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News: National Theatre adds five new productions to streaming platform National Theatre at Home

The National Theatre has today announced the latest productions to be made available on its National Theatre at Home streaming platform. Launching today, Michaela Coel’s Chewing Gum Dreams, the Young Vic’s A View from the Bridge directed by Ivo van Hove with Mark Strong and Nicola Walker, and Rufus Norris’ production of Everyman with Chiwetel Ejiofor will be available for all audiences worldwide to stream. Danny Boyle’s production of Frankenstein and Sonia Friedman Productions’ Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch will also be available for audiences outside the UK and Ireland. Continue reading “News: National Theatre adds five new productions to streaming platform National Theatre at Home”

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The 2019 fosterIAN award winners

Best Actress in a Play
Sarah Niles/Natalie Simpson/Racheal Ofori, Three Sisters

Best Actress in a Musical
Audrey Brisson, Amélie the Musical

Best Actor in a Play
Lucian Msamati, ‘Master Harold’…and the boys

Best Actor in a Musical
Jamie Muscato, West Side Story (Curve Leicester)

Best Supporting Actress in a Play
Monica Dolan, All About Eve

Best Supporting Actress in a Musical
Cassidy Janson/Melanie La Barrie, & Juliet 

Best Supporting Actor in a Play
Nick Holder, Faith Hope and Charity

Best Supporting Actor in a Musical
David Bedella, & Juliet

And my top 10 plays of the year:
1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Southwark Playhouse
2. Call Me Fury, Hope Theatre
3. West Side Story, Curve Leicester
4. As You Like It, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch
5. Islander, Southwark Playhouse
6. Amélie the Musical, Watermill Theatre/UK Tour/The Other Palace
7. & Juliet, Shaftesbury Theatre
8. Sexy Lamp, VAULT
9. Karaoke Play, Bunker Theatre
10. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, National Theatre

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fosterIAN awards 2019

 WinnerRunner-upOther nominees
Best Actress in a PlaySarah Niles/Natalie Simpson/Racheal Ofori,
Three Sisters		Marieke Heebink,
Medea		Adjoa Andoh,
Richard II
Sharon D Clarke,
Death of a Salesman
Claire Foy,
Lungs
Leah Harvey,
Small Island
Chris Nietvelt,
De Kersentuin
Best Actor in a Play
Lucian Msamati, ‘Master Harold’…and the boysCary Crankson,
Country Music		Tobias Menzies,
The Hunt
Daniel Monks,
Teenage Dick
Wendell Pierce,
Death of a Salesman
Matt Smith,
Lungs
Zubin Varla,
Equus
Best Supporting Actress in a PlayMonica Dolan,
All About Eve		Jackie Pulford,
Karaoke Play		Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo,
Three Sisters
Janni Goslinga,
De Kersentuin
Pippa Nixon,
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Cecilia Noble,
Faith Hope and Charity
Gemma Whelan,
Pinter Seven
Best Supporting Actor in a PlayNick Holder,
Faith Hope and Charity		Hugo Koolschijn,
De Kersentuin		Rupert Graves,
Pinter Five
John Heffernan,
Pinter Seven
Martins Imhangbe/Natey Jones,
Death of a Salesman
Arinzé Kene/Sope Dirisu,
Death of a Salesman
Ken Nwosu,
Three Sisters
Best Actress in a MusicalAudrey Brisson,
Amélie the Musical		Kirsty Findlay/Bethany Tennick,
Islander		Lucie Jones/Katherine McPhee,
Waitress
Miriam-Teak Lee,
& Juliet
Samantha Pauly,
Evita
Joanna Riding,
Follies
Zizi Strallen,
Mary Poppins
Best Actor in a MusicalJamie Muscato,
West Side Story (Curve Leicester)		Keith Ramsay,
Preludes		Andy Coxon,
West Side Story (Royal Exchange)
Jordan Fox/Michael Vinsen,
[title of show]
David Hunter,
Waitress,
Charlie Stemp,
Mary Poppins
Oliver Tompsett,
& Juliet,
Best Supporting Actress in a Musical
Cassidy Janson/Melanie La Barrie,
& Juliet 		Jocasta Almgill/Emily Langham,
West Side Story (Royal Exchange)		Laura Baldwin/Marisha Wallace,
Waitress
Tiffany Graves/Gabrielle Lewis-Dodson,
The Boy Friend
Claire Machin/Claire Moore,
Mary Poppins
Rebecca McKinnis/Lauren Ward,
Dear Evan Hansen
Carly Mercedes Dyer/Victoria Hamilton-Barritt,
The View UpStairs,
Best Supporting Actor in a MusicalDavid Bedella,
& Juliet		Jack Butterworth,
The Boy Friend		Ricardo Afonso,
Jesus Christ Superstar
Rob Houchen,
The Light in the Piazza
Samuel Holmes,
Curtains
Cedric Neal,
The View UpStairs
Jez Unwin,
Amélie the Musical
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2019 Best Supporting Actor in a Play + in a Musical

Best Supporting Actor in a Play

Nick Holder, Faith Hope and Charity
Holder chooses his stage performances carefully and sparingly and in returning to Alexander Zeldin’s work, he impressed once again on the stage of the Dorfman.

Honourable mention: Hugo Koolschijn, De Kersentuin
Such a memorably heartbreaking performance, the final image of the prostrate Frits (Firs) lying across the stage is seared on my mind.

