Back to News & Press Trevor Nunn's critically acclaimed production of Fiddler on the Roof extends due to public demand Friday, 29 March 2019 Chocolate Factory Productions, Sonia Friedman Productions and Michael Harrison presentThe Menier Chocolate Factory production of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF Book by Joseph Stein Music by Jerry Bock Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick Director Trevor Nunn ; Choreographers Jerome Robbins & Matt Cole ; Set Designer Robert Jones Costume Designer Jonathan Lipman ; Hair and Make Up Designer Richard Mawbey Lighting Designer Tim Lutkin ; Sound Designer Gregory Clarke Musical Supervisor & Director Paul Bogaev ; Orchestrations Jason Carr Trevor Nunn ’s critically acclaimed production of Fiddler on the Roof , which opened this week at the reconfigured Playhouse Theatre, has extended its run due to public demand – the production, which broke box office records with the highest advance of any show at the theatre, is now booking until 28 September. Nunn directs a cast including Andy Nyman (Tevye), Judy Kuhn (Golde), Nicola Brown (Chava), Harriet Bunton (Hodel), Dermot Canavan (Lazar Wolf), Stewart Clarke (Perchik), Joshua Gannon (Motel), Matthew Hawksley (Fyedka), Louise Gold (Yente), and Molly Osborne (Tzeitel), as well as Miles Barrow , Sofia Bennett , Philip Bertioli , Lottie Casserley , Elena Cervesi, Lia Cohen , Talia Etherington , Shoshana Ezequiel , Isabella Foat, Fenton Gray , James Hameed , Adam Linstead , Adam Margilewski , Robert Maskell , Benny Maslov , Robyn McIntyre , Gaynor Miles , Ellie Mullane , Tania Newton , Craig Pinder , Valentina Theodoulou and Ed Wade . ★★★★★ ‘Musically, geopolitically, emotionally, this Fiddler raises the roof.’ The Guardian Direct from its sold-out run at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Tony and Olivier award-winning director Trevor Nunn’s ‘exuberant revival’ (Daily Telegraph) of the classic Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof transfers to the West End for a strictly limited run. The Playhouse Theatre has been specially transformed into an immersive space for this ‘shiveringly intimate chamber musical about family’ (The Times). ★★★★★ ‘An evening to be celebrated as a spikily poignant reminder of what it is to be human in politically dark times. Both whirlingly energetic and achingly moving, it marks itself out straight away as one of the most uplifting nights possible to be had in the West End right now.’ The Arts Desk Old traditions and young love collide in this joyous and timely celebration of life. Tevye’s daughters’ unexpected choice of husbands opens his heart to new possibilities, as his close-knit community also feel winds of change blowing through their tiny village. Featuring the iconic score including ‘Tradition’, ‘Matchmaker, Matchmaker’, ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ and ‘If I Were a Rich Man’, and featuring original choreography from Tony Award-winning Jerome Robbins alongside new choreography by Matt Cole, Fiddler on the Roof ‘bursts from the stage’ (Financial Times), bringing new life to one of the most beloved musicals of all time. Visit the website: https://fiddlerwestend.com/ Up Up

Back to News & Press Trevor Nunn's critically acclaimed production of Fiddler on the Roof transfers to the West End Friday, 25 January 2019 Trevor Nunn ’s critically acclaimed production of Fiddler on the Roof with Andy Nyman and Judy Kuhn transfers to the reconfigured Playhouse Theatre from 21 March for a limited run - with over 25,000 tickets at £20 or less across the run. The production, which opens on 27 March, with previews from 21 March, and is booking until 15 June, is currently running at the Menier, where it completes its sell-out run on 9 March. Public booking opens on 6 February. The full cast for the transfer will be announced shortly. ★★★★ ‘A resounding success. This one is pretty perfect.’ Financial Times Direct from its sold-out run at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Tony and Olivier award-winning director Trevor Nunn’s ‘exuberant revival’ (Daily Telegraph) of the classic Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof transfers to the West End for a strictly limited run. The Playhouse Theatre will be specially transformed into an immersive space for this ‘shiveringly intimate chamber musical about family’ (The Times). Old traditions and young love collide in this joyous and timely celebration of life. Tevye’s daughters’ unexpected choice of husbands opens his heart to new possibilities, as his close-knit community also feel winds of change blowing through their tiny village. Featuring the iconic score including ‘Tradition’, ‘Matchmaker, Matchmaker’, ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ and ‘If I Were a Rich Man’, and packed with Jerome Robbins’ original Tony award-winning choreography, Fiddler on the Roof ‘bursts from the stage’ (Financial Times), bringing new life to one of the most beloved musicals of all time. Andy Nyman is an award-winning actor, director and writer who has earned acclaim from both critics and audiences for his work in theatre, film and television. As well as Fiddler on the Roof , his work for the Menier includes Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins and Abigail’s Party (also Wyndham’s Theatre). Other theatre work includes Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen (Wyndham’s Theatre), and the original