John Leonard News

Let’s rewind to 2016. The fires of Brexit are being stoked left and right and the discourse is rife everywhere, the news swarm with opinions and facts. Theresa May is about to go from Home Secretary to Prime Minister. Kenneth Clarke is being interviewed by Sky and he’s passing judgement on the candidates for the job. He smirks through his opinion of May and ends it with “Theresa’s a bloody difficult woman, but you and I [Michael Rifkind, whom he was talking to] worked for Margaret Thatcher”. This is the anecdote that titles Tim Walker’s new play about the sparring between May and Gina Miller, who took the government to court over their authority to trigger Article 50 without any approval from Parliament after the Brexit referendum.

Bruce Graham’s The Duration, a powerful, moving family drama laced with humor that explores timely and timeless issues through the prism of personal loss, receives its world premiere at Palm Beach Dramaworks on Friday, February 18 (8pm). Performances continue through March 6, with specially priced previews on February 16 and 17 (7:30pm). J. Barry Lewis directs.

Wind of Change, in association with Cahoots Theatre Company, today announced the full cast for the world première of Tim Walker’s Bloody Difficult Women, charting the events behind the court case Gina Miller brought against Theresa May in 2016 and what has ensued.

Rehearsal images have been released for Hampstead Theatre’s production of the astonishing Pulitzer Prize-winning play ‘night, Mother by Marsha Norman. Featuring Stockard Channing and Rebecca Night, with direction by the theatre’s Artistic Director, Roxana Silbert, ‘night, Mother will run from 22 October until 4 December 2021. 

A new image has been released for Hampstead Theatre’s production of the astonishing Pulitzer Prize-winning play ‘night, Mother by Marsha Norman.  Featuring Stockard Channing and Rebecca Night, with direction by the theatre’s Artistic Director, Roxana Silbert.

Stockard Channing and Rebecca Night will perform in the Pulitzer Prize-winning 'night, Mother by Marsha Norman.  This astonishing play, which had its UK premiere at Hampstead Theatre in 1985, will be directed by the theatre's Artistic Director, Roxana Silbert.  'night, Mother will run from 22 October until 4 December 2021.

Jennifer Saunders, one of the UK's most popular comic actors, will revive her role as the preposterous clairvoyant Madame Arcati. She is joined by original cast members Geoffrey Streatfeild who will star as Charles Condomine, Lisa Dillon as Ruth Condomine, Simon Coates as Dr Bradman, Lucy Robinson as Mrs Bradman, and Rose Wardlaw as Edith.

'Just to be back in person doing theater again feels like such a gift after being on computers for a year or more.'

The event will include performances by Sheryl Crow, Tanya Tucker, Indigo Girls, Lucius, Margo Price, Yola,KT Tunstall, Allison Russell, Amythyst Kiah and Katie Pruitt as well as special guests.

After celebrating a sell-out run at Theatre Royal Bath as part of its 2019 Summer season, a UK tour and a short run in London of just 12 performances before the country’s first lockdown curtailed its six-week run at the Duke of York’s Theatre in March 2020, this production now returns to the West End for 8weeks from Thursday 16  September at the Harold Pinter Theatre.

Stages' 2021-2022 Season will resume in-person performances at their new campus, The Gordy, this October! The 2021-2022 Season celebrates comedies, musicals, and various joyful projects providing an opportunity to explore and experience humanity from many different perspectives.

Introducing the Putnam Theatre Alliance, delivering daring theatre to the Hudson Valley and presenting the region as a hub for the development of top-quality productions. Their premier presentation is Freedom Project, an ongoing series of highly produced readings.

A who’s who in the history of Palm Beach Dramaworks is set to participate in a live reading of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol on Monday evening, December 21 at 7:30pm. In the tradition of Dickens reading his own work, this presentation will showcase PBD luminaries reading the 1843 novella, with each artist separately performing a portion of the book before handing off to the next actor.

Noël Coward's classic comedy Blithe Spirit, directed by Sir Richard Eyre and starring Jennifer Saunders, has returned to the UK for a limited 6-week engagement at the West End's Duke of York's Theatre. 

This is perhaps an odd time for Nöel Coward's comedy about death and supernatural apparitions to land in the West End – Richard Eyre's revival transferring from Theatre Royal Bath. On the other hand, there's something comforting about Coward's portrait of the afterlife as essentially a continuation, with our personalities, desires and enmities very much intact. Plus the opportunity to socialise with Joan of Arc.

a?oeWhat is a true book?a?? Cormac McCarthy's early attempts to distinguish the nature of fiction in The Sunset Limited are, at the very least, ironic. A programme essay from Joe Penhall suggests the difficulty of the play form is the reason McCarthy has only ever had two performed. To be blunt, it shows.

Today's top stories: My Name is Lucy Barton officially opens tonight, and more!

Four-time Tony Award nominee Laura Linney returns to Broadway in My Name Is Lucy Barton, a haunting new solo play adapted by Rona Munro from the bestselling novel by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout.

Get a first look at four-time Tony Award nominee Laura Linney as she returns to Broadway in My Name Is Lucy Barton.

Theater lovers will be able to experience Laura Linney's acclaimed performance of My Name is Lucy Barton for years to come a?" as an audiobook. Penguin Random House Audio will release a studio recording of the play performed by Linney on February 4, 2020, available wherever audiobooks are sold alongside the original audiobook edition narrated by Kimberly Farr.