The Almeida Theatre announces a new season of shows from autumn 2022 to spring 2023:
• The world premiere of Tammy Faye, a new musical from Elton John, Jake Shears and James Graham, directed by Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold. Cast includes Katie Brayben, Andrew Rannells and Zubin Varla.
• Almeida Associate Director Rebecca Frecknall’s new production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, featuring Paul Mescal, Anjana Vasan and Lydia Wilson.
• The world premiere of Lulu Raczka’s Women, Beware the Devil, directed by Rupert Goold.
• The UK premiere of musical The Secret Life of Bees, written by Lynn Nottage, Duncan Sheik, Susan Birkenhead, based on the best-selling novel by Sue Monk Kidd. Directed by Whitney White.
Also announced today:
• A trilogy of community productions from 2023-2025 exploring what it means to live, work, pray, celebrate and mourn in Islington.
• A new annual playwright commission in memory of director Roger Michell.
• The Almeida’s new Young Artist groups including, for the first time, Young Designers and Technicians; and a continued commitment to Almeida For Free performances.
• A Black Out performance and Black Joy scratch event during the upcoming run of Dipo Baruwa-Etti’s The Clinic.
Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold said, “After a wonderful, if challenging, year since reopening we are thrilled to be presenting this exciting season of work that builds on relationships we have with artists new and familiar, our local community, and above all with the audiences that continue to discover and cherish the uniqueness of our building.
“It was inspiring to experience the responses to Spring Awakening last Christmas – it seemed that audience members reacted strongly to a musical that chimed so powerfully with contemporary feeling. So we’re very excited to be producing two new musicals, from two sets of powerhouse writers, that also speak clearly to the present day.
“Our Associate Director Rebecca Frecknall made her name with her extraordinary award-winning production of Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke and now she’s taking on another Williams classic A Streetcar Named Desire with a blindingly good cast.
“Since we re-opened the Almeida after Covid lockdowns, we’ve presented new writing from Lolita Chakrabarti, Yomi Ṣode, Josh Azouz, Beth Steel, Peter Morgan, and Dipo Baruwa-Etti’s play The Clinic goes into previews next week. To that list, add another new voice: Lulu Raczka and her play Women, Beware the Devil, a darkly comic, twisting tale of treachery and trickery.
“Following the success of The Key Workers Cycle earlier this year which featured an 80 strong community cast, we’re also announcing a trilogy of community productions taking place over three years, exploring the real Islington featuring people who live and work here.
“We continue our commitment to offering affordable tickets – our tickets start at £10, with £5 tickets available to 25s and under, in addition to our Almeida For Free performances on all productions.”
World Premiere
TAMMY FAYE
A New Musical
Music by Elton John; Lyrics by Jake Shears; Book by James Graham
Director: Rupert Goold; Choreographer: Lynne Page; Designer: Bunny Christie; Costume Designer: Katrina Lindsay; Lighting Designer: Neil Austin; Sound Designer: Bobby Aitken; Musical Supervisor, Co-Orchestrator and Arranger: Tom Deering; Co-Orchestrator: Mark Dickman; Video Designer: Finn Ross; Musical Director: Oli Jackson; Casting Director: Pippa Ailion and Natalie Gallacher
Thursday 13 October – Saturday 3 December 2022
Press night: Wednesday 26 October 7pm
"It's time to bring America back to God"
From a studio in South Carolina, Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker revolutionised religion.
Preaching to millions 24 hours a day, Tammy just wants to put the fun back into faith.
But a new wave of ministers wants you not to just feel God in your heart, but in your homes, in your schools and in the law too.
Tammy Faye is a new musical from legendary songwriter Elton John, Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears and award-winning writer James Graham (Ink, BBC’s Sherwood) and features Olivier Award-winner Katie Brayben (Beautiful) as Tammy Faye, Tony Award-nominee Andrew Rannells (The Book of Mormon, Girls) as Jim, and Olivier Award-nominee Zubin Varla (Fun Home) as Jerry Falwell.
This true story, directed by Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold (Spring Awakening), is a testament of faith, resilience and the temptations of success.
God bless Tammy Faye!
Full cast: Kelly Agbowu, Amy Booth-Steel, Katie Brayben, Ashley Campbell, Peter Caulfield, Danny Collins, Richard Dempsey, Fred Haig, Georgia Louise, Andrew Rannells, Robyn Rose, Nicholas Rowe, Martin Sarreal, Steve John Shepherd, Gemma Sutton and Zubin Varla.