production of Ghost Stories (Duke of York’s Theatre/Arts Theatre) which he starred in, co-wrote and co-directed with Jeremy Dyson. His extensive television credits include Wanderlust, The Eichmann Show , Campus, Crooked House , Dead Set as well as his highly acclaimed performance as Winston Churchill in Peaky Blinders . This year he will be seen in the up and coming series Hanna . Nyman’s extensive film credits include The Commuter , Death at a Funeral , Kick-Ass 2 , Black Death , The Brother’s Bloom , Severance and Shut Up & Shoot Me , for which he won the ‘Best Actor’ award at the Cherbourg Film Festival in 2006. Upcoming films include Jungle Cruise and playing opposite Renee Zellweger in Judy . This year saw the release of the film version of Ghost Stories . Based on their own play, the film was written and directed by Nyman and Jeremy Dyson. Nyman also stars alongside Martin Freeman and Paul Whitehouse. In addition, he has collaborated with Derren Brown for almost 20 years, co-writing and co-creating much of Brown's early TV work, he has also co-written and directed six of Brown’s stage shows winning the ‘Best Entertainment’ Olivier Award for Derren Brown - Something Wicked This Way Comes and recently a New York Drama Desk Award for ‘Best Unique Theatrical Event 2017’ for Derren Brown - Secret . Judy Kuhn plays Golde. A four-time Tony Award nominee, she has released four studio albums, and sang the title role in the 1995 film Pocahontas , including her rendition of the song "Colors of the Wind", which won its composers the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Her theatre credits include Fun Home (Public Theater/Circle In The Square Theatre), She Loves Me (Brooks Atkinson Theater), Chess , The Mystery of Edwin Drood (The Imperial Theatre), Les Miserables (Broadhurst Theatre), Rags (Mark Hellinger Theatre),Two Shakespearean Actors (Lincoln Center Theatre), King David (New Amsterdam Theater) and Metropolis (Piccadilly Theatre - Olivier Award Nomination), The Visit (The Williamstown Theater Festival), Passion , The Cradle Will Rock (City Center), Three Sisters (Intiman Theatre), Passion (Kennedy Center), Sunset Boulevard , Eli’s Comin’ , Dream True (Vineyard Theatre), The Ballad of Little Jo (Steppenwolf Theater), The Glass Menagerie (McCarter Theatre), Martin Guerre (Hartford Stage) and Endangered Species (BAM). Her film credits include Enchanted , Day on Fire , Pocahontas and Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World . From 1968 to 1986, Trevor Nunn was the youngest ever Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, directing over thirty productions, including most of the Shakespeare canon, as well as Nicholas Nickleby and Les Misérables . From 1997 to 2003, he was Artistic Director of the National Theatre, where his productions included Troilus and Cressida, Oklahoma! , The Merchant of Venice , Summerfolk , My Fair Lady , A Streetcar Named Desire , Anything Goes and Love’s Labour’s Lost . He has directed the world premières of Tom Stoppard’s plays Arcadia , The Coast of Utopia and Rock n Roll ; and of Cats , Sunset Boulevard, Starlight Express and Aspects of Love by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Other theatre includes Timon of Athens , Skellig (Young Vic); The Lady From The Sea (Almeida Theatre); Hamlet , Richard II , Inherit the Wind (The Old Vic), A Little Night Music (Menier Chocolate Factory, West End and Broadway), Cyrano de Bergerac , Kiss Me Kate (Chichester Festival Theatre); Heartbreak House , Flare Path , Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead , The Tempest (Theatre Royal, Haymarket); Scenes from a Marriage (Coventry & St James), All That Fall (Jermyn Street & New York); A Chorus of Disapproval and Relative Values (West End). Work for television includes Antony and Cleopatra , The Comedy of Errors , Macbeth , Three Sisters , Othello , The Merchant of Venice and King Lear , and on film, Hedda , Lady Jane and Twelfth Night . Up Up

Back to Productions FUNNY GIRL This production began performances on 7th April and closed on 8th October 2016. If Sheridan Smith was a star before the lights went up on Funny Girl last night, she was twice the star by the time she took the thunderous curtain-call. Daily Telegraph This musical classic tells the fascinating bitter-sweet story of Fanny Brice ( Smith ), whose vocal talents and comedic ability see her rise from Brooklyn music hall singer to Broadway star and her tempestuous relationship with gambler Nicky Arnstein. Featuring some of the most iconic songs in film and theatre history, including “People” and “Don’t Rain On My Parade”. ★★★★ Smith is a constant joy to watch The Guardian Funny Girl , starring multi-award-winning stage and screen star Sheridan Smith , transferred to the Savoy Theatre following its sold-out run at the Menier Chocolate Factory. This bold new production, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Bob Merrill , a book by Isobel Lennart from an original story by Miss Lennart , with revisions by Harvey Fierstein , is directed by Michael Mayer (Hedwig and the Angry Itch & Spring Awakening on Broadway) and promises to be the must-see musical of 2016. ★★★★ Only a fool would rain on Sheridan Smith’s parade Time Out CAST SHERIDAN SMITH – Fanny Brice VALDA AVIKS – Mrs Meeker NATASHA J BARNES – Emma/Mrs Nadler/Cover Fanny Brice DARIUS CAMPBELL – Nick Arnstein MARILYN CUTTS – Mrs Brice MAURICE LANE – Mr Keeney BRUCE MONTAGUE – Florenz Ziegfeld JOEL MONTAGUE – Eddie Ryan GAY SOPER – Mrs Strakosh PHILIP BERTIOLO – Cornet Man/Tenor Soloist/Ensemble EMMA CAFFREY – Bubbles/Ensemble SANCHIA AMBER CLARKE – Swing LUCINDA COLLINS – Swing JOELLE DYSON – Ensemble REBECCA FENNELLY – Polly/Ensemble LUKE FETHERSTON – John/Cornet Man/Ensemble MATTHEW GOODGAME – Director/Renaldi/Paul/Ensemble LEAH HARRIS – Ensemble KELLY HOMEWOOD – Vera/Ensemble SAMMY KELLY – Mimsey/Ensemble SAM MURPHY – Swing TOM MURPHY – Swing CLARE RICHARD – Swing OLIVER TESTER – Swing CREATIVES JULE STYNE – Music BOB MERRILL – Lyrics ISOBEL LENNART – Book HARVEY FIERSTEIN – Revised Book MICHAEL MAYER – Director LYNNE PAGE – Choreography MICHAEL PAVELKA – Set Designer MATTHEW WRIGHT – Costume Designer MARK HENDERSON – Lighting Designer RICHARD BROOKER – Sound Designer ALAN WILLIAMS – Musical Supervisor/Musical Arrangements CHRIS WALKER – Orchestrations THEO JAMIESON – Musical Director CAMPBELL YOUNG ASSOCIATES – Wigs, Hair and Make-Up PIPPA AILION CDG/JIM ARNOLD CGD – Additional Casting NICK TRUMBLE – Dialect Coach RICHARD FITCH – Associate Director REBECCA HOWELL – Associate Choreographer ANDY BARNWELL – Orchestral Manager

Back to Productions ARCADIA This production began performances on 27th May and closed on 12th September 2009. Stoppard's dazzling masterpiece. The Daily Telegraph April 1809, a stately home in Derbyshire... Thomasina, a gifted pupil, proposes a startling theory, beyond her comprehension. All around her, the adults, including her tutor Septimus, are preoccupied with secret desires, illicit passions and professional rivalries. Two hundred years later, academic adversaries Hannah and Bernard are piecing together puzzling clues, curiously recalling those events of 1809, in their quest for an increasingly elusive truth. Fizzing with ingenuity – Stoppard at his finest. The Times Sonia Friedman Productions , Roger Berlind , Robert G Bartner and Olympus Theatricals present “ARCADIA ” by Tom Stoppard . Arcadia adorns the West End and makes us think and feel in qual measure. You can't ask for more. The Guardian CAST SAMANTHA BOND – Hannah Jarvis NANCY CARROLL – Lady Croom JESSIE CAVE – Thomasina Coverly TREVOR COOPER – Richard Noakes SAM COX – Jellaby LUCY GRIFFITHS – Chloe Coverly TOM HODGKINS – Captain Brice RN HUGH MITCHELL – Augustus/Gus Coverly NEIL PEARSON – Bernard Nightingale GEORGE POTTS – Ezra Chater DAN STEVENS – Septimus Hodge ED STOPPARD – Valentine Coverly CREATIVES DAVID LEVEAUX – Director HILDEGARD BECHTLER – Set Designer AMY ROBERTS – Costume Designer PAUL ANDERSON – Lighting Designer SIMON BAKER – Sound Designer CORIN BUCKERIDGE – Music SCARLETT MACKMIN – Choreography

Back to News & Press Putting 'The Juice In Jerusalem' - The New York Times Wednesday, 6 April 2011 DURING rehearsals in 2009 for the London production of “Jerusalem,” Jez Butterworth’s play about outcasts in modern England, the actor Mark Rylance drove one Sunday to the rural village of Pewsey to look up Micky Lay, a retired builder who was the inspiration for Rooster Byron, Mr. Rylance’s drug-dealing, authority-defying character. The encounter did not go well. Mr. Rylance walked past the wrecked cars in Mr. Lay’s yard and knocked on his front door, where wood had been nailed over shattered glass. Mr. Lay answered with an “Awww what’a ye want?” said Mr. Rylance, who identified himself and asked for a word. In colorful profanity, Mr. Lay told him to go away. “But I’d learned a lot from Robert Bly about how you approach monster-sized men, and one idea was to take gifts,” Mr. Rylance said, referring to the poet and translator. “Two Sundays later I went again, this time with a bottle of whiskey, and he was very nice.” Inside the house were three teenagers smoking joints and celebrating the birthday of a raven-haired, 17-year-old beauty whom Mr. Lay had given a bedroom because she didn’t get on well with her mother. After three hours Mr. Rylance came away understanding Mr. Lay’s own, unexplained desire to surround himself with young people. “Sometimes your parents can’t see what’s special in you, can’t see the gold within the mud of your life, but another adult can,” Mr. Rylance said during an interview as he prepared for the Broadway run of “Jerusalem,” now in previews. “That’s Rooster’s great gift. He eats the truth about people the way we eat bread. He wants to see the kids around him burn on their full gas, to connect to oil fields inside themselves and be flaring.” Mr. Rylance is too modest to describe himself as on full burn, but New York theatergoers know otherwise. Three months after he concluded the Broadway revival of “La Bête” at the Music Box Theater, best remembered for his antic, 25-minute monologue as the street performer Valere, Mr. Rylance is accomplishing the rare feat of returning in the same season (and at the same theater) in another leading role. As a result many Broadway insiders believe he could end up with two of the five Tony nominations for best actor next month. He won that Tony in 2008 for his first and only other performance on Broadway, in the revival of “Boeing-Boeing,” and his work in “Jerusalem” was praised with virtually every superlative imaginable by theater critics in London, where Mr. Rylance, at 51, is frequently described as the best stage actor of his generation. As well as one of the more eccentric. As a boy he did not speak in full sentences until he was 6 because he had trouble sounding out words; instead he