Chichester Festival Theatre announce Autumn 2020 Programme

Chichester Festival Theatre have just announced they will present an autumn season of socially distanced shows in its main space from next month. The season will feature musical events including:

On 1 November at 3;00pm and 7:00 pm, the theatre will celebrate the 90th birthday of Stephen Sondheim with a special concert led by artistic director Daniel Evans. Appearing in the concert,will be Gabrielle Brooks, Clive Rowe, Hannah Waddingham and Jenna Russell. Proceeds from this fundraising concert will support Chichester Festival Theatre's work with vulnerable young people.

Patricia Routledge, Sheila Hancock and Michael Ball will be talking to  writer Edward Seckerson about their lives and careers on Wednesdays from 11 to 25 November.

Also in November, will be concerts from soprano Kate Royal, award-winning actor Henry Goodman and pianist Lucy Parham, while Joe Stilgoe will present his intimate solo show. 

Musical comedy duo Frisky and Mannish will perform for one evening on 12 November, while on the subsequent two days Le Gateau Chocolat and Jonny Woo wcelebrate their favourite shows in A Night at the Musicals. 

From 30 November to 3 December, Daniel Evans, Rebecca Caine and Rebecca Trehearn  & special guests will perform A Merry Little Christmas Celebration launching the yuletide season with  a series of festive concerts of music, poems and prose.

Anna Ledwich will present a brand new version of Pinocchio, directed by Dale Rooks from 12 to 31 December.With music and orchestrations by Tom Brady, Pinocchio will have set design by Simon Higlett, costumes by Ryan Dawson Laight, lighting by James Whiteside, musical direction by Colin Billing, sound by Gregory Clarke and movement by Lauren Grant. 

Friends priority online booking for Autumn 2020 opens 30th September; general online booking opening on 2nd October at 9am.

Sondheim's Assassins and South Pacific just announced as Chichester Festival Theatre 2020 Musicals

Chichester Festival Theatre have just announced heir 2020 season which includes  two musicals:

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Souh Pacific from 6 July – 29 August with the following cast members making their Chichester debuts  Gina Beck (Matilda, Show Boat, The Phantom of the Opera) as Nellie, Julian Ovenden (Merrily We Roll Along, BBC Proms, Downton Abbey) as Emile, Joanna Ampil (Avenue Q, Les Misérables, Miss Saigon) as Bloody Mary, and Rob Houchen (Les Misérables, The Light in the Piazza) as Cable.

Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener this new production is directed by Artistic Director Daniel Evans whose previous Chichester productions include This Is My Family, Quiz and Fiddler on the Roof.

1943. On an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, US troops are kicking their heels amid the cacao groves while restlessly waiting for the war to reach them.

Nellie Forbush, a navy nurse from Arkansas, finds herself falling for the French plantation owner, Emile de Becque – a man with a mysterious past. The scheming sailor Luther Billis runs a makeshift laundry to earn a quick buck, but he’s no match for the quick-witted Polynesian Bloody Mary who’s intent on exploiting these foreigners.

When young Princeton graduate Lieutenant Joe Cable is flown in on a dangerous reconnaissance mission, love and fear become entwined as the island’s battle for hearts and minds begins.

This much-loved, Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical opened in 1949 to huge success, becoming one of Broadway’s longest running hit shows. It boasts one of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most memorable scores, featuring songs such as Some Enchanted Evening, I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair and Bali Ha’i.

Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Tony Award-winning musical Asssassins From 29 September – 31 October takes you on a daring, darkly comic, time-bending journey through American history.

Thirteen people have tried to kill the president of the United States. Four have succeeded. These murderers and would-be murderers are generally dismissed as maniacs and misfits who have little in common with each other, and nothing in common with the rest of us. Assassins is revue-style portrayal of men and women who attempted (successfully or not) to assassinate American Presidents

John Wilkes Booth. Lee Harvey Oswald. Leon Czolgosz. Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme. John Hinckley. Charles Guiteau. Sara Jane Moore. Giuseppe Zangara. Samuel Byck. Men and women whose fervour took them to the very edge

This new production marks Sondheim’s 90th birthday year. A giant of contemporary musical theatre, celebrated for the inventive sophistication of his melodies and lyrics.Director Polly Findlay makes her Chichester debut. Her recent productions include A Number (Bridge Theatre), Rutherford and Son, Beginning (NT and West End) and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Donmar Warehouse).

Friends priority booking opens Saturday 22 February (online) and Tuesday 25 February (by phone and in person)

Groups and Schools booking opens Thursday 27 February

General booking opens Saturday 29 February (online) and Tuesday 3 March (by phone and in person)

Prologue members can also book £5 tickets for all shows in the season online from 29 February.