Evening Standard Theatre Award winners announced
November 21, 2011
The 57th annual Evening Standard Theatre Awards were announced last night at a glittering ceremony at the Savoy Hotel in London.
Best Actress winner Sheridan Smith as Doris in Flare Path
Sheridan Smith, who played Elle Woods in Legally Blonde and is rumoured to be starring in the new Bridget Jones musical, took home the Best Actress award for her performance in Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. She beat actresses including Kristin Scott Thomas and Samantha Spiro for the award, although Scott Thomas did not go home empty handed, winning the Lebedev Special Award for her contribution to theatre.
The Best Actor gong was awarded jointly to the stars of Danny Boyle’s production of Frankenstein at the National Theatre, in which Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller shared the roles of the scientist and the creature.
In a successful night for the National Theatre, the Best Director award went to movie veteran Mike Leigh, winning his very his first theatre directing award for his play Grief at the National.
The National also saw the Best Play award go to Richard Bean for his National Theatre production of One Man, Two Guvnors, currently playing at the Adelphi Theatre before heading to Broadway, along with recognition of his new play The Heretic at the Royal Court.
Other awards went to out-goiong Donmar Warehouse artistic director Michael Grandage, who won the editor’s award. This Spring Grandage will open a Broadway revival of his London production of Evita, starring Elena Roger and Ricky Martin.
LINKS
Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2011 – Winners
Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2011 – Shortlist
Benedict Cumberbatch to take After The Dance to Broadway?
March 25, 2011
Thea Sharrock’s award-winning production of Terence Rattigan’s drama After The Dance at the National Theatre may be Broadway-bound.
And its star – Benedict Cumberbatch, who is currently wowing audiences at the National Theatre in Danny Boyle’s Frankenstein, may be heading with it.
The success of Sherlock in the US, which the New York Times dubbed as “highly entertaining” and having “a brio that sets it apart” when it premiered on PBS last year, means that his profile has been raised Stateside, which would be good timing for his Broadway debut. Plus his starring roles in forthcoming Spielberg movie War Horse and in a new version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy will aid the move.
It is unclear whether fellow After The Dance performers Nancy Carroll and Adrian Scarborough would join him. Both won Olivier Awards for their performances in the play, although Carroll is heavily pregnant and Adrian Scarborough is in previews for Cameron Mackintosh’s new show Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello Theatre – and is rumoured to be putting in an award-worthy performance as Inspector Wormold.
RUMOUR CHECK-LIST
- Show: After The Dance
- Director: Thea Sharrock
- Broadway Theatre: TBC
- Producer: Stuart Thompson
- Casting: Benedict Cumberbatch
- London Dates: TBC
Source: Daily Mail (25/03/11)
Benedict Cumberbatch
Your theatre week, 21 to 27 March 2011
March 21, 2011
This week sees a number of birthday celebrations, including two American theatre greats: Stephen Sondheim turns 81 after a riotous year of 80th birthday tributes culminating in his Olivier Special Award, and this week marks the centenary of the great Tennessee Williams.
Happy 2nd birthday Priscilla
Also Priscilla makes it to two years old this week as the Broadway production starts camping it up on the other side of the Atlantic, and Kneehigh Theatre Company follow their acclaimed production of Brief Encounter with another reimagining of a cinema classic, this time French movie The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
Tuesday 22 March
Kneehigh’s new production of French film classic The Umbrellas of Cherbourg opens tonight at the Gielgud Theatre starring Joanna Riding and Meow Meow.
Happy birthday Stephen Sondheim, who is 81 today.
Wednesday 23 March
Priscilla Queen of the Desert is 2 today, having opened on 23 March 2009.
Thursday 24 March
Joanna Riding in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Dreamboats and Petticoats: Your last chance to enter the Dreamboats and Petticoats talent search, which ends at 9am on 31 March 2011.
Watch Frankenstein tonight in UK cinemas, starring Jonny Lee Miller as the Creature and Benedict Cumberbatch as Victor.
