the course of the one-week residency, three-five projects receive an intensive workshop, constructive feedback, and a staged reading for the public at Briggs Opera House!

Lucy Jackson in association with Dutch Kills Theater Company will present the World Premiere of INTELLIGENCE by John Golden Playwriting Award winner Helen Banner. Directed by 2017 Lucille Lortel Award winner Jess Chayes (Home/Sick, Half Moon Bay), previews begin January 12 at Next Door at NYTW. Opening is slated for Today, January 17.

Stand up comedian, actress, writer and producer Nicky Sunshine has announced a run of Confessions of a Massage Parlor Madam that will begin showing this February in celebration of Black History Month.

Lucy Jackson in association with Dutch Kills Theater Company will present the World Premiere of INTELLIGENCE by John Golden Playwriting Award winner Helen Banner. Directed by 2017 Lucille Lortel Award winner Jess Chayes (Home/Sick, Half Moon Bay), previews begin January 12 at Next Door at NYTW. Opening is slated for Thursday, January 17.

Calgary-born, now Montreal-based HERO is an indie-electronic tour de force who just released his disco-tinged new Dirty Work EP today on Fool's Gold Records. Fully written, produced and sung by HERO, it is a cinematic work that follows a storyline of an emotionally self-destructive character slowly building to the realization of perpetual pain.

Paines Plough and Theatre Royal Plymouth have today announced the full cast for YOU STUPID DARKNESS!, a World Premiere from Sam Steiner (Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons; Kanye the First), directed by Paines Plough Joint Artistic Director James Grieve. The new play, set in a call centre for Brightline helpline, looks at the struggle for optimism and community amid the chaos of a collapsing world. The cast includes David Carlyle, Andrew Finnigan, Becci Gemmell and Lydia Larson. The production marks the continuation of a long-standing relationship between Paines Plough and Theatre Royal Plymouth and follows the success of Love, Love, Love and The Angry Brigade.

Shakespeare's Globe is delighted to announce the Summer Season 2019. Celebrating and interrogating our 'sceptred isle' through Shakespeare's history plays, a year-long journey begins with Richard II, opening 22 February in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, continuing into the Globe Theatre this summer with Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. The season also includes A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, and the return of 2018's As You Like It. Robin Hood tales will form the core of the Read Not Dead series this year, and festivals throughout the summer include Women & Power and Poland is Hamlet. This year's Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank production will be Romeo and Juliet, opening on 28 February, with 20,000 free tickets available to state secondary schools. The Shakespeare's Globe Touring Ensemble will once again present a trio of plays for the audience to choose from: The Comedy of Errors, Pericles, and Twelfth Night.

Winner of the 2016 Lysicrates Prize, Dead Cat Bounce is Mary Rachel Brown's darkly funny portrayal of unrequited love and addiction, premiering at Griffin Theatre Company from 22 February - 6 April 2019.

Southern California based Them Evils are heading back out on tour to kick off the New Year in direct support for Pop Evil. Along the way they will be setting sail on the Shiprocked Cruise, where two live performances are slated. The band continues to promote their 'Rollin' Stoned and Livin' Free' EP as they add the track 'Practice What You Preach' to their live shows and put the finishing touches on a new song to be released in the late 1st quarter of 2019. The band played more than 100 dates in 2018, including a national tour with stops at Welcome To Rockville, Carolina Rebellion, and main stage @ Rock On The Range.

dressed. premiered at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe to critical acclaim, winning a Scotsman Fringe First as well as a nomination for ThisEgg for Total Theatre Awards' Emerging Company 2018. The intimate show created by four school friends is to tour the UK, using storytelling, live sewing, music, dance and clowning to turn a traumatic experience into something beautiful and resilient; a show about reclaiming one's body, female friendship and the integrity of clothes to identity.

Writer and Director Che Walker returns to the Finborough Theatre to direct the European premiere of his own play Time Is Love/Tiempo es Amor, opening at the Finborough Theatre for a four-week limited season today, 1 January 2019 (Press Nights: Thursday, 3 January and Friday, 4 January 2019 at 7.30pm).

The team behind one of the surprise hits from this year's Edinburgh Festival, Violet, a one-woman show by Bebe Sanders, is today announcing that they will be bringing the show to London for a total of 18 nights across three different venues.

Rebel Wilson is set to star alongside David Wenham in the Australian drama series “Les Norton,” according to Variety. The show is adapted from the novels of Robert G. Barrett and is presented by The Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Screen Australia.

Stephen Daldry ('The Crown,' Billy Elliot, The Inheritance) directs his National Theatre of Great Britain's landmark production of J.B. Priestley's classic thriller An Inspector Calls, hailed as the theatrical event of its generation and winner of an unprecedented number of awards, including three Olivier's, four Tony's and seven Drama Desk Awards, with an exclusive West Coast engagement at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts from Tuesday, January 22 to Sunday, February 10, 2019.

The first production from Leicester's newly re-opened Haymarket Theatre will be the world premiere of Treasure Island, penned by national treasure and established author Sandi Toksvig (The Great British Bake Off, QI).