Mark Umbers

Something is stirring! As BroadwayWorld reported yesterday, Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Merrily We Roll Along will transfer to Broadway in Fall 2023. Want to know more about the show? We've got you covered wit these videos!

Earlier this month, we marked the 91st birthday of the living legend that is Stephen Sondheim with a look back at five London productions of his work that are embedded in my memory. This week, we honour a quintet of performances that has achieved the same result, even if this has meant choosing from an astonishing array of riches that could populate a column like this ten times over. In any case, here are just a few of the Sondheim star turns that linger in the mind.

Over 30 years since The Art of Success was first performed, beginning in Stratford-upon-Avon and running in both New York and London (where it picked up an Olivier Award nomination), and Nick Dear's play has been revived alongside the world premiere of his new work The Taste of the Town. William Hogarth is the focal point of both plays, alongside wife Jane, fittingly set 30 years apart. They show a marked contrast between the up-and-coming, angry young artist and the disgruntled establishment figure - neither quite fitting in, instead blazing a trail for themselves. Together they form Hogarth's Progress, a curious but entertaining double bill of plays.

Rose Theatre Kingston presents Nick Dear's double-bill Hogarth's Progress. Anthony Banks directs Bryan Dick as the younger William Hogarth in the first major UK revival of Dear's acclaimed comedy The Art of Success, which follows Hogarth through a bawdy night in 1730 and Keith Allen as the older William Hogarth in the world premiere of The Taste of the Town which rejoins the now hugely successful artist 30 years later towards the end of his career. Ruby Bentall (Jane Hogarth and Nancy/Mrs Ryott), Emma Cunniffe (Louisa and Mrs Colquhoun/Mrs Bascombe), Ben Deery (Frank and Zachariah Blunt), Jack Derges (Henry Fielding and Parson Venables), Ian Hallard (Oliver and Horace Walpole), Susannah Harker (Queen Caroline and Jane Hogarth), Jasmine Jones (Sarah Sprackling and Bridget), Sylvestra Le Touzel (Mrs Needham and Lady Thornhill) and Mark Umbers (Robert Walpole and David Garrick) complete the company.

Hogarth's Progress is a riotous double-bill of comedies by BAFTA Award winner Nick Dear, following one of Britain's most celebrated artists on two monumental pub crawls. The plays explore the extraordinary lives of William and Jane Hogarth at a time when culture escaped from the grasp of the powerful into the hands of the many.

Rose Theatre Kingston is now in rehearsal for Nick Dear's double-bill Hogarth's Progress. Anthony Banks directs Bryan Dick as the younger William Hogarth in the first major UK revival of Dear's acclaimed comedy The Art of Success, which follows Hogarth through a bawdy night in 1730 and Keith Allen as the older William Hogarth in the world premiere of The Taste of the Town which rejoins the now hugely successful artist 30 years later towards the end of his career.

Rose Theatre Kingston today announces the full cast for Nick Dear's double-bill Hogarth's Progress. Anthony Banks directs Bryan Dick as the younger William Hogarth in the first major UK revival of Dear's acclaimed comedy The Art of Success, which follows Hogarth through a bawdy night in 1730 and Keith Allen as the older William Hogarth in the world premiere of The Taste of the Town which rejoins the now hugely successful artist 30 years later towards the end of his career. Ruby Bentall (Jane Hogarth and Nancy/Mrs Ryott), Emma Cunniffe (Louisa and Mrs Colquhoun/Mrs Bascombe), Ben Deery (Frank and Zachariah Blunt), Jack Derges (Henry Fielding and Parson Venables), Ian Hallard (Oliver and Horace Walpole), Susannah Harker (Queen Caroline and Jane Hogarth), Jasmine Jones (Sarah Sprackling and Bridget), Sylvestra Le Touzel (Mrs Needham and Lady Thornhill) and Mark Umbers (Robert Walpole and David Garrick) complete the company.

Director Maria Friedman's Olivier Award-winning London revival of Stephen Sondheim's MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG lives up to its acclaim in this Huntington Theatre Company production continuing now through October 15. Both Sondheim and Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois have called Friedman's MERRILY the best they have ever seen. Those declarations prove not to be hyperbole.