began a lifelong immersion in fantasy and make-believe acting games with other children that helped him learn how to speak. Accepting the Tony in 2008, he baffled many watching the CBS telecast by reciting an obscure poem about conformity by the Midwestern American writer Louis Jenkins. Mr. Rylance has questioned the authorship of Shakespeare’s work and even wrote a play about those doubts, titled “The BIG Secret Live — I Am Shakespeare — Webcam Daytime Chatroom Show.” And during a two-hour interview, he read at length from Paul Kingsnorth’s book “Real England: The Battle Against the Bland,” and seemed almost giddy explaining how brewery corporations had taken over local pub after local pub where people once spent nights enjoying their meals and sharing stories beside roaring hearths. Enter Rooster Byron. He is the tragically Falstaffian heart of Mr. Butterworth’s three-hour elegy to old England, where forests were the dominion of fairies like Shakespeare’s Oberon and Titania, of rascals like Robin Hood and, now, of Mr. Rylance’s antihero. “Jerusalem,” in other words, is about very English things, yet the play may well resonate with American audiences. At least Mr. Rylance and his producers hope so, given that — Broadway’s substantial Anglophilia notwithstanding — a full appreciation of “Jerusalem” depends on understanding the socioeconomic trends that Mr. Kingsnorth laid out in “Real England.” “Every one of us is worried about how ‘Jerusalem’ will fare on Broadway,” Mr. Rylance said as he curled up in an Edwardian armchair in the lounge of the Algonquin Hotel, taking off his shoes and tucking his socked feet beneath his underside. “Will people understand the dialects? Will people understand that it’s not about Palestine and Israel? “I just wish audiences could come without needing to be told what they’re going to experience, without the producers’ worrying about whether we have the right poster and words outside the theater. But the financial risk is so much greater here than in London.” As seen through an American lens “Jerusalem” is on one level a classic libertarian showdown. A retired Evel Knievel-like daredevil, Rooster has been living for 29 years in a mobile home in a Wiltshire wood in southeast England, but the town council is moving to evict him because well-to-do homeowners are sick of his patch. Rooster is a kind of Pied Piper, drawing the young and the old to his clearing — in part for his drugs, but also because he is a romanticized embodiment of the William Blake poem used in the defiantly patriotic song that provides the play’s title: Bring me my bow of burning gold, Bring me my arrows of desire, Bring me my spears o’clouds unfold, Bring me my chariot of fire. I will not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand ’Til we have built Jerusalem In England’s green and pleasant land. Rooster is the sort of meaty role that might normally go to household-name stars who are the insurance policy for commercial Broadway these days. But the producers of “Jerusalem” said there was no way they would have brought over the play without Mr. Rylance, for whom Mr. Butterworth wrote the role. “It wasn’t even a discussion,” said Sonia Friedman, the prolific British producer of plays in the West End and on Broadway, including “Boeing-Boeing” and “La Bête. “I’m of a generation that didn’t see Scofield’s Lear, Peter O’Toole’s Hamlet. I’m of a generation that will say, I saw Mark Rylance’s Rooster.” Mr. Rylance’s late bloom on Broadway was a long time coming. Born in Ashford in southwestern England, he was 2 when his family moved to Connecticut, where his father took a teaching job; his parents later both taught in Wisconsin, where they flew the Union Jack and gave tea parties on the Fourth of July. There Mr. Rylance performed in his first major Shakespearean production, as a 16-year-old Hamlet, with his father playing the First Gravedigger. At 18 he left the United States for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in London, where he arrived, he said, with “a Midwest accent, a Midwest hairstyle and a Midwest sense of humor.” (In conversation the soft-spoken Mr. Rylance can betray the flat accent and overstressed vowels of the region.) By 1982 he had joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where his long career in Elizabethan drama took off. During his company debut in one such play, “Arden of Faversham,” a hallmark of Mr. Rylance’s aesthetic also took hold. He is known as a born improviser, relishing every chance to play with tone, pauses and body language in the pursuit of bringing a performance to fresh life. But this landed him in trouble one night when, playing a manservant in “Faversham,” he stood up during a scene and confronted his character’s master — taking the other actor by surprise, since usually Mr. Rylance would lie cowering on the floor in that moment. “As we were walking around to the next scene backstage, the actor — who I shall not name, but who was a big man — threw me up against a wall and said, ‘We’re not all [expletive] improvisers,’ ” Mr. Rylance said. “‘This notion that a performance is ‘frozen,’ it’s a horrible phrase, like a frozen dinner or something,” he added, referring to a theatrical term used by directors and producers. “I’m comfortable acting in a particular key, but I benefit by mixing up the notes within that key.” Blending carefully constructed verse with a freeing sense of “play,” a word dear to Mr. Rylance, has