Presented in association with Rocket Stage and Greene Light Stage.
The production is supported by The Ruddock Foundation for the Arts.
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
by Tennessee Williams
Director: Rebecca Frecknall
Saturday 10 December 2022 – Saturday 4 February 2023
Press night: Tuesday 20 December 7pm
“How pretty the sky is! I ought to go there on a rocket that never comes down.”
On a street in New Orleans, in the blistering summer heat, a sister spirals.
Following her “spellbinding” (Financial Times) production of Summer and Smoke, Almeida Associate Director Rebecca Frecknall takes on another Tennessee Williams masterpiece.
When Blanche unexpectedly visits her estranged sister Stella, she brings with her a past that will threaten their future. As Stella’s husband Stanley stalks closer to the truth, Blanche's fragile world begins to fracture. Reality and illusion collide and a violent conflict changes their lives forever.
Lydia Wilson (The Duchess of Malfi) returns to the Almeida to play Blanche, with the BAFTA-winning Paul Mescal (Normal People) as Stanley, Anjana Vasan (We Are Lady Parts) as Stella and Dwane Walcott (Machinal) as Mitch.
Rebecca Frecknall directs her first production at the Almeida since her multi-Olivier Award-winning production of Cabaret.
World Premiere
WOMEN, BEWARE THE DEVIL
by Lulu Raczka
Director: Rupert Goold
Saturday 11 February – Saturday 25 March 2023
Press night: Wednesday 22 February 2023
“This may be the biggest
But it is far from the first sacrifice I’ve made for this house
And I’m sure it won’t be the last
But don’t fret.
I’m ready.”
England, 1640.
A war is brewing.
Rumours are flying.
A household is in crisis.
…and the Devil’s having some fun.
For Lady Elizabeth nothing is more important than protecting her family’s legacy and their ancestral home. When that comes under threat, she elicits the help of Agnes, a young servant suspected of witchcraft.
But Agnes doesn’t want to be a witch, she wants to be a Lady, and no one will get in her way.
Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold (Spring Awakening, Ink) directs this deadly new play by The Sunday Times Playwriting Award-winner Lulu Raczka (Antigone, Nothing) of treachery and trickery.
The Genesis Foundation Kickstart Fund has supported Lulu Raczka on the development of Women, Beware the Devil.
UK Premiere
THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES
Book by Lynn Nottage; Music by Duncan Sheik; Lyrics by Susan Birkenhead
Based on the novel by Sue Monk Kidd
Director: Whitney White
Tuesday 4 April – Saturday 27 May 2023
“Me and my sisters
We hold this house together
Hurt just one, you hurt us all”
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of Sweat, the Tony Award-winning composer of Spring Awakening, and Tony Award-nominated lyricist of Jelly's Last Jam, comes a captivating new musical about a group of women ignited by rebellion and longing for acceptance.
1964, South Carolina. Rosaleen is fighting for her right to vote, and Lily is escaping her violent father. When this unlikely pair flee their small town, they seek salvation at a remote honey bee farm run by the remarkable Boatwright sisters. But will their past catch up with them?
Written by playwright Lynn Nottage, composer Duncan Sheik and lyricist Susan Birkenhead, The Secret Life of Bees is directed by Whitney White (What to Send Up When It Goes Down) and based on the best-selling novel by Sue Monk Kidd.
The Secret Life of Bees is presented in association with Sonia Friedman Productions, Lauren Shuler Donner, Marianne Mills and Robert Cohen.
World Premiere presented by Atlantic Theatre Company, New York City, 2019. Development of The Secret Life of Bees was supported in part by the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s National Fund for New Musicals – www.namt.org
COMMUNITY PRODUCTION TRILOGY
Journey to the heart of Islington through a day, a lifetime, and countless millennia.
Following The Key Workers Cycle in March 2022, the Almeida Theatre announces an ambitious trilogy of productions over the next three years that will bring together professional creatives, local artists and community performers to explore what it means to live, work, love, pray, celebrate and mourn in Islington through a day, a lifetime, and countless millennia.
The project will be told in three productions 24 (Day), 81 (Life) and 1000 (Millennia), from Summer 2023 to Summer 2025.
24 (Day) will invite the audience on a riotous road-trip to explore the hidden life of Islington from dawn to dusk. From Arsenal football stands to Rowans bowling alley, join seventy-year-old carer Liz as she runs, bowls, dances, crowd surfs around Islington and away from the conversation she needs to have with her grandson.
