London Odds & Ends: Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party Completes Casting & More

Here's a quick roundup of stories you may have missed today.

Full Cast Announced for Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party
Casting is complete for the new West End revival of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party. Peter Wight (Hamlet at the Almeida) will play Petey Boles and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (Translation at the National) taking on the role of McCann in the production set to begin on January 9, 2018 at the Harold Pinter Theatre with an opening slated for January 18. The previously announced mounting will also star Zoë Wanamaker, Stephen Mangan and Toby Jones. In The Birthday Party, Stanley Webber (Jones) is the only lodger at the sleepy seaside boarding house of Petey (Wight) and Meg (Wanamaker). The unsettling arrival of enigmatic strangers Goldberg (Mangan) and McCann (Vaughan-Lawlor) disrupts the humdrum lives of the inhabitants. Ian Rickson directs the revival, which will play a limited run through April 14.

The Grinning Man, New Musical Based on Victor Hugo's Novel, Sets Casting
Full casting has been announced for the remount of Bristol Old Vic's fall 2016 production of The Grinning Man, the new musical based on the classic Victor Hugo novel. Tom Morris directs the tuner set to open at Trafalgar Studios on December 6. Reprising their turns from the Bristol Old Vic production will be Sean Kingsley as Ursus, Ewan Black as Trelaw, Louis Maskell as Grinpayne and Julian Bleach as Barkilphedro. The company will also include Sanne den Besten in the role of Dea, along with Mark Anderson, Julie Atherton, Jim Kitson, Sophia Mackay, Amanda Wilkin, James Alexander-Taylor, Christina Bloom, Jonathan Cobb, Leo Elso, Claire-Marie Hall and Loren O'Dair. The Grinning Man, described as romantic gothic musical love story, features a book by Carl Grose and music by Tim Phillips and Marc Teitler.

Olivier-Nominated Peter Pan & More Set for Regent's Open Air Theatre's New Season
Regent's Open Air Theatre has announced its 2018 season! A revival of Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel's 2015 Olivier Award-nominated production of Peter Pan will kick off the outdoor theater's lineup, running from May 17-June 15. Next up is The Turn of the Screw (June 22-30), a co-production with English National Opera, directed by Sheader. That production will be followed by Max Webster's new take on Shakespeare's As You Like It (July 6-30), and concluding the season will be Maria Aberg's new production of Little Shop of Horrors (August 3-September 15).