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Published: 17 April 2008
How did the Wicked Witch of the West – frightener of small children, thrower of fireballs and the scariest film baddie of all time – get so evil? All is… Read More
Howard Davies and Kevin Spacey had a critical success with their last joint effort – Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh. Now they have reunited for another O’Neill play, in which… Read More
It’s Christmas Eve and Sharky has returned home to care for his elder brother Richard, who has recently been afflicted by blindness – he fell into a skip on Halloween… Read More
Infectious 70s disco classics, 80s and 90s pop warblings, hip hop battling, big dance routines, dumbfounding break dancing, outrageous beatboxing and a whole lot of soul; that’s what new musical… Read More
Reproducing an action-filled adventure film for the stage is a daunting task for anyone, but Patrick Barlow’s comical adaptation of John Buchan's The 39 Steps, which opened last night at… Read More
He’s only 25, but American actor Chris Carmack has learnt many lessons in his career so far. In overcoming the stereotype that has dogged him, side-stepping the pitfalls of small-screen… Read More
Simon Block’s adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel is a play of two halves. The first is for the most part light-hearted and comic, while the second is dark, moving… Read More
If you didn’t see it the first time around, Lynn Nottage’s tale of a PR diva on the decline, Fabulation, which received much acclaim when it was first seen at… Read More
Purple smoke, explosions, a man in a tutu and a crazy Spaniard with extremely tight trousers were just some of the sights to behold on the Olivier stage at the… Read More
Les Dennis seems to be making a habit of appearing in shows about the television industry. His last role to stick in the mind was as himself in the Ricky… Read More
An opportunity cooler than a cucumber in shades is available for 13-16 year olds on Saturday 30 September; the chance to go backstage at new Boney M musical Daddy Cool.… Read More
Director Thea Sharrock is one of the leading theatrical lights of her generation. The Oxford graduate has risen through the directing ranks so quickly that artistic directors of the calibre… Read More
It was the film that elicited a collective sigh from teenage girls around the world as the final credits rolled: leather-clad Johnny came back from holiday camp exile to extract… Read More
There's something of a theatrical revolution quietly taking place in West London. Under the artistic directorship of David Farr the Lyric Hammersmith is testing the boundaries of what can be… Read More
Karl Theobald is an intriguing character. Over the past six years he has gone from struggling actor and touring stand up comedian to starring in one of Britain's few acclaimed… Read More
You know that a show is youthful when only one member of the 35-strong cast has a child. Such is the case with Daddy Cool, where former Eastenders star and… Read More
How did a shy girl from Preston end up simulating sex with her hand up a puppet’s bum in front of hundreds of people on a West End stage? That’s… Read More
Peter Morgan, author of BAFTA-winning TV drama The Deal, has already proved he has a talent for portraying a battle of wits between worthy adversaries; now he’s done it again,… Read More
David Cook changed his name to David Essex in 1964 on finding another identically monikered actor already in Equity. From then until now his name has become equated with a… Read More
The final Shakespearean offering in Shakespeare’s Globe’s The Edges Of Rome season is a right Roman romp. The Comedy Of Errors is an unlikely tale of twin brothers with twin… Read More
If there was a list of ideal places to stage The Pirates Of Penzance, a replica galleon would probably be fairly near the top, possibly just underneath a desert island… Read More
The unravelling of a couple’s relationship is often played out for all the world to see, with its simmering arguments, startling confessions, and a ‘he said, she said’ airing of… Read More
Ah, the French Riviera: where young aristocratic English girls are sent to become fine women, ripe for marriage; where the sun always shines; where cheerfulness is almost constant. In Regent’s… Read More
Based on his BAFTA award-winning The Last Of The Blonde Bombshells, which starred Dame Judi Dench, Ian Holm and Leslie Caron, Alan Pater’s stage version, Blonde Bombshells of 1943, swung… Read More
Have you ever wondered how Long John Silver lost his leg? Or why he wasn’t called Short John Silver? No? Well Simon Bent wants to tell you anyway, because his… Read More
