8 September 2023 - 26 November 2023

2023-09-08:00-00:00
London UK WC2H 0DA Charing Cross Road

Dawn French Is A Huge Tw*t

by Dawn French

UK Tour

Directed by Michael Grandage

Cast: Dawn French

Dawn French, the Queen of British comedy, returns to the stage this autumn with her solo show, Dawn French Is A Huge Twat. Dawn will tour the UK from 8 September-26 November 2023. Tickets for all shows are on sale now.

The award-winning actor, best-selling novelist and all-round very funny lady is here to tell us more:

“This show is so named because unfortunately, it’s horribly accurate. There have been far too many times I have made stupid mistakes or misunderstood something vital or jumped the gun in a spectacular display of twattery. I thought I might tell some of these buttock clenching embarrassing stories to give the audience a peek behind the scenes of my work life…

Roll up! Book early to see the telly vicar lady be a total twat on stage, live in front of your very eyes. And ears.”

 

2023 UK TOUR DATES

7-10 September Exeter Northcott Theatre

14-15 September Cymru Theatre

16 September York Barbican

21-24 September London Palladium

28 September New Theatre Oxford

29-30 September New Theatre Cardiff

5-6 October Birmingham Hippodrome

8 October Sheffield City Hall

14 October Tunbridge Wells

20-21 October London Palladium

26 October Aberdeen Music Hall

27 October Edinburgh EICC

28 October Dunfermline Alhambra

29 October Pavilion Theatre Glasgow

2 November Bournemouth Pavilion

3-5 November Hexagon Theatre, Reading

8-10 November Truro Hall for Cornwall

16 November Royal Concert Hall Nottingham

17 November Victoria Hall, Stoke-On-Trent

18 November Opera House Buxton

19 November Wycombe Swan Theatre

23 November Guildford G Live

24 November Brighton Dome

25 November The Anvil, Basingstoke

26 November Theatre Royal Bath

Tickets
Dawn French Is A Huge Tw*t 8 September 2023 - 26 November 2023

Cast

Dawn French

Director

Director

Michael Grandage is Artistic Director of the Michael Grandage Company (MGC) where he most recently directed the film My Policeman (2022) starring Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, Gina McKee, Linus Roache, David Dawson and Rupert Everett which will be released on 21 October 2022. Previously, his other film work for MGC included Genius (2016) starring Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Laura Linney which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. For MGC in the theatre he has directed Ian McDiarmid in The Lemon Table (UK Tour), Aidan Turner in The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Noël Coward Theatre), Alfred Molina and Alfred Enoch in Red (Wyndham’s Theatre), Nicole Kidman in Photograph 51 (Noël Coward Theatre), Dawn French: 30 Million Minutes (national and international tour and West End), Jude Law in Henry V, David Walliams and Sheridan Smith in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Daniel Radcliffe in The Cripple of Inishmaan, Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw in Peter and Alice and Simon Russell Beale in Privates on Parade as part of the season at the Noël Coward Theatre. In November he directs Emma Corrin in Neil Bartlett's adapation of Virginia Woolf's Orlando in the West End.

His opera work includes Madama Butterfly for Houston Grand Opera and Chicago Lyric Opera, Le Nozzi de Figaro for Glyndebourne and Houston, Don Giovanni for the Met and Billy Budd for San Francisco, Glyndebourne and BAM in New York. He was Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse (2002–2012) and Sheffield Theatres (2000-2005) where his work included Chiwetel Ejiofor in Othello, Frank Langella and Michael Sheen in Frost/Nixon, Derek Jacobi in King Lear, Eddie Redmayne and Alfred Molina in Red (Tony Award for Best Director), Jude Law in Hamlet and Kenneth Branagh in Ivanov. He won three Olivier Awards for his musical productions of Guys and Dolls, Merrily We Roll Along and Grand Hotel. He is President of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. He was appointed CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honors 2011. His book, A Decade At The Donmar, was published by Constable & Robins in 2012. His charity, set up to help young theatre makers, can be found at www.mgcfutures.com.  

