It’s been a bumper week for UK productions setting sail beyond our shores, with confirmation that the National theatre’s One Man, Two Guvnors will be taking its brand of seaside humour Stateside. Its star, James Corden, will reprise his lead role when the show opens at the Music Box theatre in New York on 18 April. Still in the Big Apple, news emerged that Nina Raine’s Tribes, which was Olivier-nominated at the Royal Court, will get an off-Broadway run. Meanwhile, Ghost the Musical – one of the biggest West End shows of 2011 – has announced it will be venturing down under in 2013, when it will open at Her Majesty’s theatre in Melbourne Photograph: Tristram Kenton
In somewhat chillier climes, Bolton funnyman Peter Kay will be taking the short trip south to Salford to host the Royal Variety Performance next month, when the show will be held at the Lowry theatre for the first ever time. Joining Kay will be the cast of forthcoming West End show Singin’ in the Rain, as well as Tim Minchin, Tony Bennett, Barry Manilow and Jai McDowall, who won Britain’s Got Talent this year Photograph: Ken McKay/ITV/Rex Features
Stomp took to the stage at the Royal Variety Performance nearly a decade ago (back in 2002), which gives you an idea of the longevity the West End’s loudest show has enjoyed. This week, it celebrated 20 years of rhythmic stamping and banging of bin lids with a special performance at the Ambassadors theatre, where it has run since 2007. The show was created in Brighton before premiering at the Bloomsbury theatre in 1991. It has since played New York, Las Vegas, Melbourne, Hong Kong, the Acropolis in Athens … I could go on Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian
Back in sunny Lancashire, the Royal Exchange in Manchester hosted UK theatre’s biggest award for playwriting. The biennial Bruntwood prize gave out a total of £40,000 to four playwrights, with the winner receiving £16,000. Plays are submitted anonymously, meaning that first-time writers can, in theory, compete against more established authors. This year’s winner, Janice Okoh, used to work in the city before deciding to devote more time to writing. Her winning play, Three Birds, tells the story of three siblings at home alone in east London. It will now be developed for the Exchange Photograph: PR
Meanwhile over in north-west London, Kilburn’s Tricycle theatre has appointed only its third ever artistic director with news that Indhu Rubasingham will succeed Nicolas Kent, who is stepping down early next year after 28 years at the helm. Under his tenure, the theatre has become best known for Kent’s championing of verbatim plays, often using transcripts from real-life court cases. Rubasingham is no stranger to the Tricycle, having co-directed The Great Game (a series of plays about Afghanistan) with Kent there in 2009 Photograph: Alastair Muir/PR
Some of the UK’s leading independent regional theatres are clubbing together in a bid to create more high-quality large-scale musicals, which it claims are in short supply outside London. Fifteen of them have come together to form Music & Lyrics, a new producer, which will aim to take shows from the members of the consortium and tour them around the country. Its first show, a revival of The King and I, opens in Edinburgh next month and will show around the country into the new year Photograph: Johan Persson
It's been a week chock-full of theatrical achievements, but none was quite as impressive as that of Danny, the soft-coated wheaten terrier. Danny is in line to claim the prestigious title of most performances by a dog in a theatrical production, having trod the boards as Sandy in the touring production of the musical Annie 1,365 times over a 10-year period. That’s the equivalent of a 60-odd year career in dog years. 'He always gets a big cheer at the end of the show and when we go outside he gets surrounded by children wanting photographs,' Danny’s owner, Rita Mansell, told the Stage. 'He just takes it all in his stride' Photograph: PR
