Natalia Osipova to debut as a West End actress, to miss MacMillan
- Ikuko
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
The Royal Ballet Principal Natalia Osipova will make her West End debut as an actress later in the year, The Royal Ballet said in a press release on 15th June 2026.
Russian Osipova will join The Standard of Living, a new play by James Graham based on the life of John Maynard Keynes, an English economist whose thinking built the basis for the Keynesian economics, in its 12 week run in September-December 2026 at Theatre Royal in Haymarket, London, the United Kingdom.
She will play the role of Lydia Lopokova, Keynes' wife and a celebrated Russian ballerina with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.
Osipova will still dance the role of Manon in The Royal Ballet's Manon in October. She will, however, miss Song of The Earth in the Visionary double bill in November, the company said. The press release did not mention who would replace her.
Actor Rory Kinnear (Bill Tanner in the Daniel Craig James Bond film series) will play the role of Keynes. The play will be directed by Nicholas Hytner.
Why The Royal Ballet? The Royal Ballet explains;
"Rory Kinnear stars as radical economist and member of the Bloomsbury group, John Maynard Keynes, husband to Lydia Lopokova, lover to Duncan Grant and friend of Virgina (sic) Woolf. Regarded as one of the twentieth century’s greatest thinkers. Keynes 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. Keynes and Lopokova were also instrumental in the establishment of British Ballet, setting up The Camargo Society which supported the early careers of British dance pioneers; Ninette de Valois, Marie Rambert and Frederick Ashton. He was also instrumental in bringing the Sadlers Wells Ballet, now The Royal Ballet, to the Royal Opera House in 1946."
I only new Keynes as an economist!
Merde, Natalia!