This does mean there’s space for the excellent Abigail’s Party to transfer from the Menier Chocolate Factory, where it had a sold out run, to the larger Wyndham’s Theatre. Starring Jill Halfpenny, Joe Absolom and Natalie Casey (who’s hilarious), this is a brilliant new version of Mike Leigh’s classic comedy and should continue to make audiences cringe and chortle in equal measure now it’s in the West End.

Other new shows heading to London in the coming weeks are Six Actors In Search Of A Director, a new comedy written and directed by Steven Berkoff at the Charing Cross Theatre from 16 May; and Democracy, Sheffield Theatre’s critically acclaimed production of Michael Frayn’s 2003 hit, at the Old Vic from 15 June.

Finally, have you ever fancied yourself as one of The Beatles? New West End theatrical concert, Let It Be, is running open auditions to find actor-musicians to play the fab four. Head to the Gielgud Theatre on 8 May to show off your talents; successful applicants will join the cast of Let It Be when it opens at the Prince of Wales Theatre in September this year.

London Cast News:

Star of American hit series Smash, Raza Jaffrey is to play the sleazy lawyer Billy Flynn in Chicago from 16 May to 14 July this summer. He’ll then be replaced by Olympic gold medallist and Dancing On Ice judge Robin Cousins.

Lisa Dillon will star alongside Stephen Mangan in the Royal Court’s forthcoming production of Birthday, from 22 June. Joe Penhall’s tense new comedy is about a couple waiting for the arrival of their new baby.

You can find out all you need to know about London theatre, book tickets and read about all the shows on offer on our main website: visitlondon.com/events/theatre

Sad news to start this week: Million Dollar Quartet is closing. After nearly a year in the West End, the musical which celebrates the four greats of rock’n’roll (Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins) will close on 14 January at the Noel Coward Theatre. (The producers are planning to take the production on a tour of the UK, so this isn’t necessarily the end for this show!)

Are you a fan of The Kings Speech? The Oscar-winning film actually started life as a play by David Seidler, which is happily being produced at the Richmond Theatre next March. The Kings Speech is directed by former RSC Artistic Director Adrian Noble and stars Charles Edwards as King George VI. I think it’ll make a fantastic play; can’t wait to see it!

And now this week’s cast news:

• Ugly Betty star America Ferrera will swap her trademark poncho and braces for fishnets next month when she makes her West End debut in Chicago at the Garrick Theatre as Roxie Hart
• Joely Richardson will become the third member of her incredible family to play Ellida in Ibsen’s The Lady From The Sea, when she takes on the role at the Rose Theatre in Kingston next year
• The cast of Noises Off at the Old Vic has been announced: Celia Imrie, Janie Dee, Robert Glenister and Amy Nuttall are just some of the big names gracing the Old Vic stage this Christmas

More next week!

Firstly, news that the classic Ealing comedy, The Ladykillers has been adapted for the stage by the writer behind hit TV comedies Father Ted and The IT Crowd, Graham Linehan, and will be coming to the Gielgud Theatre in November. The cast sounds fantastic: Peter Capaldi from the Thick of It will play Professor Marcus (the Alec Guinness role from the film). And he’ll be backed up by a gang played by James Fleet (Hugo from the Vicar of Dibley), comic Ben Miller, Stephen Wight and everyone’s favourite pantomime dame, Clive Rowe. The quintet is joined by multi-Olivier Award-winner Marcia Warren as Mrs Wilberforce.

Next, I’m thrilled to hear both War Horse and Billy Elliot: The Musical are extending: War Horse to October 2012, and Billy to December 2012. Congratulations to both these incredible shows.

And so to casting news:

• Another member of the Rock of Ages line-up was announced this week: Shane Ward from The X-Factor is to play the disillusioned rock bad boy Stacee Jaxx when Rock Of Ages opens at the Shaftesbury theatre in September
• Supermodel Christie Brinkley is going to be the latest star to take on the role of Roxy Hart in Chicago. She’ll be donning the fishnets from 11 July to 6 August.
• Carley Stenson, who’s currently playing Margot in Legally Blonde will step up later this summer and play the lead role of college sweetheart Elle Woods. Carley starts on 11 July; Any Dream Will Do-winner Lee Mead will be Stenson’s leading man as he’s joining the cast from 20 June.

Finally, the Bush Theatre has announced the show that will welcome audiences to its new home. Sixty Six Books is an epic celebration of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. Sixty-six playwrights, poets, songwriters and novelists from 12 different countries will create a response to each of the 66 books in the Kings James Bible. The impressive list of contributors includes Jeanette Winterson, Carol Ann Duffy, Billy Bragg, Neil LaBute and even the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Artistic Director Josie Rourke is working with a team of directors to present three hour, six hour and two 24 hour epic performances, with every room, corner and cupboard(!) of the new venue put to use.

You can read more about the Bush’s future plans here on the Official London Theatre website.

Firstly: we knew it was coming… we just didn’t know when! But now, it’s finally been announced: the London transfer of the hit musical Matilda is coming to the Cambridge Theatre on 22 November (previews from 18 October).

That means the record-breaking Chicago (14 years and counting!) will be booted out of the venue, but I’ve got every confidence they’ll find another home for their fishnets and jazz-hands soon.

Matilda, meanwhile, will retain much of its cast from the award-winning Stratford run, including London stage regular Bertie Carvel as child-hating headmistress Miss Trunchbull, and Paul Kaye and Josie Walker as Matilda’s parents Mr and Mrs Wormwood. Tickets go on sale this weekend for performances up until 12 February – get booking now!

I’ve got great casting news for you this week: so many great names are stepping up to put on a show in London, it’s a really exciting time.

