Michael Grandage, who ended his tenure at the Donmar Warehouse with a production of Richard II, has announced his next venture. He is to stage five productions at the Noël Coward Theatre beginning in December 2012 and continuing until February 2014. They consist of four revivals, two of them Shakespeares, one of them a musical, a new play, and a lot of copper-bottomed ticket-shifting talent. Over 100,000 tickets will be sold at £10.
From 1 December Simon Russell Beale [1] will star in Peter Nichols’ play with songs Privates on Parade set among the army’s theatrical entertainers in the Far East after the Second World War. (When Roger Allam played the same flamboyant lead role at the Donmar, he won an Olivier.) Then Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw take centre stage in Peter and Alice, a new play by John Logan, whose play Red [2] about Mark Rothko provided Grandage with a hit in London and New York. In Martin McDonagh [3]’s The Cripple of Inishmaan, Daniel Radcliffe [4] continues his campaign to establish himself as a wizard of the boards. Then come the two Shakespeares. A Midsummer Night’s Dream stars Sheridan Smith [5] and David Walliams [6] as Titania and Oberon. In the final production, Jude Law [7] will move from Hamlet, his last Shakespearean lead with Grandage, to Henry V.
Across the season 100,000 tickets will be sold at £10, or over 200 for each performance, mostly bookable in advance with 24 tickets held as day seats. For selected schools and colleges each production will lay on one free performance. The Michael Grandage Company has also announced that it will be seeking the next generation of directors and designers to work on each production as part of a training programme. Full details on how to apply will be on the company’s website [8].
Privates on Parade, 1 December 2012 – 2 March 2013
Peter and Alice, 9 March – 1 June 2013
The Cripple of Inishmaan, 8 June - 31 August 2013
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 7 September – 16 November 2013
Henry V, 23 November 2013 – 15 February 2014