81 (Life) will celebrate Islington’s global diaspora communities through the rituals that mark the rites of passage in a human lifetime, capturing the infinite identities and experiences of people who are born, live, work, love, build families, die, and are remembered in our borough.
1000 (Millennia) will journey deep into our borough’s history and reach far into our future to construct an imaginative, mythic Islington – an origin story for how we got here and a vision for our future.
The first production in the trilogy 24 (Day) will take place in Summer 2023, written by Annie Jenkins and directed by Jack Nurse, who collaborated on The Delivery Drivers’ Play as part of The Key Workers Cycle. The Almeida will partner with All Change on this production. This will be followed by 81 (Life) in 2024 and 1000 (Millennia) in 2025.
THE ROGER MICHELL COMMISSIONING FUND
After the sad passing of director Roger Michell in 2021, many of his friends and family asked if they could make a charitable donation in his name. Roger’s family felt that, given his love for championing new writers, it would be suitable for the donations to be put towards a Roger Michell Commissioning Fund at the Almeida. The fund will support an annual commission for a playwright with a fresh and unique perspective on the world to develop a play alongside the Almeida. The first artist supported by the Roger Michell Commissioning Fund will be announced in the next few months.
On behalf of Roger’s family, Roger’s son Harry Michell said, “We are incredibly touched by the sheer number of people who have contributed to the fund, a testament to the relationships Roger forged throughout his career, and are pleased his name will continue to be associated with new work and new writers at the Almeida.”
ALMEIDA YOUNG ARTISTS
Almeida Youth Board
The Almeida Youth Board exists to provoke, inspire and create positive change at the Almeida. The board consists of 12 young people between the ages of 18 and 25 who are interested in arts leadership, 10 of whom have been newly recruited this year joining continuing board members Azan Ahmed and Rohan Gotobed. They meet regularly as a group and work closely with the Almeida Board and the senior management team to advise on all elements of the company, including programming and strategy. Previous Youth Board members include Dipo Baruwa-Etti whose new play The Clinic opens in September and Sarisha Kumar who now sits on the Almeida Board.
The Youth Board for 2022/23 are: Azan Ahmed, Beth Bowden, Casper Davidson, Edward Drew, Alice Eve, Rohan Gotobed, Madi Mahoney, Zahra Jassi, Tara Okeke, Elina Oliva Romo, Kieton Saunders-Browne, Luke Zavrou-Blackstock
Almeida Young Company
Recruitment is underway for the 2022/23 Almeida Young Company groups. This year, for the first time, the 14-18 age group will also include a Young Designers and Technicians programme for those interested in exploring the design, technical and stage management roles that make theatre happen. The Young Company aims to create the theatre artists of the future. Each year it brings together young theatre makers to create vibrant work inspired by big ideas.
Almeida Young Producers
Recruitment is also underway for the Almeida Young Producers, a group of 16–25 year olds who want to learn about producing and planning creative projects for young people. The group collaborates with the Participation team to create festivals, events and workshops. They meet staff from across the Almeida team and learn what goes into putting on productions and running the building. A particular focus for this group are the Almeida For Free events that we run alongside productions at the theatre.
ALMEIDA FOR FREE
The Almeida continues its commitment to Almeida For Free – a performance of every production exclusively free for anyone aged 25 and under, with an accompanying free programme of workshops and panel discussions.
In the last 12 months, over 2000 young people have seen an Almeida show for free.
Upcoming Almeida For Free performance:
The Clinic – Thursday 22 September 2022 (on sale: Thursday 15 September 2022)
THE CLINIC
Black Out performance
Following the Black Out performance during the run of Jeremy O. Harris’s “Daddy” in April, a Black Out performance will take place for the upcoming production of Dipo Baruwa-Etti’s The Clinic on Monday 19 September, curated by Baruwa-Etti and director Monique Touko.
Black Out is an idea originated by Jeremy O. Harris during the Broadway run of his play Slave Play in 2019. It is a performance for which all the tickets are reserved for Black audience members. Jeremy conceived Black Out because he felt it was important for Black theatregoers to experience sitting in a theatre space where the whole audience looks like them. You can read more about the initiative here.
While this performance has been programmed to create a space for as many Black-identifying audience members as possible, no one is excluded from attending.
There will also be a post-show panel discussion titled Looking Back and Forward at Black Lives Matter chaired by writer Gary Younge.
Black Joy
Programmed alongside The Clinic, Black Joy is a scratch event taking place on Sunday 18 September giving an opportunity for early career and emerging artists, such as poets, musicians or spoken word performers, to share work that responds to the theme of Black Joy.
