Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, directed by Patrick Marber and produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, will return to Wyndham’s Theatre for a 12-week run from 7 August – 30 October 2021. Casting will be announced shortly.
Patrons whose bookings were affected by the Government’s previous directives will be contacted from Friday 23 April 2021 regarding their current bookings with public booking opening at 10am on Friday 30 April 2021.
Sonia Friedman said: “I am deeply relieved that after a year of immense loss and struggle for so many, including the unthinkable shutdown of our theatre industry, to announce the new dates for the return of Tom’s astonishing play to the West End. Leopoldstadt is a passionate drama of enduring love and familial bonds that asks us to bear witness to our pasts, no matter how painful that may be. The audience response throughout our seven weeks of sold-out performances before the pandemic struck in March 2020 was incredibly moving and humbling to witness. Over a year later and now having won the 2020 Olivier Award for Best New Play, Leopoldstadt could not be more pertinent. I so look forward to returning to the Wyndham’s Theatre, to welcome back our very special audiences as we continue to share this epic, truly great new play.”
Patrick Marber said: “Tom and I visited the Leopoldstadt area of Vienna in October 2019. We started rehearsals a month later in London. The play opened in February 2020 and then had to close in March. When we gather to re-rehearse in July 2021 it will be an incredible moment for all involved. It has been a long journey. We were all thrilled by the reception this production received first time round and we’re so excited to be able to share this mighty and beautiful play with audiences again. I’m so grateful to Sonia and Cameron for this opportunity and so proud to be working with these amazing and loyal actors on such a powerful, moving and painfully relevant play. I’ve admired Tom’s work since boyhood, he influenced me enormously as a fledgling playwright and now it’s my great honour and joy to be his collaborator once more.”
At the beginning of the 20th Century, Leopoldstadt was the old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna. But Hermann Merz, a manufacturer and baptised Jew married to Catholic Gretl, has moved up in the world. Gathered in the Merz apartment in a fashionable part of the city, Hermann’s extended family are at the heart of Tom Stoppard’s epic yet intimate drama. By the time we have taken leave of them, Austria has passed through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany and – for Austrian Jews – the Holocaust in which 65,000 of them were murdered. It is for the survivors to pass on a story which hasn’t ended yet.
Set designs are by Richard Hudson, with costume designs by Brigitte Reiffenstuel, lighting by Neil Austin, sound and original music by Adam Cork, and movement by EJ Boyle. Casting is by Amy Ball CDG, with children’s casting by Verity Naughton.
Leopoldstadt received its world premiere on 25 January 2020 and was originally planned for a 20-week run. As initial casting was announced the run was extended due to public demand scheduled to play until 13 June 2020. The final performance before lockdown was 14 March 2020.
Leopoldstadt, the sixth collaboration between SFP and Tom Stoppard, which reunites Stoppard, Marber and Friedman and is co-produced with Gavin Kalin Productions, Tulchin Bartner Productions, Scott M. Delman/Patrick Gracey in association with Rupert Gavin, 1001 Nights Productions, Nica Burns, Burnt Umber Productions, Bradford W. Edgerton, Eilene Davidson Productions, Richard Winkler.
Internationally award-winning writer Tom Stoppard’s plays include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Real Inspector Hound, After Magritte, Jumpers, New Found Land, Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth, Travesties, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (a play for actors and orchestra written with André Previn), Night and Day, The Real Thing, Hapgood, Arcadia, Indian Ink, The Invention of Love, The Coast of Utopia, Rock ‘n’ Roll and, most recently, The Hard Problem. His radio plays include Albert’s Bridge, Artist Descending a Staircase, The Dog It Was That Died, If You’re Glad I’ll Be Frank, and most recently, his dramatic imagining of Pink Floyd’s Darkside of the Moon, Darkside. As well as for the stage and radio, Stoppard is an award-winning writer for film and television.
Patrick Marber’s directing credits of his own work include Dealer’s Choice at the National Theatre and Vaudeville Theatre, After Miss Julie for BBC TV, Exit the King at the National Theatre, Closer at the National Theatre, Lyric and Music Box, New York, Howard Katz and Three Days in the Country also at the National Theatre and Don Juan in Soho at Wyndham’s Theatre. His other directing credits include The Room as part of the Pinter at the Pinter Season, Venus In Fur at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Travesties at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Apollo Theatre and The American Airlines Theater, New York, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Director, The Caretaker at the Comedy Theatre, Blue Remembered Hills at the National Theatre, ‘1953’ at the Almeida and The Old Neighborhood at the Royal Court Theatre. Marber’s plays, which have received multiple awards both in the West End and on Broadway, include Dealer’s Choice, After Miss Julie, Closer, Howard Katz, Three Days in the Country, The Red Lion and a version of Hedda Gabler. He is also an award-winning screenwriter and his film credits include Closer and Notes on a Scandal.
Sonia Friedman Productions is an international production company responsible for some of the most successful theatre productions of recent years. Since 1990, Sonia Friedman OBE and SFP have developed, initiated and produced 170+ new productions and won a combined 58 Oliviers, 30 Tonys and 2 BAFTAs. Recent West End and Broadway productions include the UK premiere of The Book of Mormon, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Mean Girls, Uncle Vanya, The Inheritance, Fiddler on the Roof, Rosmersholm, All About Eve, Dreamgirls, The Jungle, The Ferryman, Farinelli and the King, Travesties, 1984 and The Book of Mormon UK & International tour. Upcoming productions include Walden, J’Ouvert & Anna X as part of SFP’s RE:EMERGE season, To Kill a Mockingbird at the Gielgud Theatre, Oedipus, and The Shark is Broken. soniafriedman.com
Opening the show is subject to the government allowing indoor performances to begin by 21 June 2021 with sufficient notice, understanding what restrictions on social distancing and audience number caps are imposed, the public health status, and the availability of insurance cover either from the market or more likely from a government indemnity scheme.
LISTINGS INFORMATION
Theatre: Wyndham’s Theatre, Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0DA
Box Office: 0844 482 5151
Performances: 7 August – 30 October 2021
Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm, Thursdays and Saturdays at 2.30pm
Website: www.leopoldstadtplay.com
Twitter: @LeopoldstadtLDN
Facebook: @LeopoldstadtLDN
Instagram: @LeopoldstadtLDN