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Back to News & Press Full Cast Announced for UK Premiere of Broadway Hit JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN Monday, 2 February 2026 The cast has been announced for the UK transfer of one of the most anticipated shows of the year, the seven-time Tony Award-nominated, John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower , directed by Tony Award-winner Danya Taymor (The Outsiders) . It arrives from a sold out, critically acclaimed run on Broadway and plays at the Royal Court from Friday 20 March - Saturday 25 April 2026 with a Press Night on Thursday 26 March 2026. The third production in the Royal Court’s 70th anniversary season, the bitingly funny, fresh reimagining of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible , which had its London premiere at the same theatre in 1956, follows five young women running on pop music, optimism, and fury. The full new cast for the UK will include: Lauryn Ajufo (Nell Shaw); Charlie Borg (Lee Turner); Reece Braddock (Mason Adams); Dónal Finn (Carter Smith); Holly Howden Gilchrist (Beth Powell); Clare Hughes (Ivy Watkins); Miya James (Raelynn Nix); Molly McFadden (Bailey Gallagher); Sadie Soverall (Shelby Holcomb). Three of the cast are making their professional debuts in the production. Scenography is by AMP, featuring Teresa Williams, the costume design is by Sarah Laux, the lighting design is by Natasha Katz, the sound design and original composition is by Palmer Hefferan, projection design is by Hannah Wasileski , hair and make-up design by J. Jared Janas, movement direction is by Tilly Evans-Kreuger. The Voice and Dialect Coach is Gigi Buffington, the Casting Director is Julia Horan, CDG , dramaturgy by Lauren Halvorsen and the Associate Director is Yanni Ng. ‘One day, maybe, the new world we were promised will actually be new…’ Five young women running on pop music, optimism, and fury are about to shed light on the darkest secrets in their small town. A story about girlhood, power, and questioning the narratives we’ve been taught. The production has partnered with Time Out to make 2,000 tickets available for under 35s, priced accessibly at £25. The theatre will also offer its regular £15 Monday rush tickets throughout the run: tickets to Monday performances go on sale at 9am before the performance the same day and are all sold for £15. John Proctor is the Villain is presented by the Royal Court Theatre, Wagner Johnson Productions, Wessex Grove, Sonia Friedman Productions, Runyonland and John Mara Jr. Up Up

Back to News & Press New cast announced for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as booking extends at The Palace Theatre to 29 June 2025 Thursday, 29 August 2024 The producers of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Sonia Friedman Productions, Colin Callender and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions - are delighted to introduce the new cast who will join the Company from 15 October 2024, as booking for the original two-part multi award-winning London production extends to 29 June 2025 at the Palace Theatre. A combined total of 130,000 tickets have been released for Part 1 and Part 2 in the new booking period, including 20,000 tickets priced at £15 per part. Claire Lams joins the cast to play Ginny Potter, alongside David Ricardo-Pearce as Harry Potter and Ellis Rae as their son Albus Potter, who both continue in their roles. Eve De Leon Allen will take over the role of Rose Granger-Weasley, daughter of Ron Weasley and Hermoine Granger, played by Thomas Aldridge and Jade Ogugua respectively. Steve John Shepherd continues as Draco Malfoy, alongside Harry Acklowe as his son Scorpius Malfoy. They are joined by Ishmail Aaron, David Annen, Nicole-Lily Baisden, Sabina Cameron, Rob Curtis, Zijuan Elsol, Gabriel Fleary, Rory Fraser, Tim Hibberd, Sally Jayne Hind, Max Hunter, Dewayne Jameson Adams, Emma Louise Jones, Julia Kass, Debra Lawrance, Tasha Lim, Matty Loane, Sophie Matthew, Jaden Oshenye, Helen Power, Jocelyn Prah, Conor Quinn, Ian Redford, Catherine Russell, Martin de los Santos, Adam Slynn, Benjamin Stratton, Alex Tomkins, Jake Tuesley, Sam Varley and Katie Wimpenny . Oliver Dawson, Layla Duke, Aubrey Hayes, Rhiannon Parry, Aljosa Radosavljevic, Sienna Sibley and Ethan Webster alternate two children’s roles. 19 years after Harry, Ron, and Hermione saved the wizarding world, they’re back on a most extraordinary new adventure – this time, joined by a brave new generation that has only just arrived at the legendary Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Prepare for spectacular spells, a mind-blowing race through time, and an epic battle to stop mysterious forces, all while the future hangs in the balance. Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany , Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a new play by Jack Thorne , directed by John Tiffany with movement by Steven Hoggett , set by Christine Jones , costumes by Katrina Lindsay , music & arrangements by Imogen Heap , lighting by Neil Austin , sound by Gareth Fry , illusions & magic by Jamie Harrison , music supervision & arrangements by Martin Lowe , and casting by Julia Horan CDG and Lotte Hines CDG . Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions , Colin Callender and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions . Celebrations for Back To Hogwarts take place on Sunday 1 September when the winners of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child competition will take part in a workshop to learn the iconic Wand Dance from the show with the production’s Resident Movement Director, Tash Holway. In addition, Taneetrah Porter, London’s current Rose Granger-Weasley will feature in a specially recorded online programme hosted by Sam Thompson, made in celebration of Back to Hogwarts. Tune in to the official Harry Potter YouTube channel on 1 September at 11am BST to watch. Now booking until 29 June 2025, tickets for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child remain priced from £15 per part. The regular performance schedule is Monday, Tuesday and Thursday – no performance; Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 2pm Part One & 7pm Part Two; Sunday - 1pm Part One & 6pm Part Two. The access performances currently on sale are as follows - British Sign Language on Saturday 21 September 2024, Audio Described on Saturday 9 November 2024 and a Captioned Performance on Saturday 16 November 2024. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the first Harry Potter story to be presented on stage and the eighth story in the Harry Potter series. Now in its ninth year at the Palace Theatre, the production has been seen by over 1.7 million people in the West End and over 11 million worldwide and holds a record 60 major honors, with nine Laurence Olivier Awards including Best New Play and six Tony Awards including Best New Play. There are four productions running worldwide in London, New York, Hamburg, and Tokyo, with a North American tour starting on 10 September at Chicago’s James M. Nederlander Theatre. Up Up

Back to News & Press NEW YORK TIMES: ‘New Born’ Review: Let Hugh Jackman Tell You a Story Friday, 15 May 2026 Please see the original article here . Among the canniest aspects of “New Born ,” a program of three monologues by the British playwright Ella Hickson, is that it begins with a kind of meditation on parasocial relationships: our insatiable hunger for gossip about celebrities; our fantasies of becoming close, in real life, to the famous people we watch on our myriad screens. In theater, of course, stars’ tantalizing presence gets people through the door — certainly this spring on Broadway, but downtown, too, at the Minetta Lane Theater, where Hugh Jackman is giving one of the deftest, most extraordinary performances in New York. And, in the 399-seat space, one of the most intimate. Jackman’s piece, “Deadwood,” comes last in the show’s lineup, so it is shrewd of the director, Ian Rickson, to ensure we glimpse him right at the top, when all three actors briefly enter together. Then Sepideh Moafi — one of several stars from the buzzy HBO Max drama “The Pitt ” now appearing on Manhattan stages — performs the opening monologue, “Light.” Her unnamed character is a married artist, reasonably happy at home and at work, though having a toddler means she hasn’t “slept a whole night in nearly two years.” For relaxation, she scrolls her phone for celebrity news. Out one night, by chance she meets a famous singer who takes a liking to her, and the glow of that attention — the mutual near-obsession they develop — shifts everything. Moafi, alas, never goes deeper than the surface of Hickson’s text, and her artist seems awfully fresh and vital for a character so sleep deprived. It’s a perfectly neat performance, but barely realized; watching it is like being read to by someone who has the words memorized. So it is thrilling when Marianna Gailus — who was Andrew Scott’s understudy in the solo “Vanya ” Off Broadway last year — dives so fully into the second monologue that we are instantly in olden-times Wyoming. In “Rattle,” Gailus plays Martha, a young woman with a prickly rebel spirit who works at an inn. When her bloodied menstrual rag falls out, onto the floor of the inn’s saloon, she will not be shamed by some rough-mannered cowboy into picking it up. “I would have, if I could have found a reason to do it that wasn’t propriety,” she says, to us. Funny, vulnerable, tonally protean, Gailus’s interpretation is the kind