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Theatre Royal Haymarket

Theatre Royal Haymarket

Haymarket, London, SW1Y 4HT


Waiting for Godot tickets

Waiting for Godot

Booking to 03 April 2010

Click here to book tickets for Waiting for Godot - From £0.00

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STRICTLY LIMITED RUN FOR THEATRE ROYAL HAYMARKET REVIVAL OF SELL-OUT
W A I T I N G    F O R    G O D O T
IAN MCKELLEN AND RONALD PICKUP ARE JOINED BY
ROGER REES AND MATTHEW KELLY

Ian McKellen (Estragon) and Ronald Pickup (Lucky) will be joined by Roger Rees (Vladimir) and Matthew Kelly (Pozzo) in Sean Mathias’ production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot which will have a further run at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 21 January – 3 April 2010.  Mathias’ sell-out production opened in May this year following a national tour and played to packed houses through its run, breaking all previous Theatre Royal Haymarket Box Office records.

Waiting for Godot will preview from 21January and will complete its11 week run on the 3 April.  Press Night is on 27 January 2010.  Designs are by Stephen Brimson Lewis with lighting by Paul Pyant and sound by Paul Groothuis.  Waiting for Godot is produced by the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company in partnership with Duncan C. Weldon Productions Ltd and Paul Elliott. 

Waiting for Godot was the first production in Sean Mathias’ season as Artistic Director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company.  His production of Breakfast at Tiffany’s with Anna Friel and Joseph Cross will complete its run on 9 January 2010. 

Waiting for Godot follows two consecutive days in the lives of Vladimir and Estragon, who divert themselves by clowning around, joking and arguing, while waiting expectantly and unsuccessfully for the mysterious Godot.  Beckett's Waiting for Godot exploded on to the London stage over 50 years ago when it shocked as many people as it delighted.

Ian McKellen, who made his Beckett debut as Estragon, has previously collaborated with Sean Mathias who has directed him as Uncle Vanya, the Captain in Dance of Death and as Widow Twankey twice.  Since he started acting in 1961, he has worked non-stop on stage and screen.  For the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Companies, McKellen has produced and acted in plays old and new, most recently on the RSC’s world tour as King Lear. He produced and wrote the screenplay for his Richard III and was nominated for an Oscar for Gods and Monsters and for Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings.  He recently played in Coronation Street and has completed ITV’s remake of The Prisoner.   Earlier this week Ian McKellen won the Lebedev Special Award for his contribution to Theatre at the Evening Standard Awards.

Multi award-winning Roger Rees returns to London to play Vladimir.  As well as extensive work for the Royal Shakespeare Company including Love’s Labour’s Lost, Cymbeline, Othello, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice and Three Sisters, Rees’ London theatre credits include Hapgood at the Aldwych Theatre, The Real Thing at the Strand Theatre and the RSC’s Nicholas Nickleby at the Aldwych and Old Vic Theatres, which later transferred to Broadway and for which he won the Laurence Oliver and Tony Awards for Best Actor.  His theatre credits in the US include A Man of No Importance for the Lincoln Center, Uncle Vanya at the Atkinson Theatre, The Rehearsal for the Roundabout Theatre, Indiscretions at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and Hapgood in Los Angeles.  On film his credits include Almost Perfect, The Pink Panther, Frida, A Christmas Carol and Robin Hood Men in Tights.  On television he was a series regular in Cheers and guested regularly on Grey’s Anatomy, The West Wing, M.A.N.T.I.S and Law and Order. 

Ronald Pickup returns to play Lucky.  His theatre credits include Look Back in Anger at the Theatre Royal Bath, Amy’s View, Three Sisters, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Richard II and As You Like It all for the National Theatre, Julius Caesar for the Royal Court, The Cherry Orchard at the Aldwych and Uncle Vanya both on tour and for the Rose Theatre Kingston.  His many television credits include Sea of Souls, The Last Detective, Cambridge Spies, Waking the Dead, The Rector’s Wife, Absolute Hell, Dr Jeykll and Mr Hyde, The Fortunes of War and Pope John Paul II.  His film credits include Tulse Luper Suitcase, Lolita, The Fourth Protocol, The Mission, Camille and Never Say Never Again.

Matthew Kelly will play Pozzo.  He was most recently on stage at the Lyric Hammersmith in Sean Holmes production of Comedians.  His other theatre credits include Lennie in Of Mice and Men for which he won the Best Actor Olivier Award, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at the Trafalgar Studios, Troilus and Cressida at Shakespeare’s Globe, Amadeus at Wilton’s Music Hall, Forgotten Voices at the Riverside Studios and the Edinburgh Festival as well as Oh What A Lovely War at the Octagon Theatre Bolton and Samuel Beckett’s Endgame at the Liverpool Everyman.  Kelly has previously played Vladimir in Waiting for Godot at the Oxford Playhouse.  On television his credits include the Cold Blood, Bleak House, Where The Heart Is and Marple.  Earlier this year Kelly joined the Touring Consortium’s Artistic Panel. 

