Off-West End Announcements – 26 February 2010
New
End Director’s New Show
A Big Day for the Goldbergs, the
latest play by Brian Daniels, artistic director of Hampstead’s New End Theatre,
is to premiere at the venue from 9-21 Mar. Set in the writer’s
home city of Leeds, it follows the youngest daughter of a surburban Jewish
family in her quest to run away to the circus. Daniels has produced more than 200 plays, musicals and events in
his 13 years at the New End, as well as bringing the likes of Eartha Kitt and
Dionne Warwick to the West End.
London
Classic Theatre Comes Home
Touring stalwarts
London Classic Theatre celebrate
10 years in business with a home run of The Beauty Queen of Leenane
at Greenwich Theatre from 9-13 Mar. Currently touring Ireland, Martin McDonagh’s multi award-winning play typifies
the modern classics in which LCT specialise. Over the past decade, the company
have performed to more than 300,000 people in London and the regions. Founder
Michael Cabot directs this production, which will be followed by a 25-week national
tour of Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker.
Pizzas
Apenty in Reworked Romeo
Romeo
and Juliet may be one of Shakespeare’s saddest tales, but
Oddsocks will be wringing the comedy out of it in their new version at the Arts
Theatre. Playing at the venue from 15-20 Mar, the production relocates the
story to two rival Italian restaurants, promising Montague mayhem, Capulet car
chases, Veronan vespas and other similarly alliterative fun. You can even expect a tongue-in-cheek homage
to a certain big-screen fishtank moment. We can but pray for Leo Dicaprio’s crisp white
boxers, too.
Shapeshifter
Bring Huck to Southwark
A new adaptation of Huckleberry Finn by the award-winning
writer of Tory Boyz is to make its London debut at Southwark
Playhouse in April. Huck is written by James Graham, whose play
The Whisky Taster is currently running at the Bush Theatre,
and produced by Shapeshifter, two-time winners of the Peter Brook Empty Space
Award. Directed by John Terry (no, not that one), the show is soundtracked with
music played and sung live by the cast. It runs from 27 Apr-15 May.
And
Finally…
If you’re looking for fun for the under-five age-group,
try Half Moon’s new show, Rip, Fold, Scrunch, which is opening at the company’s London
home next Tuesday (2 Mar). Inspired by child’s play and imagination and devised
as part of a collaborative art-form project, the production fuses theatre, classical
Kathak dance and live cello, within a paper set that gets created and
dismantled before the audience’s eyes.
