Menier Debuts Jonny Wilkinson & Last Five YearsDate: 24 March 2006
After huge success with its revival of Stephen Sondheim’s cerebral musical Sunday in the Park with George, which transfers to the West End in May (See News, 2 Mar 2006), the Menier Chocolate Factory is switching gear totally for its next production. It’s sport rather than art that comes to the fore in Breakfast with Jonny Wilkinson, which opens on 27 April 2006 (previews from 19 April), for a season to 2 July.
The new comedy is written by Chris England, who, with comedian Arthur Smith, co-wrote the similarly sport-focussed An Evening with Gary Lineker, which was a hit at the West End’s Duchess Theatre in 1991.
While the earlier play was inspired by the fever that gripped the nation during 1990’s football World Cup, the new piece follows the elation over England’s victory at the 2003 rugby World Cup, in which flyhalf - and pin-up - Wilkinson (pictured) played a pivotal role with a drop goal just 26 seconds from the end of extra-time in the championship match. The final score in Sydney, against home side Australia, was 17-20. The run of the new piece will overlap with the latest football World Cup, which takes place in Germany in June.
Though dates have not been confirmed, following the rugby comedy, the Menier is expected to present the long-awaited UK premiere of The Last Five Years, the two-hander song cycle about a marital breakdown by Tony Award-winning American composer Jason Robert Brown (See The Goss, 29 Jul 2004).
Brown’s work was last seen in London in December 2005, when he appeared with his band, The Caucasian Rhythm Kings, and guest stars Joanna Riding and Frances Ruffelle for a season of five concerts at the Off-West End New Player’s Theatre in Charing Cross (See News, 6 Oct 2005).
- by Terri Paddock & Caroline Ansdell
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