Saturday 26 March
SMASH! starts at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London starring Tom Conti, written by award-winning playwright Jack Rosenthal (Yentl).
The Centenary of internationally acclaimed playwright Tennessee Williams is today. He was born on 26 March 1911.
Frankenstein in cinemas tonight
March 17, 2011
The National Theatre’s sold out production of Frankenstein will play two dates as part of the NT Live cinema programme, starting tonight.
Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller in Frankenstein
Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle’s new production of Frankenstein at the National Theatre will be screened live in cinemas today, 17 March 2011, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the Creature and Jonny Lee Miller as Victor.
On 24 March this will be reversed, with Jonny Lee Miller as the Creature and Benedict Cumberbatch as Victor, allowing audiences to see both stars of the show in the leading roles.
This new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic Gothic novel has been reimagined by Nick Dear and told from the point of view of the monster. The first block of performances for the play are already sold out.
Critics have raved about Frankenstein, with Charles Spencer in the Telegraphy saying that director Danny Boyle, “pulls off something truly spectacular here.”
NT Live is an initiative to broadcast live performances of the National’s plays onto cinema screens in the UK and worldwide. The second season of National Theatre Live, which now covers 360 screens across 20 countries, recently screened the Donmar Warehouse’s production of King Lear, with Derek Jacobi, filmed at the Donmar’s home in Covent Garden on 3 February; following Frankenstein, Howard Davies’s production of The Cherry Orchard starring Zoe Wanamaker will be filmed on 30 June. A third season begins in the autumn.
Check the NT Live websites for times and locations
LINKS
NEWS: More news on Frankenstein
WATCH the Frankenstein video trailer
LISTEN to Frankenstein interview with writer Nick Dear
NT Live website
More presenters announced for Olivier Awards
March 4, 2011
The Society of London Theatre has released more details of the presenters at this year’s revamped Olivier Awards, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 13 March 2011.
Benedict Cumberbatch, one of the presenters at this year's Olivier Awards
Showbiz stars who will be presenting awards include:
- Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, current stars on Frankenstein
- Anne-Marie Duff, star of the Old Vic’s Cause Celebre
- Elisabeth Moss (Peggy from Mad Men), currently appearing in The Children’s Hour at the Comedy Theatre
- Actor Rupert Everett
- The League of Gentlemen and the National’s Season’s Greetings star Mark Gatiss
- Amanda Holden from Shrek The Musical
- Elaine Paige
- Tamara Rojo, Royal Ballet star
- Star of The Wizard of Oz, Danielle Hope
- Wicked’s Rachel Tucker
- Actor Patrick Stewart
They will join already announced stars that include Lost star Matthew Fox and Olivia Williams, the star of In A Forest, Dark and Deep at the Vaudeville Theatre, and Alfie Boe, opera and musicals leading man, who will play Jean Valjean in the West End production of Les Miserables this summer.
Also the first musical number presenters have been confirmed as legendary singer / songwriter Barry Manilow, who will be performing a number alongside West End star Kerry Ellis (Wicked, Oliver!).
VIDEO: Frankenstein at the National Theatre
March 3, 2011
The National Theatre’s epic new production of Frankenstein, directed by Oscar-winner Danny Boyle and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller.
VIDEO
Frankenstein at the National Theatre
LINKS
Watch more videos on West End Theatre TV
Frankenstein – Reviews Round-up
February 24, 2011
A reviews round-up of Frankenstein at the National Theatre in London
Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller in Frankenstein
Film director Danny Boyle has returned to the stage to create an atmospheric new production of Mary Shelley’s gothic horror novel Frankenstein at the National Theatre.
Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternate in the roles of Dr Frankenstein and his monster, and the critics praised both versions, although slightly favoured Cumberbatch as the monster.
The direction and design of the production enjoyed universal praise, although Nick Dear’s script was criticised by some reviewers for lacking the gravitas and weight of the production as a whole.
