Benedict Cumberbatch's Hamlet revealed as most in-demand theatre show of all time

MIRROR
Aug 11, 2014 14:31
By Emma Munbodh



Benedict Cumberbatch's upcoming production Hamlet has topped the theatre charts as the most in-demand show of all time, according to ticket marketplace viagogo.

Tickets to see the Sherlock star relive Shakespeare's classic went on sale earlier today – Monday 11 August - and has already become the nation's favourite theatre event, ever.

The 12-week run instantly became the most searched for event on viagogo, with demand outstripping that for A Street Car Named Desire, the next most popular theatre event on the site, by a huge 4:1.

Viagogo has even registered extraordinary demand in comparison to popular global tours, such as Kasabian and Beyoncé & Jay Z's On the Run tour, with Cumberbatch as the Bard's tragic hero registering 183% and 214% more ticket searches respectively.

A viagogo spokesperson said: "Cumberbatch’s Hamlet has stolen the title of the most in-demand theatre show of all time, with ticket searches going through the roof in the last couple of hours.

"This tragedy has instead become the success story for theatre in 2015.

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Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz in "Betrayal" (EYEWITNESS NEWS)

NEW YORK - Daniel Craig and his actress wife, Rachel Weisz, are teaming up on stage this year to play a married couple in a Broadway revival of Harold Pinter's play "Betrayal" about adultery.

Craig, who has played British spy 007 in the last three James Bond films including the box office hit "Skyfall", last appeared on Broadway in 2009 alongside Hugh Jackman in "A Steady Rain”.

The Mike Nichols-directed production will be the Broadway debut for Weisz, who won an Oscar for the 2005 film "The Constant Gardener" and praise for her stage performances in "Suddenly, Last Summer" and "A Streetcar Named Desire" in London.

Weisz is currently starring in the Disney box office hit "Oz the Great and Powerful."

The two British actors married in 2011 after falling for each other while working on the film "Dream House".

READ MORE: http://ewn.co.za/2013/04/06/Daniel-Craig-and-Rachel-Weisz-in-Betrayal

Kenneth Branagh to play Macbeth among church-goers Manchester festival has honour of actor's first Shakespeare role in 10 years in 'immersive' staging within deconsecrated church (THE GUARDIAN)

Sir Kenneth Branagh performs the lead in Richard III at the Crucible in Sheffield in 2002. Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Unless you count his performance of "the isle is full of noises" speech from The Tempest at the Olympics opening ceremony, it has been a decade since Kenneth Branagh played a Shakespeare role on the stage: that was Richard III at the Crucible in Sheffield.

Next year, however, the actor is to take on one of the most testing parts in the repertoire: Macbeth. And he will do it in the intimate circumstances of a deconsecrated church in Manchester, to an audience of not more than 300 at a time. According to Alex Poots, the director of the Manchester international festival: "It will certainly not be the audience observing the action from a distance, behind the proscenium arch. They'll feel very involved. It will be an immersive experience."

The festival, said Poots, had tempted Branagh through its experience of making work in unconventional spaces and unexpected ways, citing two projects conceived for the 2009 festival: the architect Zaha Hadid designed a pavilion specially for performances of Bach, and It Felt Like A Kiss, a dystopian vision of America, was performed in a derelict office block by theatre company Punchdrunk and documentary maker Adam Curtis.

Rob Ashford, behind acclaimed productions of Anna Christie and A Streetcar Named Desire at London's Donmar Warehouse, is to co-direct Macbeth, along with Branagh, who was knighted this month. In fact intimacy might be regarded as a keynote of the first shows announced for the 2013 festival, which runs from 4 to 21 July.

READ MORE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/nov/14/kenneth-branagh-macbeth-church-manchester