“Beyond Frankenstein” will see leading figures from arts and science discuss a wide range of topics around the themes and history of Mary Shelley’s original novel, Frankenstein, including discussions by TV physicist Professor Brian Cox and acclaimed biographer Claire Tomalin.

The platform series will take place in the National’s Olivier Theatre and is linked to the forthcoming stage adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel, directed by  Danny Boyle and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller from 5 February 2011. Frankenstein will also be broadcast live to cinemas across the UK and around the world on 17 March as part of National Theatre Live.

Professor Brian Cox to discuss the science behind Frankenstein

Frankenstein on Film on 24 February will see film historian Kim Newman take a look at movie versions of the Frankenstein tale, including Hollywood’s many interpretations of Shelley’s famous create.

On 4 March, Frankenstein’s Science will feature popular TV scientist Professor Brian Cox (Wonder of the Solar System) in discussion with Romantic biographer Richard Holmes on Mary Shelley’s remarkable exploration of man’s desire to bring life to an inanimate object. They will also explore whether the notion is possible, in both the 19th century and today.

Frankenstein’s Creator: Mary Shelley on 15 March sees award-winning biographer Claire Tomalin offer a glimpse into the life of Mary Shelley. Tomalin wrote the biography of Mary’s mother Mary Wollstonecraft, and will be joined by author of Young Romantics, Daisy Hay.

Finally, Josephine Hart presents Romantic Poetry on 15 April will see the acclaimed novelist and presenter offer star-studded readings that will bring the great romantic-gothic world of Frankenstein to life in the form of the work of Shelley, Byron and their Romantic contemporaries.

In addition to the Beyond Frankenstein platforms, Frankenstein director Danny Boyle and adaptor Nick Dear will discuss their new production on 14 March 2011.

Other platforms running alongside the National’s new season include director Marianne Elliott on her new production of Alan Ayckbourn’s Christmas tale, Bill T Jones on FELA!, Ron Moody on his new memoir, Edward Petherbridge discusses his work, Nicholas Hytner explores the rehearsal process for Hamlet with members of the acting company, there will be a series of afternoon interviews with members of the companies of Twelfth Night and Hamlet, including Rory Kinnear, Clare Higgins, David Calder, Rebecca Hall and Simon Callow, and a series of “in conversations” will feature Mark Gatiss, Catherine Tate and David Troughton.

Book tickets to Frankenstein at the National Theatre

LINKS

News: Frankenstein at the National Theatre
Booking for the National Theatre’s Platforms series

Edited by Clive Hirschhorn, it was published by ticket agency Applause and aimed to provide theatregoers with informed comment, interviews, features, reviews, and gossip about the plays and players making news in both London and New York. It also provided special offers and discounts on West End shows and event.

CONTENTS

Issue 1, October 1996

Read Applause magazine, issue 1, October 1996

Applause Magazine - October 1996

OFFSTAGE – News and gossip from the West End

KILLING WITH KINDNESS Matt Wolf asks if London’s theatre critics are too soft

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST – The biggest thing ever to hit the West End, Hal Lewis looks at Disney’s venture into Theatreland

HEATHCLIFF – Cliff Richard has been weathering a storm of criticism, Christopher Tookey assesses the situation

ONSTAGE – Clive Hirschhorn reviews some of the latest openings

NED SHERRIN – The musings of a wit and raconteur

APPLAUSE THEATRE CLUB – Great savings on many top West End shows

INTERVIEW – Comic actor Gene Wilder in conversation with Ronald Bergan

DICK VOSBURGH tracks down the lost Musicals

LONDON’S THEATRES – Ronald Bergan looks at the rebuilt Globe Theatre

PEOPLE WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE – Alan Ayckbourn has made one of the single greatest contributions to British theatre. He speaks to Clare Colvin

SPECTRUM – A look at the ‘other’ arts

CD REVIEW – Tom Vallance has been comparing the various recordings of Sondheim’s ‘Company’