Lez Brotherston

Designer

Previous designs for Dawn French: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Albery Theatre) Side by Side by Sondheim (Greenwich Theatre) and the UK tours of French and Saunders Live, French and Saunders Still Alive, 30 Million Minutes. 

As an associate artist of New Adventures designs include: Midnight Bell, Romeo and Juliet, The Red Shoes, Sleeping Beauty, Edward Scissorhands, Lord of the Flies, Swan Lake, A Play Without Words, Highland Fling, Dorian Gray, Cinderella and The Car Man.

Other credits: Starstruck (design and additional scenario), The Secret Theatre (design and co-creative direction), The Snow Queen, The Nutcracker (Scottish Ballet), Hamlet (Shanghai Ballet), The Seven Deadly Sins (Royal Ballet Covent Garden), The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Rover, The Empress and Much Ado About Nothing (Royal Shakespeare Company), Me and My Girl and Fiddler on the Roof (Chichester), Malory Towers (Wise Children), Twelfth Night and Romantics Anonymous (Shakespeare’s Globe), Flowers for Mrs Harris, Show Boat and Pride and Prejudice (Sheffield Crucible), 946: the Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips (Kneehigh/Globe Theatre), Oh What a Lovely War (Stratford East/West End), Hysteria (Hampstead Theatre); Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice and Under the Blue Sky (West End), Sister Act (West End and worldwide), Women Beware Women and Really Old, Like 45 (National Theatre), Hedda Gabler, Design for Living and Dancing at Lughnasa (Old Vic), Duet for One (Almeida and West End), My City and Measure for Measure (Almeida), L’elisir d’amore (Glyndebourne) and Lez designed, co-wrote and co-directed Les Liaisons Dangereuses with Adam Cooper (Japan and Sadler’s Wells).

Awards: Swan Lake (New York – 1999 Tony Award) and Cinderella (1998 Olivier Award, Critics’ Circle and Ninette de Valois Award for outstanding contribution to dance). He was awarded the OBE in The Queen’s New Year Honours 2022 for services to Dance and Theatre.

Ben Jacobs

Lighting Designer

Ben trained in Lighting Design at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. 

His work has been nominated for the Off West End Award for Best Lighting Design four times, as well as winning the award in 2018 & 2022.

Lighting Designer credits include: Evita (Parque Villa-Lobos, Sau Paulo), Salome, Seussical, Bring it On (Southwark Playhouse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Wilton's Music Hall), Caterpillar (Stephen Joseph Theatre), The Sorrows of Satan (Brocket Hall), Dolphins & Sharks, Melting Pot, Maggie & Pierre (Finborough Theatre), NoMad, Lord of the Flies, Edward II (Greenwich Theatre), Nora: A Doll's House, H.R.Aitch, Heartbreak House, Carmen, Twang, Privates on Parade, Imagine This (The Union Theatre), Midlife Cowboy, Freefall (Pleasance Theatre), Sister (Ovalhouse), People We Didn't Quite Meet, Red, Are We Stronger Than Winston (The Place), Proud, Southern Belles, Stripped, The Stones (King's Head Theatre), One Giant Leap, Gentleman Jack, Taro, Precious Little, The White Rose, Kes, Golden F**king Years, Three Sisters, Dracula, Cinderella, Macbeth, The State of Things, Frankenstein, Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Side by Side by Sondheim, Jack Studio Theatre. Caterpillar, In Event of Moone Disaster, The State We're In, Elexion, Red Like Embers (Theatre 503), Adam & Eve, Foul Pages (The Hope Theatre), The Lower Depths, Hamlet, Burial at Thebes, Love & Information, Secret Circus (RCSSD), Cuncrete, Mrs Armitage and the Big Wave (UK Tour), Jamaica Inn, I Love my Love, The Lost Happy Endings, Fanny & Faggot (Tabard Theatre), Macbeth (Bussey Building), Lunatic, The League of Youth (Theatre N16).

