The Donmar Warehouse today announces its next season of work.
Following the huge success of her current production of James Graham’s Privacy, Artistic Director Josie Rourke will direct the first major revival of Cy Coleman’s classic musical City of Angels as the Donmar’s 2014 Christmas production. City of Angels with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel and book by Larry Gelbart (Tootsie andM*A*S*H), premiered on Broadway in 1990 in the West End in 1993. It won both the Tony Award and Olivier Award for Best New Musical, along with multiple other prizes. Featuring one of the great jazz scores, City of Angels is a celebration of film noir and Hollywood in black & white and colour. Rourke’s production will star Hadley Fraser as Stine, returning to the Donmar after his role in Rourke’s 2013 production of Coriolanus, and Rosalie Craig, who will make her debut at the theatre and will play Gabby/Bobbi. Fraser and Craig will be joined in the company by Samantha Barks as Mallory/Avril. Olivier Award-winner Stephen Mear will choreograph the production.
The Donmar has for many years run one of the most successful training schemes for young directors in its Resident Assistant Director role. Previous incumbents include current Artistic Director Josie Rourke, Rupert Goold, Sasha Wares and Charlotte Westenra. In recognition of the move into the company’s new base at Dryden Street, in which rehearsal room, office and education space can be under one roof for the first time, the Donmar have inaugurated a second training position, the Trainee Artistic Director. The role has been created to train the Artistic Directors of tomorrow, offering exceptional insight into the programing, funding and running of a theatre building and company. Applications for the post will open this summer.
Alongside this development the Donmar Warehouse today also announces the appointment of two resident artists for Donmar Dryden Street. Nick Payne, whose The Same Deep Water As Me at the Donmar was nominated for Best New Comedy at the 2014 Olivier Awards, will become Writer in Residence. Michael Bruce will continue in his role as Composer in Residence. Bruce’s work at the Donmar includes current production, Privacy, as well asCoriolanus, The Machine (Manchester International Festival/Park Avenue Armory, New York), Trelawny of the Wells and Berenice.
Donmar Dryden Street will also allow the Donmar to extend its Education programme with a goal to double the number of people taking part over the next three years. The Tomorrow Project, the theatre’s new programme for local schools, will run for the second year in 2014-15, alongside an increased programme of work accompanying Donmar productions for schools and young people. This season will see over 1,000 young people seeing a Donmar production for £5 or less, and over 300 performing on the Donmar stage as part of our Education programmes.
The Donmar Warehouse is delighted to confirm that Barclays will continue to support the ground-breaking scheme Barclays Front Row, which offers front row tickets for each performance at the Donmar for just £10. Each Monday morning at 10am over 300 tickets are released for sale in the front row of both stalls and circle for a week’s worth of performances two weeks later. Since it began, we have sold over 21,000 Barclays Front Row tickets with almost 50% of ticket buyers being first time visitors to the Donmar.
‘Everybody’s in a movie. Sometimes we just turn the camera on.’
Two decades after its London premiere, Artistic Director Josie Rourke revives one of the acknowledged greats of 20thcentury musical theatre.
Hollywood comes calling for a New York novelist. The offer is too good to refuse: adapt the private detective protagonist of his books into a big-screen hero. The siren songs of Los Angeles is a dangerous temptation and while his movie plays out in black and white, his new life is all-too colourful.
With a sensational jazz score by Cy Coleman, sizzling lyrics from David Zippel and book by acclaimed comic screenwriter Larry Gelbart (M*A*S*H, Tootsie) , City of Angels is a witty and glorious celebration of film noir.
Josie Rourke (Director) is Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse where she has directed The Recruiting Officer, The Physicists, Berenice, The Weir (which transferred to Wyndham’s Theatre), Coriolanus (which was broadcast to cinemas around the world in partnership with National Theatre Live), and the currently running Privacy, a new play by James Graham. In 2013 she directed The Machine, a new play by Matt Charman, as part of the Manchester International Festival, which also played at Park Avenue Armory, New York. Rourke trained at the Donmar, under Sam Mendes, through the theatre’s annual Resident Assistant Director Scheme. Prior to the Donmar, she was Artistic Director at the Bush Theatre, London, from 2007 to 2011. Her 2010 production of Men Should Weep by Ena Lamont Stewart ran in the Lyttelton at the National Theatre. In 2011 her production of Much Ado About Nothing, starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate, ran in the West End at Wyndham’s Theatre and received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Revival.
Samantha Barks (playing Mallory/Avril) is making her Donmar debut in City of Angels. Theatre credits includeChicago (Hollywood Bowl), Oliver! (UK Tour), Cabaret (Birmingham Repertory Theatre) and Les Misérables(Queen’s Theatre) as Éponine, a part which Barks played in Tom Hooper’s recent feature film. Other film credits include The Devil’s Harvest, Dracula Untold and The Christmas Candle.
Rosalie Craig (playing Gabby/Bobbi) makes her Donmar debut in City of Angels. Her recent performance as Princess Althea in The Light Princess at the National Theatre earned her the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Musical Performance, as well as an Olivier Award nomination. She will play the title role in Miss Julie at Chichester Festival Theatre this summer. Previous theatre credits include Macbeth (Manchester International Festival 2013), Table (National Theatre), Finding Neverland (Leicester Curve), Ragtime (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) and Company (Sheffield Crucible). Her television credits include Spooks, Miranda and My Family and Other Animals.
Hadley Fraser (playing Stine) returns to the Donmar stage having played Aufidius in Rourke’s production ofCoriolanus. That followed his appearance in The Machine, also directed by Rourke for the Manchester International Festival in co-production with Park Avenue Armory, New York and the Donmar Warehouse. He is best known for playing Marius and, later, Javert in the West End production of Les Misérables and appeared in Tom Hooper’s feature film version. In 2012, Fraser played Raoul in the 25th Anniversary Concert of The Phantom of the Opera, which was broadcast around the world. Other theatre credits include The Pajama Game (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Fantasticks (Duchess Theatre) and Assassins (Sheffield Crucible). He is a patron of PPA theatre college and together with Ramin Karimloo, he writes, records and performs music as SHEYTOONS. Hadley is also an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.