BOOK REVIEW – ‘Speak Low’ is a collection of the letters from Kurt Weill to Lotte Lenya. Reviewed by Ronald Bergan

NED SHERRIN – Extracts from his book ‘Theatrical Anecdotes’

OFFSTAGE BROADWAY – More news and gossip from America’s theatre capital

SHOWS THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE – Ken Livingstone and the show that made a lasting impression

READ

LINKS

PDF: Read Applause magazine, issue 1, October 1996

ISSUU: Read Applause magazine, issue 1, October 1996

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Comedy Winners

Best New Comedy

2010 The Priory
2009 God of Carnage
2008 Rafta Rafta
2007 John Buchan’s The 39 Steps adapted by Patrick Barlow from an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon
2006 Heroes by Gerald Sibleyras translated by Tom Stoppard

Best Comedy

2003 The Lieutenant Of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh
2002 The Play What I Wrote by Hamish McColl, Sean Foley and Eddie Braben
2001 Stones In His Pockets by Marie Jones
2000 The Memory Of Water by Shelagh Stephenson
1999 Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle And Dick by Terry Johnson
1998 Popcorn by Ben Elton
1997 Art by Yasmina Reza
1996 Mojo by Jez Butterworth
1995 My Night With Reg by Kevin Elyot
1994 Hysteria by Terry Johnson
1993 The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice by Jim Cartwright
1992 La Bête by David Hirson
1991 Out Of Order by Ray Cooney
1989/90 Single Spies by Alan Bennett
1988 Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell
1987 Three Men On A Horse by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott
1986 When We Are Married by J.B. Priestley
1985 A Chorus Of Disapproval by Alan Ayckbourn
1984 Up’N’Under by John Godber
1983 Daisy Pulls It Off by Denise Deegan
1982 Noises Off by Michael Frayn
1981 Steaming by Nell Dunn
1980 Educating Rita by Willy Russell
1979 Middle Age Spread by Roger Hall
1978 Filumena by Eduardo de Filippo, adapted by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall
1977 Privates On Parade by Peter Nichols
1976 Donkey’s Years by Michael Frayn

Best Comedy Performance

1995 Niall Buggy for Dead Funny
1994 Griff Rhys Jones for An Absolute Turkey
1993 Simon Cadell for Travels With My Aunt
1992 Desmond Barrit for The Comedy Of Errors
1991 Alan Cumming for Accidental Death Of An Anarchist
1989/90 Michael Gambon for Man Of The Moment
1988 Alex Jennings for Too Clever By Half
1987 John Woodvine for The Henrys
1986 Bill Fraser for When We Are Married
1985 Michael Gambon for A Chorus Of Disapproval
1984 Maureen Lipman for See How They Run
1983 Griff Rhys Jones for Charley’s Aunt
1982 Geoffrey Hutchings for Poppy
1981 Rowan Atkinson for Rowan Atkinson in Revue
1980 Beryl Reid for Born In The Gardens
1979 Barry Humphries for A Night With Dame Edna
1978 Ian McKellen for The Alchemist
1977 Denis Quilley for Privates On Parade
1976 Penelope Keith for Donkey’s Years

Sean Hayes, presenting this year's Tony awards

The star-studded event will be hosted by Sean Hayes, best known as Jack from Will & Grace and currently starring in Promises, Promises on Broadway.

The awards, the most important in the US arts calendar, will feature performances from current Broadway shows including American Idiot, Fela!, Memphis, Million Dollar Quartet, La Cage aux Folles, A Little Night Music and Ragtime. Star presenters will include Katie Holmes, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith, Angela Lansbury, Mark Sanchez, Daniel Radcliffe, Barbara Cook, Stanley Tucci, Idina Menzel and Laura Bell Bundy!

