Every day is opening night.

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Rick Miramontez / Kendall Edwards
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FOR IIMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

“THE STANDARD OF LIVING”
WRITTEN BY JAMES GRAHAM
DIRECTED BY NICHOLAS HYTNER

TO OPEN IN THE WEST END
AT LONDON’S THEATRE ROYAL HAYMARKET
FOR A LIMITED 12-WEEK RUN
FROM SEPTEMBER 21 – DECEMBER 12

PRODUCED BY BRIAN & DAYNA LEE
AND NICHOLAS HYTNER

New York, NY (June 15, 2026) – Producers Brian & Dayna Lee and Nicholas Hytner have today announced the world premiere of The Standard of Living, a new play written by three-time Olivier Award winner James Graham (Punch, This House, Dear England, Sherwood). This bold piece of original new writing will receive its World Premiere in London’s West End with a production directed by multi-award winner Nicholas Hytner (The History Boys, One Man, Two Guvnors, Giant). The production marks the producing team’s first collaboration since the Olivier and Tony Award-winning Giant, which is currently playing and recently recouped on Broadway.

The Standard of Living will run for a strict 12-week engagement at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Previews will begin on 21 September with opening night on Tuesday 29 September. Tickets are on sale now. For further information, please visit standardoflivingplay.com.

The producers have also announced the release of “Keynes Tickets” which will be available for under 30s throughout the run priced at £25, to ensure that extraordinary new writing is accessible to the widest possible audience. Audiences can sign up now for notification of their release.

Olivier Award winner Rory Kinnear (Hamlet, Skyfall, The Diplomat) stars as John Maynard Keynes, the radical economist and member of the influential Bloomsbury Group who became the singular driving force behind arts funding in Britain and built a new and fairer financial model, that ultimately helped reshape the Western World in the aftermath of the First World War. Royal Ballet Principal Natalia Osipova makes her West End debut as the celebrated ballet dancer Lydia Lopokova, a soloist with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes who was considered the embodiment of the new era of modernist ballet.

The production will feature set design by Olivier Award winner Bob Crowley (Giant, The Inheritance, An American in Paris). To download headshots, click here.

In a statement, Brian and Dayna Lee said, “James has the exceptional ability to distill pivotal political, social and historical events into riveting and life-altering theatre, and what he has done with the story of John Maynard Keynes is no exception. We are delighted to be working with James and collaborating once again with the brilliant Nicholas Hytner to bring this extraordinary piece of bold original writing direct to the West End and share the little known story of the man who made it possible for theatre and art of all kinds to flourish in this country.”

Can you put a price on happiness, beauty and love?

Husband to ballerina Lydia Lopokova. Lover to Duncan Grant. Friend to Virginia Woolf. Keynes moves between the corridors of power in Whitehall and the intoxicating freedom of a radical circle of artists, writers and lovers – all determined to live differently.

But as markets crash, old systems crumble and Britain teeters on the edge of chaos, one question begins to consume him: What is a good life?

Can art, love and human connection reshape the future before it’s too late? Or is the world too addicted to wealth and power to change?

Alive with music, dance, desire and debate, The Standard of Living is a thrilling, funny and deeply moving portrait of a man who dared to imagine something better.

The Standard of Living will be produced in the West End by Brian & Dayna Lee and Nicholas Hytner with Len Blavatnik & Danny Cohen for Access Entertainment and Ramin Sabi. Mark Rubinstein is Executive Producer and General Management is by Short Street Productions Ltd.

B I O G R A P H I E S

JAMES GRAHAM is a playwright and screenwriter.His Olivier award winning play Dear England, about Gareth Southgate’s transformation of the national team, had a sold out run at the National Theatre in 2023, transferred to the West End and was broadcast on NT Live. An updated version returned to the National Theatre before touring the country. The four part television adaptation for the BBC launches in May 2026 in the run up to the World Cup.

His play Punch opened at the Nottingham Playhouse in 2024 to rave reviews, transferring to the Young Vic in March 2025, before a sell out run in the West End and later Broadway, . The play is based on the true story of Joan Scourfield and David Hodgkinson and the relationship they built with Jacob Dunne, the killer of their son James Hodgkinson. A television adaptation is planned.

Other work includes Tammy Faye, which originally opened at the Almeida Theatre in 2022, before transferring to Broadway in 2024, and Boys from the Blackstuff (adapted from Alan Bleasdale’s seminal TV drama), originally performed at Liverpool Royal Court in 2023 before transferring to The National Theatre last summer.  James’s breakout play This House – also at the National Theatre- went on to have an Olivier-nominated sell-out revival in the West End in 2017 and it was chosen by popular vote as the best play of the 2010’s for the major theatre publisher Methuen.