that makes you urge people to see this actor now, while she is still unknown. The monologue loses its tautness halfway through, when Hickson overloads it with a plotline about a lost Black child amid rumblings of a Klan presence. The tale acquires a whiff of the white savior trope then, and its ending is too tidy. Gailus, though, is a stunner of a storyteller. Produced by Audible Theater and Together — Jackman’s partnership with the producer Sonia Friedman — the program finishes with “Deadwood,” the longest, most psychologically intricate and best written of the monologues. The title has multiple meanings, one of them sexual. In a T-shirt that shows off his superhero biceps, Jackman plays a tree surgeon who lucks into blissful, sunlit love with a woman named Katie. The tall, complex wooden ladder at the center of the set plays Katie’s cherished old tree. (Costumes are by Kaye Voyce. The lighting, exquisite, is by Japhy Weideman. The set is by Brett J. Banakis and Christine Jones.) Jackman climbs high up that ladder and leans way back, hanging on with his left hand, gesturing with his right. All the while he chats to us, because the story he has to tell — about devotion and desire, family and fracture — needs, somehow, our understanding. Or, rather, the tree surgeon does. That’s how Jackman plays him, sifting through his thoughts with a disarming uptalk that suggests this guy wants to make sure we’re following him. Adroitly attuned to the audience upstairs and down, Jackman is utterly in the room with us. Charmingly relatable and lightly comical, his performance is at times emotionally naked — especially after the tree surgeon leaves Katie because his attraction to her has left him. “You can’t live the rest of your life against your body, against your nature,” he tells us. “I didn’t stop loving her, incidentally, ever.” Tears fall helplessly from the tree surgeon’s eyes. The sight of it stabs at our hearts. And Jackman, in his element, has us rapt. Up Up

Back to News & Press GQ and Editorial Intelligence's 100 Most Connected Women 2014 Friday, 11 April 2014 Having led more than 130 new productions, and with Tony and Olivier Awards to her name, Friedman has been described as a "peerless powerhouse" of the theatre. Read the full article here . Up Up

Back to News & Press King Charles III to be broadcast on Radio 3 Friday, 3 July 2015 After a lifetime of waiting, Charles ascends the throne. A future of power. But how to rule? Mike Bartlett's 'future history' play won the 2015 Olivier Award for Best New Play. The production, directed byRupert Goold, premiered at the Almeida Theatre before moving to the West End in a co-production with Sonia Friedman Productions and Stuart Thompson Productions. This "bracingly provocative and outrageously entertaining new play" (The Independent) explores the people underneath the crowns, the unwritten rules of our democracy, and the conscience of Britain's most famous family. KING CHARLES III was first produced by the Almeida Theatre and subsequently co-produced at the Wyndham's Theatre in the West End of London by Sonia Friedman Productions and Stuart Thompson Productions in association with Lee Dean & Charles Diamond and Tulchin Bartner Productions. Mike Bartlett's radio play NOT TALKING won both the Imison and Tinniswood Awards in 2007. He has been Writer-In-Residence at the both the National Theatre and The Royal Court Theatre. His play LOVE, LOVE, LOVE won Best New Play in the 2011 Theatre Awards UK; COCK won an Olivier Award in 2010 for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, as did BULL in 2015. As well as winning the Olivier Award for Best New Play, KING CHARLES III won the Critics' Circle Award for Best Play of 2014. KING CHARLES III will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 at 10pm Sunday 12 July 2015. For more information click here . Up Up

Back to News & Press Sonia Friedman at Number 2 in The Stage 100 list Thursday, 7 January 2016 Sonia Friedman moves up one slot in The Stage 100 list to number two, behind Ambassador Theatre Group joint chief executives Rosemary Squire and Howard Panter who have topped The Stage 100 list for the seventh year in a row. Sonia Friedman Productions (SFP) has been responsible for some of the most successful theatre productions in London and New York. Since 1990, SFP has developed, initiated and produced over 140 new productions and has won numerous Olivier and Tony Awards, winning 6 at last year’s Olivier Awards - including Best New Musical and Best New Play - and a record-breaking 14 at last year’s Olivier Awards, including the quartet of Best New Musical, Best New Play, Best Revival of a Musical and Best Revival of a Play. Last year Sonia co-produced the BBC TV adaption of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, starring