London Spotlight: May 2009

The major musical comedy bulletin this merry month is Sister Act at the London Palladium (May 7-February 13, 2010). This is the all-singing-all-praying-all-out version of the caper movie about the witness-protection program’s use of a convent as shelter. The town’s beloved Sheila Hancock and American import Patina Miller are top-billed, and often-Oscared Alan Menken wrote the songs with Glenn Slater. Another arrival in the genre includes Dancing Queen at the Wimbledon (May 12-16), which is yet another catchall for ABBA songs, even as Mamma Mia! continues at the Prince of Wales in the West End.

Tuner aficionados may also want to take advantage of the short Duchess musical season. Jason Robert Brown’s The Last 5 Years (May 6-10) will be followed by Jonathan Larson’s tick…tick…BOOM! (May 13-17). Both works started life in New York City and are from newer writers, although Larson died suddenly just as Rent had its first performances.

Big straight play news is Sam Mendes bringing his trans-Atlantic endeavor, The Bridge Project, into town after a New York City stay (in Brooklyn, to be precise). This is the repertory company alternating William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard (May 23-August 8). The headline actors are Simon Russell Beale, Sinead Cusack, Richard Easton, Rebecca Hall, Josh Hamilton and Ethan Hawke.

Hot revivals also include Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House at the Donmar Warehouse (May 14-July 18) with Gillian Anderson playing the door-slamming Nora. Also in a to-die-for cast are Toby Stephens, Anton Lesser, Tara Fitzgerald and Christopher Eccleston. Waste no time hustling to the Duke of York’s, where Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia — which some say is his best item — will be docking (May 27-September 12), with the savvy David Leveaux directing.

At the National, the Stratford-on-Avon’s native son’s All’s Well That Ends Well (May 13-July 8) with reliables Clare Higgins, Conleth Hill, and Oliver Ford Davies are under Marianne Elliot’s baton, and she can do no wrong. The Globe is unveiling As You Like It (May 30-October 10), directed by Thea Sharrock. Over in Regent’s Park at the Open Air is the superlative Much Ado About Nothing (May 25-June 27).

Other heads-up news involves quirky American playwright Wallace Shawn, who’s appreciated here as much as — or more than — he is on his home shore. He’ll be appearing at the Royal Court in a new one, Grasses of a Thousand Colours (May 12-June 13). Miranda Richardson and Jennifer Tilly will be at his side, and Andre Gregory (My Dinner With Andre) is directing. Shawn’s wonderfully diabolic Aunt Dan and Lemon is on view, too (May 20-June 27), with the fab Jane Horrocks on board for this nasty, naughty ride.

Also on the new-play front is Ronald Harwood’s Collaboration, which transfers from the National to the Duchess (May 20-August 22). It’s an extension of the playwright’s look at politics and betrayal during World War II. It will play in repertory with Harwood’s 1996 Taking Sides, with marvelous actors Michael Pennington, Isla Blair and David Horovitch heading both casts. April De Angelis has written Amongst Friends, which will be at the Hampstead (May 21-June 13). In the comedy, a journalist and crime writer who are married invite another couple to dinner and run into trouble when the food arrives via a suspect delivery man.

Richard Eyre, former National Theatre artistic director, returns to guide the cast of Matt Charman’s study of the West Africa political situation, The Observer (May 13-July 8). A “vigilante therapist” is one of the figures in If That’s All There Is, a comedy-drama at the Lyric Hammersmith (May 12-16) created by Inspector Sands. On the new-to-these-parts-play front, there’s Andrew Bovell’s When the Rain Stops Falling at the Almeida (May 15-June 4). Michael Attenborough directs the four-generations-two-continents work. At the Greenwich, David Weir and Rachael Jolley have written Murdering the Truth (May 7-9) about cut-throat journalism in the 70’s when newspapers were still thriving.

Families may want to head to far-flung Hackney for David Wood’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The BFG. Apparently, even the Queen figures in this one.