Theatre
Matt Wolf
If it's possible to take a loving and empathic approach to decidedly intractable material, the director Michael Attenborough achieves precisely that with Filumena, in which Samantha Spiro follows on from (and surpasses) Judi Dench in author Eduardo De Filippo's title role of the one-time Neapolitan prostitute who in early middle age decides that what matters most is to be una mamma. Staged on a terracotta, plant-filled stage dominated by an orange tree whose limbs extend out towards the theatre's upper level, the production looks as handsome as Spiro makes it sound, and it's only Read more ...
aleks.sierz
Ethnic tensions in France have been in the news this week, with the siege of the gunman Mohammed Merah, so award-winning South-African penman Craig Higginson’s new play seems really timely. First seen in this country at the Salisbury Playhouse, and opening last night at Theatre 503 in south London, this story about the relationship between a French-Congolese student and an English teacher during a hot Parisian summer is full of emotion, and ideas.Set in the chic flat of Celia, an attractive young teacher of English, this two-hander is a story about her encounter with Pierre, an equally young Read more ...
fisun.guner
The Master and Margarita is a rare beast. Not only is it considered to be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, it also regularly tops reader-lists of all-time favourite books. So it’s no wonder that, since its publication in 1966, 26 years after the author’s early death, Mikhail Bulgakov’s Soviet-era masterpiece has attracted a steady stream of film-makers and theatre directors. But their adaptations have so often floundered that one genuinely fears for anyone fearless, or foolhardy, enough to take it on. With its genre-shifting multiple narratives and dense allegorical layers, Read more ...
Matt Wolf
Gregory Doran was today named the incoming artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he will succeed Michael Boyd in the post later this year. The announcement came as no surprise given Doran's longstanding commitment to an organisation that he first joined as an actor in 1987, before shifting careers to rise up through the RSC ranks as director (and occasional writer, as well).The appointment ended speculation that had long seen Doran as the heir apparent for the post. Industry murmurs were heard in recent weeks that Sam Mendes represented a dark horse candidacy - though it's Read more ...
ash.smyth
In 1888, the extremely weird Swedish playwright and novelist August Strindberg, the radical lefty son of a shipping merchant and a housemaid, wrote a play called Miss Julie about the conflict between the classes, between love and lust, between obedience and servitude, and between all the possible variations on these knotty and tortu(r)ous themes. The seemingly perennial “relevance” of his story has since guaranteed endless theatrical re-runs (including productions set and/or performed in South Africa, Northern Ireland and Mississippi), a host of Miss Julie television dramas, films, a ballet, Read more ...
judith.flanders
Melodrama is not something we accept easily these days, tittering gently as the gore runs, moving restlessly in our seats as heroes or villains declaim to the gallery. So all the more odd, on the surface, that Sweeney Todd is the most popular of Stephen Sondheim’s musicals. On the surface. Because, under the melodramatic posturing, Sondheim creates a cold, hard, bleak world.So not a barrel of laughs, right? Well, no, not right either, for Sweeney Todd is Sondheim at his fastest, his most ferocious, and his funniest. The melodrama of the returned convict Sweeney Todd (Michael Ball) cutting a Read more ...
theartsdesk
In how many categories is it possible for a show to be nominated for this year's Olivier Awards? Answer: 10. The producers of Matilda the Musical will be smiling from ear to ear after the nominations for next month’s awards were revealed, with the RSC’s Roald Dahl adaptation nominated in all 10. Tim Minchin is in the running for best score, and the four young actresses who share the lead are also nominated. In various categories Matilda will be up against Ghost the Musical at the Piccadilly Theatre and the National Theatre’s London Road, which have five and four nominations respectively.As Read more ...
aleks.sierz
Like many a regular theatregoer, I have a little list of classic plays that I’ve never seen, or even read. One of these is, or rather was, Errol John’s evocatively titled Moon on a Rainbow Shawl. Written in 1953, this definitive “yard play” was a historic breakthrough for Caribbean playwrights in Britain. So it was with considerable anticipation that I went to this revival, which opened last night at Britain’s national flagship venue. But can this classic stand up to scrutiny?Originally, the 33-year-old Trinidadian-born John, who was working as an actor, won the Tynan-inspired Observer new Read more ...
Matt Wolf
Phone rings, door chimes, in comes Company, this time sporting surround sound and high definition and at a cinema near you. Tonight marks a rare opportunity to see a New York gala - the sort of event that proliferates in Manhattan even as the actual volume of Broadway openings decreases - with an assemblage of names that you could never get to commit for an extended run. All that and Broadway diva Patti LuPone at her most pungently acerbic? Stephen Sondheim's 1970 musical has rarely looked or sounded so good as in this showing in UK cinemas of a banner musical theatre event from over the Read more ...
Matt Wolf
Was it the players, or the play, that has made a phenomenon out of One Man, Two Guvnors, the prize-winning comedy now on its third London theatre and preparing to hop the pond to Broadway next month? Well, bacon and eggs(!), it turns out there’s life aplenty in Richard Bean’s Goldoni rewrite yet, even without the star wattage of James Corden and the insanely arched eyebrows of Oliver Chris.Recast (for the most part) in its move from the Adelphi to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, a fresh company allows for a fresh perspective on Bean’s Brighton-set narrative, which displaces commedia dell’ arte Read more ...