ENDS
For all press enquiries contact Alexander Milward, Head of Press and PR:
amilward@almeida.co.uk / 020 7288 4911
NOTES TO EDITORS
Biographies:
Susan Birkenhead received a Tony Nomination, a Grammy nomination and a Drama Desk Award for her lyrics for Jelly's Last Jam. She was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Triumph of Love and won a Drama Desk Award and a Tony nomination for Working. She won an Outer Critics Circle award for What About Luv, and an L.A. Drama Critics Award for Minsky’s. She wrote additional lyrics and new songs for the Broadway version of High Society, and wrote songs for the Off-Broadway Stars of David and A My Name Is Alice. She has also written Betty Boop’s Day Off, with Bob Martin and David Foster, which will open in Chicago in December 2023.
Rebecca Frecknall is Associate Director at the Almeida Theatre. For the Almeida, she has directed Nine Lessons and Carols: stories for a long winter; The Duchess of Malfi; Three Sisters and Summer and Smoke (also West End and winner of two Olivier Awards including Best Revival). She was previously on the Almeida’s Resident Director programme. Away from the Almeida, she won the Olivier Award and Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Best Director for Cabaret in the West End (winner of seven Olivier Awards in total); Sanctuary City (New York Theatre Workshop) and Steel (Sheffield Crucible Studio). She was Resident Director at Northern Stage from 2015-2016 after winning the acclaimed RTYDS Bursary. During this time, she directed Idomeneus; What Are They Like? and Julie. She has also worked with the National Theatre, RSC and Young Vic. She was the 2012 recipient of the National Theatre Studio’s Resident Director Bursary and was awarded one of the Young Vic’s Jerwood Assistant Director Bursaries in 2011.
Rupert Goold is Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre where he has previously directed Patriots (transfers to West End in May 2023), Spring Awakening, The Hunt, Shipwreck, Albion (broadcast on BBC Four), Ink (also West End and Broadway), Richard III (broadcast live to cinemas around the world), Medea, The Merchant of Venice, King Charles III (West End, Broadway, UK and international tour) and American Psycho (also Broadway). He was Artistic Director of Headlong from 2005 until 2013 where his work included The Effect, ENRON, Earthquakes in London and Decade. He has twice been the recipient of the Olivier, Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Best Director. He was Associate Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2009 to 2012 and was Artistic Director of Northampton Theatres from 2002 to 2005. His feature film work includes Judy and True Story, and his other work on film includes the BAFTA nominated Richard II, part of The Hollow Crown, Macbeth for the BBC and Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III for BBC Two. He was awarded a CBE for services to drama in 2017.
James Graham’s play Ink ran at the Almeida in 2017 before transferring to the West End and Broadway. His other plays include Best of Enemies (transfers to the West End this autumn); Quiz (also adapted for television); Labour of Love (winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy); This House; Privacy; The Vote; and The Angry Brigade. His work for television includes Sherwood; Brexit: An Uncivil War; and Coalition.
Annie Jenkins’s play The Essence of the Job is Speed: The Delivery Drivers’ Play was produced at the Almeida in March 2022 as part of The Key Workers’ Cycle. Her other plays include In Lipstick (Pleasance Theatre, shortlisted for the Theatre503 Award); Tinder471 (Theatre503) and Karaoke Play (The Bunker Theatre - awarded a special commendation from The Offies).
Elton John is one of the most highly acclaimed and successful solo artists of all time. He has achieved one diamond, 32 platinum or multi-platinum, and 21 gold albums, over 70 Top 40 hits, and he has sold more than 300 million records worldwide. He holds the record for the biggest selling single of all time, ‘Candle In The Wind’ 1997, which sold over 33 million copies. Since launching his first tour in 1970, Elton has over 4,000 performances in more than 80 countries to his credit. His work as a composer for musical theatre includes The Lion King; Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida; Billy Elliot the Musical; Lestat and The Devil Wears Prada.
Lynn Nottage is a playwright and screenwriter. She is the first and only woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice, firstly for her play Ruined which was produced at the Almeida in 2010, and then again for Sweat (which ran at Donmar Warehouse and West End in 2018/19). Her other theatre work includes MJ the Musical; Clyde’s; Intimate Apparel (she also wrote an opera adaptation of the play); Milma’s Tale; By The Way, Meet Vera Stark and Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine. She was a writer and producer on the Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It (directed by Spike Lee) and a consulting producer on the third season of Dickinson (Apple TV+).
