Dateline 15th July, 2001
Fame moves around
The muscial Fame, currently playing at the Victoria Palace, is due to move theatres shortly. It closes the current run (its fourth West End outing) on 8th September and will be replaced by the incoming Broadway revival of Kiss Me, Kate. It will then open later in the month at the Cambridge, where it will replace the Lloyd Webber/Elton musical The Beautiful Game, which closes on 1st September.
Thus Fame returns to the theatre where it first opened in 1995, gaining two Olivier nominations.
Chicago to tour
The musical Chicago, currently playing at the Adelphi, is go on a national tour, opening at the Manchester Opera House on 14th September, and then going on to Bristol, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Sunderland and Oxford.
There will be a new cast for the tour, as the production at the Adelphi will still continue. The show is currently playing in New York and other venues across the USA and in Buenos Aires. A production is expected to open in Düsseldorf in the autumn.
Cast no. 19 for Art
The nineteenth cast of Yasmena Reza's Art takes over on 31st July. It will consist of Judd Hirsh (Marc), Joe Morton (Serge) and Richard Thomas (Yvan). All three have appeared in the play before and all will be reprising their previous roles.
The play has also extended its booking period by four months to 6th January.
Changes for Blue/Orange
A new cast takes over in Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange (Duchess) from 20th August. It will consist of David Thelfall, Neil Stuke and Shaun Parkes. The play has also announced a new booking period, to 5th January.
Homecoming for The Homecoming
Pinter's The Homecoming returns to the West End in September. The production, originally at the Gate in Dublin in June, will come to the West End via the New York Pinter Festival. The play, which is directed by Robin Lefevre, stars Ian Holm and Lia Williams.
An inspector calls back
Stephen Daldry's NT production of Priestley's An Inspector Calls returns to the West End on 20th September, when it will open at the Playhouse. It ran for six years at the Garrick, closing in April, where it was succeeded by the politcal satire Feelgood, which has just extended its booking period to 27th October.
Queen musical on the cards?
A musical based on the music of rock band Queen could well be on the cards, so rumour has it. The show would follow the formula of Mamma Mia!, using the band's music as the basis of a storyline. Entitled We Will Rock You, the show is rumoured to be likely to replace Notre Dame de Paris at the Dominion.
No announcement about Notre Dame closing has been made, but no (public) efforts have made to find a replacement for Dannii Minogue, who leaves the show at the end of July, exciting speculation that the end of the show may be at hand.
Noises Off changes
There will be cast changes in Michael Frayn's Noises Off (Piccadilly) on 7th August. New to the cast will be Isla Blair, Chris Langham and Robert Portal. The production is also extending its booking period to 20th April.
The King and I extends
The revival of The King and I (London Palladium) has extended its booking period to 30th March, 2002. Rumours still persist that it will transfer to a smaller theatre, but no official announcement has been made.
Belgrade premieres new O'Connell
Chris O'Connell's latest play, Raw, premieres at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre this week before going on to the Edinburgh Fringe in August. O'Connell won a Fringe First from "The Scotsman" (and a five star rating from me!) for his play Car at the 1999 Fringe.