Back to News & Press Full cast announced for major revival of Mrs. Warren's Profession, starring Imelda Staunton and Bessie Carter Monday, 24 March 2025 Sonia Friedman Productions today announces full principal casting for the upcoming major revival of George Bernard Shaw ’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession , directed by Dominic Cooke . Joining the previously announced Imelda Staunton and Bessie Carter are Kevin Doyle , Robert Glenister , Reuben Joseph and Sid Sagar . Newly edited for this production by Dominic Cooke, Mrs. Warren’s Profession opens at the Garrick Theatre on 22 May, with previews from 10 May. The strictly limited run will end on 16 August. “I am my mother’s daughter. I am like you. But my work is not your work, and my way is not your way.” Vivie Warren is a woman ahead of her time. Estranged from her wealthy mother, she delights in a glass of whisky, a good detective story, and is determined to carve herself a sparkling legal career in an age ruled by men. Her mother, however, is a product of that old patriarchal order. Exploiting it has earned Mrs. Warren a fortune and paid for her daughter’s expensive education - but at what cost? Four-time Olivier Award winner Imelda Staunton (The Crown, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ) joins forces with her daughter Bessie Carter (Bridgerton, Dear Octopus ) for the very first time, reuniting with the extraordinary director Dominic Cooke (Hello, Dolly!, Good ) to bring George Bernard Shaw’s incendiary moral classic crashing into the 21st Century. George Bernard Shaw’s play, written in 1893, was banned by the Lord Chamberlain for 30 years due to its candid discussion of prostitution and wasn’t performed in London until 1925. Up Up

Back to Productions HERGÉ'S ADVENTURES OF TINTIN This production began its strictly limited season on 6th December 2007 and closed on 23rd February 2008. Brilliantly staged... gripping, funny, and blessed with tremendous heart. Unexpectedly inspirational and tremendous fun. Daily Telegraph The show follows its eponymous hero, his loyal dog Snowy and the curmudgeonly Captain Haddock as they battle to rescue their friend Chang, who has disappeared in a plane crash in the high Himalayas. With time running out, and rumours of the Yeti prowling the peaks, Tintin and friends have a real adventure in store. The production presents a touching, imaginative adventure about friendship, which introduces this well-loved character to a new generation. Utterly charming... Go and see this show The Independent Following a nationwide tour, Rufus Norris ' critically acclaimed production of Hergé's Adventures of Tintin arrived in the West End for a limited 2007 Christmas season in the centenary year of Tintin 's creator Hergé . Originally performed at the Barbican as part of BITE:05, the Young Vic production brings together a hugely talented creative team to tell the story of Tintin in Tibet. 2007 marked the centenary of the birth of Tintin's creator, the Belgian artist Hergé . Hergé was the pen name of Georges Remi and The Adventures of Tintin have proved to be one of the most popular graphic novel creations of all time. Over 200 million copies of the books have been sold worldwide, and continue to sell. Tintin and his friends are about to become global superstars as Steven Spielberg and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson have just announced a three film deal. Tintin has inspired scholarly interpretation and study. In Autumn 2007, Tintin specialist and expert Michael Farr published both a biographical portrait of Hergé: The Adventures of Hergé , and a companion guide to the characters in the novels: Tintin and Co. The centenary is being marked around the world with exhibitions and displays of Tintin memorabilia. The exhibition, held at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, was one of their most successful ever. Such is the strength of Tintin's following, that each year when original artwork is put on sale at an annual auction in Paris, items are sold for staggering amounts of money. The action scenes are spectacular Evening Standard CAST MATTHEW PARISH – Tintin STEPHEN FINEGOLD – Haddock DAI TABUCHI – Tharkey DANIEL TUITE – Nestor/Grand Abbot/Ensemble MILTOS YEROLEMOU – Snowy DOMINIC CHARLES-ROUSE – Thompson/Ensemble NINA KWOK – Chang/Ensemble NEIL D'SOUZA – Mr Rama/Ensemble NICOLA BLACKWELL – Castafiori/Ensemble STEVEN LIM – Blessed Lightening/Ensemble DANIEL LLEWLYN WILLIAMS – Yeti/Ensemble DAVID NEWMAN – Calculus/Head Porter/Ensemble ANIL DESAI – Low Porter/Ensemble CREATIVES RUFUS NORRIS – Director DAVID GREIG & RUFUS NORRIS – Adaptation IAN MACNEIL – Set Designer JOAN WADGE – Costume Designer RICK RFISHER – Lighting Designer PAUL ARDITTI – Sound Designer ORLANDO GOUGH – Music TOBY SEDWICK – Movement JULIA HORAN – Set Designer