Mark Rylance, and Executive Produced the BBC production of Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser starring Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins. West End and Broadway productions include the UK premiere of The Book of Mormon, Funny Girl at the Menier Chocolate Factory, A Christmas Carol, Farinelli and the King, Hamlet, Sunny Afternoon, Bend It Like Beckham, The Nether, The River, Electra, King Charles III, Shakespeare in Love, 1984, Ghosts, Mojo, Chimerica, Merrily We Roll Along, Old Times, Twelfth Night and Richard III, A Chorus of Disapproval, The Sunshine Boys, Hay Fever, Absent Friends, Top Girls, Betrayal, Much Ado About Nothing, Clybourne Park, The Children’s Hour, A Flea in Her Ear, La Bête, All My Sons, Private Lives, Jerusalem, A Little Night Music, Legally Blonde, Othello, Arcadia, The Mountaintop, The Norman Conquests, A View from the Bridge, Dancing at Lughnasa, Maria Friedman: Re-Arranged, La Cage aux Folles, No Man’s Land, The Seagull, Under The Blue Sky, That Face, Dealer’s Choice, Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin, In Celebration, Boeing-Boeing, The Dumb Waiter, Rock ’n’ Roll, Love Song, Faith Healer, Bent, Eh Joe, Donkeys’ Years, Otherwise Engaged, Celebration, Shoot The Crow, As You Like It, The Home Place, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, By the Bog of Cats, The Woman in White, Guantánamo, Endgame, Jumpers, See You Next Tuesday, Hitchcock Blonde, Absolutely! {Perhaps}, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Ragtime, Macbeth, What the Night Is For, Afterplay, Up For Grabs, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Noises Off, On An Average Day, A Servant to Two Masters, Port Authority, Spoonface Steinberg and Speed-The-Plow. Forthcoming productions include Funny Girl at the Savoy Theatre, the UK tour of Sunny Afternoon and, with her co-producing partner, Colin Callender, collaborating with J.K. Rowling on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Up Up

Back to News & Press The acclaimed multi-award-winning hit play STEREOPHONIC transfers to the West End from May 2025 Wednesday, 8 January 2025 Last year, Stereophonic became the most Tony Award-nominated play ever and the most Tony Award-winning show of 2024. It completes its Broadway run, after extending twice and after having recouped its investment, on 12 January 2025 before the play transfers to the West End, running at the Duke of York’s Theatre from May 2025. Original cast members reprising their highly lauded performances from Broadway include Andrew R. Butler as Charlie, Eli Gelb as Grover and Chris Stack as Simon. Further casting to be announced in due course. Stereophonic mines the agony and the ecstasy of creation as it zooms in on a music studio in 1976. Here, an up-and-coming rock band recording a new album finds itself suddenly on the cusp of superstardom. The ensuing pressures could spark their breakup — or their breakthrough. In Stereophonic , Adjmi invites the audience to immerse themselves—with fly-on-the-wall intimacy—in the powder keg process of a band on the brink of blowing up. Stereophonic became the most Tony-nominated play ever after receiving a record-breaking 13 nominations. The full list of nominations is: Best Play – David Adjmi Best Director - Daniel Aukin Best Score - Will Butler Best Orchestrations – Will Butler and Justin Craig Best Featured Actor in a Play – Will Brill Best Featured Actor in a Play – Eli Gelb Best Featured Actor in a Play – Tom Pecinka Best Featured Actress in Play – Juliana Canfield Best Featured Actress in a Play – Sarah Pidgeon Best Scenic Design of a Play – David Zinn Best Costume Design of a Play – Enver Chakartash Best Lighting Design of Play – Jiyoun Chang Best Sound Design of a Play – Ryan Rumery The play won five of these awards Best Play, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play forWill Brill, Best Direction of a Play for Daniel Aukin, Best Scenic Design of a Play for David Zinn and Best Sound Design of a Play for Ryan Rumery. Stereophonic originally had its World Premiere at Playwrights Horizon’s before transferring to Broadway on 3 April 2024. The hit play will also embark on a US tour from October 2025. The Stereophonic creative team includes David Zinn (scenic designer), Enver Chakartash (costume designer), Jiyoun Chang (lighting designer), Will Butler and Justin Craig (Orchestrations), Ryan Rumery (sound designer), Justin Craig (music director) and Robert Pickens & Katie Gell (hair & wig design). UK Casting is by Julia Horan CDG with US Casting by Alaine Alldaffer CSA, Lisa Donadio CSA and Taylor Williams CSA. Stereophonic is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, Sue Wagner, John Johnson, Seaview, Linden Productions and Ashley Melone & Nick Mills, and Playwrights Horizons: Adam Greenfield, Leslie Marcus and Carol Fishman. Up Up