James has adapted his 2017 Olivier winning and Tony nominated play, Ink, for screen, which  will premiere in 2026. It is directed by Danny Boyle, and stars Guy Pearce, Claire Foy and Jack O’Connell.

James’s TV drama Sherwood – set in the Red Wall community of Ashfield where he is from –won both the Royal Television Society Award for Best Drama and two BAFTA awards. It’s critically acclaimed second season aired in 2024, and its third season is in post production.

Other TV includes: Quiz (ITV and AMC, 2020), directed by Stephen Frears and one of the most watched UK television dramas of the year; and Brexit: An Uncivil War, broadcast on Channel 4 and HBO, which was nominated for an Emmy and a BAFTA.

RORY KINNEAR is an award-winning British actor, perhaps best known for his role Bill Tanner in the James Bond films Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre. Kinnear was BIFA nominated for his leading role in Alex Garland’s Men, which premiered at Cannes. Other recent film credits include Bank of Dave (and Bank of Dave: The Sequel), The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, All The Devils Are Here, Say Nothing, Mike Leigh’s Peterloo, Broken (for which he won Best Supporting Actor at the BIFAs), and the Academy Award and BAFTA Award-nominated The Imitation Game.

Kinnear’s TV credits include The Diplomat, Lord of the Flies, Toxic Town, The Rings of Power, Say Nothing, Brexit, Years and Years, Catherine the Great, Ridley Road, Inside No. 9, Penny Dreadful, Southcliffe (for which he was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor), Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, and the drama Lucan in which he starred in the title role. Upcoming credits include Amadeus, Honey and Learning to Breathe Underwater.

Kinnear is hugely respected for his theatre work, winning Best Actor at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2010 for his performances in Measure for Measure (Almeida Theatre) and Hamlet (National Theatre), and again in 2013 for his performance as ‘Iago’ in Othello (National Theatre), for which he also received an Olivier Award for Best Actor. He previously won an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as ‘Sir Fopling Flutter’ in The Man of Mode in 2008, and was nominated twice before for his performances in Hamlet and Burnt by the Sun. Most recently, Kinnear starred in Force Majeure at the Donmar Warehouse. Kinnear is also an award-winning playwright, penning his debut play The Herd in 2013. He made his directorial debut with the English National Opera’s production of The Winter’s Tale in 2017.

NATALIA OSIPOVA, superstar prima ballerina, is one of the most celebrated dancers of the modern age, renowned the world over for her unique blend of flowless technique and dynamic, fluid and deeply charismatic emotional interpretations in both classical and contemporary dance (‘like a bolt from dance heaven’ – The Times).

A multi award-winning artist, Osipova is feted as much for her perfection in radical new dance drama as for her definitive interpretations of the great classical ballet roles, and is universally regarded as one of the most remarkable ballerinas of her generation.

In 2013 Osipova joined the Royal Ballet as a Principal after appearing as a Guest Artist the previous Season as Odette/Odile (Swan Lake) with Carlos Acosta. Her roles with the Company include Giselle (in which she created a sensation on her debut – ‘truly astonishing, a supernatural tour de force’ – The Guardian), Kitri (Don Quixote), Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker), Princess Aurora (The Sleeping Beauty), Lise (La Fille mal gardée), Titania (The Dream), Marguerite (Marguerite and Armand), Juliet, Tatiana (Onegin), Manon, Sylvia, Mary Vetsera (Mayerling), Natalia Petrovna (A Month in the Country), Anastasia, Gamzatti and Nikiya (La Bayadère) and roles in Rhapsody, Serenade, Raymonda Act III, DGV: Danse à grande vitesse and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. She has created numerous roles – in woman with water, Strapless, Woolf Works, Tetractys, Connectome, Medusa and works by Possokhov and Ratmansky, among others.

She regularly appears as a guest artist with companies around the world, including La Scala and ABT in New York, to name just two. Since 2016 Sadlers Wells Theatre has commissioned two touring productions specifically for Natalia, “Natalia Osipova” (2016) and “Pure Dance (2018,) in which she appeared in a range of classical and contemporary pieces, some commissioned by and choreographed on her by the  most famous choreographers from Alexei Ratmansky, Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui to Arthur Pita and Iván Pérez, among many others, and appearing alongside long-term partner David Hallberg as well as her fiancé, contemporary dancer and choreographer Jason Kittelberger.

