Watermill Theatre News

Casting has been announced for Park Theatre's new dark comedy Saving Jason, created by the two-time Olivier Award nominated writer of the West End/Broadway hits Glorious! and End of the Rainbow, Peter Quilter. Directed by Steven Dexter, the cast includes Jacques Miche, Tor Clark, Cory Peterson, William Oxborrow, Julie Armstrong and Paddy Navin. Saving Jason will play at Park90, from 2 November until 3 December 2016, with a press night on Monday 7 November, 7pm. 

Today theatrical charity Acting for Others announces initial participants in its 13th annual bucket collection.  For two weeks, beginning 17 October, bucket collections will be held at the end of performances in almost every theatre across London and throughout the whole of the UK. Last year 86 theatres took part raising £232,791.

Next Sunday Gina Beck is to be a guest at 'Singular Sensations' one of Edward Seckerson's series of in-depth conversations with stars of Musical Theatre at Charing Cross Theatre.

???????The King's is warming up for a spell of brighter weather next week as the hit musical based on the true story of The Kinks arrives for a five night run at the venue.  Produced by Sonia Friedman Productions and Ambassador Theatre Group, the show, which received four awards at the 2015 Olivier Awards including Best New Musical and Outstanding Achievement in Music for Ray Davies, opened at the Manchester Opera House on Friday 19 August 2016 before rocking out on a national tour.

Hackney Empire today announced the full cast of its brand new pantomime for 2016, Sleeping Beauty. The West End's leading lady Alexia Khadime (Wicked, The Book of Mormon, The Lion King) will be returning to the site of her stage debut to star as Princess Tahlia (Sleeping Beauty). She will be joined by Olivier Award-winner Sharon D Clarke who returns to Hackney Empire after her appearance in Mother Goose in 2014. They are joined by Gavin Spokes who makes his dameing debut, he joins the Hackney Empire family straight from his Olivier Award-nominated performance as Nicely Nicely Johnson in Guys and Dolls in the West End.

Charlotte Hope (Myranda in Game of Thrones, Allied, A United Kingdom), Jack Fortune (King Lear, Route Irish, Sparkling Cyanide), Barnaby Kay (A Streetcar Named Desire, The Real Thing, Wuthering Heights) and Gary Shelford (Twelfth Night, Angry Young Man) join the previously announced multi award-winning, international star Ed Harris (forthcoming HBO series from J.J. Abrams & Jonathan Nolan; Westworld, Pollock, The Hours and The Truman Show), Golden Globe winner Amy Madigan (Twice in a Lifetime, Roe vs. Wade), and Jeremy Irvine (War Horse, The Railway Man, Now is Good) to complete the cast in Sam Shepard's Pulitzer & Obie prize winning play, Buried Child, following a critically acclaimed New York run earlier this year.

"I loathe us, I loathe our stupid puerile view of the World … That WE have only to do it, that WE have only to go puff, and the monster buildings will go splat…" The first professional London production in over 40 years of Magnificence, the seminal 1973 play by revered British dramatist Howard Brenton, runs at the Finborough Theatre for a strictly limited four week season from Tuesday, 25 October 2016 (Press Nights: Thursday, 27 October and Friday, 28 October 2016 at 7.30pm).

The stage premiere of Ian Hislop and Nick Newman's award-winning BBC film The Wipers Times comes to the Lyceum Theatre from Thursday 3 November - Saturday 5 November, telling the extraordinary true story of the satirical newspaper created amidst the mud and mayhem of the Somme.

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET - the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical and West End hit today reveals casting for the red-hot rock 'n' roll extravaganza which appears at Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall as part of Southbank Centre's Winter Festival supported by NatWest. Million Dollar Quartet plays a limited season starring Martin Kemp from Saturday 17th December 2016 - Monday 2nd January 2017.

Rehearsals began today, 12 September 2016, for Grain in the Blood, a brand new production from playwright Rob Drummond, commissioned by the Traverse and co-produced with the Tron Theatre, Glasgow.

Following rave reviews and a successful season at the Watermill Theatre, Jamie Wilson, Gavin Kalin and the Watermill Theatre are delighted to announce a national tour of the musical "CRAZY FOR YOU", starring Tom Chambers as 'Bobby'. The tour will open at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth on 17 August 2017. Tour listings below with further dates to be announced. www.crazyforyoutour.com

English Touring Theatre today announces its spring season which features the world premiere of Silver Lining, a new comedy written by Sandi Toksvig, and a tour of the critically acclaimed Olivier Award winning Shakespeare's Globe production of Nell Gwynn, starring Laura Pitt-Pulford in the title role.  It is the final season under the stewardship of Director Rachel Tackley who is leaving the company to become Executive Director of Chichester Festival Theatre.  Richard Tywman takes over, having been Associate Director (International) of the Royal Court Theatre since 2013.

The Watermill Theatre announces the company for The Wipers Times, by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman opening on 22 September until 29 October at The Watermill Theatre, and then on tour to Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield, New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich and Salisbury Playhouse.

A unique rediscovery in its first UK production since its premiere in 1927, Home Chat by Noel Coward opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season tonight, 1 September, with another press night tomorrow, 2 September 2016.

Classic Stage Company (Artistic Director John Doyle and Managing Director Jeff Griffin) announced today that Jason Sudeikis will star as John Keating in the world premiere of Dead Poets Society, a new play based on the beloved 1989 film. Written by Academy Award winner Tom Schulman, adapted from his screenplay, and directed by John Doyle, Dead Poets Society is set at a rigorous all-boys preparatory school renowned for its ancient traditions, where the unconventional Professor Keating inspires his students to defy conformity, and to live passionately. Performances for Dead Poets Society will begin Thursday, October 27 at CSC (136 East 13thStreet) with an official press opening Thursday, November 17. Additional casting will be announced in the coming weeks.

Sheffield Theatres and English Touring Theatre today announce full casting for Phillip Breen's adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's classic novel LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER, which opens at the Crucible on 26 September before a UK tour to Oxford, York, Malvern, Salisbury, Brighton and Cambridge. Breen directs a cast including Hedydd Dylan as Lady Chatterley and Jonah Russellas Mellors. The company is completed by Aretha Ayeh, Will Irvine, Ciaran McIntyre, Eugene O'Hare, David Osmond, Rachel Sanders and Alice Selwyn.

Casting is today announced for HighTide, Vicky Graham Productions and Theatr Clwyd world premiere production of Elinor Cook's new play Pilgrims for which she won the 2013 George Devine Award.  Tamara Harvey, Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd, will direct Steffan Donnelly, Jack Monaghan and Amanda Wilkin in the production which premieres at the tenth annual HighTide Festival of new plays from 8 - 18 September before moving to the Yard Theatre in London from 20 September - 15 October and then Theatr Clwyd from 18 - 29 October.

'I am shirking off the chains that have shackled me for so long - I have suddenly come to realise that I am a woman - a living, passionate, pulsating woman - it never occurred to me before.'

A unique rediscovery in its first UK production since its premiere in 1927, Home Chat by Noel Coward opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 30 August 2016 (Press Night: Thursday, 1 September and Friday, 2 September 2016 at 7.30pm).

The World Premiere of This Little Life of Mine will run at Park Theatre for a limited season from 4 October - 29 October, with press night on 5 October. This brilliant, brand new production will run in Park90, and will be the first musical drama to examine the real lives of modern Londoners, with the pressure of high expectation and the worry of underachieving.