Theatre News

Opening: West End Music, Fever, John, Horseman

| London's West End |

6 April 2009

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

OPENING TONIGHT, Monday 6 April 2009 (previews from 1 April), Dominic Cooke directs Clare Higgins in Wallace Shawn’s seminal play The Fever at the Royal Court Downstairs, kicking off a three month season of Shawn’s work (See News, 6 Nov 2008). It runs until 2 May, and is followed by Aunt Dan and Lemon and Grasses of a Thousand Colours, in which the playwright himself appears.

ALSO TONIGHT, Torben Betts’ 2008 Edinburgh Fringe hit Lie of the Land, about a couple trying to escape the rat race by relocating to a desolate coastal house, opens at the Arcola Studio 2, directed by Adam Barnard. Until 2 May.

OPENING TUESDAY, 7 April 2009 (previews from 28 March), Trevor Nunn’s acclaimed Menier Chocolate Factory production of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music transfers to the Garrick Theatre (See News, 17 Feb 2009). With a cast led by Hannah Waddingham and Alexander Hanson, it’s currently booking to 25 July 2009.

ALSO ON TUESDAY, marking the 25th anniversary of the 1984-85 miners strike, Maggie’s End, by Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood, opens at the Shaw Theatre, where it continues to 18 April.

ALSO ON TUESDAY, after a successful run in 2008, Belgian theatre company Ontroerend Goed returns to Battersea Arts Centre for one week only with Once and for All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen, performed by a cast of 13 teenagers.

ALSO ON TUESDAY, Miracle Theatre presents the first UK stage adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s cult classic Cat’s Cradle at Hoxton’s Courtyard Theatre. Until 25 April.

OPENING WEDNESDAY, 8 April 2009 (previews from 1 April), Rufus Norris directs Wole Soyinka’s 1975 play Death and the King’s Horseman at the NT’s Olivier Theatre, with Nonso Anozie, David Ajala, Jenny Jules and Medina Ajikawo leading the ensemble. It runs in rep until 17 June.

ALSO ON WEDNESDAY (previews from 30 March), 1960s singing star Anita Harris plays Gertrude Lawrence in Anton Burge’s new musical comedy G&I: Going into Battle with Gertrude Lawrence at the New End Theatre. Until 3 May.

ALSO ON WEDNESDAY, Unexpected Opera brings The Barber of Savile Row to Croydon Warehouse, adapted by Tim Riley and John Lovat from Rossini’s classic opera. To 15 April, as part of a national tour.

OPENING THURSDAY, 9 April 2009 (previews from 7 April), Kneehigh’s production of Don John, adapted and directed by Emma Rice, is performed in Battersea Arts Centre’s Grand Hall. A re-telling of Mozart’s Don Giovanni set in 1978 “against a background of neon and cigarette smoke”, it runs until 9 May as part of a national tour.

ALSO ON THURSDAY, Kevin McGowan and Clara Onyemere star in the premiere of Alex Martinez’s new play Private Thoughts at Hackney Empire, directed by Kevin Hely, about an upstanding guy plagued by a “shocking obsession”. Until 25 April.

– by Theo Bosanquet