Theatre News

Opening: Million Dollar, Wizard of Oz & Sapphires

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

OPENING TONIGHT, Monday 28 February 2011 (previews from 8 February), Broadway compilation musical Million Dollar Quartet – recreating a 1956 jam session between Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis – gets its London premiere at the Noël Coward Theatre.

ALSO TONIGHT (previews from 25 February), the Bush Theatre stages the UK premiere of Irish playwright Deirdre Kinahan’s Moment, which examines “how one terrible moment can change lives irrevocably”. Directed by David Horan, it continues to 26 March 2011.


OPENING TUESDAY, 1 March 2011 (previews from 7 February), The Wizard of Oz opens at the London Palladium, with new songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice and starring Over the Rainbow winner Danielle Hope as Dorothy and Michael Crawford as the Wizard alongside Hannah Waddingham, Edward Baker-Duly, David Ganly and Paul Keating, with direction by Jeremy Sams.


OPENING WEDNESDAY, 2 March 2011, Australia’s “hippest soul sisters” perform Motown hits against the backdrop of the Vietnam war in former Neighbours actor Tony Briggs’ musical The Sapphires, which runs at the Barbican until 12 March 2011.


OPENING THURSDAY, 3 March 2011 (previews from 1 March), the Finborough Theatre revives Caryl Churchill’s Fen, as part of a three month season of work by women playwrights. Directed by Finborough and National Theatre Studio resident Ria Parry, it runs until 26 March.

ALSO ON THURSDAY, Kneehigh’s award-winning adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes, adapted and directed by Emma Rice, arrives at Battersea Arts Centre for a run to 9 April 2011, as part of its final national tour.


OPENING FRIDAY, 4 March 2011, ‘sexicological’ comedy show A Guide to Sexual Misery returns for Friday and Saturday nights at the Arts Theatre, until 2 April.