Gossip

Richard Bean returns to the National this Christmas?

Editorial Staff
London's West End

Richard Bean‘s next National Theatre commission will see him tackle one of the theatre’s Christmas shows, the One Man, Two Guvnors playwright told Whatsonstage.com at today’s (24 January 2012) Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards.

Bean, who adapted Carlo Goldoni’s classic 18th-century Italian comedy The Servant of Two Masters, was today awarded the prize for Best New Play for One Man, Two Guvnors. Click here for full coverage of the 2011 Critics’ Circle Awards.

Bean would not be drawn further on what the show would be, but said that details would be released as part of Nicholas Hytner‘s annual press conference tomorrow (25 January 2012).

Relocated to Brighton in the 1960s, One Man, Two Guvnors premiered on 25 May 2011 (previews from 17 May) at the NT Lyttelton, where it ran in rep until 19 September before touring and transferring to the West End’s Adelphi Theatre.

The show has now been recast for a run at the West End’s Theatre Royal Haymarket — with Hannah Spearritt and Jodie Prenger joining Owain Arthur, who takes over from James Corden — and is currently undergoing rewrites for Broadway where it will open in April.

Bean has already won the Best Play prize in the Evening Standard Awards, jointly for One Man, Two Guvnors and The Heretic which debuted at the Royal Court in February last year starring Juliet Stevenson. He is also nominated in this year’s Whatsonstage.com Awards for which voting closes on 31 January 2012.

Whatsonstage.com will be covering the National Theatre’s annual press event live both online and on Twitter from 11am.