Stunning New Images Released Of The Brand New BOULEVARD THEATRE with Rachel Edwards In Place as Artistic Director

Boulevard Theatre Walkers Court Exterior Credit Jack Hobhouse

• BRAND NEW IMAGES OF THE BOULEVARD THEATRE RELEASED TODAY
   
• THE NEW BOULEVARD THEATRE IS NOW OPEN TO THE PUBLIC WITH PERFORMANCES OF DAVE MALLOY’S GHOST QUARTET, DIRECTED BY BILL BUCKHURST, RUNNING ALONGSIDE A VIBRANT LATE NIGHT AND SUNDAY PROGRAMME. THE BOULEVARD’S RESTAURANT AND BAR ARE ALSO OPEN TO THE PUBLIC DAILY FROM 8AM
   
• RECENTLY ANNOUNCED 2020 SEASON INCLUDES WORK FROM KATHY BURKE, LUCY PREBBLE AND YAËL FARBER, AMONG MANY OTHERS

Stunning new images of the Boulevard theatre have today been released days after the theatre opened its doors to the public for the first time for the London premiere of Dave Malloy’s Ghost Quartet, directed by Bill Buckhurst. Press night for Ghost Quartet is October 31. The restaurant is also now open from 8am daily. Alongside this is a vibrant late night and Sunday programme including a wide range of jazz, comedy, poetry, and more.

The Boulevard Theatre is located in the heart of Soho in Walker’s Court. Architects SODA studio, in collaboration with theatre specialists Charcoalblue, have designed an innovative new flexible space which features Europe’s most advanced revolving theatre and a two-floor glass bridge leading to a restaurant and bar area.

The Boulevard Theatre’s inaugural production Ghost Quartet will run alongside a packed roster of late-night and Sunday performances.  These will include the West End’s newest female-led improv night THE YES QUEENS curated by Julie Clare with guest performers such as Pippa Evans and Ruth Bratt.  Award-winning comics Kiri Pritchard-Mclean and Nina Conti present the best in established and emerging comedy talent with LATE NIGHT SCENE.   New music night SOHO SOUNDS: JAZZ, curated by the Copasetic Foundation, will feature performers including David McAlmont, China Moses andVimala Rowe.  Curated by Nadim Naaman, FINALE will feature West End stars such as Natasha Barnes, Fra Fee and Sabrina Aloueche performing stripped back show tunes.  The Black Cat Cabaret will present AFTER DARK, a new cabaret night hosted by Dusty Limits.  SUNDAY SERVICE: CONCERTS will see an eclectic music programme, curated by Katy Hamilton and Benjamin Cox, including iyatraQuartet, the Hermes Experiment and The London Klezmer Quartet.   Artists confirmed so far for SUNDAY SERVICE: POETRY include Inua Ellams, Helen Mort and Richard Scott. SUNDAY SERVICE: PODCASTS takes the freshest voices out of your headphones and into our auditorium, and will feature popular titles such as Standard Issue, Freelance Pod and The Showstopper! Podcast.

Please visit the website for up to date listings for the Late Night and Sunday programme at the Boulevard Theatre.

THE NEW SEASON
GHOST QUARTET – LONDON PREMIERE
24 October 2019 - 4 January 2020
Press night: 31 October 2019
by Dave Malloy
Directed by Bill Buckhurst

The premiere season of the Boulevard Theatre opens with Ghost Quartet by three-time Tony Award-nominated writer Dave Malloy (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, Octet and Preludes). Bill Buckhurst directs and reunites the creative team behind his sell-out production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, which transferred from a pie shop in Tooting, to the West End, and eventually to a sell-out New York run.

Ghost Quartet is an intoxicating musical of love, loss and spirits - of both the spectral and alcoholic kind.   Wildly inventive, Malloy’s piece draws inspiration from a rich tapestry of work from Arabian Nights and Edgar Allan Poe to Stephen King, Grimms’ fairy-tales, Stephen Sondheim and Frozen, woven together by jazz, gospel, honky-tonk, folk ballads, electro-pop and jazz. Starring Carly Bawden, Niccolò Curradi, Maimuna Memon and 2019 Olivier Award nominee Zubin Varla.

THE SUNSET LIMITED – LONDON PREMIERE
16 January 2020 – 14 March 2020
Press night: 21 January 2020
by Cormac McCarthy
Directed by Terry Johnson

The 2020 season at the Boulevard Theatre begins with the London premiere of multi award-winning writer Cormac McCarthy's gripping play about redemption, faith and free will.  The Sunset Limited will be directed by Olivier and Tony Award-winner Terry Johnson (Mrs Henderson Presents, La Cage aux Folles and The Graduate.) Cormac McCarthy's other celebrated works include The Road, All the Pretty Horses and No Country for Old Men.

Two men meet on a subway platform; the chance encounter instantly changing the trajectory of both their lives.  Thrown together, their conversation quickly turns to the most essential and existential questions facing humanity. While their beliefs seem irreconcilable, the answers they seek could mean the difference between life and death.

THE EFFECT
19 March 2020 – 30 May 2020
Press night:  25 March 2020
by Lucy Prebble
Directed by Anthony Neilson

The first London revival of The Effect, by award-winning Lucy Prebble (A Very Expensive Poison, ENRON, The Sugar Syndrome), will be directed by Anthony Neilson (The Tell-Tale Heart, National Theatre; The Prudes and Unreachable, Royal Court).

The Effect won the Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Play when it opened at the National Theatre in 2012.  Award-winning writer Lucy Prebble places modern medicine under the microscope, examining the fallout from a collision between love and science.

Connie and Tristan meet; symptoms develop. Racing hearts. Lost appetites. Erratic emotions. Is this the frenzy of falling in love, or simply side effects from the new anti-depressant drug they're testing? Addiction comes hard and fast. But have the clinicians running the trial lost control?