Director and writer Mathias previously directed Triptych for the Market Theatre, Johannesburg and Southwark Playhouse, Ring Round the Moon for the Playhouse Theatre, Uncle Vanya, A Little Night Music and Les Parents Terribles all for the National Theatre, Dance of Death in London, on Broadway and in Australia, Aladdin for the Old Vic, as well as Talking Heads for the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Shoreditch Madonna for Soho Theatre and Design For Living at the Donmar, for both of which he was awarded the Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Best Director Award.  Mathias also directed Bent at the Adelphi, National and Garrick Theatres and later directed a film version, winning the Prix de la Jeunesse at the Cannes Film Festival.  His other Broadway credits include Marlene and Indiscretions for which he was nominated Best Director at the Tony Awards.  Also in the US his productions include Company as part of the Kennedy Centre Sondheim Celebration and a production of The Cherry Orchard at the Mark Taper Forum starring Annette Bening.  
 

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Sweet Charity tickets

Sweet Charity

Booking 23 April 2010 to 18 December 2010

Click here to book tickets for Sweet Charity - From £28.50

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Tamzin Outhwaite, who plays the title role of Charity Hope Valentine, will lead the cast in the West End transfer of the Tony Award-winning musical Sweet Charity, which comes to the Theatre Royal Haymarket from the 23rd April 2010 .

Sweet Charity follows the misadventures of love encountered by the gullible and guileless Charity Hope Valentine, a woman who always gives her heart and her dreams to the wrong man.  Cy Coleman’s score features favourite hits such as Hey, Big Spender; If My Friends Could See Me Now and The Rhythm of Life.

With book by Neil Simon, music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, Sweet Charity is directed by Matthew Wright, choreography is by Stephen Mear, set design by Tim Shortall, costume design by Matthew Wright, musical supervision and direction by Nigel Lilley, orchestrations by Chris Walker, lighting by David Howe and sound design by Gareth Owen. 
 

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Theatre history

The Theatre Royal Haymarket or Haymarket Theatre is a theatre on The Haymarket in London which dates back to 1720. The original building was a little further north in the same street. It has been at its current location since 1821, when it was redesigned by John Nash.

The Haymarket has been the site of a couple of significant innovations in theatre. In 1873, it was the venue for the first scheduled matinée performance, establishing a custom soon followed in theatres everywhere. Six years later, its auditorium was reconstructed and the stage was enclosed in the first use of the picture frame proscenium.

Its managers have included Squire Bancroft, John Baldwin Buckstone, Cyril Maude, and Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Its current capacity is 888.

History
Its first major success was a 1729 production of Samuel Johnson''s Hurlothrumbo, or The Supernatural, which ran for 80 nights -- a record surpassing John Gay''s The Beggar''s Opera and not to be matched until The Dragon of Wantley. In the 1720''s, the Haymarket was an alternative to the patent theatres in every sense. When there was an actor''s revolt at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1719, for example, the actors walked out to go to the Haymarket. They returned when they won their demands. In the eight to ten years before the Licensing Act of 1737, the Haymarket was an alternative to John Rich''s Covent Garden theatre and the opera-dominated Drury Lane. In particular, it was an alternative to the pantomime and special-effects dominated stages, and it presented opposition (Tory) satire. Hurlothrumbo was just one play in that series of anti-Walpolean satires. Henry Fielding staged his plays at the Haymarket, and so did Henry Carey. Hurlothrumbo would be followed by Tom Thumb, The Dragon of Wantley, Pasquin and others. Additionally, refugees from Drury Lane''s and Covent Gardens''s internal struggles would show up at the Haymarket, and thus Charlotte Charke would act there in a parody of her father, Colley Cibber, one of the owners and managers of Drury Lane. The Theatrical Licensing Act, however, put an end to the anti-ministry satires, and it all but entirely shut down the theatre.

In 1862, the theatre was host to a 400-night run of Our American Cousin, with Edward Southern as Lord Dundreary. The play''s success brought the word "dreary" into common use.

Stage and prosceniumJohn Gielgud produced a 1939 repertory season, including Maugham''s The Circle, Congreve''s Love for Love, and Shakespeare''s Hamlet.

In 1893, Oscar Wilde premiered A Woman of No Importance, his first comedy, at the Haymarket. The play returned for a 2003 production directed by Adrian Noble and starring Rupert Graves, Samantha Bond, Prunella Scales and Rachael Stirling.

The theatre underwent a major refurbishment in 1994. In May 2004 it closed for two nights after bits of the ceiling fell down during a performance. About 13 people suffered mainly cuts and bruises when plaster fell into the auditorium during the "When Harry Met Sally..." Show. Since then, the theatre has played host to a short-lived run of Becket directed by John Caird followed in January 2005 by the world premiere of Victoria Wood''s new musical Acorn Antiques - based upon the TV series of the same name. This starred Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston, Neil Morrissey, Sally Ann Triplett and Josie Lawrence and ran until 21 May 2005. The Genius Of Ray Charles - a new American musical followed in the Summer of 2005 running for eight weeks to 13 August 2005. More recently, Bill Kenwright''s new production of A Few Good Men played to packed houses starring Rob Lowe, Suranne Jones, John Barrowman and Jack Ellis. Bringing us up to the present day, the theatre is currently hosting Bill Kenwright''s A Man For All Seasons starring Martin Shaw.

Judi Dench is set to return to the theatre in April 2006 with a new production of Hayfever.

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Location and Seating Plan

Theatre Royal Haymarket
Haymarket
London
SW1Y 4HT

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