Third to open in Shakespeare’s Globe’s The Edges Of Rome season is Antony And Cleopatra, Shakespeare’s history of the political powers of Egypt and Rome and the passion between Roman… Read More
Bringing Chaucer’s epic story of pilgrims wending their way towards Canterbury to the stage is a gargantuan project, especially when you intend to use almost all of the tales. But… Read More
After last year’s two-week sell-out run at the Tricycle, it was inevitable that Robert Newman would return to the scene of his triumph with his new show, No Planet B… Read More
This production of Samuel Beckett’s play, adapted from the original television play by director Atom Egoyan, is an eerie, bizarre event which certainly does not make for an average night… Read More
By the time the visiting Bishop of Lax proclaims ‘Sergeant, arrest most of these vicars!’ there are more men of the cloth on the Duchess stage than the non-ordained. How… Read More
During the televised search for a new play to put on in the West End, the panel of the Channel 4 programme The Play’s The Thing – producer Sonia Friedman,… Read More
It has been described as Sesame Street for adults, but new musical Avenue Q is much more than that. The show, which originated off-Broadway before leaping onto the Great White… Read More
Maria Friedman is one of the world’s most renowned and versatile musical actresses, who has wowed audiences in a host of shows ranging from Oklahoma! to Chicago. She is currently… Read More
A desolate motel room: the bed is functional, but little else, the desk is cold and unloved. Through the windows, the flashing of the neon sign can be seen. This… Read More
In the programme notes to the Donmar Warehouse production of A Voyage Round My Father, 83-year-old playwright John Mortimer writes that he still refers to the standards by which his… Read More
The National’s Olivier theatre plays host to an entire shopping centre this summer as it launches David Eldridge’s new play Market Boy. Featuring a cast of 30 actors – some… Read More
Since interpretation of Hicks’s views on such subjects as the Iraq war, the state of the music industry (Dido and Coldplay are particular targets), 9/11, the presidency of George W… Read More
Sam Buntrock’s revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday In The Park With George opened at the Menier Chocolate Factory last year. Following much acclaim it has transferred to the larger Wyndham’s… Read More
Daniel Evans has a voice that sounds like a warm breeze working its way idly through a grassy valley where sheep casually graze; a musical Welsh lilt to which you… Read More
Kim Cattrall is one of America’s most renowned actresses. She has won Golden Globe Awards, starred in Hollywood blockbusters and been a regular on stage in plays in virtually all… Read More
In Cheek By Jowl’s 25th year, the innovative theatre company has found a home at the Barbican, where it will present two pieces each year for the next three years,… Read More
There are some things in life you just don’t do, such as tickling an angry lion or taunting an irritable crocodile. Yet no one taught the Romans that it is… Read More
Michael Frayn’s comedy about a university reunion may have been written almost 30 years ago, but it could just as easily be set in an Oxbridge college today. The rooms… Read More
Simon Stephens won a 2006 Laurence Olivier Award for his play On The Shore Of The Wide World. Last night his new work Motortown had its premiere at the Royal… Read More
It is always an event not to be missed when seven-time Laurence Olivier Award winner Dame Judi Dench takes to the West End stage, and last night was no exception.… Read More
Footloose the film rates near the top of the list of classic teen movies; the ones where misunderstood kids move to new towns, trouble follows them, but at the end… Read More
After its initial run in Stratford as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s New Works season, Anthony Sher’s production of Breakfast with Mugabe now transfers to London’s Soho theatre. The… Read More
Jerry Herman is the only composer/lyricist in history to have had three musicals exceed 1,500 consecutive performances on Broadway. Mack And Mabel, a show that Herman considers a ‘favourite child’,… Read More
In a year that promises to be a boon time for fans of musical theatre, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Evita is among the first of the eagerly awaited… Read More
It takes a special kind of guy to invent sweets that play tunes, raise two children, be at ease dancing with a bamboo cane and fly a car with a… Read More