HELLO AND GOODBYE
4 June 2020 – 25 July 2020
Press night: 12 June 2020
by Athol Fugard
Directed by Yaël Farber

From Tony Award-winning playwright Athol Fugard, Hello and Goodbye is a searing exploration of the claustrophobic hold the past can have on the present. Directed by multi award-winning director Yaël Farber (Blood Wedding, Young Vic; The Crucible, Old Vic; Mies Julie, Riverside Studios). 

It’s been fifteen years since Johnny and Hester Smit have seen one another – not since the day Hester fled to Johannesburg in search of a different life. While Hester’s world has expanded – not always for the better - Johnny’s life has been reduced to the four walls of the rundown family home, and his role caring for their infirm father.

Suddenly Hester returns one night to claim the inheritance she believes to be rightfully hers. What begins as the siblings’ search for their legacy quickly becomes a desperate pursuit for truth, understanding and a future free from the shackles of their shared heritage.

THE CAVALCADERS
16 September 2020 – 21 November 2020
Press night: 24 September 2020
by Billy Roche
Directed by Kathy Burke

Celebrated actor and director Kathy Burke (Lady Windermere’s Fan, West End; Blue/Orange, Sheffield Crucible) directs this bittersweet story of music, memories and moving on by acclaimed writer Billy Roche (Wexford Trilogy).

All his life, cobbler Terry has spent his days tending to his neighbour’s soles. It’s now time for his apprentice to take over, and Terry finds himself handing down two types of keys… In the corner of the shop sits a piano, and come closing time the workers transform into The Cavalcaders – legendary local barbershop quartet.

While the group may be pitch-perfect onstage, they often seem to find themselves tone-deaf when it comes to relationships. In a close-knit Irish community, lives, loves and longings overlap as easily as the Cavalcaders’ melodies, and private lives have never stayed private for long.

THE BOULEVARD THEATRE RESTAURANT

Open 8am to 1am daily, the Boulevard’s restaurant and bar will cater to all tastes and budgets, from lunchtime light bites and grazing boards, to indulgent à la carte dining. Vibrant, sensory and un-fussy: the menus, created by head chef Greg Hillier, will focus on quality ingredients treated well with a conscious lean towards plant-based cookery.   Audiences will be able to enhance their evening with a pre-show fixed price menu that will draw inspiration from the current production onstage, whilst enjoying a carefully curated range of drinks promoting top-quality local suppliers and artisan producers

LISTINGS
Boulevard Theatre
6 Walker’s Court
Soho
W1F 0BT

THE SUNSET LIMITED
by Cormac McCarthy
Directed by Terry Johnson

First Performance: 16 January 2020
Final Performance: 14 March 2020
Opening Night: 21 January 2020

Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm, Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm

THE EFFECT
by Lucy Prebble
Directed by Anthony Neilson

First Performance: 19 March 2020
Final Performance: 30 May 2020
Opening Night: 25 March 2020

Monday – Saturday at 7pm, Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2pm

HELLO AND GOODBYE
by Athol Fugard
Directed by Yaël Farber

First Performance: 4 June 2020
Final Performance:  25 July 2020
Opening Night: 12 June

Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm, Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm

THE CAVALCADERS
by Billy Roche
Directed by Kathy Burke

First Performance: 16 September 2020
Final Performance: 21 November 2020
Opening Night: 24 September

Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm, Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm

Rachel is the founder of award-winning Tooting Arts Club, a site-specific theatre company based in south London. Rachel has produced all of their critically-acclaimed shows. Rachel has also run many Tooting Arts Club community events such as music nights, comedy nights and a number of popular pop-up cinemas in Tooting and further afield.  

In 2016 Sweeney Todd – set in Harrington’s pie and mash shop in Tooting - won Best Musical at the Off West-End Awards and Rachel won Best Producer. Rachel also won in the performance category of the Hospital Club’s ‘Top 100’ Awards recognising the top 100 people the creative industries in the UK in 2016. Rachel was also nominated for ‘Producer of the Year’ in 2016 at the Stage Awards for the West End Transfer of Sweeney Todd, described by the Guardian as ‘The most remarkable west End transfer in living memory’.

In 2017 Rachel transferred Sweeney Todd to New York, re-creating Harrington’s pie and mash shop Off-Broadway. The production won ‘Outstanding Revival’ at the prestigious Lucille Lortel Awards and was also nominated for seven Drama Desk Awards. It has been described by the New York Times as a ‘Must-see!’ and a ‘A wondrous production’ by the New Yorker. It ran at The Barrow Street Theatre until September 2018 becoming the longest running production of Sweeney Todd in history.

Fawn James – Director of Soho Estates
Fawn is a Director of Soho Estates, having joined in 2009 after graduating from the University of St Andrews. Her grandfather was Soho Estates’ founder Paul Raymond, an entertainment impresario and property investor, who staged revue and variety shows at countless Soho venues from the 1950s onwards. Fawn intends to honour her grandfather’s legacy by helping to promote Soho as an arts and entertainment district.

The regeneration of Walker’s Court has provided the ideal opportunity to amalgamate her passion for the arts and to embrace her heritage.

In founding the new Boulevard, tribute is being paid to the original theatre of the same name which sat on the same site from the late 1970s.

Fawn is a member of the Executive Committee of the ‘Royal Variety Charity’ and is a Trustee for ‘Soho Theatre’ and ‘Mousetrap Theatre Projects’. Alongside her enthusiasm for supporting the arts, Fawn has initiated a Corporate Social Responsibility scheme for her company, which focuses its support on charities and projects in the local area, tackling issues affecting the communities in and around Soho.