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Love Never Dies – but will Lloyd Webber’s new musical?
The much anticipated follow-up to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, has had mixed notices with the first round of critics.
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Olivier Awards to be broadcast live on Radio 2 and online
The prestigious Laurence Olivier Awards will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 2 for the very first time.
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Noel Cowards’s Private Lives wins over the critics
Sex and the City temptress Kim Cattrall is the talk of the town as her West End play proves a huge hit.
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Keira Knightley leads the nominations at Olivier launch
Some of the UK’s hottest actors gathered for the launch of this year’s 2010 Laurence Olivier Awards.
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Blog: Vermin plaguing theatres, claim Equity. Is it that serious?
An Equity survey claims more than three quarters of West End performers and stage managers confirm there’s a vermin problem in the workplace.
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Are you ready to take a bite of the big apple?
Launch of the TS Eliot Exchange between the US and the UK, is being launched tomorrow at the Old Vic by Jeremy Irons and James Earl Jones.
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Photos: Surviving Actors first convention proves a huge hit
Surviving Actors, the UK’s first actors’ convention held in central London on 30th January, was a huge success.
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Blog: How irritating are today’s theatre audiences?
How many times have you been to the theatre and had to deal with an extra ‘performance’ coming from the auditorium? What are the audience habits that annoy you?
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Theatre Review: Love Never Dies – Adelphi
Ignore all that spiteful nonsense out there on blogosphere from “Phans” and critics alike that should know better, writes Josh Logan.
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Film Review: Invictus – Cinemas Nationwide
Yet another “man with a mission” film from Clint Eastwood, but without the usual violent outcome, writes John Ayton.
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Theatre Review: King Lear – RSC – Courtyard Theatre
Rupert Bridgwater reviews RSC’s King Lear and discovers a bold and magnificent all round production.
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Preview: Kim Cattrall opens in Private Lives at Vaudeville
Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall will take centre stage in Private Lives, the Noel Coward 1929 comedy classic.
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Two young actors win roles in Welsh feature film
Carlton Venn and Martin Cannon have just made their debut in the first feature film from Dragon, the Welsh film production company.
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Advice: Just Ask Yvonne – Your career problems answered
Resident Agony Aunt, Yvonne I’Anson, gets to grips with your career problems: Should you get help from a tutor? What’s in a name?
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Advice: I need help emotionally connecting to the role
An audition is an unnatural process and requires you to get into role without fuss. Simon Dunmore gives spot on advice which will help you connect to the role.
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Uncle Dudley wonders why he does the jobs he does.
I was recently asked why I had done some job or other, if, as it seemed, it had been a disaster from start to finish, writes Michael Culkin.
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Theatre review: Cat on a ‘hit’ tin roof at Novello
It was a huge hit on Broadway last year, but would it make the grade with West End audiences and critics?
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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof features an all black cast
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – Novello, London
It was a huge hit on Broadway last year, but would it make the grade with West End audiences and critics? The much hyped all-black anglo-american casting of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof which transferred to the Novello Theatre last week, was to be an interesting one. I’m pleased to say, it impressed.Being a Cat virgin this was going to be a unique experience. I’d read the play, two – possibly three times – yet it was quite remarkable how quickly I forgot the colour of the actors’ skin and became totally captivated in a story of love, lies and entanglement.
Debbie Allen’s production, set in the 1980s, is bold and lively for the most part, if a little slow and stationary in the setup.
Adrian Lester’s Brick is a broken man who has hit the bottle, unable to cope with his confused sexuality. His performance shows real clarity, a journey of torture and self-loathing – an abhorrent life he just can’t escape from. His most powerful scene is with the great US actor James Earl Jones who plays his father, Big Daddy. Recognising his favourite son is distressed, he pulls him to one side to counsel. What follows is an intense and gripping scene of love and trust, played brilliantly by both actors.
James Earl Jones is magnetic as Big Daddy, a large authoritative figure who commands the space. His long-suffering, yet wholly devoted wife Big Mama, played by the charismatic Phylicia Rashad, skirts attentively hoping for a glimmer of affection.
The third act swings along and builds up a fitting momentum. This revival is brilliant and is sure to do good business in a West End that seems to be, on the whole, flourishing.