Rupert Graves, Pinter Five
John Heffernan, Pinter Seven
Martins Imhangbe/Natey Jones, Death of a Salesman
Arinzé Kene/Sope Dirisu, Death of a Salesman
Ken Nwosu, Three Sisters

8-10

Toby Jones, Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp.; Ira Mandela Siobhan, Equus; Colin Morgan, All My Sons

 

Best Supporting Actor in a Musical

David Bedella, & Juliet
All about the accent, Bedella’s commitment to playing Lance entirely straight just adds to the delight that he brings to an already delightful production. 

Honourable mention: Jack Butterworth, The Boy Friend
Such dancing. SUCH DANCING!

Ricardo Afonso, Jesus Christ Superstar
Rob Houchen, The Light in the Piazza
Samuel Holmes, Curtains
Cedric Neal, The View UpStairs
Jez Unwin, Amélie the Musical

8-10
Jack McBrayer, Waitress; Caolan McCarthy, Amélie the Musical; Dale Rapley, Gypsy

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Review: Faith, Hope and Charity, National Theatre

A blistering indictment of austerity and what it has done to all of us, Faith, Hope and Charity is unmissable at the National Theatre

“When we’re hungry, we go to sleep”

A time when the much-abused sobriquet state-of-the-nation is actually entirely appropriate, Alexander Zeldin completes his excoriating triptych of plays about modern Britain with Faith, Hope and Charity. Beyond Caring looked at zero hour contracts and Love homeless hostels, Zeldin now turns his focus onto community centres and their role in holding society together.

As before, there’s little that is inherently ‘dramatic’ in Zeldin’s play, rather scenes are episodic and lean heavily into naturalism – silences as tables are put off, dialogue that interrupts and tails off but rather than feeling empty or clumsy, the cumulative effect is one of deep rumination. And such is Zeldin’s skill, you can’t help but ponder the state of the nation from the seemingly smallest of incidental details as presented here. Continue reading “Review: Faith, Hope and Charity, National Theatre”

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News: the National Theatre announces 15 new productions for 2019 and 2020

So much goodness! The National Theatre have just announced details of productions stretching deep into 2020, and with writers like Lucy Kirkwood, Kate Tempest, Roy Williams and Tony Kushner, and actors like Lesley Manville, Maxine Peake, Conleth Hill, Cecilia Noble and Lesley Sharp, it is hard not to feel excited about what’s ahead.

Olivier Theatre 

Following a sell-out run at Rose Theatre Kingston, the acclaimed two-part adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s MY BRILLIANT FRIEND by April De Angelis is reworked for the Olivier stage by Melly Still (Coram Boy). When the most important person in her life goes missing without a trace, Lenu Greco, now a celebrated author, begins to recall a relationship of more than 60 years.  Continue reading “News: the National Theatre announces 15 new productions for 2019 and 2020”

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Review: Love, National Theatre

“I’m so sorry”

Oooft. No remedy for the January blues this, but one of the most brutally affecting pieces of theatre you could ever bear to see. Alezander Zeldin’s Love follows what life can be found in the anonymous surroundings of a halfway house, a hostel run by the council for people in need of temporary accommodation. People are only meant to be there for a maximum of six weeks but with the system in meltdown, some have been there for over a year, living beyond what anyone could ever call reasonable.

It is tempting to see this as the failure of Big Society but really it is society in general that is being held to account here. The blind eye that we continually turn to those less fortunate than ourselves, the bureaucratic nightmares that we read Guardian thinkpieces about and then never consider again, the consequences of the collapse in the social responsibility of social security, the brutal reality of how desperately foodbanks are needed and the desperation that people feel in needing to use them. Continue reading “Review: Love, National Theatre”

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Review: The Threepenny Opera, National

“There will be no moralising tonight”

Whatever you think a national theatre should be for, I bloody love that Rufus Norris seems to determined to keep diversity near the top of the billing. Whilst it is curious that he’s only committed to ensuring gender equality in terms of the directors and living writers the National Theatre uses by 2021 (I’m sure there’s a reason it takes 5 years), there’s also change happening now in this new production of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera.

The first actors we see and hear are George Ikediashi and Jamie Beddard. So what you might say? But they are respectively a cabaret artist better known as Le Gateau Chocolat and a wheelchair-using director, writer, actor, consultant, trainer and workshop leader who has worked across the arts, educational and social sectors (his website). And you begin to see one of the ways how Norris is opening up this venue in an important and hopefully lasting manner. Continue reading “Review: The Threepenny Opera, National”

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Album Review: The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall

“We had such hopes…”

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, The Phantom of the Opera decamped to the Royal Albert Hall for 3 performances, the highlights of which were spliced together to give a full CD/DVD release package which contains as full a rendering of the entire score as it currently available. Maybe it was a rush job though as the sound quality on this CD really isn’t good enough for it to be genuinely recommendable, even for a live recording. 

I also had mixed feelings about the production itself. I just can’t get on with Sierra Boggess’ voice, her soprano voice always erring to the too shrill for my liking and the vibrato she employs has all the subtlety of a jackhammer. Christine isn’t the strongest-written of roles at the best of times and Boggess just feels too emotionally vapid to be the inspiration of such all-conquering adoration as she is served with in this story. Continue reading “Album Review: The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall”