Audrey Brisson and Chris Jared (Credit: Nuwan Hugh Perera)

London Theatre News Today: Tuesday 18 May

First Published 18 May 2021, Last Updated 19 May 2021

Universal launches trailer for the Dear Evan Hansen movie

The Olivier award-winning musical’s film adaptation is set to hit our screens on 11 October. Original Tony-winning actor Ben Platt leads the cast, alongside Julianne Moore as Heidi, Kaitlyn Dever as Zoe, Amy Adams as Cynthia, Amandla Stenberg as Alana, Nik Dodani as Jared, Colton Ryan as Connor, and Danny Pino as Larry. 

The trailer shows us a sneak peak at the film, including a  version of You Will Be Found – and yes, we cried when we watched it. The show will be returning to the Noel Coward Theatre on 26 October 2021 with tickets going on sale tomorrow – 19 May.

Lucie Jones and Rhiannon Porter on Theatre Chat Live

Join us on Theatre Chat Live tonight at 6pm on Official London Theatre’s Instagram channel where we will be talking to Lucie Jones about her role in the upcoming production of Les Misérables – The Staged Concert and Rhiannon Porter who will star in Abba Mania, both of which will be opening in the West End this week!

Join Kayley who will be speaking to Lucie and Rhiannon about the shows their playing in, their roles, their exciting return to theatre and lots more stagey chat.

Stunning rehearsal images released for Amélie The Musical

Audrey Brisson and Chris Jared (Credit: Nuwan Hugh Perera)

The Company of Amélie The Musical (Credit: Nuwan Hugh Perera)

Miiya Alexandra (Credit: Nuwan Hugh Perera)

Audrey Brisson (Credit: Nuwan Hugh Perera)

The company of Amélie The Musical (Credit: Nuwan Hugh Perera)

Chris Jared (Credit: Nuwan Hugh Perera)

Flora Spencer Longhurst (Credit: Nuwan Hugh Perera)

Audrey Brisson and Chris Jared (Credit: Nuwan Hugh Perera)

Samuel Morgan-Grahame (Credit: Nuwan Hugh Perera)

Following its opening at the Watermill Theatre, a critically acclaimed sell-out tour in 2019, a highly successful Christmas season at The Other Palace in 2019, a Grammy nomination and 3 Olivier Award nominations, Amélie The Musical arrives at the Criterion Theatre from Thursday 20 May, playing until 25 September.

Olivier-nominee Audrey Brisson (The Elephantom, Pinocchio and Pericles (National Theatre), The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk (Kneehigh), and The Grinning Man (Bristol Old Vic)), will return to the role of ‘Amélie’.

Amélie secretly improvises small, but extraordinary acts of kindness discovering the possibilities around every corner and bringing happiness to those she encounters. When a chance at love comes her way, Amélie realises that to find her own contentment she’ll have to risk everything and say what’s in her heart. Experience this beautiful story and be inspired by this imaginative dreamer who discovers her voice, uncovers the power of human connection and sees possibility around every corner.

 

Lyric Hammersmith announces casting for Out West

Esh Alladi, Tom Mothersdale, Ayesha Antoine. Out West at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. (Credit: Helen Maybanks)

The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre today announces casting and releases images for its summer reopening production Out West which brings together new plays by three of the UK’s leading writers.

Esh Alladi will play a young Gandhi in Tanika Gupta’s The Overseas Student, Tom Mothersdale will play new father Jack in Simon Stephens’ Blue Water and Cold and Fresh and Ayesha Antoine will play security guard Donna in Roy Williams’ Go, Girl.

The production runs from 18 June to 24 July, with opening night for press on Thursday 24 June, and with an online streaming from 12 to 17 July.

Out West is co-directed by the Lyric’s Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan and Diane Page, who this week received the 2021 JMK Award celebrating directors and designers with exciting creative visions. Costume design is by Soutra Gilmour, lighting design by Jessica Hung Han Yun and composition and sound design by Simon Slater.

Out West explores race, geography, identity, belonging and hope rooted in multicultural England of past and present, from Tanika Gupta’s The Overseas Student – a sharp and witty reimagining of Gandhi’s formative student years in Victorian England as he is awed by wealth, women, lifestyle and food; to 2020 with Simon Stephens’ Blue Water and Cold and Fresh which confronts white male privilege in the wake of city lockdown living and Black Lives Matter protests and is a heartfelt exploration of what it means to be a husband, father and son; and present day in Roy Williams’ Go, Girl  – which follows Donna, who once performed for First Lady Michelle Obama at school but is now a shopping centre security guard and mum to a teenage daughter, yet she discovers her brilliance in the face of adversity in this celebratory story of Black female empowerment and everyday heroism.

The Lyric’s Free First Night scheme also returns for the production of Out West. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the scheme, a long-term partnership with the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, which has seen the Lyric give away nearly 100,000 free tickets to people who live or work locally for its first preview performances.

 

First look: Kelly Gough in Harm at the Bush Theatre

Kelly Gough in Harm at Bush Theatre (Photo credit: Isha Shah)

Kelly Gough in Harm at Bush Theatre (Photo credit: Isha Shah)

Kelly Gough in Harm at Bush Theatre (Photo credit: Isha Shah)

Kelly Gough in Harm at Bush Theatre (Photo credit: Isha Shah)

Kelly Gough in Harm at Bush Theatre (Photo credit: Isha Shah)

Kelly Gough appears in Harm, a new monologue by Bruntwood Prize award-winning playwright Phoebe Eclair-Powell. Playing at Bush Theatre until 26 June, Harm is a thrilling and twisted new comedy on the corrosive effect of social media and isolation and will be directed by Atri Banerjee.

When an unhappy estate agent sells a house to Alice, a charismatic social media influencer, the two strike up an unlikely friendship. But as her obsession with Alice’s perfect world intensifies, the lines between online and reality become dangerously blurred.

 

Tagged:
Amélie The Musical bush theatre Kelly Gough lyric hammersmith

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