The world premiere of Michael Morpurgo’s The Mozart Question and new productions of musical comedy Murder For Two, rock ‘n’ roll musical Million Dollar Quartet and Rodgers & Hammerstein celebration Some Enchanted Evening are among the seven new productions announced for The Barn Theatre’s 2022 season.
Announcing the programme of seven new productions, Barn’s chief executive and artistic director Iwan Lewis said: “In March 2020, our team at The Barn Theatre were preparing for our second birthday celebrations and had just opened our most ambitious season to date. It is difficult to now comprehend that it won’t be long before we will be planning to celebrate our fourth birthday and we will have spent half of the theatre’s existence in a pandemic.
“Our 2022 season is a sign of the theatre’s ambitious, innovative, and resilient nature. It comprises of new work, family entertainment, musical theatre, and new productions of beloved work that we are thrilled to share with our audiences.
“This season would not have been possible without the support from the Culture Recovery Fund from the DCMS and Arts Council England or from our loyal supporters.
“I will be forever grateful for the lifeline our theatre has been granted over this difficult period. This has enabled us to come out fighting in 2022 as we go into a new phase of rebuilding. The ambition remains the same, remarkable theatre for our remarkable community”
The 2022 Built By Barn season at the Cotswold venue will open with a revival production of Kellen Blair and Joe Kinosian’s musical whodunit Murder For Two from 4 February until 5 March. The director of the 2019 Built By Barn production of The Importance of Being Earnest, Bryan Hodgson, will return to take charge of the musical mystery which features two actors playing 13 characters and the piano.
The distinctive 200-seat Cirencester venue will stage the world premiere of The Mozart Question from 21 March to 30 April 2022. Jessica Daniels will direct Vicki Berwick’s adaptation of Morpurgo’s much-loved book. Produced by the Barn Theatre in association with Anthology Theatre and Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, The Mozart Question will feature an actor/musician ensemble with composition, arrangements and musical supervision by Rudy Percival.
Commenting on the new stage adaptation of his moving work, Morpurgo said: “It is the most important story I have ever written, about the best and most beautiful and most heavenly that is in us, and the worst and most wicked and most hellish too. I have no doubt the Barn are creating a play worthy of the immensity of the tragedy, a play that reflects the power of music to heal, to bring reconciliation and peace in a troubled world.”
Cheltenham Everyman’s creative director Paul Milton will direct a new production of the musical revue Some Enchanted Evening – The Songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein. A Barn Theatre and Everyman Theatre co-production, the musical celebration of the work of Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II will play the Barn Theatre from 6-28 May 2022. Conceived by Jeffrey B. Moss, Some Enchanted Evening – The Song of Rodgers & Hammerstein features some of musical theatre’s best-loved songs.
The new production of the Tony Award-winning show Million Dollar Quartet will debut at the Barn Theatre from 6 June until 16 July 2022. Inspired by the true story of the famous 1956 recording session involving record producer Phillips and four of the biggest names in music history (Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley) the one-act musical is based on an original concept by Floyd Mutrux who also directed the first production. Featuring the songs of the four music legends has a book by Colin Escott and Mutrux.
The 2022 season will also include a new staging of Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize winning Driving Miss Daisy. Marking the 35th anniversary of the classic play the production will run from 19 August until 17 September 2022.
Running from 26 September until 29 October 2022, the penultimate production will be a new staging of Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel’s adaptation of Paula Hawkins’ novel The Girl on the Train.
The final production of the 2022 season will be Alan Pollock’s fourth annual Barn Theatre Christmas show, The True Adventures of Marian and Robin Hood which will run from 21 November 2022 until 7 January 2023.
Angela Thomas
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