McQueen, London
You would have been hard pushed to miss the name of Alexander McQueen recently: there’s been Andrew Wilson’s biography Blood Beneath The Skin, while a popular retrospective of the designer’s work is running at the V&A. Now his colourful life, which ended in suicide five years ago at the age of 40, is being put on the stage by James Phillips with the blessing of McQueen’s family. McQueen is no biography; it’s billed as a journey “into the fairy story landscape of McQueen’s mind”. John Caird directs a cast led by Stephen Wight (from BBC comedy Bluestone 42), with former EastEnder Tracy-Ann Oberman as Isabella Blow and Dianna Agron – Quinn of Glee fame – playing an obsessive fan.
St James Theatre, SW1, Tue to 27 Jun
MC
The Rehearsal, Chichester
Well here’s a blast from the past: a play by French playwright Jean Anouilh, best known for a version of Antigone that was performed in Paris during the Nazi occupation and clearly spoke to the theme of resistance. Kenneth Tynan admired Anouilh’s ability to make his characters “disrobe their souls”, but although Chichester has a long tradition of reviving the playwright’s work stretching back to 1964, Anouilh has rather fallen out of favour because of his tendency to whimsy. So it will be intriguing to see how director Jeremy Sams’s translation manages to negotiate the pitfalls of this story of a middle-aged count who uses amateur dramatics as a means of declaring his love for the family governess, Lucile. Jamie Glover is the Count, while Niamh Cusack plays his wife.
Chichester Festival Theatre: Minerva, to 13 Jun
LG
Bend It Like Beckham, London
There has been no shortage of films being made into musicals, but however feelgood the original movie, it doesn’t always work out (consider the closure of Made In Dagenham after only six months). Still, hopes must be high for a stage version of this 2002 film, which made stars of Keira Knightley and Parminder Nagra as, respectively, a teenage footballer and a girl who seeks to escape the traditions of her Indian family in Southall and make it on the pitch. Gurinder Chadha, who directed and co-wrote the film, does the same here, with Howard Goodall composing the music and Charles Hart supplying the lyrics. The Indian wedding scene should provide one lively interlude at least.
Phoenix Theatre, WC2, Fri to 24 Oct
MC
The Hudsucker Proxy, Southampton
Hudsucker Industries is in trouble: its president has thrown himself from the 45th floor of the company’s headquarters. The board, however, sees this less as a disaster, more an opportunity to make a killing. If they can install a puppet in their dead president’s place, the share price will plummet and they’ll be able to buy at rock bottom, making a killing when it starts to rise again. All they need is a man who is clearly a complete fool, and they believe they’ve found one in Norville Barnes. But appearances can be deceptive. The Coen brothers’ comedy leaps from screen to stage in this adaptation directed by Simon Dormandy and Tony Sedgwick, a co-production between the Nuffield, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse and Complicite.
Nuffield Southampton, Sat to 30 May
LG
Mayfest, Bristol
There’s something for everyone at Mayfest, with surprises and some top-quality performances: from Chris Thorpe’s Confirmation (Old Vic, 22 & 24 May) to Barrel Organ’s Nothing (Wardrobe Theatre, 18 & 19 May), and Tim Crouch and Andy Smith’s What Happens To Hope At The End Of The Evening (Old Vic Studio, 20 & 21 May). The opening days include Jo Bannon’s Dead Line (Marriott Hotel, Thu to 17 May), in which audiences confront their own mortality; look out too for Uninvited Guests’ This Last Tempest (Old Vic, Fri to 16 May), Chris Goode’s Stand (Trinity Centre, Fri to 17 May), and Dickie Beau’s Blackouts: Twilight Of The Idols (Old Vic, Fri to 16 May).
Various venues, Thu to 24 May
LG
The Funfair, Manchester
With Carmen Disruption trailing great reviews at the Almeida and his adaptation of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time still drawing crowds, Simon Stephens is at the top of his game. His new version of Odön von Horváth’s Kasimir And Karoline marks the opening of Home’s new theatre programme, and comes complete with a big dipper, a freak show and a live band. Horváth is increasingly being recognised as a major playwright, despite his untimely death in 1938 – hit by a falling branch, and this play was written in 1932 when Germany was facing economic crisis. Stephens will be drawing parallels between that period and our own age of austerity, uncertainty and widening gaps between the rich and poor.
Home, Thu to 13 Jun
LG