Back to News & Press Pearl Mackie will join Toby Jones, Stephen Mangan and Zoë Wanamaker in major revival of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party Thursday, 14 September 2017 In her first role since leaving the BBC’s Doctor Who , Pearl Mackie will join recently announced Toby Jones, Stephen Mangan and Zoë Wanamaker for this major revival directed by Ian Rickson . The production will run at the Harold Pinter Theatre, 60 years since the play’s debut, from 9th January to 14th April 2018 with an Opening Night on Thursday 18th January 2018. Tickets are now on sale. Further casting is still to be announced. Pearl Mackie recently starred opposite Peter Capaldi in the BBC’s Doctor Who as the Doctor’s companion ‘Bill’. Pearl’s casting was announced in the original short film Friend from the Future , written by Steven Moffat. Also starring Matt Lucas and Michelle Gomez, the tenth series of the globally popular show premiered in April 2017 to critical acclaim. From 2015-6, Pearl appeared in the National Theatre’s Olivier and Tony award-winning The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time . She has also starred as ‘Nina’ in Theatre503’s 2012 play Only Human and co-starred in the European premiere of Aurin Squire’s Obama-ology at the Finborough Theatre. In 2013, Pearl appeared alongside Martin Freeman, Michael Socha and Maxine Peake in the comedy film Svengali , directed by John Hardwick. Further theatre credits include: A Mad World, My Masters (2015); Hello Kind World (2014); Crystal Springs (2014); Home (2012); The Crucible (2010); And The Comedy of Errors (2010). Stanley Webber (Toby Jones ) is the only lodger at Meg (Zoë Wanamaker ) and Petey Boles’ sleepy seaside boarding house. The unsettling arrival of enigmatic strangers Goldberg (Stephen Mangan ) and McCann disrupts the humdrum lives of the inhabitants and their friend Lulu (Pearl Mackie ), and mundanity soon becomes menace when a seemingly innocent birthday party turns into a disturbing nightmare. Truth and alliances hastily shift in Pinter's brilliantly mysterious dark-comic masterpiece about the absurd terrors of the everyday. The production will be designed by the Quay Brothers , with lighting by Hugh Vanstone , sound by Simon Baker , music by Stephen Warbeck and casting by Amy Ball . Up Up

Back to News & Press Sheridan Smith reprises her smash-hit performance as Fanny Brice across the UK & Ireland Monday, 19 September 2016 ‘Sheridan Smith is the greatest star by far’ - Daily Telegraph Sheridan is set to perform in Manchester, Milton Keynes, Liverpool, Bristol, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Newcastle, Southampton, Bradford, Southend, Cardiff and Dublin. Further casting will be announced shortly, and patrons should check with venues for the performance playing schedule. ‘Smith is hilarious, glorious, touching. With a performance that is all-singing, all dancing, all-joking and, somehow, all-soul too. An unforgettable star turn.’ The Times ‘Michael Mayer’s exhilarating embrace of a production.’ The Independent Funny Girl brought global fame to Barbra Streisand 50 years ago and boasts some of the most iconic songs in film and theatre history, including People and Don’t Rain On My Parade . This ‘iconic, legendary, laugh-out-loud’ (The Times) musical tells the story of Fanny Brice, whose vocal talents and comedic ability see her rise from Brooklyn music hall singer to Broadway star. ‘A winningly exuberant performance. The most brilliant comic actress at work today.’ Sunday Times Sheridan Smith reprises the role of Fanny Brice. Her other theatre work includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Michael Grandage Company at the Noel Coward Theatre), Hedda Gabler (Old Vic), Flare Path (Theatre Royal Haymarket – Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress, Evening Standard Theatre Award and Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress), Legally Blonde (Savoy Theatre – Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical), Tinderbox (Bush Theatre), The People are Friendly (Royal Court) and Into the Woods (Donmar Warehouse). For television, her credits include Blackwork, The C Word , Cilla , The Widower , The 7.39 , Dates , Mr Stink , Mrs Biggs (BAFTA Award for Best Actress), Accused , Scapegoat , Little Crackers , Jonathan Creek , Gavin & Stacey , Larkrise to Candleford , Grown Ups , Love Soup , Two Pints of Larger and a Packet of Crisps , The Royle Family and Wives and Daughters ; and for film, The Huntsman , Powder Room , Quartet , Tower Block and Hysteria . Director Michael Mayer’s West End credits include Spring Awakening (Lyric Hammersmith and Novello Theatre) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (Shaftesbury Theatre). For Broadway his work includes Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Tony Award nomination for Best Director), On a Clear Day You Can See Forever , American Idiot (Drama Desk Award for Best Director of a Musical), Spring Awakening (Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical), Thoroughly Modern Millie (Drama Desk Award for Best Direction of a Musical) and You're a Good Man Charlie Brown (Drama Desk Award nomination for Best Direction of a Musical). For television, his work includes Smash and Alpha House , and for film his credits include A Home at the End of the World , Flicka and currently in post-production, Chekhov's The Seagull . He made his Metropolitan Opera debut with a celebrated new production of Rigoletto . 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 INK This production began performances on 9th September 2016 and closed on 9th January 2018. ★★★★★ A play for today. The blazingly talented James Graham has penned a super, soaraway smash. Daily Telegraph Fleet Street. 1969. The Sun rises. A young and rebellious Rupert Murdoch asks the impossible and launches The Sun’s first editor’s quest: to give the people what they want. No matter the cost. ★★★★ A gripping piece of theatre The Guardian Following a sell-out season at the Almeida, Ink , written by James Graham (This House ) and directed by Rupert Goold (King Charles III ), transfers to the Duke of York’s Theatre for a strictly limited season. With a cast featuring Bertie Carvel (Doctor Foster, Matilda ) and Richard Coyle (The Associate, The Lover ), this ruthless, red-topped new play leads with the birth of this country’s most influential newspaper. ★★★★ Rupert Goold’s production pulses with energy Evening Standard CAST OLIVER BIRCH RACHEL CAFFREY BERTIE CARVEL PEARL CHANDA JONATHAN COY RICHARD COYLE GEOFFREY FRESHWATER JACK HOLDEN JUSTIN SALINGER SOPHIE STANTON TIM STEED TONY TURNER RENE ZAGGER NATALIE LAW – Ensemble ANDREW MCDONALD – Ensemble JONNY MCPHEARSON – Ensemble OWEN OLDROYD – Ensemble JOEL SAMUELS – Ensemble CREATIVES JAMES GRAHAM – Playwright RUPERT GOOLD – Director BUNNY CHRISTIE – Designer NEIL AUSTIN – Lighting Designer ADAM CORK – Sound and Composition JON DRISCOLL – Video LYNNE PAGE – Choreography and Movement Direction ANNE MCNULTY CDG – Casting REBECCA FRECKNALL – Associate Director

Back to News & Press Locking down Leopoldstadt: what happened when the West End closed overnight Saturday, 13 June 2020 Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt was just beginning its eighth sold-out week at Wyndham’s theatre in London’s West End when the order came through that it was shutting down. Greeted as a late-period masterpiece – and possibly the final play – of a leading playwright who had waited until his 80s to investigate his Jewish background, it was a huge production to match the scale of the history it charted, following a prosperous Viennese family from 1899 to 1955, with opening and closing tableaux that revealed just how annihilating the intervening years had been. Though it was not intended to offer a topical reflection on the antisemitism that has been tearing the left apart in the UK over the past few years, its debates about the limits of assimilation hit a nerve, and audiences poured in. “I thought this was the tail end of interest in the Holocaust, but as a matter of fact it had become a sort of hotspot. I didn’t write about more recent events, but it was part of the consciousness that the audience brought to the play,” reflects Stoppard. This consciousness that, for all that it was set in the past, the play was telling an important and topical story, was passionately shared by the 43-strong cast, more than two-thirds of whom were themselves Jewish, who were determined to carry on for as long as they could as the closure of public spaces swept across the globe. Though the West End was emptying, Leopoldstadt’s audiences kept turning up – increasing