Dateline 31st December, 2000
Sher's Macbeth on TV
The RSC production of Macbeth with Antony Sher and Harret Walter will be broadcast on Channel 4 on New Year's Day from 6.05 to 8.30pm.
17th cast for Art
Yasmina Reza's Art (Wyndham's) is to have its seventeenth cast from 23rd January to 15th April. It will be Charlie Lawson as Marc and James Gaddas as Yvan (both best known for their parts in the soap Coronation Street) and Gary Kemp as Serge. Kemp, with his brother Martin, was a member of eighties pop group Spandau Ballet and starred in the film The Krays.
Japes at the Haymarket
Simon Gray's new play Japes opens at the Haymarket on 7th February (previews from 1st). Starring Toby Stephens and Jasper Britton, the play is directed by Sir Peter Hall.
Spring at the Traverse
Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre has announced its spring season. There will be two plays from the Traverse company: the European premiere of The Trestle at Pope Lick Ceek by US playwright Naomi Wallace (previews 16th-18th February: then 20th-25th Feb., 9th-11th March and 16th-18th March) and a revival of Scottish writer Nicola McCartney's Heritage (Previews 2nd-4th March, then 6th-8th March, 10th March, 13th-15th March and 17th March).
Also in the season are:
In addition there will be rehearsed readings, writers' workshops, and First Bite 2001, a showcase of plays from the Traverse Young Writers Group (31st March).
Redman in X Files rival
Amanda Redman is to play joint lead (with Andrew McCarthy) in a new US TV series The Sight, which is aimed at the same market as the X Files. She has signed a five-year contract and starts filming in February.
High Spirits at the Bridewell
The 1964 Broadway musical High Spirits, based on Coward's Blyth Spirit is to be revived at the Bridewell from 10th January (currently previewing). The original production starred Beatrice Lillie in her final Broadway appearance.
Goodman in political satire
Henry Goodman, who made a great hit as Shylock at the National earlier this year, is to star in a new play, Feelgood, by TV satirist Alistair Beaton at the Hampstead Theatre on 31st January (previews from 25th). The play, set at a political party's annual conference, will be directed by Max Stafford-Clark.
Coming soon to the Royal Exchange
Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre has announced its programme through to August 2001:
Donmar to revive Hampton award winner
The Donmar Warehouse is to revive Christopher Hampton's Tales from Hollywood in May. The play was originally presented at the Olivier in 1983 when it won Best New Comedy in the "Evening Standard" Awards.
Coming soon to Shakespeare's Globe
Highlights for 2001 at Shakespeare's Globe include King Lear with Julian Glover, Macbeth with Jasper Britton and Cymbeline with Mark Rylance. Also in the programme are Umabatha, the Zulu Macbeth performed in Zulu, and the Nomura Mansaku Company's version of The Comedy of Errors, performed in Japanese.
Lear x 2
As well as the Globe King Lear, Shakespeare's most difficult play will also be performed by the Almeida in 2001, with Oliver Ford in the title role.
Connery in Soho
Not Sean but his son Jason, who will appear in a workshop version of Faithful Dealing, a new play by Rowan Joffe, at the Soho Theatre from 24th to 27th January. The play is a political thriller dealing with the death of Christopher Marlowe. Connery Jnr last appeared in the West End in 1992 in Trelawny of the Wells at the Comedy.