Almeida Theatre Announces Upcoming New Season

The Almeida Theatre has announced a new season of shows from autumn 2022 to spring 2023:

• The world premiere of Tammy Faye, a new musical from Elton John, Jake Shears and James Graham, directed by Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold. Cast includes Katie Brayben, Andrew Rannells and Zubin Varla.

• Almeida Associate Director Rebecca Frecknall's new production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, featuring Paul Mescal, Anjana Vasan and Lydia Wilson.

• The world premiere of Lulu Raczka's Women, Beware the Devil, directed by Rupert Goold.

• The UK premiere of musical The Secret Life of Bees, written by Lynn Nottage, Duncan Sheik, Susan Birkenhead, based on the best-selling novel by Sue Monk Kidd. Directed by Whitney White.

Also announced today:

• A trilogy of community productions from 2023-2025 exploring what it means to live, work, pray, celebrate and mourn in Islington.

• A new annual playwright commission in memory of director Roger Michell.

• The Almeida's new Young Artist groups including, for the first time, Young Designers and Technicians; and a continued commitment to Almeida For Free performances.

• A Black Out performance and Black Joy scratch event during the upcoming run of Dipo Baruwa-Etti's The Clinic.

Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold said, "After a wonderful, if challenging, year since reopening we are thrilled to be presenting this exciting season of work that builds on relationships we have with artists new and familiar, our local community, and above all with the audiences that continue to discover and cherish the uniqueness of our building.

"It was inspiring to experience the responses to Spring Awakening last Christmas - it seemed that audience members reacted strongly to a musical that chimed so powerfully with contemporary feeling. So we're very excited to be producing two new musicals, from two sets of powerhouse writers, that also speak clearly to the present day.

"Our Associate Director Rebecca Frecknall made her name with her extraordinary award-winning production of Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke and now she's taking on another Williams classic A Streetcar Named Desire with a blindingly good cast.

"Since we re-opened the Almeida after Covid lockdowns, we've presented new writing from Lolita Chakrabarti, Yomi Ṣode, Josh Azouz, Beth Steel, Peter Morgan, and Dipo Baruwa-Etti's play The Clinic goes into previews next week. To that list, add another new voice: Lulu Raczka and her play Women, Beware the Devil, a darkly comic, twisting tale of treachery and trickery.

"Following the success of The Key Workers Cycle earlier this year which featured an 80 strong community cast, we're also announcing a trilogy of community productions taking place over three years, exploring the real Islington featuring people who live and work here.

"We continue our commitment to offering affordable tickets - our tickets start at £10, with £5 tickets available to 25s and under, in addition to our Almeida For Free performances on all productions."