Simon Callow is bringing his one-man show, Being Shakespeare, back to London in March, for a strictly limited run. He’ll be at the Trafalgar Studios from 7 to 31 March, bringing a multitude of the bard’s most famous creations to life. It’ll be the perfect warm-up for the World Shakespeare Festival which kicks off the following month.

Another March date for your diaries is Thursday 15, when Complicite and Simon McBurney return to the Barbican (following the success of Shun-Kin and A Disappearing Number) with a new English adaptation of Master and Margarita. It’s a stage adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s rich magical realist novel about the struggle between evil and compassion. I’m a big fan of Complicite’s work, so I’m really looking forward to seeing this one.

Finally, the Reduced Shakespeare Company are back for in London in 2012, bringing The Complete World of Sports (abridged) to the Arts Theatre for a six-week run from 18 July to 25 August, to coincide with the London 2012 Olympic Games. The show’s described as “every sport even played on every continent in the entire history of the world in under two hours!”. It’s a clever idea from clever boys, and I wish them luck!

London Casting News

• One of my favourite actors, Jill Halfpenny, is returning to London, to play Beverly in Abigail’s Party at the Menier Chocolate Factory from 2 March
• Another great British star, Tara Fitzgerald, will appear opposite Ben Chaplin and Jemma Redgrave in Farewell To The Theatre at the Hampstead Theatre from 1 March
• Stand-up comic and actor Ardal O’Hanlon is playing the lead in a new production of Port Authority at the Southwark Playhouse from 24 January
• Finally, I’ve got details of the lucky ladies playing alongside Zach Braff in All New People at the Duke of York’s Theatre from February. Both Eve Myles and Susannah Fielding have previously worked with the RSC, and both have strong sci-fi links: Myles plays Gwen in Torchwood; Fielding has appeared in Doctor Who. I wish them both well with their return to theatre

More next week…

Adding to the Bard mix is news that Simon Callow (best known as the guy who dies in Four Weddings and A Funeral) is bringing Being Shakespeare to the Trafalgar Studios in June. So if you feel like you’ve seen too many Hamlets and had enough Much Ado’s for one year, take a look at this one-man show. Being Shakespeare brings the Bard’s most memorable characters to life as it explores the man behind the world’s most famous plays. It runs from 15 June to 23 July.

From Shakespeare to Spice Girls! Yes, there’s going to be a Spice Girls musical. Viva Forever will be directed by War Horse co-director Marianne Elliot, and produced by Mamma Mia! producer Judy Craymer.

Judy said, “I am delighted that Marianne has agreed to direct Viva Forever. With her theatrical aptitude for exploring strong women and their relationships and her meticulousness to detail she is absolutely the right person to direct this new musical which is all about female friendship, celebrity and fame. I’m so happy to have her on board, together with Jennifer Saunders, who has written the musical.” Jennifer Saunders too! There’s enough Girl Power in that team to make the show a success, I reckon!

Finally, this week’s cast news. The National Theatre welcomes two returning actresses for A Woman Killed With Kindness in June. Sandy McDade last appeared in The Seagull, directed by Katie Mitchell. McDade is probably best-known as Lark Rise To Candleford’s Miss Ellison. Mitchell also directs the National’s revival of the 1603 domestic thriller A Woman Killed With Kindness. Liz White (from the BBC adaptation of The Crimson Petal And The White and Life On Mars) stars alongside McDade. White was last at the National in the double bill of Spring Storm and Beyond The Horizon last year.