June on the London Stage: Stereophonic, Fiddler on the Roof and Hercules Kick Off Summer in the West End

Summer is approaching, and with it the return to the stage of a Disney demi-God, in a notably busy month that includes the local premiere of a vaunted Tony winner and a commercial transfer for a notably fine Fiddler, as befits its director, Jordan Fein. For more on these shows, and others, read on.

SOLO SENSATION
Anoushka Lucas’ self-scripted Elephant has had two acclaimed runs at West London’s Bush Theatre, the producing powerhouse that spawned the likes of Baby Reindeer and Red Pitch, among several recent hits. And here it is again, this time at the Menier Chocolate Factory through June 29, bringing the music and musings of the 2023 Olivier nominee (as Laurey in Oklahoma!) to a larger audience. “It’s a very thrilling feeling,” a warmly spoken Lucas told Broadway.com of revisiting a show that draws from her own experience but also addresses cultural and societal matters afoot in the world at large. (Her impetus for writing it was the murder of George Floyd.) “I want to make things that are part of the social conversation and that also surprise the audience as to what a play can be. I like theater that does more than theater, you know?” Watching this superb show, we very much do.

RAISING THE ROOF
The American director Jordan Fein assisted Daniel Fish on Lucas’ Oklahoma! and hit the big time with his alfresco revival last summer of Fiddler on the Roof, which was nominated for 13 Olivier Awards and won three, including Best Musical Revival. Now, it’s transferring inside for a summer run at the Barbican, opening June 3 and with Broadway performer Adam Dannheisser and Lara Pulver once again on hand as Tevye and Golde. (Dannheisser was Lazar Wolf in the 2015 Broadway iteration of the same show.) “It was a daunting idea,” an expansive Fein said in an interview of the decision to remount the show indoors. “I was so proud and inspired by it being in the park.” Since then, his affection for the material has only intensified. Fiddler, he said, “has an astonishing score, that’s the first thing, and it’s a piece about love as something we have to fight for and work for and nurture.” As for the kudos afforded the production: “It’s changed my life in a lot of ways; this is the stuff dreams are made of.”

LIVING THE DREAM
Nicholas Hytner’s immersive staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is back at the Bridge Theatre, Hytner’s home base, for a summer run opening June 5 and with Susannah Fielding and JJ Feild among the company newcomers. Among those on hand from the 2019 run is the astonishing David Moorst, who doubles as both the revelry-minded Philostrate and that “merry wanderer of the night,” Puck. The gifted 33-year-old told Broadway.com that he thought it would be “therapeutic, and more” to return to a show in which he first appeared pre-COVID. “I love the idea that we’ve come back from that time and that I can do a play with an audience”—one in which he, more often than not, is perched above the action. “We’re sort of throwing something at the audience that they may not have expected: It’s sort of amazing to me that you can put the words ‘Shakespeare’ and ‘party’ in the same evening.” Or to quote a different Shakespeare comedy, “play on.”

BIG MAC
Stereophonic made history last year as the most Tony-nominated Broadway play ever and this month expands its reach to the West End, opening June 12 at the Duke of York’s Theatre. Several New York cast members remain, alongside four newbies, the busy Zachary Hart (The Seagull) included. How will this depiction of a Fleetwood Mac-adjacent band that starts to fray under pressure be received overseas? “I’m old enough to know that nothing’s ever for certain,” said Daniel Aukin, the keenly articulate Tony-winning director of this Tony-winning play. But he expressed hope that a play seen to be “enough of an event in and of itself” in New York would prove the same in London, even as both cities are increasingly in thrall to celebrity casting not on view here. “There’s just enough that’s unusual about what this play does and the installation feel of it,” said Aukin, to land it afresh in London. As for his experience with Stereophonic’s trajectory to date? “It’s all been one long pinch-me moment.”

LONG “DISTANCE”
The Disney musical Hercules, inspired by the 1997 film, has had quite a journey from the Delacorte Theater in Central Park to New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse as well as a high-profile German berth in Hamburg. London’s capacious Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, this month hosts its West End bow, opening June 24 in the same venue that housed a separate Disney title, Frozen. The title role is this time taken by Luke Brady, a recent Moses in the Stephen Schwartz musical The Prince of Egypt, which would seem to suggest the 35-year-old’s near-Herculean gift for outsized challenges—and the lung capacity to belt out numbers like "Go the Distance." “The archetypes are quite similar,” noted the ever-engaging Brady, who trained at London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). “You’ve got the journey of a hero, for sure, questioning who he is in the world. This is another epic-scale story which deals with the gods.”

At the same time, this alum of such diverse titles as Sweeney Todd and As You Like It spoke of “seeing each story and character as unique, a fresh start, as if I’ve never done that [sort of part] before.” And the strict regimen required for playing Moses is nothing compared to the task at hand here. “Whatever I said about Moses can go in the bin compared to this,” added Brady, with a laugh. “I can’t avoid the obvious physical demands of what has to happen to live up to the title role.” What might he possibly do for an encore after two such defining star parts? “I never feel like any of this stuff means you’ve made it. A job will end and then it will be a re-set. What matters is to use the time well while you have the opportunity.”