Theatre News

Opening: Mogadishu, Blithe, Flare Path & Hurly

Amongst the major London openings, in the West End and further afield, this week are:

OPENING TONIGHT, Monday 7 March 2011 (previews from 3 March), Vivienne Franzmann’s award-winning play Mogadishu, about a secondary school teacher who is falsely accused of racism by a pupil, transfers to the Lyric Hammersmith for a run to 2 April.


OPENING TUESDAY, 8 March 2011, theatre company Out of Joint brings its current show A Dish of Tea with Dr Johnson
to the famous
lexicographer’s former home (now a museum) near Fleet Street. The production, which is directed by artistic director Max
Stafford-Clark
, runs at Dr Johnson’s House on 8, 10 and 11 March, as
part of a national tour.


OPENING WEDNESDAY, 9 March 2011 (previews from 2 March), Thea Sharrock directs Alison Steadman, Robert Bathurst, Hermione Norris and Ruthie Henshall in classic Noël Coward comedy Blithe Spirit, which transfers to the Apollo Theatre.

Sharrock, who enjoyed acclaim last year for her revival of Coward contemporary Terence Rattigan’s After the Dance, previously directed Blithe Spirit in 2004, a production which also started life in Bath before transferring to the West End.

ALSO ON WEDNESDAY (previews from 8 March), Big Telly’s stage adaptation of Spike Milligan’s comic novel Puckoon, set in a fictional Irish village in the 1920s, opens at Leicester Square Theatre for a run to 27 March.


OPENING THURSDAY, 10 March 2011 (previews from 4 March), Sienna Miller, James Purefoy and Sheridan Smith star in Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path, the first offering in a year-long season under the direction of Trevor Nunn at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

The play, which runs until 4 June, is set on an RAF base during World War Two and centres on the love triangle between Teddy, a young bomber pilot, his actress wife
Patricia (Miller) and Hollywood film star Peter
(Purefoy).


OPENING FRIDAY, 11 March 2011 (previews from 3 March), The Hurly Burly Show, featuring burlesque star Miss Polly Rae and directed by William Baker, opens at the Garrick Theatre, running until 1 May. Putting a contemporary twist on traditional burlesque, the production transfers from the Leicester Square Theatre where it played a limited run earlier this year.


ON SUNDAY, 13 March 2011, the winners of this year’s Olivier Awards are announced in a ceremony at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, hosted by previous winners Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton and broadcast live via the interactive ‘Red button’ and on BBC Radio 2.