• Miranda Raison is returning to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in July. She’ll play the lead in Anne Boleyn a new play by Howard Brenton  which sold out last year. (I saw the show, and thoroughly recommend it.)
• EastEnder Phil Daniels is joining the cast of The Beggar’s Opera at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. If you’re not a soap fan, you might know Daniels from the film Quadrophenia, TV series Holding On and Rock & Chips, and as the famous voice in Blur’s 1994 hit Parklife.
• Romola Garai, who’s been all over our TV screens in period adaptations recently (Emma, The Crimson Petal and The White) is to appear at the Royal Court this summer. She’ll star alongside Alexandra Gilbreath and Nicholas Burns (Nathan Barley to you and me) in The Village Bike, a darkly comic, provocative new play by Penelope Skinner.
• It’s a case of “Here I Go Again” for West End regular, Sally Ann Triplett. She’s heading back to Mamma Mia! after a two-year absence to play leading lady Donna Sheridan.
• Finally, star of stage and screen Michael Feast is joining the cast of Pygmalion on Monday, replacing Simon Ward, who’s contracted a viral infection. Feast joins Rupert Everett, Kara Tointon and Diana Rigg in the hotly-anticipated new production of George Bernard Shaw’s classic.

Let us know in the comments what you’ve seen and enjoyed in London’s theatres this week…

From one William to another. William Hogarth’s engravings are the basis for another of this week’s highlighted shows. Theatre company simple8′s builds a play around Tom Nero, Hogarth’s orphaned protagonist. In The Four Stages of Cruelty, nine actors create the swirl of life, death, crime, love and cruelty that Nero encounters on his rise from poor orphan to notorious criminal. Look out for live music, period cant, physical ingenuity and an array of characters in a story that plunges a corkscrew into the city’s social bedrock, taking in the Hackney carriages, gin halls, boxing bouts and masquerades of 18th-century London.

This week’s casting news comes for two very different shows. Firstly, actor, singer and presenter Jonathan Wilkes is joining the cast of musical Chicago as Billy Flynn for a seven-week run from next week. Secondly, casting has been announced for the world premier of Tactical Questioning at the Tricycle Theatre from 2 June.

Tactical Questioning: Scenes from the Baha Mousa Inquiry brings together stories from the Public Inquiry which examined those two days of detention and the British Army’s treatment of detainees. The Tricycle’s production is staged following the oral hearings completed in October last year and before Sir William Gage publishes his final report and recommendations this summer. 

The Tactical Questioning cast includes:

• Dean Ashton
• Christopher Fox
• Luke Harris
• David Michaels
• Alan Parnaby
• Simon Rouse
• Mark Stobbart
• Rick Warden
• Thomas Wheatley

Finally, Ghost Stories will scare theatregoers for the last time next month: I’ve had an announcement that it’s closing on 19 June. The show had been booking until 1 October, but will close early: book now if you want to witness what caused the show’s producers to warn of “moments of extreme shock and tension”.

The London panto season is in full swing and in a casting of twisted genius, David Hasselhoff and Louie Spence are starring together in Peter Pan at the New Wimbledon Theatre.

Last night I went along to see the show – the inexplicable lure of the Hoff is too strong to resist – and it’s a brilliant night out.

When I saw the Hoff playing Billy Flynn in Chicago the Musical in London in 2004, one fan was so excited he was sick and was hanging on to the balcony refusing to leave the auditorium till the Hoff left the stage. This passionate obsession the world seems to have for David Hasselhoff makes him perfect for panto. The audience loved every minute of his confident, dastardly Captain Hook and loved shouting, booing and cheering him.

Louie Spence won over everyone with his charm and hilarious dancing, much of which was aimed at the Hoff, which made it even funnier. (Starting to wonder if I’m just blogging a weird dream…)

The other outstanding performance was from the Panettes, a super singing Supremes trio who serenade Peter Pan.

David Hasselhoff isn’t appearing in every performance. Just when this whole thing couldn’t get any stranger, the role of Captain Hook will also be played by Jeremy Jackson (the actor who played Hoff’s son Hobie in Baywatch) and Jerry Springer.

I’m not going to claim this production of Peter Pan is the best thing I’ve ever seen on the London stage because I’ll never live it down, but it is. Really. My face hurts from laughing. Book your tickets now!

Peter Pan at the New Wimbledon Theatre. 10 December – 16 January. Tickets from £18.50. www.ambassadortickets.com/New-Wimbledon-Theatre

Spooks and Shakespeare fans will be pleased to hear the gorgeous Miranda Raison is going to be onstage in London this summer. Miranda, who played Jo Portman in the long-running spy drama, takes on the role of Anne Boleyn in two different productions at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. She’ll be playing the doomed queen in both Shakespeare’s rarely performed Henry VIII and a new play called Anne Boleyn by Howard Brenton.

Another TV star headed for the London stage is Emma Barton (Honey Mitchell in EastEnders to you and me), who’s appearing as Roxie Hart in Chicago at the end of the month. The former EastEnder moves to the West End’s Cambridge Theatre from 26 April, and she’s joined by Vivien Carter as Velma Kelly.

And there’s news from the lovely Riverside Studios in Hammersmith: a Howard Barker Festival celebrates the “theatre of catastrophe” writer later this month. Hurts Given and Received and Slowly are playing from 29 April and 1 May respectively: you can see both on one evening for £22. Then, on 2 May, there’ll be a rehearsed reading of Barker’s newest play Wonder and Worship in the Dying Ward. It’ll probably be tough viewing, but compelling nonetheless!

On a lighter note, the team here are off to see London’s new production of Hair! tonight. We’ll drop you a line about it very soon…