Picture: Manuel Harlan
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s hit musical version of David Walliams’ best-selling The Boy in the Dress will be the focus of a live-streamed special event next month marking the launch of the cast recording.
Just over a year after playwright and actor Mark Ravenhill’s stage musical re-working of Walliams’ successful debut novel debuted in Stratford upon Avon, The Boy in the Dress: a celebration will be live-streamed from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at 7pm on 5 December 2020.
The special event will include contributions from Walliams who will read extracts from his original novel, while songwriter Guy Chambers (who provided the music for the show along with his writing partner Robbie Williams) will join with original performers from the production to offer a taste of the cast album which will be available to preorder from the RSC shop or from iTunes from 16 November.
The Boy in the Dress: a celebration is one of a number of planned in-person events scheduled for the first half of December which will now only be available for home viewing.
In response to the current national lockdown, the prestigious venue has shelved its original plans to offer reduced-capacity, socially-distanced performances alongside streamed performances and will now offer live-stream only versions of all shows taking place between 5 and 12 December.
The online shows will be available to view for one week after broadcast and the RSC hopes to safely welcome audiences of up to 200 back into the theatre from 19 December.
Announcing the changes to the Winter 2020 programme which also includes Tales For Winter (Your Place or Ours), a series of stripped back events celebrating the essence of live theatre, the RSC’s artistic director Gregory Doran said: “Despite the latest lockdown announcements, we remain fully committed to producing our Winter programme of events and to sharing the joy of live performance with our audiences, whether that’s back in-person or online. We are keeping the situation under close review in line with government and public health guidance and look forward to welcoming visitors as soon as it is safe to do so.
“As the global pandemic continues to prevent us being with one another in ways we could never have imagined, we need stories now, more than ever before. They help us to make sense of the world around us and to bring us together as a community, to celebrate, commiserate, reflect and rebuild.
“Tales for Winter is about storytelling, the most essential act of theatre. It is a reminder of where we were when we closed our doors back in March and an opportunity to look forward with hope and optimism to the future. It explores both the epic and the intimate; the majestic poetry of ancient Greece passed down through the generations, the festive fireside tunes and tales that sustain us through the long mid-winter months, the timeless plots of William Shakespeare’s plays and the quick-witted, beautifully crafted storytelling of David Walliams.
“And whilst we continue to look forward to the time when we can welcome back full-scale RSC productions to the RST, we are delighted to be opening our doors to reduced-capacity audiences once again this winter to share in the unique magic that is live theatre.”
Performed by a company of RSC actors in the iconic Royal Shakespeare Company, Tales For Winter will run online (and in-person from 19 December) over six weekends from Saturday 5 December until Saturday 23 January (excluding Christmas and New Year).
Planned in-person events in the run-up to Christmas include Festive Tales – a weekend (19 and 20 December) of carols, songs and festive readings celebrating the spirit of Christmas and the Royal Shakespeare Community. Subject to the latest government guidance, the weekend should mark the return of reduced-capacity, socially distanced audiences for the first time since the RST closed its doors in March. The event will also be live streamed to home audiences.
Angela Thomas
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