Victoria Wood News

Debuting at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe is Sketch You Up! A brand-new one-hour comedy sketch show with an LGBTQ+ angle, taking the observational and familiar to a modern and fresh level…with bite!

Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment, Hope Mill Theatre and Ray Rackham Theatrical are delighted to announce that Harriet Thorpe and Tim Flavin will star as Vera and Beauregard respectively in the first professional UK revival of Jerry Herman's much loved musical MAME. They join the previously announced Tracie Bennett in the title role.

The Walt Disney Company UK and Ireland has today announced the principal company for the UK and Ireland tour of the landmark musical THE LION KING which will open in Bristol in September 2019 before moving on to Edinburgh in December 2019. Further cities will be announced in due course.

Hot Flushes- The Musical takes us back to 2016 (if you can remember a time before Brexit!) and tells the story of a BHS worker, a pension age woman, who discovers that not only is her BHS pension in jeopardy, and her bus pass on hold, but her state pension has been postponed 6 years without warning.

Joining the previously announced Joanne Froggatt (Frances) and Robert Glenister (Lawrence) in the premiere of Lucinda Coxon's Alys, Always are Danny Ashok (Sid), Joanna David (Charlotte), Leah Gayer (Polly), Simon Manyonda (Oliver), Sylvestra Le Touzel (Mary/Audrey), Jeff Rawle (Robin/Mr Thorpe), Vineeta Rishi (Julia Price), Sue Wallace (Mrs Thorpe) and Sam Woolf (Teddy).

Wales Millennium Centre and Wiltshire Creative have today announced casting for the first ever UK stage adaptation of Agatha Christie's much-loved Miss Marple thriller The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side. Colin R Campbell, Suzanna Hamilton, Julia Hills, Katherine Manners, Katie Matsell, Davina Moon, Huw Parmenter and Gillian Saker will join the previously announced Susie Blake and Simon Shepherd. The Mirror Crack'd will be a European Premiere, opening at Salisbury Playhouse on 15 February before touring to Dublin, Cambridge and Cardiff. The Mirror Crack'd will have an Opening Night on 25 February.

Cardiff's pub theatre The Other Room, located in Porter's and winner of The Stage's Fringe Theatre of the Year Award 2016, today announce the winner of the Violet Burns Playwright Award, which aims to help discover and develop Welsh and Wales-based female playwrights.

Wales Millennium Centre and Wiltshire Creative have today announced initial casting for the first ever UK stage adaptation of Agatha Christie's much-loved Miss Marple thriller The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side. The Mirror Crack'd will be a European Premiere, opening at Salisbury Playhouse on 15 February before touring to Dublin, Cambridge and Cardiff. The Mirror Crack'd will have an Opening Night on 25 February.

Shakespeare's Globe has announced the full ensemble for Richard II, opening 22 February 2019. Who are we as a nation post-Empire and pre-Brexit, and how do we speak truth to power? Who made this country and how do we move forward together? As we wrestle with questions of identity and ownership, we turn to our greatest playwright to reflect on 'This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England' as staged by the first-ever company of women of colour in a Shakespeare play on a major UK stage. Co-directed by Adjoa Andoh and Lynette Linton, Adjoa will also play the titular role.

Distance, the only male-directed play in PARK90's season, shining a light on male mental health and suicide (the biggest killer of men under 45 in the UK) with the story of Steven: a man trying to make sense of his world. Written by Alex McSweeney and directed by Simon Pittman (Associate Director, Frantic Assembly), the cast includes Doreene Blackstock, Adam Burton, Richard Corgan, Lindsay Fraser and Abdul Salis.

This summer, four of West End's leading ladies take residence in McEwan Hall - Janie Dee, Danielle Hope, Ria Jones and Claire Sweeney. Each night a different star will take centre stage to perform songs from smash-hit West End and Broadway musicals and iconic movies. Share in the highs and lows of their lives on and off stage, hear how they took the spotlight and let their voices soar! Our leading lady will entertain and delight, with renditions of her favourite numbers and anecdotes from the wings.

Subsequently adapted into an Oscar-nominated film, Sweet Charity is a modern Broadway classic following the trials and tribulations of Charity Hope Valentine (played by Trehearn).

Casting has been announced for Distance, the only male-directed play in PARK90's season, shining a light on male mental health and suicide (the biggest killer of men under 45 in the UK) with the story of Steven: a man trying to make sense of his world. Written by Alex McSweeney and directed by Simon Pittman (Associate Director, Frantic Assembly), the cast includes Doreene Blackstock, Adam Burton, Richard Corgan, Lindsay Fraser and Abdul Salis.

This is a public health warning: Joe Pasquale is on his way to Darlington to star as Frank Spencer in the current UK tour of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em which runs at Darlington Hippodrome from Tuesday 3 to Saturday 7 July.

A Proclamation! Tawnydog Productions has announced that the world premiere of Erin Murray Quinlan's lighthearted and whimsical new Off Broadway musical comedy GOD SAVE QUEEN PAM will take place on Thursday, the twenty-first day of June, Two Thousand and Eighteen with a limited engagement run through the twenty ninth day of July in the same year of our Lord. Get a first glance with rehearsal photos below!

Having opened to rave reviews at the beginning of this year, the UK and Ireland tour of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Matilda the Musical has announced today that Craige Els will extend his contract and play Miss Trunchbull at Manchester's Palace Theatre from 18th September to 24th November 2018.

Artistic Directors of Paines Plough James Grieve and George Perrin today revealed the full programme for ROUNDABOUT @ SUMMERHALL, kicking off at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe before a UK tour in Autumn 2018.

A Proclamation! Whereas many in the city of New York may be seeking a little 'Markle Sparkle' on this side of the pond, Tawnydog Productions has announced that the world premiere of Erin Murray Quinlan's lighthearted and whimsical new Off Broadway musical comedy GOD SAVE QUEEN PAM will take placeon Thursday, the twenty-first day of June, Two Thousand and Eighteen with a limited engagement run through the twenty ninth day of July in the same year of our Lord.

Storyhouse Chester is hosting a Women Weekend special full of fantastically funny female comics this month.

Everybody's Talking About Jamie, the award-winning feel good new musical sensation, is pleased to announce that Shobna Gulati, best known for playing Sunita Alahan in ITV's Coronation Street and Anita in Dinnerladies, will take on the role of Ray from Monday 7 May 2018.