Gillian Anderson

westendtheatre.com rounds that resembles hot London theater in 2009

If the theater mirrors life as you can expect 2009 to be a bad year for the performing arts in London: the economic recession and credit crunches sound like grim news for our discretionary entertainment spending. But the West End theater box office figures continued to rise in recent years and many new productions of sailing in the city during the year 2009 could mean that the theater manages to reverse the trend.

The great revival

The CBC, the National Theatre, Donmar and Old Vic drama dominated right into the West End in 2008, and they have not finished yet. big guns coming to town including Judi Dench in the Donmar's West End in Madame de Sade to Wyndhams, Jude Law, offering us his, hopefully in good shape, Hamlet, Gillian Anderson in Ibsen's A Doll's House at Donmar Warehouse and a number of awakenings crowds at the Old Vic, nor Dancing at Lughnasa, played a great success Brian Friel with Andrea Corr, and Sam Mendes directs Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and Shakespeare's Tale A Winter's, both featuring Simon Russell Beale and Sinead Cusack.

STAR POWER

Other stars shimmying in town include Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in Waiting Samuel Godot Beckett at Haymarket, Ken Stott in Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge at the Duke of York's, go-getter Pete Postlethwaite as King Lear at the Young Vic, Antony Sher and give us his Prospero in the RSC's The Tempest. The Gavin and Stacey the phenomenon continues to roll, as we see Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane delicious romp at Trafalgar Studios with Gavin himself, Matthew Horne, along with Imelda Staunton, on the screen while Gavin Mom Alison Steadman plays a housewife barking Leeds Enjoy Alan Bennett at Gielgud Theatre.

New items

The sharp eyes of you will notice that all these pieces are included rather than new work, keeping the audience firmly in their comfort zones. That said, new parts can be thin on the ground, but not absent all together with the domestic supply of England Richard Bean's Very Nice People, after two lovers through four centuries, and Samuel Adamson Mrs Affleck together in years 1950. Jez Butterworth has two new plays in pre-production, with the comedy Parlour Song at the Almeida and the Royal Court in Jerusalem. Also at the Royal Court, Mark Ravenhill will bring his new play there. More Hollywood man of the moment is James McAvoy star in Richard Greenberg play acclaimed Three Days of Rain at the Apollo, and headlines Old Vic Richard Dreyfuss world premiere of playwright Joe accomplice Sutton new play, directed by Kevin Spacey.

"Based on a Movie"

In musical theater, 2009 promises to be a year of Great Big fabulous shows and familiar, probably enough to see us through the dark ages? And this is no coincidence that many of them are based on hit movies.

Oliver! will indeed be steamed before in 2009 at the Royal Drury Lane Theatre with Rowan Atkinson and Jodie Prenger, La Cage Aux Folles will continue until camping at the Playhouse, but with Graham Norton takes over from Douglas Hodge and the Adelphi Theatre Lee Mead from Joseph to retire to be replaced by Gareth Gates.

Jason Donovan will be donning the wigs and lip gloss to take us on an Australian power mince in Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre. And Sister Act London Palladium is doing its best to recreate the pleasure of the film, helped by Whoopi Goldberg as co-producer. And not quite a musical, but also good, Calendar Girls the play will be the status bare flesh.