Back to News & Press Sonia Friedman Productions Announces Further Key Personnel Changes As Part of a Major Restructure of the Company Wednesday, 27 August 2025 Sonia Friedman Productions (SFP), one of the world’s leading theatre companies, today confirms a significant restructuring of its senior leadership team as the company enters its next phase of growth. After 19 years at the heart of SFP, International Executive Producer Pam Skinner will depart in early 2026. Skinner will remain with SFP for the next six months to ensure a smooth handover. As part of the company’s major restructure which also saw the recent appointment of Kash Bennett as Executive Director, SFP today announces the appointment of Jack Dingle as Managing Director – a newly created role, responsible for overseeing the strategic, commercial, financial, and operational management of the business, and helping to drive its long-term vision while ensuring robust short-term delivery. Jack Dingle, who previously served as Finance Director at SFP, will rejoin in November 2025. Sonia Friedman said today: “Pam Skinner has been a pillar of SFP for nearly two decades. Her intelligence, wisdom, humour and extraordinary judgment have guided this company through countless productions around the world. She has been a trusted colleague and a dear friend, and her departure marks the close of another extraordinary chapter in SFP’s story. I will miss her greatly, but I know her legacy will be felt for many years to come. “At the same time, I am thrilled to welcome back Jack Dingle as our first Managing Director. Jack knows this company inside out, and his return – in this expanded leadership role – will be transformational. His knowledge of SFP, combined with his experience and passion, will help secure our long-term vision while ensuring we remain robust and ambitious in the short term. This appointment will allow me to focus more fully on our development, productions, our artists, our audiences and the art form we cherish.” Pam Skinner commented, “I am extremely proud and deeply honoured to have been part of the evolution of SFP into one of the most prolific, innovative and successful production companies in the world. My role as Executive Producer has taken me around the globe and given me some truly incredible experiences – ones I could never have dreamed of when I first joined in 2007. “However, after nearly 19 exhilarating years, I feel it is the right time to pass on the baton and seek new adventures. I will be forever grateful to have worked alongside the incomparable Sonia Friedman and the entire, immensely talented SFP family – past and present – all of whom have contributed so brilliantly to this extraordinary journey. I will always treasure the memories and relationships I have formed during my time here. It’s been quite a ride!” Jack Dingle added, “I am delighted to be returning to support the remarkable Sonia Friedman and the incredibly talented team at SFP. “With PADDINGTON The Musical , The Importance of Being Earnest and Oedipus all soon opening - amongst many others - and an enviable development slate for Broadway and the West End in the works – this is a thrilling moment to be rejoining such a special company. “I look forward to drawing on my professional and leadership experience across theatre, music and screen to help enable Sonia’s vision for the company’s next chapter.” Up Up

Back to News & Press Full cast announced for the tour of Funny Girl across the UK & Ireland Wednesday, 11 January 2017 Playing opposite Sheridan Smith is Chris Peluso as Nick Arnstein - they will perform in Manchester, Milton Keynes, Liverpool, Bristol, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Newcastle, Southampton, Bradford, Southend, Cardiff and Dublin. Also announced today, the run will extend for a further two weeks, returning to Manchester to complete its run with Smith and Peluso playing the final dates. Natasha J Barnes and Darius Campbell will play Fanny Brice and Nick Arnstein in Stoke, Aberdeen, Woking, Canterbury, Glasgow, Nottingham, Norwich, Llandudno, Wolverhampton and Plymouth. Patrons should check with venues for the performance playing schedule. They are joined by Nigel Barber (Florenz Ziegfeld), Zoë Ann Bown (Mrs. Meeker), Martin Callaghan (Mr. Keeney), Jennifer Harding (Emma), Rachel Izen (Mrs Brice), Joshua Lay (Eddie) and Myra Sands (Mrs. Strakosh); with Rhianne Alleyne, Kit Benjamin, Lloyd Davies, Flora Dawson, Joseph Dockree, Abigayle Honeywill, Brontë Lavine, David Mcintosh, Peter Nash, Gillian Parkhouse, Tom Partridge, Nova Skipp, Alexandra Waite-Roberts, Sam Wingfield and Alexandra Wright. ★★★★★ ‘Don’t believe this five-star hype? Go see for yourselves… if you can get in.’ Daily Telegraph 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. ‘Michael Mayer’s vivacious production has wit, charm and energy, sparkly choreography, and a strong, ebullient cast.’ Financial Times Sheridan Smith reprises her smash hit performance in 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 The Moorside Project , 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 . Chris Peluso plays Nick Arnstein. His theatre work in the UK includes Show Boat (New London Theatre) and Miss Saigon (Prince Edward Theatre); and in the US, Mamma Mia! (Winter Garden Theater), Beautiful (Stephen Sondheim Theater), Wicked (tour), The Glorious One (The Lincoln Center), Assassins (Studio 54) and Lestat (Palace Theater). Natasha J Barnes returns to play Fanny Brice, a role she performed to critical acclaim as alternate to Sheridan Smith during the West End run. She is currently playing the title role in the all-star Cinderella at the London Palladium. Her other theatre work includes American Idiot (Arts Theatre), The Boy Who Fell Into a Book (Stephen Joseph Theatre), Chess (Union Theatre), Snow White (Old Vic Theatre and tour), Come Dancing , I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Lend Me a Tenor (Gielgud Theatre) and Spring Awakening (Lyric Hammersmith and Novello Theatre). Following runs at the Menier and in the West End, Darius Campbell returns to play Nick Arnstein. His theatre work includes in the West End, Chicago , Guys and Dolls , Gone with the Wind , and From Here to Eternity ; Carmen (Europe and 02) and The History of the Big Bands (tour). Also a recording artist, his first single Colourblind went to #1 in the UK singles chart. 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 News & Press Further casting has been announced for the forthcoming production of Hamlet Saturday, 4 April 2015 As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father’s death but paralysed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state. The production is directed by Lyndsey Turner, with sets by Es Devlin, costumes by Katrina Lindsay, video by Luke Halls, lighting by Jane Cox, music by Jon Hopkins, sound by Chris Shutt and movement by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Hamlet begins its 12-week run at the Barbican Theatre on 5 August 2015, with opening night on 25 August at 7pm. The twelve week limited run will conclude on 31 October 2015. The run of Hamlet is currently sold out; however, 100 seats will be available for every performance at £10, details of which are to be announced. In addition, from time to time, small numbers of tickets may be returned for advance sale online. For details, visit hamlet-barbican.com In addition to regular performances, there have been four education matinees scheduled exclusively for school and university groups (aged 14+ and in full-time education only) on 10 and 30 September and 7 and 21 October 2015. These performances will go on sale on 11 May 2015 via the Barbican, with 300 tickets priced at £25 available for each performance, and the remainder at £35. Produced by Sonia Friedman Productions and presented by the Barbican, Hamlet will be broadcast to cinemas around the world on Thursday 15 October 2015 as part of National Theatre Live, details of all screenings can be found at ntlive.com Benedict Cumberbatch is an international multi-award winning theatre, television and film actor. His more recent stage credits, both for the National Theatre, are After the Dance and alternating both the creature and Dr Frankenstein, in Danny Boyle's production of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for which he won the Olivier, Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Best Actor awards. Also, a critically-acclaimed television actor, he is currently best known for playing the title role in the BBC’s Sherlock and will be seen next year as Richard III in The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses. His film work includes Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Star Trek into Darkness, 12 Years a Slave, The Fifth Estate, August: Osage County and the role of Smaug in The Hobbit trilogy. Cumberbatch was nominated for a BAFTA, Golden Globe and Academy Award for his role playing Alan Turing in The Imitation Game which opened The 2014 BFI London Film Festival. Leo Bill (Horatio) will be seen later this month in Light Shining in Buckinghamshire for the National Theatre, which is also directed by Lyndsey Turner. His previous theatre credits include The Reporter, The Hothouse and Pains of Youth for the National Theatre, Posh for the Royal Court and in the West End, The Glass Menagerie for the Young Vic, School for Scandal for the Barbican, The Way of the World for the Sheffield