Other appearances and performances will include Glee’s Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison, Paula Abdul, Antonio Banderas, Cate Blanchett, Kristin Chenoweth, Michael Douglas, Scarlett Johansson, Lucy Liu, Helen Mirren, Chris Noth, Bernadette Peters, Raquel Welch and David Hyde Pierce, who will receive a special Tony Award and is slated to appear in London next month in La Bete at the Comedy Theatre.

Shows up for awards this year include a revival of August Wilson’s Fences starring Denzel Washington (10nominations); Broadway musical Fela! (11 nominations) – and which makes its UK premiere at the National Theatre in November; and nods for a number of high-profile Hollywood stars including Christopher Walken (Behanding in Spokane), Liev Schreiber (A View From The Bridge), and Scarlett Johansson (A View from the Bridge).

Glee's Lea Michele rehearsing on Friday for the Tony Awards

Recent Broadway musical The Addams Family starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth, failed to find favour with the Tony awards committee, scoring only two nominations – best original score and best supporting actor in a musical for Kevin Chamberlin.

UK creatives or shows have garned 28 nominations this year. The Menier Chocolate Factory in South London will be awaiting news on two of its successful productions that have transferred to Broadway and received 15 Tony nominations:  La Cage Aux Folles opened at the Longacre Theatrein April to enormous critical acclaim. The show features original London star Douglas Hodge and US actor Kelsey Grammer, both of whom have been nominated in the best actor in a musical category. In total the show has picked up 11 nominations, including best revival of a musical, scenic design (Tim Shortall), costume design  (Matthew Wright),  lighting design (Nick Richings), sound design (Jonathan Deans), direction (Terry Johnson), choreography (Lynne Page), orchestrations (Jason Carr) and best supporting actor (Robin De Jesus).

Also A Little Night Music, which started life at the Menier in 2008 before transferring to the Garrick theatre in the West End, opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr theatre in December 2009. It has picked up 4 nominations, including competing against La Cage in the best musical revival category, and nods for Catherine Zeta-Jones (best actress in a musical), Angela Lansbury (best supporting actress in a musical), and sound design (Dan Moses Schreier and Gareth Owen).

Douglas Hodge and Kelsey Grammer in La Cage Aux Folles

Other nominated UK shows include the Donmar Warehouse’s transfer of Red which enjoys 7 nominations including best play, best actor for Alfred Molina, best supporting actor for Eddie Redmayne, and best scenic design (Christopher Oram), lighting design (Neil Austin), sound design (Adam Cork) and direction (Michael Grandage). The Donmar production of Hamlet sees a nod for Jude Law and best lighting design of a play for Neil Austin. And the Royal Court’s production of Enron, which failed on Broadway but continues to sell well in London is nominated for best original score (music by Adam Cork and lyrics by Lucy Prebble), best supporting actor for Stephen Kunken, best sound design (Adam Cork) and best lighting design (Mark Henderson). Also veteran UK actress Rosemary Harris also received a best supporting nod for The Royal Family and one of the UK’s greatest living playwrights, Alan Ayckbourn, will receive a lifetime achievement award.

US viewers can watch the awards on CBS from 8pm ET. Selected countries are also airing the awards over the next week, although not in the UK. TonyAwards.com will only be featuring live footage of the red carpet arrivals and Creative Arts Awards from 6pm until 8pm ET.

See a list of Tony Award 2010 nominations here

www.tonyawards.com

OLIVIER AWARDS – Special and Outstanding Achievement Award Winners

The Society’s Special Award

2011 Stephen Sondheim
2010 Maggie Smith
2009 Sir Alan Ayckbourn
2008 Andrew Lloyd Webber
2007 John Tomlinson
2006 Sir Ian McKellen
2005 Alan Bennett
2004 Dame Judi Dench
2003 Sam Mendes
2002 Rupert Rhymes
1999 Sir Peter Hall
1998 Ed and David Mirvish
1997 Margaret Harris
1996 Harold Pinter
1994 Sam Wanamaker
1993 Sir Kenneth MacMillan
1992 Dame Ninette de Valois
1991 Dame Peggy Ashcroft
1988 Sir Alec Guinness
1985 Sir John Gielgud
1984 Lord Goodman
1983 Joan Littlewood
1982 Charles Wintour
1980 Sir Ralph Richardson
1979 Lord Olivier

