Theater News

London Spotlight: April 2011

Well and Good

Janie Dee stars in
All's Well That Ends Well
(© Shambhala)
Janie Dee stars in
All’s Well That Ends Well
(© Shambhala)

The good news for Shakespeare lovers is that the Globe season gets underway with All’s Well That Ends Well (in repertory from April 27-August 21) with the wonderful Janie Dee in the pivotal role. Also, make a fast trek to the National’s Lyttelton for a short return of the theater’s acclaimed Hamlet (April 13-23) that Nicholas Hytner directed with Rory Kinnear, Clare Higgins and Patrick Malahide as the prince, his mother and homicidal step-father.

In the National’s Cottesloe is a new musical: London Road (April 7-June 20) and for it the endlessly inventive Rufus Norris will put Adam Cork’s music and Alecky Blythe’s libretto on their feet. It sounds on the somber side, since it’s about a small town where the bodies of five dead women are discovered.For more in the way of tuner entertainment, visit the Finborough where Polly Pen’s marvelously inventive Bed and Sofa, with Laurence Klavan’s libretto is playing (April 1-23). It’s a three-character “silent movie musical.” Another off-beat offering is the all-male Iolanthe at Wilton’s Music Hall (through May 7) and just the thing for Gilbert and Sullivan lovers.

In the mood for a new play? And the Horse You Rode In On by Hayley Carmichael and Paul Hunter and directed by Hunter, stops briefly at the Barbican Pit (April 27-May 14). It’s a dark one about violence and the people who commit it. Roxana Silbert directs Rona Munro’s Little Eagles at the Hampstead (April 16-May 7), a little-heard tale about Sergei Korolyov, the engineer who got the Russians and Yuri Gargarin into space before anyone else.

Precious Little Talent by Ella Hickson comes to Trafalgar Studios 2 (April 5-30) to unfold the story of Londoner Joey who tries New York at Christmas for time with an estranged father and for finding love with an American. And there’s I Am the Wind at the Young Vic (April 26-May 21) in which two friends embark on an ocean journey. Patrice Chereau directs Simon Stephens’ translation of Jon Fosse’s work for the Theatre de la Ville-Paris.

And how intriguing is this? At the Soho, where several things are popping during these four weeks, there’s something by Dan Rebellato called Chekhov in Hell (April 20-May 14). In it, the late, great playwright awakens in a National Health Service hospital after a 100-year sleep and who-knows-what ensues. Also attention-getting is Bronte at Tricycle (April 5-30), which raises the curtain on wayward brother Bramwell home in ignominy while sisters Emily, Charlotte and Anne write. This is a Shared Experience/Watermill production, written by Polly Teale and directed by Nancy Meckler.

An important revival as spring takes hold is Harold Pinter’s enigmatic Moonlight at the Donmar Warehouse (April 7-May 28). David Bradley, Deborah Findlay and Daniel Mays appear under Bijan Sheibani’s direction.

Children may enjoy The Three Musketeers at the Unicorn (April 4-May 8). It’s an adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel by Carl Miller. D’Artagnan swordplays again.