Crucible and The Silence of the Sea for the Donmar Warehouse. Bill’s television work includes Canterbury Tales, Messiah III, A Very Social Secretary, Bash, Jekyll, Sense and Sensibility, Lead Balloon and Ashes To Ashes. Amongst his film credits are Gosford Park, 28 Days Later, Vera Drake, The Fall, Becoming Jane, Alice in Wonderland and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Sian Brooke’s (Ophelia) previous theatre credits include Tartuffe for the Birmingham Rep, Reasons to be Pretty and My City for the Almeida Theatre, Ecstasy and In The Club for the Hampstead Theatre, Wanderlust and Dying City for the Royal Court, The Wizard of Oz at the Royal Festival Hall, How to Disappear and Never be Found for the Sheffield Crucible, King Lear and Romeo and Juliet for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Dido, Queen of Carthage for the National Theatre. Amongst Brooke’s television credits are Cut, Lewis, Man Down, Garrow’s Law, Silk, Cape Wrath, New Tricks, Vexed, Doc Martin, The Commander, Foyle’s War, The Fixer, Hotel Babylon and Dinotopia. Anastasia Hille’s (Gertrude) previous stage credits include The Effect, Dido, Queen of Carthage, Waves, Women of Troy, Dream Play, The Oresteia, Richard III for the National Theatre, Masterbuilder and The Cenci for the Almeida, Forty Winks and Ashes to Ashes for the Royal Court, As You Like It and Two Gentlemen of Verona for Shakespeare’s Globe, Duchess of Malfi, Measure for Measure and Macbeth for Cheek by Jowl, The Jewish Wife and The Maids for the Young Vic, Uncle Vanya and The Winter’s Tale for the RSC, The Dark and Morphic Resonance for the Donmar Warehouse, Three Tall Women at the Wyndham’s Theatre and Therese Raquin for the Leicester Haymarket. Her television credits include The Missing, Prey, The Tunnel, The Fear, Getting On, Cutting It and Red Dwarf. Hille’s film credits include Trespass Against Us, Snow White and The Huntsman, The Awakening, Good and New Year's Day. Ciarán Hinds’ (Claudius) theatre credits include The Night Alive and Assassins for the Donmar Warehouse, The Birds and Antigone for the Gate Theatre, Closer and Machinal for the National Theatre, Simpatico for the Royal Court, Our Few and Evil Days for the Abbey Theatre, Troilus and Cressida, Richard III and Edward II for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Broadway. Amongst Hinds’ television work is Game of Thrones, Above Suspicion, Jane Eyre, Persuasion and Political Animals. His extensive film credits include The Road to Perdition, Munich, Excalibur, There Will Be Blood, In Bruges, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Eclipse, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Sea. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Laertes) has previously been seen on stage in Edward II, Antigone and Death and the King’s Horseman for the National Theatre, The Low Road for the Royal Court, Feast, Joe Turner's Come and Gone and The Changeling for the Young Vic, Love's Labour’s Lost for Shakespeare's Globe, Detaining Justice, Seize the Day and Fabulation for the Tricycle Theatre. His television credits include Capital, Crackanory, Worricker Trilogy, The Last Panthers and Midsomer Murders. Holdbrook-Smith’s film work includes The Double and Roadkill. Jim Norton (Polonius) won both an Olivier and Tony Award for his performance as Richard Harkin in The Seafarer. His most recent appearance on Broadway was as Candy in Of Mice and Men. His other Broadway credits include The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Finian's Rainbow and The Weir. For the Atlantic Theatre his credits include Juno and the Paycock, Dublin Carol, Port Authority and the Donmar Warehouse production of The Night Alive. Norton worked extensively at the National Theatre between 1975 and 1985. At the Royal Court he appeared in The Contractor and The Changing Room. On film his credits include Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Water For Elephants, Straw Dogs, Hidden Agenda, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Driving Lessons, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Oyster Farmer, The Eclipse, and most recently Father Sheridan in Jimmy’s Hall for Ken Loach. His television credits include Elementary, Frasier, Poirot, Star Trek: the Next Generation, Stan and BBC’s River. Lyndsey Turner’s directing credits include Fathers and Sons and Philadelphia, Here I Come! for the Donmar Warehouse, Machinal for the Roundabout Theatre, Chimerica at the Almeida and in the West End, Posh for the Royal Court and in the West End, There Is A War and Edgar and Annabel for the National Theatre, Alice and The Way Of The World for Sheffield Theatres and Our Private Life, Contractions, A Miracle for the Royal Court. Turner was recently appointed as an Associate Director for the National Theatre where she will direct Light Shining in Buckinghamshire in April. Up Up