numbers of them in face masks. When the decision to shut down was finally taken, the company went off to a local pub to await further instructions, recalls producer Sonia Friedman, “and all we could say to them was: ‘You have to go home’”. If you want to understand just how devastating the Covid-19 crisis has been to the world of entertainment, you need look no further than the week that Friedman will never forget. On the afternoon of Wednesday 11 March, her production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was midway through a performance at San Francisco’s Curran theatre when the city’s mayor announced a ban on all events involving more than 1,000 people. “For better or worse we made the decision to keep going but shut down in the evening after part two. There had been a state of emergency in California from early March and we’d been watching sales haemorrhage,” says the producer, whose 11 productions running around the world at the time included five of the hit JK Rowling play – in Germany, Australia, the US and London. The following afternoon New York closed all its Broadway theatres, taking down a further three of Friedman’s shows. On Friday, the German production of Harry Potter was shut down on the final day of previews in Hamburg. On Sunday, Melbourne theatres closed, taking the Australian production with it, and on Monday 16 March – “by this point in acute crisis mode” – Friedman took the preemptive step of heeding Boris Johnson’s “advice” that all UK entertainment outlets should close, and shut down her five remaining productions. A couple of cast members had already gone into self-isolation after developing fevers. “I was in my London office, wearing a mask, with some of my staff, and we were all in a state of shock,” Friedman recalls. “I announced that, even though we hadn’t been given a mandate [the full lockdown only happened on 23 March], I was closing everything until further notice.” A press release was scrambled and a squad of associate producers sent out to break the news to each theatre, while Friedman sat in her London HQ fielding panic calls. Besides the 11 shows that were already open, she had seven more in production. Nearly three months on, the shock has transformed into the passionate determination that has made Friedman one of the world’s most successful theatre producers. She abandoned her London home before official lockdown to stay with her writer partner, Joe Murphy, and their two dogs in a Hampshire cottage rented to them by Tom Stoppard’s wife, Sabrina Guinness. For the first eight or nine weeks, given the number of shows she had suspended and “the absolute tumult of chaos and uncertainty” it had created in so many time zones, Friedman only managed three or four hours sleep a night. “I’ve been trying to do what I can to save my industry and my people, talking constantly with my staff, theatre owners, producers and investors, but no one has any answers.” Only now has a working group been set up in the UK between the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and UK theatre’s two main umbrella bodies to try to plot a practical course for survival. If none is found, the industry has warned, 70% of UK venues will have run out of cash by the end of the year. The first casualties have already been announced, with Southampton’s Nuffield and Leicester’s Haymarket theatres going into administration last month. “For the first weeks we kept quiet, which was quite right, because it was all about health and care workers, then we had to wait for them to sort out sport. Theatre always comes last,” sighs Friedman, “but more people go to at least one show every year than go to all league football matches put together.” The figures are startling: the UK has some 1,300 theatres around the country employing some 290,000 workers, from actors to administrators, stage technicians to front-of-house staff. A paper sent to the DCMS last month by the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre points out that in 2018, their members sold tickets worth £1.28bn. The theatre’s value to the London economy, where nearly half of all UK performances take place and tourists make up a quarter of audiences, is estimated to be £5bn a year. And Friedman’s portfolio of closed shows is testament to the export value of this dynamic British industry. But the crisis facing commercial producers is particularly acute, because they have no state subsidy, and a global pandemic did not fall within the terms of their