Jamie Lloyd (Sunset Boulevard, Romeo and Juliet) will direct a bumper season of shows at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, beginning later this year.
Sigourney Weaver (Alien, Avatar) will make her West End debut as Prospero in a new production of The Tempest, opening on 7 December 2024 and running through to 1 February 2025
Following this, Tom Hiddleston (Loki) and Hayley Atwell (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning) will play sparring lovers Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, playing from 10 February to 5 April 2025.
Lloyd said today: “It is such an honour to be invited by Andrew Lloyd Webber to be the first company to present Shakespeare at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in decades. I could not be more thrilled to welcome three-time Academy Award nominated and BAFTA and Golden Globe winning actress, Sigourney Weaver — an international icon of stage and screen — to London. Then to collaborate again with two of the greatest actors of their generation — Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell — on one of Shakespeare’s wittiest and most tender comedies is a dream come true.”
Soutra Gilmour will design the shows, though Lloyd confirmed in an interview that there won’t be any live video capture incorporated.
The 16-week season will feature 25,000 tickets for £25, for under-30s, key workers and those receiving government benefits. Full cast and creatives are to be announced.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, owner of the venue, added: “When I was nine years old I was taken to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane to see Peter Brook’s legendary production of The Tempest with John Gielgud as Prospero. It made a profound impression on me. At the final performance Gielgud broke Prospero’s staff and pronounced that Shakespeare would never again be performed at the Theatre Royal as it would be “lost to musicals.”
Ever since I owned the Theatre Royal I have been determined to prove him wrong. It is therefore a massive joy that Jamie Lloyd is bringing back Shakespeare to the Lane and even more wonderful that the first of two Shakespeare plays will be The Tempest.”
Hiddleston added: “Working with Jamie Lloyd on Harold Pinter’s Betrayal was one of the most fulfilling and meaningful experiences of my performing life. I could not be more thrilled to have been given the opportunity to collaborate with him again, this time on one of Shakespeare’s most warm-hearted and joyful plays: Much Ado About Nothing. It’s an honour to have been invited by Andrew Lloyd Webber to bring Shakespeare back to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, in a season alongside Sigourney Weaver in The Tempest, and to be working with the great Hayley Atwell for the first time.”
Atwell concluded: “I am thrilled to be joining Jamie Lloyd’s company for the third time in my career. His bold and electric direction, combined with the warmth and wit of one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated comedic duos is a truly exciting opportunity and one that I hope will delight our audiences. I look forward to working with my talented friend Tom Hiddleston and bringing The Bard back to Theatre Royal Drury Lane.”
Priority access to tickets for The Tempest begins at 11am on 6 August 2024.