Outstanding Achievement

2010 Michael Codron
2003 Gregory Doran and the Jacobean Season acting ensemble
2002 Trevor Nunn
2000 Peter O’Toole
1997 Sir Richard Eyre

The Observer Award for Outstanding Achievement (In Memory of Kenneth Tynan)

1993 The Almeida, Islington for The Rules of the Game, Medea, No Man’s Land and The Deep Blue Sea
1992 The Gate Theatre, Notting Hill for A Season of Classics from The Spanish Golden Age
1991 Cameron Mackintosh
1989/90 Declan Donnellan for Fuente Ovejuna
1988 Maly Theatre of Leningrad for Stars in the Morning Sky
1987 Thelma Holt for producing the International Festival at the National Theatre
1986 The Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith for The House of Bernarda Alba
1985 Anthony Hopkins for Pravda

The Times Award

1994 Peter Brook

La Cage Aux Folles starring Douglas Hodge and Kelsey Grammer

The small South London arts venue has dominated this year’s Tony Awards nominations – with a total of 15 nods. Its musical productions of Jerry Herman’s La Cage Aux Folles and Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music have both garnered multiple nominations for their Broadway transfers.

La Cage Aux Folles premiered at the Chocolate Factory in 2008 before transferring the Playhouse Theatre in London, and opened at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway last month to enormous critical acclaim.

The show features original London star Douglas Hodge and US actor Kelsey Grammer, both of whom have been nominated in the best actor in a musical category. In total the show has picked up 11 nominations, including best revival of a musical, scenic design (Tim Shortall), costume design  (Matthew Wright),  lighting design (Nick Richings), sound design (Jonathan Deans), direction (Terry Johnson), choreography (Lynne Page), orchestrations (Jason Carr) and best supporting actor (Robin De Jesus).

A Little Night Music, which started life at the Menier in 2008 before transferring to the Garrick theatre in the West End, opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr theatre in December 2009. It has picked up 4 nominations, including competing against La Cage in the best musical revival category, and nods for Catherine Zeta-Jones (best actress in a musical), Angela Lansbury (best supporting actress in a musical), and sound design (Dan Moses Schreier and Gareth Owen).

Catherine Zeta Jones and Angela Lansbury in A Little Night Music

Overall, it has been a successful year for the UK on Broadway, with a total of 28 nominations going to UK creatives. Other celebrated UK shows include the Donmar Warehouse’s transfer of Red which enjoys 7 nominations including best play, best actor for Alfred Molina, best supporting actor for Eddie Redmayne, and best scenic design (Christopher Oram), lighting design (Neil Austin), sound design (Adam Cork) and direction (Michael Grandage).

The Donmar also saw its production of Hamlet garner a best actor nod for Jude Law and best lighting design of a play for Neil Austin.

The Royal Court’s production of Enron, which transferred to Broadway but was not well received and has closed early at the Broadhurst Theatre, was nominated for best original score (music by Adam Cork and lyrics by Lucy Prebble), best supporting actor for Stephen Kunken, best sound design (Adam Cork) and best lighting design (Mark Henderson). Enron is currently playing to strong audiences in London at the Noel Coward Theatre.

Veteran UK actress Rosemary Harris also received a best supporting nod for The Royal Family and one of the UK’s greatest living playwrights, Alan Ayckbourn, will receive a lifetime achievement award.

