Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical is staged for the first time at the National Theatre and broadcast live to cinemas.
New York, 1971. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs and lie about themselves.
Tracie Bennett, Janie Dee and Imelda Staunton play the magnificent Follies in this dazzling new production. Featuring a cast of 37 and an orchestra of 21, it’s directed by Dominic Cooke (The Comedy of Errors).
Winner of Academy, Tony, Grammy and Olivier awards, Sondheim’s previous work includes A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George.

In his plot for Noises Off, Frayn plays on the concept of a play within a play, in this case a dreadful sex-comedy titled Nothing On—the type of play in which young girls run about in their underwear, old men drop their trousers, and many doors continually open and shut. Nothing On is set in "a delightful 16th-century posset mill"[2][3] that has been converted to a modern dwelling for which renters are solicited; the fictional playwright is appropriately named Robin Housemonger. Each of the three acts of Noises Off contains a performance of the first act of Nothing On.[4]
Act One is set at the dress rehearsal, the night before opening at the (fictional[5]) Grand Theatre in Weston-super-Mare, with the cast still fumbling with entrances and exits, missed cues, misspoken lines, and bothersome props, most notably several plates of sardines.
Act Two portrays a Wednesday matinee performance one month later,[6] at the (again fictional[7]) Theatre Royal in Ashton-under-Lyne. In this act, the play is seen from backstage, providing a view that reveals the deteriorating personal relationships among the cast that have led to offstage shenanigans and onstage bedlam. Also, there appears to be no true resolution. The play simply falls into turmoil and disorder before the curtain is pulled.
In Act Three, we see a performance near the end of the ten-week run, at the (still fictional) Municipal Theatre in Stockton-on-Tees, when personal friction has continued to increase and everyone is bored and anxious to be done with the play. The actors attempt to cover up a series of mishaps but only compound the problems and draw attention to the bungling performance.
Much of the comedy emerges from the subtle variations in each version as off-stage chaos affects on-stage performance, with a great deal of slapstick. The contrast between players' on-stage and off-stage personalities is also a source of comic dissonance.

讲述了百老汇一家衰败的剧院即将拆除，多年前曾在该剧院演出的过气明星重聚一堂，在合唱过老歌之后，开始谈起各自的婚姻与生活困顿。故事主要围绕巴迪（Buddy）和莎利-杜兰特-普朗默（Sally Durant Plummer），本（Ben）和菲利斯-罗杰斯-斯通（Phyllis Rogers Stone）这两对陷入婚姻困境的夫妇展开。该音乐剧囊括了《百老汇宝贝（Broadway Baby）》、《我还在这里（I’m Still Here）》、《太多清晨（Too Many Mornings）》、《我怎能离开你？（Could I Leave You?）》以及《怅然若失（Losing My Mind）》等经典歌曲。

讲述了百老汇一家衰败的剧院即将拆除，多年前曾在该剧院演出的过气明星重聚一堂，在合唱过老歌之后，开始谈起各自的婚姻与生活困顿。故事主要围绕巴迪（Buddy）和莎利-杜兰特-普朗默（Sally Durant Plummer），本（Ben）和菲利斯-罗杰斯-斯通（Phyllis Rogers Stone）这两对陷入婚姻困境的夫妇展开。该音乐剧囊括了《百老汇宝贝（Broadway Baby）》、《我还在这里（I’m Still Here）》、《太多清晨（Too Many Mornings）》、《我怎能离开你？（Could I Leave You?）》以及《怅然若失（Losing My Mind）》等经典歌曲。

“多年以后你跟她情深似海，会不会想到欠我一个未来。”
都说，前任最好是像死了一样，可是谁曾想死去的前任忽然回来了……
一个凉风习习的夏日夜晚，流行小说家查尔斯和妻子露丝在家里举办小型家宴。
一半为新书做研究，一半为给大家助兴取乐，他请来灵媒阿卡蒂夫人进行了一场招魂会，不料却召来了查尔斯早逝的前妻艾薇尔的灵魂。
妻子露丝对于丈夫声称看到前妻鬼魂的事儿，大为不爽。
当这位“二把刀”灵媒阿卡蒂夫人告诉查尔斯，她压根儿不知道怎么把艾薇儿这个逍遥的小魂儿给原路送回的时候，一场闹剧就此开始!
艾薇尔和露丝争风吃醋，查尔斯的生活鸡飞狗跳。
艾薇尔一心想把查尔斯据为己有。
谁知道好戏还在后头，一场荒唐闹剧，让人笑出眼泪心里还有一丝凉……
和许多考沃德的剧类似，《前任不敲门》讲述的是，夫妻被困在同一个空间之中，相爱相杀的故事。只不过这一次，现任前妻，阴阳相隔。

Celebrating the life and work of the great Stephen Sondheim, Old Friends won the Best Theatre Event at the 2023 WhatsOnStage Awards. It sold out within a couple of hours last year leaving thousands of disappointed fans unable to get tickets. Now by popular demand, audiences will have another chance to see the never to be forgotten and one of the most talked about theatrical events of the year.

Broadway legends Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga are joined by Christine Allado, Janie Dee, Haydn Gwynne, Damian Humbley, Bradley Jaden, Bonnie Langford, Gavin Lee, Jason Pennycooke, Joanna Riding, Jeremy Secomb, Jac Yarrow, Marley Fenton, and Beatrice Penny-Touré. The company will also include Harry Apps, Bella Brown, Richard Dempsey, and Monique Young, completing a cast that is truly the best of the West End and Broadway.

Devised and Produced by Cameron Mackintosh, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends will run at the Gielgud Theatre for 16 weeks only from 16 September 2023 – 6 January 2024.

The story follows Lewis as he meets an American fan, Joy Gresham, whom he befriends and eventually marries. The story also deals with his struggle with personal pain and grief: Lewis preaches that one should endure suffering with patience, but finds that the simple answers he had preached no longer apply when Joy becomes afflicted with cancer and eventually dies.

The story follows Lewis as he meets an American fan, Joy Gresham, whom he befriends and eventually marries. The story also deals with his struggle with personal pain and grief: Lewis preaches that one should endure suffering with patience, but finds that the simple answers he had preached no longer apply when Joy becomes afflicted with cancer and eventually dies.