The last Shakespeare play to run at the huge Theatre Royal Drury Lane was a production of ‘The Tempest’ starring Sir John Gielgud, which ran waaay back in 1957. SInce then it’s pretty much only staged blockbuster musicals – it’s currently wrapping up a run of Disney’s ‘Frozen’, and next summer it’ll play host to the UK premiere of… Disney’s ‘Hercules’.
However, its current owner Andrew Lloyd Webber recently stated that he’d like to bring Shakespearean performance back to Drury Lane, and would you look at that - here are two massive Bard productions to slot in between Disney songfests.
The plays are ‘The Tempest’ (again!!) and “Much Ado About Nothing’ and the director is the wondrous Jamie Lloyd who loves a challenge and has an insane contacts book, and is clearly the perfect choice for this monumental undertaking.
The splashiest casting news is that the great Sigourney Weaver - who has done a fair whack of Shakespeare back home in the past - has been persuaded to make her UK stage debut as master magician Prospero in ‘The Tempest’.
That’s quite the coup, but so to be fair is securing the return services of previous Lloyd collaborators Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell to star as Benedick and Beatrice, the bickering lovers in timeless romcom ‘Much Ado…’.
Lloyd typically combines razzle-dazzle showmanship with keen leftfield instincts: the results are occasionally pretty challenging for mainstream West End theatre, but rarely boring. His most recent shows – last year’s stunning ‘Sunset Boulevard’ and this year’s Tom Holland-starring ‘Romeo & Juliet’ – have both made notable use of live video and it’s not hard to see that being the case here, seeing as how the various fancy sub-areas of Drury Lane would make for such a cool set. Nonetheless he’s nothing if not mercurial: don’t go expecting cosy trad Shakespeare, but do expect stonking performances from yer fave big name actors. More casting will be announced in due course, though typically Lloyd mixes his stars up with relative unknowns.
‘The Tempest’ runs at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Dec 7-Feb 1 2025. Tickets go on sale Aug 6 at 11am.
‘Much Ado About Nothing’ runs at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Feb 10-Apr 5 2025. Tickets go on sale at a later date TBC.
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