Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer prize-winning play, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, will be opening at the Wyndham’s Theatre early next year, bringing both Leslie Manville (BBC 2’s Mum) and Jeremy Irons (Justice League) to the West End. With only a short ten week run, there aren’t that many opportunities to see the two together on stage and with such a great cast tickets are selling fast.
The production follows on from the success of the show’s initial sold-out run at Bristol’s Old Vic last year and the show will be transferring in its entirety to the Wyndham’s Theatre. It was staged to mark the Old Vic’s incredible 250th anniversary season and Richard Eyre will be back again to direct the short run in London in the first few months of 2018.
Dates, show time and tickets
Long Day’s Journey Into Night will be opening at the Wyndham’s Theatre on the 27th January 2018 with a planned final night for the production on the 8th April 2018. Show time for evening performances is 7:30pm Tuesday-Saturday with 2pm matinees on Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets range between £12.50 and £69.75, although, there are also a limited number of premium tickets available at £98.50 – essentially, the best seats in the theatre where VIPs and producers sit for early performances.
About Long Day’s Journey Into Night
The play was written by Eugene O’Neill back in 1941-42, but didn’t get its premier until early 1956, bizarrely at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden, before having its Broadway debut later that year. The plot to the semi-autobiographical play is set in 1912 and centres on the Tyrone family in a single day at their summer house with a dark past and a troubled present coming to a head.
It was published posthumously in 1956 and went on to win the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1957.
Cast
Jeremy Irons and Leslie Manville lead the cast as father James and mum Mary.
Production
Richard Eyre returns to direct the production with designer Rob Howell, lighting designer Peter Mumford and sound designer John Leonard.
First impressions
Long Day’s Journey Into Night is set to be a special run at the Wyndham’s Theatre with an exceptional cast, great director and Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize-winning story behind it. Both Leslie Manville and Jeremy Irons have had some pretty big commitments recently with filming for Mum Series 2 and Justice League respectively, so it’s impressive that they’ve managed to make time for the short London production.
For Irons, it’s his first time back on stage in London in ten years, with his last performance as Harold Macmillan in Howard Brenton’s Never So Good. With his big movie commitments, this is a significant opportunity to see the man who played Scar, Danny’s dad, Kafka, H.G. Wells and F. Scott Fitzgerald live on stage.
I’ve read elsewhere that Hadley Fraser is not available for the London run, as he’s starring in the Young Frankenstein musical.