Odds and Ends: Lesley Manville in August: Osage County, Broadway Sings for Aaron Lazar & More

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

January: Noël Coward Theatre
Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play August: Osage County will return to London's West End in 2027, starring 2026 Tony Award winner Lesley Manville as Violet Weston and two-time BAFTA TV Award winner Anna Maxwell Martin as Barbara Fordham. Directed by Jeremy Herrin, the play will run for a strictly limited 12-week engagement at the Noël Coward Theatre from January 18 through April 10, 2027. August: Osage County takes place following a sudden family crisis, when the fiercely dysfunctional Weston family reunites at their Oklahoma home. As old wounds reopen and long-buried secrets come to light, simmering resentments break the surface in this unfiltered portrait of family life. By turns darkly funny and deeply moving, the play is packed with unforgettable characters, blistering dialogue and explosive family truths.

Extraordinary
A benefit concert, titled Extraordinary: Broadway Sings for Aaron Lazar, will be held at Bell Theater at Bell Works in Holmdel, New Jersey on August 31 to support Broadway actor Aaron Lazar's ongoing treatment for ALS. Directed by Hunter Foster with music direction by Nate Patten, the concert will reunite Foster and Lazar following the 2022 Axelrod Performing Arts Center production of The Bridges of Madison County starring Lazar and Kate Baldwin and directed by Foster. Baldwin will perform aling with Norbert Leo Butz, Miguel Cervantes, Victoria Clark, Katie Rose Clarke, Mandy Gonzalez, Marc Kudisch, Kara Lindsay, Michael Minarik, Christiane Noll, Jessica Phillips, Bryce Pinkham, Scarlett Strallen, Patrick Wilson, Tony Yazbek and more to be announced.

Nero to Hero
Andrew Barth Feldman make his London stage debut in Nero, a new musical from Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, the Tony Award-winning creators of Spring Awakening. The musical, directed by Lindsay Posner, will feature a book and lyrics by Sater and music by Sheik. Performances at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant will begin on November 2 and run through December 5. The musical follows the Roman emperor before his name became synonymous with tyranny. Nero was an artist, performer and reluctant heir thrust into unimaginable power. As ambition collides with family, love and political intrigue, a young ruler's desperate search for identity spirals into madness, forging one of history's most infamous legends. Blurring the line between celebrity and leadership, this story reveals why the fall of ancient Rome feels more urgent and relevant than ever.

Think Ink!
The film adaptation of James Graham’s Rupert Murdoch biopic Ink will open at the 83rd Venice Film Festival. Originally staged as a play, Ink debuted off-West End before transferring to London’s West End and eventually to Broadway, where it was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Play, and won two. The film, directed by Danny Boyle, will screen on September 2 in the Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido. Jack O’Connell stars as The Sun newspaper editor Larry Lamb with Guy Pearce as Rupert Murdoch. Claire Foy plays a new character absent from the play, Jules Davies.

I’m TiTi
Emmy winner Colman Domingo and Slave Play director Robert O’Hara are reportedly looking to co-write an original live-action film centering on Princess Tiana from Disney’s The Princess and the Frog. The 2009 animated film featured recent The Balusters star, Tony winner Anika Noni Rose, as the voice of Tiana. Domingo and O’Hara previously collaborated on Wild With Happy, written by and starring Domingo and directed by O'Hara at The Public Theater in 2012. This much we do know: you put these two together and it’s better than a ride on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

P.S.
The comedy film The Musical, starring Tony winner Will Brill, Rob Lowe and Gillian Jacobs, will receive a nationwide theatrical release beginning September 18. Directed by Giselle Bonilla, the film follows Doug Leibowitz (Brill), a disgruntled playwright-turned-middle school theater teacher longing for New York. When his ex-girlfriend begins dating his nemesis, the school’s principal Brady, Doug’s ambitions morph into a diabolical scheme. To ruin Brady’s reputation and jeopardize his coveted Blue Ribbon award, Doug plots revenge: secretly staging the most inappropriate play imaginable with his middle school students.