Associate/Assistant Lighting Designer credits include: Les Misérables (UK Tour/West End/International), Anna (National Theatre, Dorfman), Le Nozze di Figaro (Glyndebourne), Sondheim’s Old Friends (Sondheim Theatre), The Lorax (Old Vic), Ostalgie (National Theatre Studio) Project O (Southbank Centre), Crave (Prague Quadrennial).

Alex Baranowski

Composer

Alex Baranowski is an award winning composer based in London. Nominated for a Tony Award on Broadway for The Cripple of Inishmaan directed by Michael Grandage, his work in theatre has led him to compose for numerous productions at the National Theatre, Young Vic, Old Vic, Donmar, Royal Court, RSC, Manchester International Festival, West End, Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. He recently won Best Original Film Score for True Things at Les Arcs Film Festival (The Bureau) and has scored films including the upcoming A Gaza Weekend (Film 4), BAFTA nominated The Windermere Children (Warner Bros), Nureyev (Universal), Burial (Altitude), Grierson winning Attacking The Devil and BAFTA nominated McCullin. He also notably scored Gillian Anderson’s directorial debut The Departure and two series of multi-award winning Staged for BBC One / Netflix. His full length ballet for Northern Ballet / Sadler’s Wells Nineteen Eighty-Four won the South Bank Award for Dance, and he has also composed for Ballet Black at the Royal Opera House. Alex has collaborated with multi Grammy winning artist Labrinth, Mercury Prize winning The xx alongside the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra as well as Jungle, Clean Bandit, Underworld and virtuoso violinists Angele Dubeau and Daniel Hope. He was recently nominated as Breakthrough Composer of the Year from the International Film Music Critics Association and is presently completing his first album. 

George Reeve

Video Designer

George is a UK based video and projection designer whose work can been seen across the UK and internationally.

Video design credits include: Stephen Sondheim Old Friends (Sondheim Theatre); Sandi Toksvig - Next Slide Please (UK Tour), SIX (London & Broadway), SIX (The Tonight Show), The Sound of Music (National Tour), Gypsy (Alexandra Palace), My Son’s A Queer, But What Can You Do? (Turbine Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Dominion Theatre), RENT, The WIZ & Hushabye Mountain (Hope Mill Theatre), But I’m A Cheerleader (Turbine Theatre), The Pleasure Garden, Dick Whittington & Tommy On Top (Above The Stag), Avalanche (Bloom Theatre), The Wind in the Willows (UK and UAE Tour), Girls Just Wanna Have Fun & WANNABE (UK tour), Cinderella In Concert (Cadogan Hall), Welcome Aboard (Viking Cruises), Musicals In Concert (Palladium, Stuttgart).

Associate Design and Animator credits include: Frozen (Theatre Royal Dury Lane & Theatre an der Elbe), Anastasia (International Associate Designer), Les Misérables (Gielgud & Sondheim Theatre), SpongeBob Live Television Broadcast (Nickelodeon), Starstruck (ITV), Frozen (North American Tour), TINA (Aldwych & Hamburg), Paramour (Cirque Du Soleil), Divas For Democracy (StageIt Stream), The Sound Inside (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Flight (Royal Caribbean), Aladdin (Walt Disney Co.), Beauty and the Beast (Walt Disney Co.), All My Sons (Broadway).

George was an Offie 2022 Finalist for Best Video Design for his work on The Pleasure Garden at Above the Stag.

Reviews and Marketing

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"Mini masterpieces of self-mockery. Hugely engaging stories from her 40-year career"
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"Great fun. It reminds us just how well French can hold a stage. A jolly show packed with celebrity anecdotes"
Dawn French Is A Huge Tw*t
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