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Stage success tastes so sweet for Menier Chocolate Factory
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent17 Feb 2009
The tiny Menier Chocolate Factory theatre is to transfer its seventh production to the West End in just five years.
The sell-out A Little Night Music, directed by Trevor Nunn, will move to the Garrick Theatre at the end of next month. Nearly all the cast - including Maureen Lipman as Madame Armfeldt - will join the brief commercial run.
It will be the second Menier production of a Stephen Sondheim musical to get into the West End; the first was the award-winning Sunday In The Park With George, a "difficult" musical that the Menier also took to Broadway.
David Babani, who co-founded the fringe venue in Southwark in 2004, said audiences had loved both Sondheims. "A Little Night Music is a very dirty, sexy, smutty piece. People are seeing a sex farce and they're having a ball," he said. "With any piece of theatre, that's what's important."
Based on Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles Of A Summer Night, it is about a complicated series of affairs of the heart in turn-of-the-century Sweden.
The cast also includes Hannah Waddingham, formerly Lady of the Lake in Monty Python's Spamalot, and Alexander Hanson, who was Captain George von Trapp in The Sound Of Music.Maureen Lipman said: "It's a beautiful production of a very profound show. For me, it's like doing Chekhov with music." She said she was sad to leave the Menier, but added: "Trevor knows how to arrange it so [the] same intimacy will be achieved at the Garrick".
Other Menier hits include the revival of Patrick Marber's drama Dealer's Choice, Little Shop Of Horrors, and La Cage Aux Folles. The theatre was best newcomer at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2005.
A Little Night Music, which has sold out in Southwark until 8 March, opens at the Garrick on 28 March. The run ends on 25 July.
Menier's six of the best
Fully Committed
Becky Mode's hit about an out-of-work actor's horrible day was the Menier's first transfer in 2004, the theatre's first year.
Sunday In The Park With George
At the venue until March 2006, this Stephen Sondheim show about painter Georges Seurat went on to win five Oliviers.
Little Shop Of Horrors
A Menier hit from November 2006 to February 2007, with Sheridan Smith and Mike McShane. Alistair McGowan made his West End stage debut when it transferred.
Dealer's Choice
Directed by Samuel West, this 2007 Patrick Marber revival moved to the Trafalgar Studios.
Maria Friedman Re-arranged
A cabaret evening of show tunes and other songs from Gershwin to Kate Bush went to the Trafalgar.
La Cage Aux Folles
The story of two gay men and their drag club is at the Playhouse and now stars Graham Norton.
