J.T. Rogers’ play Oslo, which premiered last year at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre and reopens at the Vivian Beaumont April 13, will receive its U.K. premiere at the National’s Lyttelton Theatre, beginning performance September 5 prior to an official opening September 12, where it will play through September 23.
It will then transfer immediately to the West End’s Harold Pinter Theatre, resuming performances September 30. The Lincoln Center Theater production is directed by Bartlett Sher. Casting is still to be announced.
Further plans and casting have also been announced for previously announced productions.
A new production of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s 1971 musical Follies will begin performances August 22 prior to an official opening September 6. The previously announced Janie Dee, Imelda Staunton, Philip Quast, and Peter Forbes are joined by Josephine Barstow, Tracie Bennett, Di Botcher, Billy Boyle, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Emily Goodenough, Bruce Graham, Fred Haig, Aimee Hodnett, Dawn Hope, Liz Izen, Alison Langer, Emily Langham, Sarah Marie Maxwell, Kate Parr, Edwin Ray, Gary Raymond, Adam Rhys-Charles, Jordan Shaw, Barnaby Thompson, Christine Tucker, and Alex Young. Follies is directed by Dominic Cooke, with designs by Vicki Mortimer, choreography by Bill Deamer, musical supervision by Nicholas Skilbeck, orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, musical direction by Nigel Lilley, lighting design by Paule Constable, and sound design by Paul Groothuis.
Jane Eyre, previously seen at the NT in 2016 in a co-production with Bristol Old Vic, will return after its imminent U.K. tour (that begins April 8) to begin performances September 26 for a run through October 21. Directed by Sally Cookson, the cast includes Hannah Bristow, Matthew Churcher, Nadia Clifford, Ben Cutler, Tim Delap, Alex Heane, Jenny Johns, Melanie Marshall, Evelyn Miller, Paul Mundell, Dami Olukoya, David Ridley, Lynda Rooke, Francesca Tomlinson, and Phoebe Vigor.
New plans for the season include a season of Queer Theatre, subtitled LGBT+ Stories & Social Change, that will look at how theatre has charted the LGBT+ experience through a series of rehearsed readings running May to July, in partnership with Pride in London, exhibitions, talks, and screenings. The season marks the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalization of homosexuality in England and Wales. The readings will be presented during Pride Week of July 6-10; directors include Tarell Alvin McCraney, Stephen Daldry, and Polly Stenham.
The National is also presenting All the President's Men in partnership with New York's Public Theater, a staged reading edited and directed by Nicolas Kent, of scenes from the U.S. Senate’s confirmation hearings for President Trump’s Cabinet, that will take place April 24 at the West End's Vaudeville Theatre, prior to a public staged reading at the Public in May. The script is taken verbatim from the Senate sessions that probed the fitness for office of Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of Exxon/Mobil, nominee for Secretary of State responsible for America’s foreign policy; Jeff Sessions, a leading campaigner for the President and now his chief law officer; Dr. Tom Price, a strident critic of Obamacare and nominee for Health Secretary; and Scott Pruitt, a climate change skeptic nominated as Director of the Environmental Protection Agency.
For further details and booking information, visit nationaltheatre.org.uk.
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