Guest Review: wonder.land at the Manchester Palace Theatre

wonder.land
Saturday 11th July 2015
Manchester Palace Theatre
★★★★

As 2015 is the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll's famous novel Alice in Wonderland, it seemed only fitting that one of the centre pieces of this year's Manchester International Festival was a new musical inspired by this classic story. 

Casting announced for world premiere of The Crocodile at the Manchester International Festival

Simon Bird, Ciaran Owens & Marek Larwood 

Casting has been announced for the world première of Tom Basden’s adaptation of The Crocodile which runs at the Manchester International Festival.

Simon Bird (Friday Night Dinner/The Inbetweeners) will play Zack, Marek Larwood (The Inbetweeners 2/Three Kinds of Stupid) will play Mr Popov and Ciarán Owens (Our Country’s Good/The Inbetweeners) will play Ivan.

Co-produced by Manchester International Festival and The Invisible Dot Ltd, The Crocodile will run at the Pavilion Theatre in Festival Square from 14th until 18th July. Written by Tom Basden and directed by Ned Bennett, The Crocodile is based on the short story of the same name by Fyodor Dostoevsky, which was published 150 years ago this year.

Full casting announced for wonder.land starring Rosalie Craig

Casting has been announced for the Manchester International Festival's run of wonder.land, a new musical inspired by Lewis Carroll’s iconic Alice in Wonderland. 

Music is by Damon Albarn with book and lyrics by Moira Buffini. The production is directed by the National Theatre's Rufus Norris.

The MIF cast will include Sam Archer, Lois Chimimba, Rob Compton, Rosalie Craig (pictured right), Ivan De Freitas, Luke Fetherston, Hal Fowler, Anna Francolini, Lorraine Graham, Paul Hilton, Karina Hind, Holly James, Sam Mackay, Daisy Maywood, Enyi Okoronkwo, David Page, Golda Rosheuvel, Cydney Uffindell-Phillips and Witney White.

wonder.land is a Manchester International Festival/National Theatre co-production. Commissioned by Manchester International Festival, National Theatre and the Théâtre du Châtelet.

Hadley Fraser to star in The Machine at the Manchester International Festival

It has been announced that Hadley Fraser will star as Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in the world premiere of Matt Charman's new play The Machine. The Machine opens at the Campfield Market Hall in Manchester on 12th July (previews from 10th July) and runs until 21st July 2013. 

Hadley was recently seen on stage starring in The Pajama Game at the Chichester Festival Theatre. He is well known for playing both Marius and Javert in the West End production of Les Miserables. 

Francesca Annis will play Garry's mother, Clara. Recently seen on television in Cranford, Annis' film credits include Revolver, The Libertine and Milk. Doctor Hsu, the "wunderkind engineer" behind chess machine Deep Blue, will be played by Kenneth Lee, who starred in US comedy drama Delocated.