Writer and director Richard Curtis, known for the popular British romantic comedies Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, has revealed his next project.
“Christmas Actually” is a stage show that includes live music, performance, poetry and comedy that will serve as a fundraiser for the Comic Relief charity. It is not a sequel to the 2003 song “Love Actually”. A proportion of ticket sales will go to Comic Relief to support life-changing projects across the UK and around the world.
Comic Relief is a charitable foundation founded by Curtis and Lenny Henry in 1985 in response to famine in Ethiopia. Since then, the charity has raised more than £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) to help those in need through fundraisers where British comedians perform. The annual Red Nose Day event is the biggest source of revenue.
Christmas Actually, curated by Curtis and directed by Daniel Raggett (“An Accidental Death of an Anarchist”) will run eight performances at London’s Royal Festival Hall from December 7-11. The show is from Senbla and Roast Productions in partnership with Comic Relief.
Unfolding against a backdrop of vivid illustrations by famous artists and illustrators, the show will feature Christmas classics performed by a live band, real-life stories and poetry brought to life by the cast. The show also promises some “brilliantly terrible” Christmas cracker jokes read on screen by celebrities, kids’ hilarious messages to Father Christmas and an old-fashioned song.
Curtis said: “I hope this is the perfect Christmas show: loud and soulful, full of surprises and jokes with some appropriate celebrity sparkle. And I know it will help support amazing projects that are changing people’s lives, both in the UK and around the world, 365 days a year.” “.
Curtis has another Christmas-themed project in the works — an untitled New York thriller for Peacock in which Melissa McCarthy, Papa Isidro, and Marc Maron star in a fairy tale comedy about a workaholic man who enlists the help of a magical genie to help win his family over before Christmas.
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