London Spotlight: February 2010

No question what the big deal is this month — the opening of Love Never Dies, playing at the Adelphi, February 20-October 23. For those not already familiar with the much-ballyhooed production, it’s Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to Phantom of the Opera. The masked protagonist is now pursuing Mademoiselle Daae in Coney Island. The stars are Ramin Karimloo and Sierra “Little Mermaid” Boggess, along with West End faves Summer Strallen and Liz Robertson. The lyrics will be provided by Glenn Slater, and the heavyweights Jack O’Brien and Bob Crowley are, respectively, directing and designing.

Other musical events include Megan Mullally and Supreme Music Program at the Vaudeville (February 16-21), in which the Emmy Award-winning star reprises songs from the three albums she recorded with the band. Also, as of February 2, the Monkees’ Mickey Dolenz joins the Hairspray cast as adorable novelty-shop owner Wilbur Turnblad.

Lanford Wilson, one of America’s less-sung first-rate playwrights, will be represented at the Donmar Warehouse with a revival of his Serenading Louie (February 11-March 27). Two college chums face post-graduate disappointments, as played by Jason O’Mara and stateside import Jason Butler Harner and as directed by Simon Curtis. Another noted playwright from across the Atlantic is Neil LaBute, whose trilogy The Furies/Land of the Dead/Helter Skelter will be at the Greenwich (February 23-27).

At the Duchess, Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts will be presented (February 8-May 15) with Iain Glen directing and acting alongside Lesley Sharp and more notables. At the Trafalgar Studios, it’s Lope de Vega’s Madness in Valencia (February 9-March 3), directed by Simon Evans. It’s the farce set in an asylum and concerning who the real mental cases are among staff and inmates. Arthur Schnitzler’s Sweet Nothings, reworked by the estimable David Harrower and directed by the equally estimable Luc Bondy, comes to the Young Vic (February 25-April 10). Sex is mocked at the Vaudeville via Noel Coward’s much-loved Private Lives (February 24-may 1) with none other than Kim Cattrall as Amanda. Richard Eyre directs.

On the new-play docket is David Greig’s Dunsinane at the Hampstead (February 10-March 6), offered by the Royal Shakespeare Company. This one — as the title implies — extrapolates from where William Shakespeare left off with Macbeth. At the Lyric Hammersmith will be Ghost Stories (February 24-April 3) from Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, who also serve as co-directors. This evidently scary one comes with a warning that it’s not for those under 16.

At the National’s busy Cottesloe is The 14th Tale (February 9-March 13). Thierry Lawson directs Inua Ellams in a 55-minute depiction of a scamp traveling circuitously from Nigeria to London. At the Royal Court, Off the Endz by Bola Agbaje and about three struggling twentysomethings will be downstairs (February 11-March 13), while upstairs will lodge Disconnect (February 17-March 20) by Anupama Chandrasekhar, directed by Indhu Rubasingham.

Octogenarian Peter Brook journeys from his Paris home base, Theatre des Bouffes du Nord with 11 and 12, Amadou Hampate Ba’s drama about troubles in West African tribes over a ritual, presented at the Barbican (February 2-27). Brook and Marie-Helene Estienne adapted. Also at the Barbican is My Stories, Your Emails (February 2-13), which involves true stories arranged by dramatist Ursula Martinez. Mark Whitelaw is at the helm.

Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, that morality puzzler, opens at the Almeida (February 12-April 10), with the always wonderful Rory Kinnear in the cast, Michael Attenborough directing, and Lez Brotherston designing. At the National’s boutique-y Cottesloe is clever Carl Heap’s treatment of Twelfth Night (February 16-27) for seven actors. Incidentally, it’s recommended as family-friendly. And speaking of family fun, two circuses ring in at the New Wimbledon — Chinese State Circus (February 4-6) and Traces (February 25-27) by Les 7 Doigts de la Main.

Adventurers will want to journey quickly to the Richmond Theatre in Richmond (at the end of the District line) for Alan Ayckbourn’s wonderful My Wonderful Day (February 15-20) with the wonderful 28-year-old Ayesha Antoine as an early teen watching the tomfoolishness of adults around her. Or head in the other direction to Kingston and the Rose Theatre (February 9-March 20) for Judi Dench as Titania, directed by Peter Hall in the Bard’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. They teamed for this almost 50 years ago, and here they are for theater-lovers again.