paid off in a slew of critically acclaimed performances, including his gleeful turn, at 33, as Benedick in Matthew Warchus’s production of “Much Ado About Nothing,” which won Mr. Rylance an Olivier Award (London’s answer to the Tonys). Two years later he became the first artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in London, where he was known for bringing Shakespeare back to his roots with all-male productions, including his own memorable turn as Olivia in “Twelfth Night.” For “Jerusalem” Mr. Rylance found a soulmate in the director Ian Rickson. Late one night in a rehearsal room of the Royal Court Theater, Mr. Rylance said, the “Jerusalem” cast took part in 90 minutes of “research” by acting out a scene that is only referenced in the play: a barroom celebration after the teenage character Phaedra is crowned queen of the town fair. That party takes place a year before the events in the play, but, in hindsight, sets them in motion. “Amazing stuff was gained,” Mr. Rylance said. “Actors who have less to say in the play than I do learned a lot about their characters. Mackenzie Crook, who plays my best mate, Ginger, was playing at some dance moves that you see now. And I was able to discover things about Rooster’s friendship with Phaedra, about Rooster’s feelings for her stepfather, Troy. Now one word or one gesture during the play can set off a memory of that improvisation, and it feels like new life running through you.” No question that, for all its length, “Jerusalem” has Mr. Rylance energized. He has not performed Shakespeare since leaving the Globe in 2005, but he is planning to act in a double bill of “Richard III” and “Much Ado About Nothing” in 2012 there and then in New York, as well as new projects on Shakespeare with his wife, the composer Claire van Kampen. (He has two stepdaughters, one of whom is the admired Shakespearean Juliet Rylance.) For the last six years he has also been writing a play about the industrialists Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, which he wants to finish; he hopes to play Frick. Yet what makes Mr. Rylance’s wide, expressive eyes truly leap is the idea that “Jerusalem” might find an audience on Broadway, which “Boeing-Boeing” enjoyed but “La Bête” did not. “In this play I’ve got to smoke four joints, drink half a bottle of whiskey, take a lot of speed, put my head upside down in water, but the hardest thing for me is thinking about whether audiences will be as excited about ‘Jerusalem’ as we are,” Mr. Rylance said. “But really, I have to put it out of my mind. It’s the same reason why I don’t read reviews. If I start focusing on the feedback, it’ll lock me in a cage.” Up Up

Back to News & Press To Kill A Mockingbird opens in the West End to critical acclaim and immediately extends due to public demand Thursday, 31 March 2022 Barry Diller and Sonia Friedman today announce the extension of the critically acclaimed West End production of Harper Lee ’s To Kill a Mockingbird – a new play by Aaron Sorkin – with the production now running at the Gielgud Theatre until 19 November, 2022. Bartlett Sher directs a cast of over thirty - Rafe Spall (Atticus Finch), Harry Attwell (Mr Cunningham/Boo Radley), Amanda Boxer (Mrs Henry Dubose), Poppy Lee Friar (Mayella Ewell), John Hastings (Bailiff), Simon Hepworth (Mr Roscoe/Dr Reynolds), Laura Howard (Miss Stephanie/Dill’s Mother), Lloyd Hutchinson (Link Deas), Gwyneth Keyworth (Scout Finch), Tom Mannion (Sheriff Heck Tate), David Moorst (Dill Harris), Pamela Nomvete (Calpurnia), Jim Norton (Judge Taylor), Patrick O’Kane (Bob Ewell), Jude Owusu (Tom Robinson), Harry Redding (Jem Finch), David Sturzaker (Horace Gilmer) and Natasha Williams (Mrs Dubose’s Maid), with Helen Belbin , Laurence Belcher , Paul Birchard , Ryan Ellsworth , Rebecca Hayes , Danny Hetherington , Matthew Jure , Anna Munden, Tiwai Muza, Oyin Orija and Itoya Osagiede making up the ensemble and understudies, with Candida Caldicot on organ and Frank Dawkins on guitar. To Kill a Mockingbird is running the All Rise ticket scheme in an exclusive partnership with TodayTix , offering £15 seats for every performance across the run. The initiative provides access at affordable prices to as wide an audience as possible. More than 1,400 tickets will be released each month. So far more than 2,000 tickets have been sold via the scheme with a further 10,000 being made available through to November starting from next week. In addition to the All Rise initiative, there is an opportunity to purchase £15 tickets via Today Tix daily rush – where a limited number of additional seats will be available on each performance day via the app. The TodayTix app can be downloaded onto iOs or Android devices for free via the app store; or you can access online via TodayTix.com. Set in Maycomb, Alabama in 1934, To Kill a Mockingbird has provided American literature with some of its most indelible characters: lawyer Atticus Finch, the tragically wronged Tom Robinson, Atticus’ daughter Scout, her brother Jem, their housekeeper and caretaker Calpurnia and the reclusive Arthur “Boo” Radley. For the past six decades and for every generation, this story, its characters and portrait of small-town America have helped to, and continue to, inspire conversation and change. Harper Lee’s enduring story of racial injustice and childhood innocence has sold more than 45 million copies of the novel worldwide. 2020 marked the 60th anniversary of its publication. Sher and the original Broadway creative team - Miriam Buether (Set), Ann Roth (Costume), Jennifer Tipton (Lighting), Scott Lehrer (Sound), Adam Guettel (Original Score), Kimberly Grigsby (Music Supervision) and Campbell Young Associates (Hair & Wigs) – are joined by Serena Hill as Casting Director, Hazel Holder as Voice & Dialect Coach, Titas Halder as Associate Director, Rasheka Christie-Carter as Assistant Director, Tavia Rivée Jefferson as Cultural Coordinator, and Candida Caldicot as Musical Director. For latest news sign up at www.tokillamockingbird.co.uk . Up Up

