Theatre News

Opening: All-Male Pirates, Hair, Kristina, Behud

12 April 2010

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

OPENING TUESDAY, 13 April 2010 (previews from 8 April), the Whatsonstage.com Award-winning all-male revival of Gilbert & Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance transfers from the Union Theatre to Wilton’s Music Hall, where it continues until 16 May.

OPENING WEDNESDAY, 14 April 2010 (previews from 1 April), Cameron Mackintosh presents New York’s acclaimed Public Theater revival of Hair at the Gielgud Theatre, complete with the entire Broadway cast (See News, 16 Nov 2009). The production, directed by Diane Paulus, was first seen in September 2007 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, where its run was extended three times before it transferred to Broadway and won a Tony Award for Best Musical Revival.

ALSO ON WEDNESDAY, a concert version of Abba’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus’ musical Kristina receives its UK premiere at the Royal Albert Hall (See News, 22 Jan 2010). The show, which enjoyed a four-year run in Sweden from 1995 to 1999, is based on a collection of four novels by Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg entitled The Emigrants.
It tells the story of a poverty-stricken Swedish woman with aspirations
to give her family a better life through emigration to the United
States.

ALSO ON WEDNESDAY, (previews from 30 March), Laurie Anderson’s Delusion, fusing “violin, electronic puppetry and music” in a collection of “short mystery plays” opens at the Barbican Theatre for a four-night run.

ALSO ON WEDNESDAY, Theatre Lab presents its physical theatre interpretation of Sophocles’ Antigone at Riverside Studios, continuing until 2 May.

ALSO ON WEDNESDAY, Jane Huxley’s When the Lilac Blooms, My Love, centring on a young woman who returns to the family home to break the news to her family that she is pregnant, opens at the Leicester Square Theatre, running until 1 May 2010.

OPENING THURSDAY, 15 April 2010 (previews from 13 April) Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s Behud (Beyond Belief), written in response to the protests and death threats she received for her allegedly “anti-Sikh” play Behzti five years ago, premieres at Soho Theatre, the final production directed by outgoing artistic director Lisa Goldman (See Review Round-up, 6 Apr 2010). Until 8 May.

ALSO ON THURSDAY Supporting Wall’s timely revival of Philip Ridley’s BNP-inspired drama Moonfleece visits Greenwich Theatre as part of a national tour.

OPENING FRIDAY, A Day at the Racists kicks off the month-long Spin the Election festival at the Broadway Theatre in Barking (See News, 7 Apr 2010).