LONDON THEATRE
Barbara Cook’s Broadway! hits London
Legendary singer Barbara Cook is bringing her Broadway show to the Gielgud Theatre for 18 performances only, from May 11-29. Barbara Cook’s Broadway! transfers from the Lincoln Center Theater in New York, where it has run from March until April. The singer and actress, now in her mid-seventies, starred in many Broadway productions in the 1950s and 60s including Flahooley, Candide, She Loves Me and The Music Man, for which she received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Her previous show, Mostly Sondheim, performed in both New York and London in 2001, was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event. In this show, there’s a bit of Sondheim - In Buddy's Eyes from Follies - but also songs from her most famous roles, as well numbers that she hasn’t performed on Broadway. A Wonderful Guy from South Pacific, Wait 'Til You're Sixty-Five from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, and Look What Happened to Mabel from Mack & Mabel, are all taken from shows she didn’t appear in. She also sings Mister Snow from Carousel nd three songs from She Loves Me that were performed in the original production by Barbara Baxley (A Trip to the Library) and Daniel Massey (Tonight at Eight and the title song). Wally Harper, her longstanding musical director and arranger, accompanies her on piano. In between songs, Cook reminisces about her experiences on Broadway, including anecdotes on high profile figures such as Gary Cooper, Elaine Stritch and Leonard Bernstein. A live recording of the show in Broadway is due to be released this summer and Cook returns to New York for another 23 performances in June
Kevin Spacey announces first Old Vic season
Kevin
Spacey and David Liddiment today announced their plans for the first season of
work at the Old Vic Theatre Company. The first four productions, all London
premieres, will be Cloaca by Maria Goos, Aladdin by Bille Brown,
National Anthems by Dennis MacIntyre and The Philadelphia Story
by
Philip Barry. Speaking at a press conference at the Old Vic this
morning, Spacey was in confident, jokey mood as he announced his first season
as artistic director of the newly-formed Old Vic Theatre Company. It’s not
true, he said that “David Beckham paid £100,000 to the Old Vic if I took him
off the front pages. It’s not true and I will text him myself if someone will
lend me their mobile phone.” Spacey himself will direct Cloaca , which is to
star Hugh Bonneville, Neil Pearson, Stephen Tompkinson and Ingeborga
Dapkunaite. Cloaca was a huge hit for the Dutch theatre company Het Toonal
Speelt and studies four lifelong friends reunited in middle age. Although Goos’
work is little known outside her native Holland, Spacey described her as “a
woman writing at the peak of her game.” Cloaca will run from 16 September to
11 December.The Old Vic’s Christmas production will be a classic pantomime,
Aladdin with Sean Mathias
directing Sir Ian McKellen as Widow Twankee. Why Aladdin? “It’s the one that
Ian wanted to do,” explained Spacey, adding that it’s long been McKellen’s
ambition to play a pantomime dame.
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