insurance policies. In a telling coincidence, Leopoldstadt was being staged in a theatre, Wyndham’s, that opened in 1899, the same year as Stoppard’s dynastic history begins. In London, as in the Vienna of the play, the late 19th century was a period of optimism that produced many of the ornate and costly playhouses that are now lying dormant. As Friedman points out, it’s costing more than £30,000 a week to keep each West End theatre closed. In the best of times they need to average at least 65% ticket sales at full price just to break even, but this doesn’t take into account restart costs, which are likely to raise that to at least 75%, making physical distancing of audiences impossible without game-changing state support. With current Arts Council emergency funding due to cease in September, theatre lobbyists say: “The impact of this pandemic represents the greatest existential threat to the British theatre industry since the closures of playhouses which ended the golden age of Jacobean theatre in 1640.” For Friedman, Leopoldstadt was an act of faith and love, and a belief in the ability of the commercial theatre to go beyond the usual crowd-pleasers. “It was hugely ambitious and one of the biggest plays I’ve ever produced, with a larger cast than Harry Potter or Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman.” Though some reviewers complained that the sheer volume of information was overwhelming, she adds that “it’s safe to say that it’s right up there as one of the biggest hits I’ve ever produced: it was one of the greatest honours of my career, and profoundly moving for me and the people who saw it.” Offered the choice between refunds and seats when – and if – the show reopens, 45% of those who had booked have opted to stick with it. Theatre is such a people-centred industry that its resumption poses particular problems, and return plans will have to be carefully tailored to the profile of each show. The first of Friedman’s shows to reopen will probably be Harry Potter in Australia, where measures to contain the pandemic have been considerably more successful than in Europe and the US. “We’re aiming for September, and I think it’ll be a test case for the world,” says the producer. Since audiences for Leopoldstadt are generally older than those for other West End shows such as Harry Potter or The Book of Mormon, it will probably make a later return – but so long as the company still wants to do it, and the audience still wants to see it, return it will, she promises. And from London, all being well, it will go on to New York. Keeping faith with a vision for a post-Covid world is hard but crucial, Friedman insists. While her days are spent lobbying and problem-solving with the half of her 40-strong core staff who have not been furloughed, the hours between 11pm and 2 or 3am are devoted to “what I call my future: every day I do something positive to imagine there’s something on the other side of this, other than resuming the shows at hand.” The potential of the crisis as a source of future themes and plotlines is not lost on her. “We exist in a world of stories in our theatre and this story isn’t credible yet we’re living it,” she says. “I keep telling people, ‘this is history, guys’, it’s going to be discussed for centuries. We’re dealing with something so monumentally complex that the biggest brains in the world are only just beginning to come to terms with what needs to be done.” As a theatre producer it pays to be Teflon-coated. “I’ve always been quite good in a crisis,” she says, “I’m not going to give up until I’m done, and if I’m done the rest of the industry is going to be done too, because until then I’m sure as hell going to be still standing.” Meanwhile the venerable Wyndham’s theatre slumbers on, its grand Viennese apartment set swathed in ghostly plastic sheeting, waiting for the great awakening. Up Up

