Motown Grooves, Guys and Dolls Gets Lucky & Miss Atomic Heats Up in the London Datebook

Guys and Dolls transfers with a (largely) new cast, Motown the Musical grooves its way across the Atlantic, and a new musical that folds the atomic bomb, of all things, into its title are among the many and varied London offerings to entice theatergoers this month. For more on these and many other productions, read on.

MARCH 7-13
What’s Going On? The U.K. premiere of Motown the Musical, that’s what, with Texas-born Cedric Neal as Motown founder Berry Gordy heading a cast that includes Broadway holdover (and 2013 Tony nominee) Charl Brown as Smokey Robinson and British performer Lucy St. Louis as Diana Ross. Opening night is March 8 at the Shaftesbury Theatre.

ALSO: Opening night on March 7 of director Alice Hamilton’s revival for the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, west London, of German Skerries, the Robert Holman play set in northern England in 1977. Southwark Playhouse continues its interest in American work with the U.K. premiere of the 2013 off-Broadway play Luce, starring comedian Mel Giedroyc and directed by Simon Dormandy. Opening night is March 11.

MARCH 14-20
Bombs Away: New British musicals, albeit with American talent attached, are sufficiently rare that there is real reason to get excited about Miss Atomic Bomb, set in 1952 Las Vegas and opening March 14 at the St. James Theatre with a starry cast headed by Catherine Tate, Simon Lipkin, Daniel Boys and London’s Aladdin-to-be, Dean John-Wilson. The co-directors are Olivier Award winner Bill Deamer (Top Hat) and U.K.-based American Adam Long.

ALSO:
Living with the Lights On, actor Mark Lockyer’s widely admired touring solo play about mental illness, comes to the Young Vic for three performances March 17-19; Ramin Gray directs. In a larger auditorium at the same venue comes actress Jane Horrocks (Little Voice, Sally Bowles in the Sam Mendes Cabaret) with the funkily titled If You Kiss Me, Kiss Me, opening March 16 and promising a hybrid of theater, gig, and dance.

MARCH 21-27
Follow the Fold: First full opening week at its new West End home, the Phoenix, of the re-cast version of Gordon Greenberg’s buoyant production of Guys and Dolls, the immortal Frank Loesser musical classic that now stars Oliver Tompsett (Wicked) as Sky Masterson, two-time Olivier Award winner Samantha Spiro as Miss Adelaide, and Broadway and film name Richard Kind as Nathan Detroit.

ALSO: Opening night March 23 at Wyndham’s for the West End transfer of People, Places & Things, a National Theatre-Headlong co-production directed by 2015 Tony nominee Jeremy Herrin (Wolf Hall) and starring 2016 Olivier nominee Denise Gough as an actress spiraling into freefall.

MARCH 28 – APRIL 3
Better Halves: Alan Strachan directs musicals star Tamzin Outhwaite (here in a non-singing role), Jenny Seagrove and Matthew Cottle in a rare revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy classic, How the Other Half Loves, opening March 31 at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. This also happens to be the first Ayckbourn play to have been seen on Broadway, where it ran in 1971.

ALSO: Previews continue prior to an April 6 opening at the Old Vic of director Matthew Warchus’ eagerly awaited revival of The Caretaker, the Harold Pinter play that here stars Timothy Spall alongside George MacKay and Daniel Mays. Out of town, all eyes (and many critics) will be in Bristol March 29 when Jeremy Irons and Lesley Manville open at the Bristol Old Vic in director Richard Eyre’s revival of Eugene O’Neill’s enduring masterwork Long Day’s Journey into Night.