The Huntington Theatre Company opens its 2017-2018 season with the legendary musical Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim. Director Maria Friedman recreates her critically celebrated West End production for Boston audiences. Performances run now through October 15, 2017 at the Avenue of the Arts / Huntington Avenue Theatre. Watch the cast sing 'Opening Doors' in the video below!

The Huntington Theatre Company opens its 2017-2018 season with the legendary musical Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim. Director Maria Friedman recreates her critically celebrated West End production for Boston audiences. Performances run now through October 15, 2017 at the Avenue of the Arts / Huntington Avenue Theatre. Watch the cast sing 'Now You Know' in the video below!

The Huntington Theatre Company will open its 2017-2018 season with the legendary musical Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim. Director Maria Friedman will recreate her critically celebrated West End production for Boston audiences. Performances run now through October 15, 2017 at the Avenue of the Arts / Huntington Avenue Theatre. Step inside the rehearsal room with the cast and creative team in the video below!

The Huntington Theatre Company will open its 2017-2018 season with the legendary musical Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim. Director Maria Friedman will recreate her critically celebrated West End production for Boston audiences. Performances run now through October 15, 2017 at the Avenue of the Arts / Huntington Avenue Theatre. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the star-studded cast in action below!

The Huntington Theatre Company opens its 2017-2018 season with the legendary musical Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim. Director Maria Friedman will recreate her critically celebrated West End production for Boston audiences. Performances will run tonight, September 8, through October 15, 2017 at the Avenue of the Arts / Huntington Avenue Theatre.

The Huntington Theatre Company will open its 2017-2018 season with the legendary musical Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim. Director Maria Friedman will recreate her critically celebrated West End production for Boston audiences. Performances will run September 8 - October 15, 2017 at the Avenue of the Arts / Huntington Avenue Theatre. Tickets are now on sale to the general public.

For those seeking festive revelry, but with an equally seasonal undertow of quiet melancholy, She Loves Me is the blissful solution. Joe Masteroff, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick's 1963 musical adaptation of Miklos Laszlo's play Parfumerie, which also inspired the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan vehicle You've Got Mail, is a sparkling Christmas bauble of a show that shone on Broadway earlier this year, and now comes to us in delectable intimate form in the small but mighty musicals powerhouse that is the Menier.

London is never short of theatre temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From a big musical revival to starry panto and Matthew Bourne's latest, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld's reviews…

Mark Umbers' diverse work includes Home Fires and Mistresses on screen and, on stage, The Glass Menagerie at the Apollo Theatre and the acclaimed revival of Merrily We Roll Along at Menier Chocolate Factory. He's returned to the Menier for She Loves Me, whose plot - two feuding employees in a Budapest shop are also, unbeknownst to them, one another's romantic pen pals - also formed the basis for the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan film You've Got Mail. Umbers stars opposite Scarlett Strallen, and the show begins previews on 25 November.

The Menier Chocolate Factory today announces that Scarlett Strallen (Amalia Balash) will be joined by Alastair Brookshaw (Ladislav Sipos), Les Dennis (Mr Maraczek), Callum Howells (Arpad Laszlo), Katherine Kingsley(Ilona Ritter), Dominic Tighe (Steven Kodaly) and Mark Umbers (Georg Nowack), with Rachel Bingham, Peter Dukes, Luke Fetherston, Olivia Fines, Aimee Hodnett, Sarah-Marie Maxwell and Vincent Pirillo for the company's major revival of She Loves Me this Christmas. The production reunites Strallen with director Matthew White, following their previous collaboration at the Menier on Candide. The production opens on 7 December, with previews from 25 November, and runs until 5 March 2017. Full casting will be announced shortly.

Stage Door Records have released 'first listen' of excerpts from all 21 tracks that will feature on the upcoming 'Tess Of The D'Urbervilles' cast recording. The CD release is due in stores on September 29th, continuing Stage Door's London cast album series and commitment to preserve 'lost' British theatre scores of the past 50 years. Scroll down for a preview of the album!

Stage Door Records have announced the first complete recording of the 1999 West End musical 'Tess Of The D'Urbervilles' is to be released on September 29th, 2014. The CD release continues Stage Door's London cast album series and commitment to preserve 'lost' British theatre scores of the past 50 years.