Back to Productions GHOSTS This production began on 17th December 2014 and closed on 22nd March 2015. A production that does full justice to this thrilling, harrowing play. Daily Telegraph Helene Alving has spent her life suspended in an emotional void after the death of her cruel but outwardly charming husband. She is determined to escape the ghosts of her past by telling her son, Oswald, the truth about his father. But on his return from his life as a painter in France, Oswald reveals how he has already inherited the legacy of his father’s dissolute life. A masterpiece of compassion... Richard Eyre's new version has glories too many to list. The Times The Almeida Theatre’s five-star production of Ibsen’s GHOSTS , adapted and directed by Richard Eyre , will transfer to Trafalgar Studios, playing from Tuesday 17 December. Richard Eyre was announced as Best Director for Ghosts at this year's Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Lesley Manville was announced as Best Leading Actress for Ghosts in this year's Critic's Circle Awards. Almeida Theatre and Sonia Friedman Productions present “GHOSTS ”. ...by far and away the best production I have ever seen at the theatre. Sunday Telegraph CAST LESLEY MANVILLE – Helen Alving ADAM KOTZ – Pastor Manders JACK LOWDEN – Oswald Alving BRIAN MCCARDIE – Jacob Engstrand CHARLENE MCKENNA – Regina Engstrand CREATIVES Adapted by RICHARD EYRE HENRIK IBSEN – Playwright RUCHARD EYRE – Director TIM HATLEY – Designer PETER MUMFORD – Lighting Designer JOHN LEONARD – Sound Designer CARA BECKINSALE CDG – Casting

Back to Productions MARIA FRIEDMAN RE-ARRANGED This production began performances on 27th November 2008 and closed on 4th January 2009. Maria Friedman , accompanied by an 11 piece band, will play just twenty-five performances of her most recent solo show Maria Friedman: Re-arranged at the Trafalgar Studios from 27 November 2008 - 4 January 2009, with press night on 4 December. Earlier this year Maria Friedman: Re-arranged enjoyed a sell-out run at the Menier Chocolate Factory where the show was acclaimed by audiences and critics alike. Some of the world's most renowned orchestrators and arrangers have re-arranged versions of Maria 's firm favourites and contemporary songs, including the work of Irving Berlin , Leonard Bernstein , Jerry Herman , Michel Legrand , Andrew Lloyd Webber , Kate Bush , Randy Newman , Stephen Sondheim , Charles Strouse and Suzanne Vega . Maria Friedman 's 11-piece band comprises some of the UK's best soloists, between them playing over 50 instruments. This new production directed specifically for the Trafalgar Studios by David Babani , Artistic Director of the Menier Chocolate Factory, will feature a mix of the original Menier Chocolate Factory programme with some exciting new additions. The running time of this show will be 90 minutes with no interval. Maria Friedman: Re-arranged is produced by Chocolate Factory Productions , Sonia Friedman Productions , Robert G. Bartner and Bob Boyett . CAST MARIA FRIEDMAN CREATIVES DAVID BABNI – Director Orchestrators and arrangements include: JASON CARR DAVID CULLEN MICHAEL STAROBIN JEREMY SAMS JONATHAN TUNICK CHRIS WALKER

Back to Productions ABSOLUTELY! (PERHAPS) This production began performances on 7th May and closed on 23rd August 2003. There are mysterious newcomers in town: the dark, intense Ponza; his seemingly shy, rather eccentric mother-in-law Signora Frola; and his reclusive young wife. No one understands their bizarre living arrangements. Everyone has a different theory as to the truth - and no one will countenance any other explanation. No one that is, except for the wry and elegant Laudisi. He mischievously offers to establish the truth - and takes delight in his gossiping neighbours' growing frustration as the answers continue to elude them... A brand new version by Martin Sherman of Luigi Pirandello's classic comedy Cosi e (se vi pare!) , ABSOLUTELY! (Perhaps) offers theatregoers a unique opportunity to see the work of one of the world's greatest living directors. Franco Zeffirelli 's outstanding achievements in world theatre, film and opera span almost half a century and are simply legendary. Directing in London's West End for the first time in 25 years, Zeffirelli has assembled an all-star cast of exceptional quality. This new production also reunites Zeffirelli with leading British actress Joan Plowright - a partnership that has yielded success on both stage and screen, with highlights such as Saturday, Sunday, and Monday ; Filumena and Tea with Mussolini. CAST OLIVER FORD DAVIES – Lamberto Laudisi JOAN PLOWRIGHT – Signora Frola DARRELL D'SILVA – Signor Ponza HILARY TONES – Signora Ponza BARRY STANTON – Councillor Agazzi LIZA TARBUCK – Signora Amalia SIAN BROOKE – Dina ANNA CARTERET – Signora Sirelli GAWN GRAINGER – Signor Sirelli JEFFRY EICKHAM – The Mayor FRED RIDGEWAY – The Inspector BRID BRENNAN – Signora Cini LOLLY SUSI – Signora Nenni TIMOTHY BATESON – Salvatore CREATIVES MARTIN SHERMAN – Version Writer FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI – Director and Set Designer RAIMONDA GAETANI – Costume Designer ANDREW BRIDGE – Lighting Designer JOHN LEONARD – Sound Designer JAREMY SAMS – Music and Musical Arrangements LISA MAKIN – Casting Director MICHAEL GIELETA – Resident Director