Back to News & Press New British musical bend it like beckham coming to the west end Friday, 31 October 2014 Gurinder Chadha will direct the world premiere of the new British stage musical Bend It Like Beckham. With original music by Howard Goodall and lyrics by Charles Hart, Bend It Like Beckham has a new book by Paul Mayeda Berges and Gurinder Chadha; choreography and musical staging by Aletta Collins; set design by Miriam Buether; costume design by Katrina Lindsay; lighting design by Neil Austin; sound design by Richard Brooker; musical direction byNigel Lilley and orchestrations by Howard Goodall and Kuljit Bhamra. Casting for Bend It Like Beckham will be announced shortly. Playing at the Phoenix Theatre from 15 May 2015, with its opening night on 24 June 2015, Bend It Like Beckham is produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions. Tickets for Bend It Like Beckham go on public sale on Friday 7 November 2014 at 10am. Initially tickets will only be available for the first few weeks of performances to 11 July 2015. During these opening weeks, honouring David Beckham’s record 115 caps for England, there will be 115 Book It Like Beckham seats at £15 each. For group bookings there will be a 5-a-side rate of £49.50 per ticket and an 11-a-side rate of £39.50. Jess needs extra time. She is facing the most important decision of her life; live up to family expectations of university, career and marriage, or follow in the footsteps of her hero David Beckham. When the talented teenage footballer is spotted playing football in Southall, a world of opportunities opens up before her. But as the day of her sister's traditional Indian wedding approaches, Jess needs to pick sides. From the first pass in the park to the final free-kick, Bend It Like Beckham is a joyous musical comedy with vibrant characters featuring a new score with a Punjabi kick. This brand new British musical is a funny, glorious and uplifting adaptation of the much-loved hit film about refusing to watch from the sidelines, bending the rules, and scoring that deciding goal. Gurinder Chadha said: “Developing Bend It Like Beckham for the stage has been the most enjoyable creative process of my career so far. It was always my intention to build on the film and to present its themes and storylines to live audiences in an exciting new dynamic way. I have been inspired by musicals ever since I was a little girl, now with Bend It like Beckham, such a familiar story to so many, I believe we are presenting a totally new kind of musical - part West End, part London Punjabi, but whole heartedly British. I am very excited for us to take our place with so many inspirational musicals past and present in my home town London.” On film, the British comedy drama Bend It Like Beckham starred Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anupam Kher, Shaznay Lewis and Archie Panjabi, and was released in 2002, directed by Gurinder Chadha and written by Gurinder Chadha, Guljit Bindra and Paul Mayeda Berges. Following the international release of Bend It Like Beckham the film, produced by Deepak Nayar and Gurinder Chadha, went on to win multiple awards worldwide. Gurinder Chadha’s first feature film was the comedy drama Bhaji on the Beach which was the recipient of numerous international awards. As well as Bend It Like Beckham her film directing credits include What’s Cooking; Bride and Prejudice; Paris, je t'aime; Angus,Thongs and Perfect Snogging and most recently It's a Wonderful Afterlife, for all of which she co-wrote the screenplays. She also co-wrote screenplays for The Mistress of Spices and the forthcoming DreamWorks Animation picture Monkeys of Mumbai. On television she made her directing debut with I'm British But.... In 2006 Chadha was awarded an OBE for her services to the British film industry. Emmy, Brit and BAFTA award-winning Howard Goodall is one of the UK’s most versatile and distinguished composers having written choral music, stage musicals, film and TV scores. Goodall was the Classical Brit Composer of the Year in 2009, is Classic FM’s Composer-in-Residence and is a highly respected broadcaster and an energetic campaigner for music education. His extensive scores includeThe Vicar of Dibley; Blackadder; Mr Bean (TV series and films); Q.I.; The Gathering Storm; Into the Storm and Red Dwarf. His previous musicals include The Hired Man; Girlfriends; Days of Hope; The Kissing-Dance; The Dreaming; A Winter’s Tale and Love Story. The Howard Goodall season continues at the Union Theatre, with productions of The Dreaming, Love Story and Girlfriends included. Goodall was appointed CBE in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to music education. Charles Hart is the recipient of two Ivor Novello Awards. Amongst his credits as a lyricist for musicals, he has written words for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera and Aspects of Love, and also contributed lyrics to Love Never Dies. His other musical credits include The Kissing-Dance and TheDreaming. Hart’s television work includes The Vampyr; Watching and Split Ends. Hart provided the text for Terry Gilliam’s re-staging of Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini for ENO last summer. LISTINGS INFORMATION Theatre: Phoenix Theatre, Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0JP Press Night: 24 June 2015 at 7pm First Booking Period: 15 May – 11 July 2015 Performances: Monday – Saturday 7.30pm, Wednesday & Saturday matinees at 2.30pm Preview schedule: Friday 15 May at 7.30pm, Saturday 16 May at 7.30pm Wednesday 20 May at 7.30pm, Thursday 21 May at 7.30pm Friday 22 May at 7.30pm, Saturday 23 May at 2.30pm & 7.30pm Wednesday 27 May at 7.30pm, Thursday 28 May at 2.30pm & 7.30pm Friday 29 May at 7.30pm, Saturday 30 May at 2.30pm & 7.30pm Tuesday 2 June at 7.30pm, Wednesday 3 June 2.30pm & 7.30pm Thursday 4 June at 7.30pm, Friday 5 June at 7.30pm Saturday 6 June 2.30pm & 7.30pm Then Monday – Saturday 7.30pm, Wednesday & Saturday matinees at 2.30pm Prices: Opening weeks: £15 - £49.50, plus 115 Book It Like Beckham seats at £15 each Group tickets: groups of five £49.50 per ticket & groups of eleven £39.50 per ticket A limited number of Day Seats at £15.00 each will go on sale from the Box Office, in person only, from 10am on the day of performance All ticket prices include a £1.50 restoration levy Box Office: 0843 316 1082 Website: benditlikebeckhamthemusical.co.uk Facebook: Facebook.com/benditlikebeckhamthemusical Twitter: @benditmusical #bendit YouTube: Youtube.com/benditlikebeckhamthemusical Up Up

Back to News & Press Bend It Like Beckham now open to glorious 5 star reviews in the West End Wednesday, 24 June 2015 Stars including Juliet Stevenson, Graham Norton and Dame Kelly Holmes celebrated with the producers and creative team as the new British musical Bend It Like Beckham kicked-off in the West End last night. Natalie Dew plays football crazy Jess with Lauren Samuels as Jules, a player with the Harriers, a local women’s football team, and Jamie Campbell Bower as their coach Joe. Sophie-Louise Dann plays the role of Paula, Jules’s Mum, with Jamal Andréas as Jess’ good friend Tony. Preeya Kalidas plays Pinky, Jess’ sister, with Tony Jayawardena and Natasha Jayetileke as her parents, Mr and Mrs Bhamra. Directed by Gurinder Chadha, with original music by Howard Goodall and lyrics by Charles Hart, Bend It Like Beckham has a new book by Paul Mayeda Berges and Gurinder Chadha; choreography and musical staging by Aletta Collins; set design by Miriam Buether; costume design by Katrina Lindsay; lighting design by Neil Austin; sound design by Richard Brooker; musical direction by Nigel Lilley and orchestrations by Howard Goodall and Kuljit Bhamra. Bend It Like Beckham is produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions, Deepak Nayar Productions, Bend It Films, Fischer & Vaswani Productions, Tanya Link Productions & Zeilinger Productions. ★★★★★ ‘A BOLD, BEAUTIFULLY BRITISH TRIUMPH. PREPARED TO BE TRANSPORTED & UPLIFTED. IN A LEAGUE OF ITS OWN. IRRESISTIBLE’ Dominic Cavendish, The Daily Telegraph ★★★★★ ‘JOYOUS. GORGEOUS SCORE. WITTY LYRICS. EXHILIRATING CHOREOGRAPHY. AN UPLIFTING CELEBRATION OF MULTI-CULTURAL BRITAIN.’ Paul Taylor, The Independent ★★★★★ ‘WONDERFULLY LIFE-AFFIRMING. AN END TO END JOY. IRRESISTIBLE’Quentin Letts, Daily Mail 'IT’S WHAT YOU WISH THE WEST END WERE LIKE ALL THE YEAR ROUND.' Matt Trueman, Variety ★★★★ 'THE SHOW SCORES WITH WIT AND CHARM.' John Nathan, The Metro ★★★★ 'BURSTING WITH EXUBERANCE. A JOYOUS FEEL-GOOD SHOW. INSPIRING. FRESH. FUNNY. A HYMN TO GIRL POWER AND THE VITALITY OF MULTICULTURAL LONDON.' Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard ★★★★ 'SENSATIONAL. ALL THE FEEL-GOOD FACTOR OF AN ENGLAND WIN' Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out ★★★★★ ‘GLORIOUS. NO BRITISH-ORIGINATED NEW SHOW BENDS THE MUSICAL IN SUCH A VIVACIOUSLY FRESH AND WELCOME NEW DIRECTION AS BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM. AN EXPLOSION OF COLOUR, COMMUNITY AND CREATIVITY, SHOT THROUGH WITH EXHILARATING ENERGY AND GENUINE HEART.’ Mark Shenton, The Stage For more information and to book tickets, click here . Up Up

Back to News & Press Casting announced for Fun Home Tuesday, 10 April 2018 The production is produced in association with Sonia Friedman Productions , Fox Theatricals and Barbara Whitman . Casting for Small Alison, John and Christian will be confirmed at a later date. Fun Home , based on Alison Bechdel’s celebrated 2006 graphic novel, made a sensational debut at The Public Theater in New York in October 2013, followed by a triumphant Broadway run and a successful US National tour. Fun Home explores the memories of Alison’s uniquely complicated family at three different stages in her life - her volatile, brilliant, enigmatic father, mother and brothers – that connect with her in surprising new ways. Fun Home is a refreshingly honest, wholly original musical about seeing your parents through grown-up eyes. Choreography is by Danny Mefford , set and costume design by David Zinn , light by Ben Stanton , sound by Kai Harada , music supervision by Chris Fenwick , music direction by Nigel Lilley and casting by Julia Horan CDG . The Associate Director is Portia Krieger . The Jerwood Assistant Director is Leo J Skilbeck . This role is supported through the Jerwood Assistant Director Program at the Young Vic. This is the final show in David Lan ’s last season as Artistic Director of the Young Vic. Fun Home runs from 18 June – 1 September 2018 in the Young Vic’s Main House. Up Up

