Blitz!

In the summer of 1962, Sir Laurence Olivier invited lighting designer Richard Pilbrow to 'sort out the bloody awful lighting' at Chichester Theatre two days before it opened. Pilbrow replied there was nothing he could do in so short a time. 'Well, you're no bloody use, are you?' Olivier quipped.

Since opening at the Union Theatre in February BLITZ! has played to packed houses, but the run must end on 7th March. Directed by Phil Willmott and featuring a stellar cast, the production has not been professionally staged for 20 years and has made a very welcome return to London.

Revival Blitz! forms part of Phil Wilmott's Essential Classics season, which commemorates the 75th anniversary of VE Day. A Lionel Bart musical set in the heart of London's East End, Blitz! (also directed by Wilmott) tells the story of two neighbouring families - the Blitzsteins and the Lockes - against the backdrop of World War II.

Lionel Bart's BLITZ! is running now at the Union Theatre in Southwark. The new production, directed by Phil Willmott, will run until 7th March 2020 as part of this year's commemoration of the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

Theatre enthusiasts packed the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts last night to hear Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley and Executive Director Phil Santora of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley reveal the lineup for the company's 50th season, which launches this summer. Kelley's 50th and final season as Artistic Director of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley includes triumphant returns of TheatreWorks favorites, bold premieres developed at the company's annual New Works Festival, and celebrated works from the nation's leading playwrights.

Following last year's critically acclaimed release of 'Lost West End Vintage' (highlighted in The Sunday Times as an "Essential New Release') Stage Door Records are pleased to continue the album series with 'Lost West End Vintage 2', released and available in stores from today.

Following last year's critically acclaimed release of 'Lost West End Vintage' (highlighted in The Sunday Times as an "Essential New Release') Stage Door Records are pleased to continue the album series with 'Lost West End Vintage 2' to be released on July 27th 2018.

THE indomitable spirit of Londoners at the height of the Blitz comes to the fore in a stirring musical at Limelight Theatre this November and December.

The Greenwich Theatre announces its Autumn 2016 season! Beginning with the How Small How Far Production of Garden, the company will present and produce two dozen productions in the coming autumn months. Details for each production are below. For more information, visit http://www.greenwichtheatre.org.uk.

Harold Pinter was born in Hackney, in London's East End, in October of 1930. An only child, he was born to Jewish parents of very moderate means; his father, a tailor, and his mother, a homemaker, were first-generation descendants of Eastern European immigrants. Like many of his contemporaries, Pinter's childhood was shaped by the onslaught of World War II; at the age of nine, he was evacuated from London through Operation Pied Piper and resettled in a town in Cornwall. The sense of isolation he felt in Cornwall would come to influence his work, as would the changed London to which he returned during the Blitz, where he was witness to, as his 2008 Guardianobituary put it, 'the dramatic nature of wartime life - the palpable fear, the sexual desperation, the genuine sense that everything could end tomorrow.'

Molly Smith directs her 30th production as Artistic Director of Arena Stage with a gritty and relevant take on the Tony Award-winning musical Oliver!, blending the chaotic worlds of 19th-century Victorian London with 2015 London. Smith's new in-the-round staging infuses a modern edge to the classic musical about an innocent orphan thrown into the dark world of double-dealing thieves and conmen, highlighting the disparity between classes and dangerous life on London's streets today. Featuring a remarkable score including 'You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two,' 'Consider Yourself,' 'Where is Love?' and 'Food, Glorious Food,' Oliver! runs October 30, 2015-January 3, 2016 in the Fichandler Stage at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.

Revisit one of the most-acclaimed musical productions of all time when Pittsburgh CLO kicks off the 64th Summer Season with its production of Oliver!, June 1-6 at the Benedum Center in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh's Cultural District.

Revisit one of the most-acclaimed musical productions of all time when Pittsburgh CLO kicks off the 64th Summer Season with its production of Oliver!, June 1-6 at the Benedum Center in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh's Cultural District.

Revisit one of the most-acclaimed musical productions of all time when Pittsburgh CLO kicks off the 64th Summer Season with its production of Oliver!, June 1-6 at the Benedum Center in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh's Cultural District.