Osipova’s numerous awards include Golden Masks for her performances in In the Upper Room (2008) and La Sylphide (2009), Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards (Best Female Dancer, 2007, 2010 and 2014), Positano Dance Awards (Best Female Dancer, 2008 and 2011) and a Benois de la Danse Award (Best Female Dancer, 2008), UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards (Outstanding Female Classical Performance – Giselle, 2022).

From 2018 Natalia has produced and presented two of her own shows, “Mother” (choreographer Arthur Pita) presented in Southbank Center London (2018), and “Carmen” (choreographer Didy Veldman) will be presented in Southbank Center London in May 2022.

In 2019 famous Australian choreographer Meryl Tankard together with Adelaide Festival re-created for Natalia a dance/drama production Two Feet, ““Two Feet […] is stark, tragic, dangerous and beautiful. […] Always a remarkable achievement by Meryl Tankard, as dancer-creator, and she’s refashioned it beyond imagining through this partnership with the marvellous Natalia Osipova” (Limelight Magazine).

In 2019 Osipova starred in the documentary film by Bafta winning director Gerry Fox – Force of Nature, giving an unparalleled glimpse into the working life of one of the world’s greatest artists, and in 2021 she produced the first-ever collection of ballet NFTs.

​​In 2022 Blooms Dance Project, the independent production company, were  founded by Natalia Osipova and Jason Kittelberger. It has started with the idea of sharing dance works Natalia has experienced during her career, from classical to one’s created especially for her. In a long view the goal is to establish a dance company to create new works with a strong mix of dancers and creative team and through worldwide touring to promote the art of dance to the wider audience.

NICHOLAS HYTNER was Director of the National Theatre 2003-15, and is co-founder and Artistic Director of the Bridge Theatre. He was most recently in the West End with Mark Rosenblatt’s Giant and last at the Theatre Royal Haymarket with Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors. His films include The History Boys and The Lady in the Van.

BRIAN AND DAYNA LEE are Tony and Olivier Award-winning producers and the founders of AF Creative Media, a three-time Tony Award-winning and two-time Olivier Award-winning production company.

West End and UK productions: Giant (Olivier Award for Best New Play), Fiddler on the Roof (Olivier Award for Best Revival), Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Broken Glass (Young Vic), High Society (Barbican), Here There Are Blueberries (Stratford East), Guess How Much I Love You? (Royal Court), The Shitheads (Royal Court), Archduke (Royal Court) and Man to Man starring Tilda Swinton (Royal Court).

Broadway credits include the four-time Tony Award-nominated Giant starring John Lithgow, Company (Tony Award), Moulin Rouge! The Musical (Tony Award), Angels in America (Tony Award), Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club (Tony Nominated), The Who’s Tommy and Funny Girl. Upcoming: Awake and Sing!

Off-Broadway credits include Caroline, Here There Are Blueberries (Pulitzer Prize finalist and Lucille Lortel Award winner) and Becoming Eve

In film, they are executive producers of The Painted Bride, directed by Jeremiah Zagar and starring Jeremy Allen White, Mandy Patinkin, and Isabella Rossellini, as well as The Housewife, starring Naomi Watts and Luke Evans.

Brian and Dayna also hold a multi-year exclusive First Look Deal with the Royal Court Theatre. Through this partnership, they are committed to bringing the Royal Court’s groundbreaking work to wider audiences, carrying the theatre’s extraordinary legacy from its iconic Sloane Square home to the West End, Broadway, and beyond.

Brian and Dayna run a popular Instagram blog called @artsfoodfamily with over 128k followers, where they share their journey navigating their way through the Big Apple. Their greatest achievement to date has been their three amazing children.

LEN BLAVATNIK & DANNY COHEN FOR ACCESS ENTERTAINMENT is a division of Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries. Led by Danny Cohen, it invests in world-class content and creative ventures across theatre, film, television, gaming, the creator economy and the visual arts. In addition to owning the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Access Entertainment invests in plays and musicals in the West End and on Broadway, including: Hamilton, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Leopoldstadt, Good and Cabaret. In 2024, Access co-produced the Tony Award-winning play The Picture of Dorian Gray, starring Sarah Snook, which was performed at the Haymarket and on Broadway, and in 2025 Access co-produced Othello starring David Harewood, Toby Jones and Caitlin FitzGerald, also performed at the Haymarket. Access backed theatrical productions have won 26 Olivier Awards and 41 Tony Awards.

In cinema, Access-backed films include the Oscar and BAFTA winners’ Conclave and The Zone of Interest. Access is also the lead investor in Lightroom, home to immersive productions including The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks and David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away).

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