Back to News & Press Ruth Wilson to star in The Human Voice Friday, 26 November 2021 Sonia Friedman Productions today announces that Ruth Wilson will star in Ivo van Hove ’s adaptation of Jean Cocteau ’s The Human Voice , which he also directs with design by Jan Versweyveld , originally produced by Internationaal Theater Amsterdam . The production opens at the Harold Pinter Theatre on 22 March, with previews from 17 March, and runs for three weeks only until 9 April. Booking opens today, with tickets from just £5, and over 300 tickets at each performance at £25 or under. Ruth Wilson said today, “I am absolutely thrilled to be collaborating again with Ivo and Jan on this wonderful, heartbreaking and deeply human monologue from Jean Cocteau. A woman alone with only her phone as companion, Cocteau explores the nature of intimate relations through inanimate objects. In a world in which are all addicted to and dependent on our phones, this play from the 1930s couldn’t feel more prescient. Ivo is the perfect director to bring Cocteau’s play to life as both share a love of the absurd as a mirror to truth.” Sonia Friedman added, “It’s a privilege to begin the New Year in reuniting the extraordinary talents of two incredible theatre makers – Ruth Wilson and Ivo van Hove, bringing to London Ivo’s adaptation of Jean Cocteau’s The Human Voice , an intimate, captivating and devastatingly raw monologue.” “We’ve never been more connected. We’ve never been more alone. Two-time Olivier Award-winner Ruth Wilson stars in The Human Voice - the searing story of a woman's heartbreak over the course of a final phone call with her former lover. Reunited with groundbreaking director Ivo van Hove for the first time since their acclaimed Hedda Gabler, Ruth Wilson returns to the West End for 31 performances in this explosive reimagining of one of theatre’s greatest roles. Jean Cocteau’s stunning monologue is more illuminating about love and loneliness than ever .” Supported by Arts Council England Produced with the kind permission of the Chairman of the Comite Jean Cocteau Up Up

Back to News & Press Sonia Friedman: 'We will be back fully as soon as that vaccine's completely out there.' Tuesday, 8 December 2020 Read the full interview with Sonia Friedman with WhatsOnStage here . Up Up

Back to News & Press Dreamgirls is officially good for the heart (and soul!) Thursday, 28 September 2017 American critic, Frank Rich, called the original Broadway production of Dreamgirls a ‘seismic emotional jolt that sends the audience, as one, right out of its wits’. 35 years later, that emotional jolt has now been proven by a team of research scientists, at a live performance of Dreamgirls at the Savoy Theatre in London’s West End. A new scientific study has found that Dreamgirls is as good for your heart as half an hour of cardio exercise. The research, conducted by University College London in association with Encore Tickets , monitored the heart rates, brain activity, and other physiological signals of 12 individuals at a live theatre performance of the Tony and Olivier-Award winning musical, and the results were incredible. During the performance, the heartrates of audience members spent an average of 28 minutes beating at an elevated range between 50% - 70% of their maximum heart rate. The British Heart Foundation identify this level of heartrate as the optimal heart rate to stimulate cardio fitness and stamina. So, although they were seated for the performance, audience members spent an average of 28 minutes engaged in healthy cardio exercise. Dr Joseph Devlin, Head of Experimental Psychology at University College London, says: “This demonstration paints quite a clear picture that attending a live performance has an impact on cardiovascular activity”. “By the end of the first act, heart rates nearly doubled from their resting state at the beginning, while in the second act, it tripled. You see comparable changes in heart rate in professional tennis players during burst of highly intense exertion such as long and fast rallies.[1]” Having witnessed night after night of standing ovations and overwhelming audience response, we always knew this incredibly joyous production was good for the heart – now we know it’s contributing to your health too! [1] Fernandez, J., Mendez‐Villanueva, A. & Pluim, BM. (2006) Intensity of tennis match play. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 40(5): 387–391. READ THE NEWS STORIES Evening Standard https://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/going-to-the-theatre-is-as-good-for-your-heart-as-30-minutes-of-cardio-apparently-a3646496.html iNews https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/health/going-theatre-good-heart-half-hour-exercise/ The Sun https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/4573211/musical-theatre-dreamgirls-exercise-study/ Mail Online http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4931666/A-decent-reason-hit-West-End-instead-gym.html The Stage https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2017/501127/ Deccan Chronicle http://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/health-and-wellbeing/290917/watching-a-musical-as-good-as-a-30-minute-workout-study.html Up Up