Summer has come to Regent’s Park’s Open Air theatre in more ways than one this year. Joining the season of long days and exposed flesh is actress Summer Strallen who,… Read More
Tom Conti is starring in Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell at the Garrick until 2 September. He talks to Laura North about cigarettes, alcohol and falling asleep. The date for my… Read More
He’s enjoyed a long career as a company actor, with frequent appearances for the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, but now Philip York has taken the plunge and… Read More
Antony Costa has already lived a hell of a life. For five years he was one quarter of Blue, one of the world’s most lauded and applauded pop acts. He… Read More
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible now transfers to London’s Gielgud theatre after a successful run in Stratford. Written in response to the McCarthy communist hunts… Read More
Carmel Morgan’s list of television writing credits includes Shameless, Reintarnation, Brookside and Coronation Street, and now she has turned her talent for sharp observations of British society to theatre. Her… Read More
The 2,348-seat Apollo Victoria has long been home to some of the West End’s most famous musicals. Now, sandwiched between Saturday Night Fever and the Broadway transfer of Wicked, which… Read More
It’s been a while since the Trafalgar Studios hosted an English translation of a French comedy. The last, when the theatre was still the Whitehall, was the hugely successful, long-running… Read More
Ken Kesey’s novel about life in a psychiatric institution in 1960s America has been adapted for the stage by Dale Wasserman, and had a sell-out run at the Gielgud theatre… Read More
With an early career that included selling toys at Selfridges and washing up at the Dorchester, I guess you could say that veteran actor Denis Quilley has worked in all… Read More
Reece Shearsmith takes a very different view of himself to much of the entertainment world. As a member of The League Of Gentlemen he created one of the most lauded… Read More
After a troublesome start, with previews being cancelled due to Judi Dench being ill, Hay Fever finally kicked off at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. For Belinda Lang, playing Myra Arundel… Read More
The career of Cheryl Baker has been nothing if not varied. Starting as a session singer, Baker found fame as one quarter of British 80s popsters Bucks Fizz, who collected… Read More
Due to popular demand, Tamara Harvey and Terry Johnson’s production of Dale Wasserman’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is back in the West End for a limited run until… Read More
Behind the stage of the Trafalgar Studio 1 is a corridor-like space packed with chairs, props and a couple of radiators; a scene reminiscent of a church jumble sale or… Read More
My Name Is Rachel Corrie is the one-woman play based on the real-life writings of a young American peace activist who lost her life in Gaza. A sell-out success during… Read More
In the Deep South of America, 15-year-old Swallow finds a man hidden and bleeding in her father’s barn. When she asks who he is, his first reaction is to exclaim… Read More
My Name Is Rachel Corrie, which sold out runs at both Royal Court theatres, was due to transfer to the New York Theatre Workshop this spring. Following discussions about the… Read More
Alan Bennett’s play about a traitor in exile is set entirely in a house in the middle of a forest. As Timothy West’s Hilary points out, it could be almost… Read More
It’s an odd experience to come in from the snow, only to find that it is snowing inside, but this is the experience shared by last night’s audience at the… Read More
The RSC brings its second annual season of new work to London from Stratford, showcasing five British and American playwrights who focus on international themes. Debbie Tucker Green kicks off… Read More
Mary Poppins has been a sell-out success since it opened in London two years ago, bringing the characters of PL Travers to life on stage. Nearly as famous as the… Read More
The stars were out in force for the world premiere of the new musical Sinatra At The London Palladium. The black tie and the red carpet seemed entirely appropriate given… Read More
A burnt out barn complete with animal skull looming over the fireplace, a circular saw blade sitting in the grate and its own personal mad moorland hobo with a hatred… Read More
It is seems to be the season for shows about comedy double acts. First we got Steptoe And Son in Murder At Oil Drum Lane; now we have arguably Britain’s… Read More