Other big hitters nominated this year include a revival of August Wilson’s Fences starring Denzel Washington (10 nominations); Broadway musical Fela! (11 nominations) – and which makes its UK premiere at the National Theatre in November; and nods for a number of high-profile Hollywood stars including Christopher Walken (Behanding in Spokane), Liev Schreiber (A View From The Bridge), and Scarlett Johansson (A View from the Bridge).

Recent Broadway musical The Addams Family starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth, failed to find favour with the Tony awards committee, scoring only two nominations – best original score and best supporting actor in a musical for Kevin Chamberlin.

The 64^th awards will be presented on 13 July in New York.

See a list of Tony Award 2010 nominations here

Alan Ayckbourn

The Special Tony Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre will be presented to Alan Ayckbourn at the ceremony in New York on 13 June. Ayckbourn, who is 71, has written 74 full-length plays, and saw a revival of his play The Norman Conquests win a Tony Award last year. His 1975 play Bedroom Farce is currently playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London.

He will collect his honour at a ceremony in New York on 13 June. The nominees for this year’s Tony Awards will be presented on 4 May.

US actress Marian Seldes will also be presented with a Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre award. She performed in all 1,809 New York performances of Ira Levin’s Deathtrap, a show that will come to London in August starring Simon Russell Beale, Anna Massey, Jonathan Groff and Claire Skinner.

Other non-competitive, special awards announced ahead of the ceremony include the Isabelle Stevenson Award to David Hyde Pierce, who will star in La Bete at the Comedy Theatre in June alongside Joanna Lumley and Mark Rylance. Also Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre will be presented to the Alliance of Resident Theatres New York,  B. H. Barry and Tom Viola.

More information from the Tony Awards:

Alan Ayckbourn is the author of more than 74 full-length plays including Absurd Person Singular (1975), Bedroom Farce (1975), Just Between Ourselves (1976), Woman in Mind (1985), A Small Family Business (1987), House & Garden (1999) and Private Fears in Public Places (2004). He has directed more than 300 productions, including the West End premieres of most of his writing. Between 1972 and 2009, he was the Artistic Director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, England, where the majority of his work has been and continues to be premiered. Sir Alan, who was knighted in 1987, was most recently represented on Broadway with The Norman Conquests. That production received the Tony Award as Best Revival of a Play in 2009.

Marian Seldes won a Tony Award in 1967 for her performance in Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, the first of five Tony nominations. Her Broadway career spans more than six decades, from her debut in Medea in 1947 through her most recent appearance in Terrence McNally’s Deuce (2007). Among her many Broadway credits was Ira Levin’s long-running Deathtrap, in which she appeared in all 1,809 performances. She is revered as a teacher to several generations of actors, having served on the faculty at Julliard (1967-1991) and Fordham University (2002-present).

David Hyde Pierce: Humanitarian
The recipient of the second Isabelle Stevenson Award will be Tony Award-winning actor David Hyde Pierce. This honor recognizes an individual from the theatre community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations. Mr. Pierce is being honored for his work in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. He began his support for the Alzheimer’s Association in the early 1990s and is currently a National Board Member. He works on both a local and national level advocating congressional leaders for additional funding for Alzheimer’s research and care programs. The Alzheimer’s Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support, and research.

Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre
Established in 1990, Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre recognize institutions, individuals and organizations that have demonstrated extraordinary achievement in theatre, but are not eligible in any of the established Tony Award categories. This year’s Tony Honors will be presented to:

• The Alliance of Resident Theatres New York (A.R.T./New York) – Founded in 1972, A.R.T./New York assists its nearly 300 member theatres in managing their companies effectively so they may realize their rich artistic visions and serve their diverse audiences well. Over the years, A.R.T./New York has earned a reputation as a leader in providing progressive service to its members, making the organization an expert in the needs of the Off and Off Off Broadway community.

• B. H. Barry – A leading theatrical fight director, Mr. Barry pioneered the teaching of stage combat as part of the curriculum in U.S. drama programs, having being been trained in his native England. His numerous Broadway credits range from the 1981 productions of Frankenstein and Macbeth to Dividing the Estate in 2008.

