Tony Winner Bryan Cranston to Star in Stage Version of Network at the National; Upcoming Season Revealed

Walter White is London-bound! Tony and Emmy winner Bryan Cranston will headline Tony winner Ivo van Hove's world premiere of Network at the U.K.’s National Theatre this year. Other big names attached to upcoming productions include award-winning playwright Annie Baker and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child director John Tiffany.

Network is Lee Hall’s new adaptation of the Oscar-winning film by Paddy Chayefsky. All the Way Tony winner Cranston takes on the role of Howard Beale, a longtime anchor of an evening news program with dwindling ratings. The film features the famous line,"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Opening is scheduled for November 2017 at the Lyttelton Theatre.

Baker makes a National Theatre return with the European premiere of her new play John in the Dorfman. James Macdonald directs the production, with a cast tht includes Georgia Engel. Opening night is set for early 2018.

Anne-Marie Duff returns to the National Theatre in Common, and will appear alongside Rory Kinnear in Macbeth in 2018, directed by Rufus Norris. Opening is slated for spring 2018.

As previously reported, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child director John Tiffany is at the helm of the world premiere of Pinocchio by Dennis Kelly, with songs and score from the Walt Disney film by Leigh Harline, Ned Washington and Paul J. Smith newly adapted by Martin Lowe. The production will open at the Lyttelton in December 2017.

Additional productions include the previously announced Follies and Angels in America, Ugly Lies the Bone, Saint George and the Dragon, Beginning, The Majority, Amadeus, Twelfth Night, Salomé, Common, Romeo and Juliet, Lost Without Words, Consent, Barber Shop Chronicles and Mosquitoes.

Further productions and casting will be announced at a later date.