Jack Nurse previously directed The Essence of the Job Is Speed: The Delivery Drivers’ Play as part of the Almeida’s The Key Workers Cycle. He co-founded Glasgow-based theatre company Wonder Fools in 2014. Recently, He was an Origins Artist with Headlong (2021-22) and Creative Engagement Director at the Ayr Gaiety. Currently, he is Artist in Residence (Creative Development) at the Traverse Theatre and co-creator of the international participatory project Positive Stories for Negative Times. As a director, his credits include And Then Come the Nightjars (Wonder Fools); Lampedusa (Citizens Theatre/Wonder Fools); Meet Jan Black (Wonder Fools/Ayr Gaiety); Larchview (National Theatre of Scotland/BBC Scotland); The Lost Elves (Citizens Theatre/RCS). As a director/co-writer, his work includes 549: Scots of the Spanish Civil War, The Coolidge Effect (Wonder Fools); When the Sun Meets the Sky (Traverse Theatre/Capital Theatres).
Lulu Raczka is an award-winning writer for theatre, screen and radio. She started writing with the company Barrel Organ (Nothing, Some People Talk About Violence), and has since written for Unicorn Theatre (Gulliver’s Travels), Gate Theatre (Clytemnestra), New Diorama Theatre (Antigone, A Girl in School Uniform) and Theatre503 (Grey Man), and had her work performed at Leeds Playhouse, Manchester Royal Exchange and Soho Theatre. In 2019 she won the Imison Award for her radio play Of a Lifetime. For television she has written an episode of the second season of Medici: Masters of Florence, with RAI and Netflix, and is developing work with Expanded Media, Drama Republic and Intaglio Films.
Jake Shears is a founding member and lead singer of the platinum selling band Scissor Sisters and has created six albums with the band and as a solo artist. His first musical Tales of the City, went into production at ACT in 2010, and he starred as Charlie Price in Kinky Boots on Broadway and at the Hollywood Bowl. In 2018 he authored his first book, the memoir Boys Keep Swinging. He has been nominated for two Grammys and received three Brit Awards as well as an Ivor Novello award. He lives between London and New Orleans.
Duncan Sheik launched his career in 1996 with his Grammy nominated self-titled debut album. Sheik is the composer for the critically acclaimed musical Spring Awakening, which went on to win eight Tony Awards in 2007, including awards for “Best Orchestrations” and “Best Original Score”. The album also earned Sheik a Grammy Award for “Best Musical Show Album”. In years since, Sheik has released multiple albums, including his forthcoming album Claptrap, Legerdemain in 2015 and American Psycho: Original London Cast Recording. The latter, with lyrics and music written by Sheik, premiered on Broadway in 2016 after a sold-out London run. He is currently working on several theatre projects, including NOIR (The Alley Theatre); Alice By Heart (MCC Theatre); Because of Winn Dixie (Goodspeed) and LOVER BELOVED (The Alley Theatre).
Whitney White is an Obie Award and Lilly Award winning director, actor, and. She is the current recipient of the Susan Stroman Directing award, an Artistic Associate at the Roundabout, and a part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Her original musical Definition was part of the 2019 Sundance Theatre Lab 2016 ANT Fest, and her five-part musical exploration of Shakespeare’s Women and ambition Reach for It is currently under commission with the American Repertory Theater in Boston.
Almeida Listings Information
Address Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, London, N1 1TA
Box Office Online almeida.co.uk
Phone 020 7359 4404
Nearest Tube Angel / Highbury & Islington
Website almeida.co.uk
Twitter @AlmeidaTheatre
Facebook facebook.com/almeidatheatre
Instagram @almeida_theatre
TikTok @almeidatheatre
PRODUCTIONS Tammy Faye
Thursday 13 October – Saturday 3 December 2022
Press night: Wednesday 26 October 2022
A Streetcar Named Desire
Saturday 10 December 2022 – Saturday 4 February 2023
Press night: Tuesday 20 December 7pm 2022
Women, Beware the Devil
Saturday 11 February – Saturday 25 March 2023
Press night: Wednesday 22 February
The Secret Life of Bees
Tuesday 4 April – Saturday 27 May 2023
Press night: TBC
Booking dates:
Tammy Faye and A Streetcar Named Desire
Almeida Patrons and Bronze, Silver and Gold Friends – Wednesday 31 August, noon
Almeida Friends – Friday 2 September, noon
General sale – Tuesday 6 September, noon
Women, Beware the Devil and The Secret Life of Bees
On sale: November 2022 (exact dates TBC)