• Tom Viola – Executive Director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the nation’s leading industry-based not-for-profit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organization. Mr. Viola is being honored for his personal commitment to the fight against AIDS, which stretches back beyond his service as founding administrative director of Equity Fights AIDS in 1988. He saw the organization through its merger with Broadway Cares in 1992, and became BC/EFA’s executive director five years later. BC/EFA was previously honored with a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre in 1993.

LINKS: Tony Awards

THE NORMAN CONQUESTS – Old Vic

Calling Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests a towering tour de force and the greatest theatrical achievement of his long and distinguished career is little more than stating the obvious.

First produced in 1974, this Chekhovian mix of comedy and pathos offers up pleasure and pain in more or less equal proportions, and, as a comment on middle-class values and mores, it remains unrivalled and unequalled.

Set over a summer weekend in the garden, dining room and sitting room of a rambling Victorian country house, Ayckbourn the magician has conjured up three separate plays, each one satisfying in itself but even more satisfying when experienced as a trilogy.

Nor does it matter in which order you you see them. Technically, Table Manners comes first, followed by Living Together, and ending with Round and Round the Garden.

I saw the last one first and caught the other two at a matinee and evening performance. But it would have made no difference to my enjoyment had the order been reversed. The plays are so skilfully structured and meticuloulsy interlocked that whichever way you approach them, the rewards are plentiful.

Though the trilogy’s seven and a half hour running time doesn’t yield a great deal of plot, it’s full of incident – some side-splittingly hilarious, others heartbreakingly poignant.

And while all six characters work very much as an ensemble, the two standouts are assistant librarian Norman (Stephen Mangan) and Annie (Jessica Hynes), a spinster who shares the family home with her (unseen) bedridden mother.

Though Norman is married to Annie’s testy sister Ruth (Amelia Bullmore), Annie has agreed to go on a dirty weekend to East Grinstead with her brother-in-law.

But circumstances intervene, and instead of Annie’s anticipated liaison with Norman she spends the weekend at home in the company of her long-suffering real-estate agent brother Reg (Paul Ritter), his bossy wife Sarah (Amanda Root), and Ruth, who reluctantly turns up after receiving a drunken phone call from Norman.

The sixth character is Tom (Ben Miles) a local vet, whose attraction to Annie is camouflaged by an almost catatonic personality that refuses to acknowledge any emotion and who, when he finally plucks up the courage to propose to Annie, obliquely asks her whether she would like him to marry her. Indeed, at times he is so stupid and so obtuse, you wonder how he ever successfully completed his veterinary degree.

In a series of memorable set-pieces, most conspicuously during a family-meal in Living Together, Ayckbourn explores the relationships endured by these six very different people, and, in the process, leaves no emotion unexcavated.  If Norman’s self-acclaimed modus operandi is simply to make people happy, it is his philandering ways that, in the end, wreak the most havoc, albeit with hilarious results.

Annie’s plight, on the other hand, is not entirely of her own making, nor is it as funny. Encroaching spinsterhood, a sterile relationship with Tom, and a nonnegotiable commitment to her monstrously selfish mother – have strait-jacketed her. Her misery and frustration are palpable.

Ayckbourn’s uncanny ability to mix laughter and pain so potently is, apart from his theatrical sleight-of-hand, his greatest gift. In The Norman Conquests he demonstrates this ability at full throttle.

All the performances are flawless. You will find no better ensemble acting in London, and, in a season that boasts impressive revivals of Ivanov, Six Characters In Search of an Author, No Man’s Land, Waste and Creditors, that’s saying something.

Matthew Warchus’s direction is alive to the play’s vast, forever changing emotional landscape, and not a mood nor a nuance is missed. Surely this has to be the theatrical event of the year.

CLIVE HIRSCHHORN. Courtesy of This Is London.

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