Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre have today announced details of their 2018 season, which includes Peter Pan, As You Like It, Dinosaur World Live, Little Shop Of Horrors, and The Turn Of The Screw, a co-production with English National Opera.
Concluding an exciting line-up, fans of the al fresco venue’s previous seasons will be delighted to learn that its famed annual Summer musical will see Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre go mean and green in August with Little Shop Of Horrors, the popular show based on Roger Corman’s film.
The season opens with a revival of Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel’s Olivier Award-nominated 2015 production of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan (17 May – 15 June 2018), returning to Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in the final year of First World War Centenary Commemorations. George Llewelyn Davies, killed in action in 1915, was one of the children who inspired J. M. Barrie to create the iconic character of Peter Pan; this production remembers him, and a generation of Lost Boys, in a show which enchanted young and old alike during its original, critically acclaimed run.
This is followed by a co-production with English National Opera, The Turn Of The Screw (22 June – 30 June), in which members of the ENO orchestra will be conducted by ENO Mackerras Fellow Toby Purser. The story of unearthly encounters at a remote country house, and of a young governess desperate to protect her children, finds chilling new levels of suspense in this unique outdoor production of Benjamin Britten’s masterly reworking of Henry James’ classic novella.
Next, Max Webster, the director behind 2014’s Twelfth Night Re-Imagined, returns to Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre to direct William Shakespeare’s As You Like It (6 July – 28 July), the classic comedy in which two young people discover what it really means to be in love.
Playing daytime performances the next month, a new interactive show for all the family (ages 3+), Dinosaur World Live (14 August – 9 September), invites audiences to grab their compasses and join an intrepid explorer, journeying across uncharted, astonishing territories. Expect remarkably life-like dinosaurs, including, of course, the gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex.
The 2018 season concludes with Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s beloved mean green monster story, the horror comedy rock musical with a huge following. Little Shop Of Horrors (3 August – 15 September) is set in Mr Mushnik’s floral shop, where, for the misfits of dilapidated Skid Row, life is full of broken dreams and dead ends. But there’s hope on the horizon for scrawny Seymour, when he discovers a mysterious new plant with killer potential for fame, fortune, and love. The production is directed by Royal Shakespeare Company favourite Maria Aberg.
Elsewhere, last year’s Olivier Award-winning production of Jesus Christ Superstar, directed by Sheader and choreographed by Drew McOnie will open at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in April 2018, it has been announced.
Public booking for the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre season opens at 11am on Wednesday 6 December through the venue’s website.