Back to News & Press Tyne Daly in Master Class Friday, 4 November 2011 Master Class, produced in the West End by Max Cooper, Maberry Theatricals, the Marks-Moore-Turnbull Group, Ted Snowdon and Sonia Friedman Productions in association with the Manhattan Theatre Club, will run at the Vaudeville Theatre for 14 weeks only from 21 January to 28 April, with press night on 7 February 2012. Set design is by Thomas Lynch, costume design by Martin Pakledinaz, lighting by David Lander and sound by Jon Gottlieb. Tickets go on sale today (4 November 2011) for Master Class and further casting will be announced shortly. Terrence McNally’s play about Maria Callas takes audiences to one of her famous master classes, where, late in her own career, she dares the next generation to make the same sacrifices and rise to the same heights that made her the most celebrated, the most reviled and the most controversial singer of her time. Terrence McNally’s Master Class received its world premiere at the John Golden Theatre in 1995, wining the Tony Award for Best Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play. Stephen Wadsworth’s Manhattan Theatre Club production opened at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre earlier this year. Tyne Daly first appeared in Stephen Wadsworth's production of Master Class at the Kennedy Center. Multi award-winning Tyne Daly plays Maria Callas. She is best known on television for her portrayal of Detective Mary Beth Lacey in Cagney and Lacey, for which she received four Emmy Awards. For her roles as Maxine Gray in Judging Amy and Alice Henderson in Christy she received two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama. For the former she also won Golden Globe Award. Her many Broadway credits include Rose in Gypsy for which she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, Mme. Arkadina in The Seagull and Rabbit Hole. Daley’s film credits include The Enforcer, Dirty Harry, John and Mary and Telefon. Writer Terrence McNally has won four Tony Awards for his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class and his musical books for Kiss of the Spiderwoman and Ragtime. More recent Broadway revivals of his plays include The Ritz and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. His other plays include A Perfect Ganesh, Corpus Christi, Lips Together and Its Only a Play. His most recent play, Golden Age, was featured in the Kennedy Center celebration of his work year. For the musical theatre other his librettos include Catch Me if You Can, The Full Monty, The Rink, The Visit, A Man of No Importance and the opera Dead Man Walking. McNally has also written a number of television scripts including Andre's Mother for which he won an Emmy Award. Theatre and Opera director Stephen Wadsworth has worked for Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Vienna Staatsoper, Edinburgh Festival, Nederlandse Opera, Seattle Opera and in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto and Santa Fe. Wadsworth is the Head of Dramatic Studies at the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, the James S. Marcus Faculty Fellow and Director of Opera Studies at The Juilliard School, an artist in residence at the Aspen Institute, and a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Up Up

Back to Productions BUST A Co-Production with Goodman Theatre. Produced in association with Sonia Friedman Productions, Khaliah Neal and Thomas Swayne. “BUST is a very personal play”. Playwright Zora Howard On The Coca-Cola Stage, the Alliance, in partnership with Goodman Theatre and in association with Sonia Friedman Productions, Khaliah Neal and Thomas Swayne, will produce the world premiere of the gripping new play, BUST . It’s not only hell that breaks loose in this ground-breaking, form-defying, laugh-out-loud drama from Pulitzer Prize finalist playwright Zora Howard . Lileana Blain-Cruz , a “master of curating chaos” (The New York Times ) directs. For more information, click here . “The opportunity to bring it to life alongside Lileana – and in the cities of Atlanta and Chicago especially – is a long-time dream come true. We are beyond ready to kick down the walls and welcome folks into its world(s).” Playwright Zora Howard Retta and Reggie are enjoying their usual evening on the porch when a longtime neighbor is pulled over by the police just before turning into his driveway. Everything goes as expected—until the unexpected happens. Humor, spectacle, and surrealism converge in this interrogation of what it costs to be Black and free. CAST Casting to be announced. CREATIVES ZORA HOWARD – Playwright LILEANA BLAIN-CRUZ – Director Further creatives to be announced.