The London Palladium is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in Soho. The auditorium holds 2,286 people. Hundreds of stars have played there, many with televised performances. Between 1955 and 1969 Sunday Night at the London Palladium was staged at the venue, produced for the ITV network. The show included a performance by the Beatles on 13 October 1963. One national paper's headlines in the following days coined the term "Beatlemania" to describe the increasingly hysterical interest in the band.
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and composer. He has recorded eleven studio albums and numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks. He has also written two classical operas and set Shakespeare's sonnets to music for a theatre piece by Robert Wilson.
West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London. Along with New York City's Broadway theatre, West End theatre represents the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London. Famous screen actors, British and international alike, frequently appear on the London stage.
Sheridan Smith OBE is an English actress, singer, and television personality. Smith came to prominence after playing a variety of characters on sitcoms such as The Royle Family (1999–2000), Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (2001–2009), Gavin & Stacey (2008–2010), and Benidorm (2009). She co-starred as Joey Ross in the drama series Jonathan Creek between 2009 and 2013, and went on to receive acclaim for starring in a succession of television dramas, such as Mrs Biggs (2012), Cilla (2014), The C Word (2015), Black Work (2015), The Moorside (2017), Cleaning Up (2019), and Four Lives (2022). Her film credits include Tower Block (2012), Quartet (2012), The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016), and The Railway Children Return (2022).
Oliver Graham Chris is an English actor. He has appeared in television series, TV films and on the stage. His work has included theatrical productions in London's West End and Broadway in New York City.
Rufus Norris is a British theatre and film director, who is currently the artistic director and chief executive of the National Theatre.
Paul Hilton is an English actor on stage, radio, and TV. He trained at the Welsh College of Music & Drama.
Alex Gaumond is a Canadian actor, singer, songwriter and filmmaker best known for his involvement in West End theatre. He plays series regular gendarme Caron, the chief of police in Sainte Victoire, in the Channel 5 television series The Madame Blanc Mysteries, starring Sally Lindsay.
Ivo van Hove is a Belgian theatre director known as the artistic director of Toneelgroep Amsterdam in the Netherlands and for his Off-Broadway avant-garde experimental theatre productions. On Broadway, he has directed revival productions of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, and The Crucible, Lee Hall's Network in 2018, and Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's West Side Story in 2020. Among his numerous awards he has received a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for A View from the Bridge. He was made a Knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France in 2004, and a Commander in the Order of the Crown in 2016.
Opening Night may refer to:
Pretty Woman is a musical with music and lyrics by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, and a book by Garry Marshall and J. F. Lawton. The musical is based on the 1990 film of the same name written by Lawton and directed by Marshall. It centers on the relationship that develops between Vivian Ward, a free spirited Hollywood prostitute, and Edward Lewis, a wealthy businessman who hires her for a week to be his escort for several business and social functions.
Six is a British musical comedy with music, book, and lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. It is a modern retelling of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII, presented in the form of a singing competition. In the show, each of the wives take turns telling their story to determine who suffered the most from their shared husband.
Hex is a musical with book by Tanya Ronder, lyrics by Rufus Norris and music by Jim Fortune based on the classic fairy tale Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault.
Tammy Faye is a biographic stage musical with music by Elton John, lyrics by Jake Shears and a book by James Graham, based on the life of Tammy Faye Messner.
Melanie La Barrie is a Trinidad-born actress and singer, best known for her work in musical theatre.
Grace Elizabeth Mouat is an English musical theatre actress and podcaster. She is best known as dance captain in the musical Six, cover Juliet in & Juliet, Ella in Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella and most recently Izzy in The Great British Bake Off Musical.
The Little Big Things is a musical with music by Nick Butcher, lyrics by Nick Butcher and Tom Ling and a book by Joe White, based on the Sunday Times best selling memoir of the same name by Henry Fraser. The show received three Laurence Olivier Award nominations, including Best New Musical.
Emma Esther Kingston is a British stage actress. She is best known for playing Heather Chandler in Heathers: The Musical, Vanessa in the original London cast of In the Heights, and Eva Perón on the international tour of Evita.
The Hills of California is a play by Jez Butterworth.
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) is a British musical by Jim Barne and Kit Buchan. The play was first produced in 2019 in Ipswich and Northampton, starring Tori Allen-Martin and Alex Cardall. A new production opened at Kiln Theatre in 2023, starring Dujonna Gift and Sam Tutty. In April 2024, it transferred to the Criterion Theatre in the West End.