Back to Productions SEE YOU NEXT TUESDAY This production began performances on 15th September 2003 and closed on 11th Jan 2004. Wealthy Parisian publisher Pierre ( Nigel Havers - Manchild, Art) has the career, the wife, the friends and the mistress - and the most unusual pastime. Once a week, his friends meet for dinner and invite the most idiotic person they can find. By chance, Pierre comes across Francois Pignon ( Ardal O'Hanlon - Father Ted, My Hero) - the finest nincompoop ever. When the paths of these two unlikely dinner companions collide, the result is gloriously chaotic! This hilariously entertaining comedy is adapted by Oscar-winning writer Ronald Harwood (The Pianist ), from Francis Veber 's award-winning play and film Le Diner de Cons. CAST NIGEL HAVERS – Pierre Brochant CAROL ROYLE – Christine Brochant ROY SAMPSON – Archambaud ARDAL O'HANLON – Francois Pignon PATRICK RYECART – Just Leblanc PATSY KENSIT – Marlene GEOFFREY HUTCHINGS – Lucien Cheval IAN SOUNDY – Voice of Pascal Menaux CREATIVES FRANCIS VEBER – Playwright ROBIN LEFEVRE – Director LIZ ASHCROFT – Designer MICK HUGHES – Lighting Designer SIMON WHITEHORN – Sound Designer ANNA LUNSTRUM – Associate Director

Back to News & Press Jez Butterworth returns to the Royal Court with his new play THE FERRYMAN directed by Sam Mendes Monday, 31 October 2016 Developed by and co-produced with Sonia Friedman Productions and in association with Neal Street Productions, it will premiere in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Monday 24 April 2017 – Saturday 20 May 2017. “Vanishing. It’s a powerful word, that. A powerful word.” Rural Derry, 1981. The Carney farmhouse is a hive of activity with preparations for the annual harvest. A day of hard work on the land and a traditional night of feasting and celebrations lie ahead. But this year they will be interrupted by a visitor. “This family can take care of its own.” Jez Butterworth returns to the Royal Court Theatre after The River and the multi-award winning Jerusalem with his new play The Ferryman . Directed by Sam Mendes and designed by Rob Howell . The Ferryman is developed by and co-produced with Sonia Friedman Productions. It will open in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Monday 24 April 2017 and run until Saturday 20 May 2016. With press night on Wednesday 3 May 2016, 7pm. Jez Butterworth (Writer) For the Royal Court: The River , Jerusalem , The Winterling , The Night Heron , Mojo . Other theatre includes: Parlour Song , (Atlantic Theater, NY, Almeida Theatre). Film includes: Fair Game , Edge of Tomorrow , Black Mass , Spectre . Awards include: Olivier Award for Best Comedy (Mojo ), Paul Selvin Award (Fair Game ), The E.M Forster Award, New York Critic’s Circle Award for Best Foreign Play (Jerusalem ) Sam Mendes (Director) Theatre includes: Uncle Vanya , Twelfth Night , To The Green Fields Beyond , The Blue Room , Habeas Corpus , Company , The Glass Menagerie , Glengarry Glen Ross , Translations , Cabaret , Assassins (Donmar). Charlie & the Chocolate Factory , Oliver! , Kean , London Assurance (West End); Richard III , As You Like It , The Tempest , The Cherry Orchard , The Winter’s Tale (Bridge Project/BAM/Old Vic/Neal Street); The Vertical Hour , Gypsy , The Blue Room , Cabaret (Broadway); King Lear , Othello , The Rise & Fall of Little Voice , The Birthday Party , The Sea (National); The Alchemist , The Tempest , Richard III , Troilus & Cressida (RSC). Film includes: Spectre , Skyfall , Away We Go , Revolutionary Road , Jarhead , Road to Perdition , American Beauty . Awards include: Academy Award for Best Director, Golden Globe Award for Best Director, Directors Guild of America Award for Best Director (American Beauty ); BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film (Skyfall ); Golden Globe Award for Best Director (Revolutionary Road ); Olivier Award for Best Director (The Glass Menagerie ); Olivier Award for Best Director (Company ); Olivier Award for Best Director (Uncle Vanya/Twelfth Night ); Tony Award (Cabaret ); The Hamburg Shakespeare Prize, BAFTA John Schlesinger Award. Sam was the founder and first Artistic Director of the Minerva Theatre, Chichester and of the Donmar Warehouse, and the founder of Neal Street Productions. He was awarded the Directors’ Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. Up Up