Frankenstein is now sold out at the Olivier Theatre, but will be screened live in cinemas on 17 March 2011 (Benedict Cumberbatch as the Creature) and 24 March (Jonny Lee Miller as the Creature).
See reviews below for the Guardian, Telegraph, Times, Independent and Evening Standard.
LINKS
VIDEO: Watch Frankenstein trailer
NT Live – Frankenstein cinema dates
Frankenstein – News and information
Shows get the movie treatment
February 8, 2011
A buoyant West End is leading to some big-screen remakes of West End hits.
Daniel Radcliffe in The Woman in Black
Twenty-three years after Susan Hill’s terrifying novel The Woman in Black first opened on the London stage, a new movie version is to be distributed in cinemas later this year starring Daniel Radcliffe.
It marks a growing interest in developing big screen projects based on successful stage shows, with movie producers realising the potential of some theatre brands that have built up large and loyal international audiences over long periods of time.
In the last few years successful movie versions of stage hits have proved popular at the box-office including Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, Broadway musicals Chicago and Hairspray, and Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.
The forthcoming The Woman in Black movie version is produced by Hammer Films, the cult British film studio that made stars out of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing with its horror movies such as Dracula and The Curse of Frankenstein. Now in post-production, the film has been adapted by Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass), directed by James Watkins (Eden Lake) and also stars a heavy-weight British cast including Daniel Radcliffe, Ciaran Hinds, Janet McTeer and Roger Allam.
Inspired by the creative and box-office success of War Horse, Steven Spielberg has also started work on a big screen adaptation of First World War story. Already an enormous hit for the National Theatre – first at their South Bank home and currently at the New London Theatre – the movie goes back to Michael Morpurgo’s novel and features a screenplay by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall and Love Actually’s Richard Curtis. Dreamworks, which now sits within Disney, has moved forward the planned release date of the film to 28 December 2011 such is the excitement surrounding the project.
The War Horse movie cast features rising young star Jeremy Irvine as Albert, Benedict Cumberbatch, who is currently starring in Frankenstein at the National Theatre, as Major Stewart, David Thewlis as Lyons and Emily Watson as Albert’s mother. Plus man of the moment Tom Hiddleston – who is also starring in the movie of Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea.
A number of new stage-to-screen projects are also in development, including Will Smith’s new movie version of Annie with his daughter Willow, and two Cameron Mackintosh film adaptations: Les Miserables – the world’s longest-running musical, in association with Working Title and Universal, and My Fair Lady. The later is being worked on with Sony and current stars tipped for leads of Eliza and Professor Higgins are Cary Mulligan and Colin Firth.
Also Glee creator Ryan Murphy is rumoured to be working on a remake of the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show – based on the cult stage musical - following his Rocky Horror homage in the latest series of Glee.
Finally, and perhaps most exciting of all for theatre fans, smash-hit musical Wicked is set for a movie version, with Universal currently scouting for directors to take it on. The musical movie version is not to be confused with the mini-series planned for ABC in the US produced by Salma Hayek and based on the original Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
It is safe to say that stage to screen adaptations will never over shadow the reverse trend of screen-to-stage shows, with a enormous number of current West End and Broadway hits based on movies, including Legally Blonde, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Billy Elliot, Dirty Dancing – and forthcoming shows The Wizard of Oz, Ghost and Shrek.
But new movie adaptations of hit shows, alongside initiatives such as the National Theatre’s live cinema programme and recent cinema screening of the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary concert at the O2, continue to widen the audience and appeal of West End theatre around the world.
LINKS
Book tickets to The Woman in Black at the Fortune Theatre and SAVE £20
Book tickets to War Horse at the New London Theatre
The Woman in Black movie Facebook page
Frankenstein: two dates for cinemas
February 7, 2011
The National Theatre’s sold out production of Frankenstein will play two dates as part of the NT Live cinema programme.
Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle’s new production of Frankenstein at the National Theatre will be screened live in cinemas on two separate dates, the first time the initiative has covered two performances.
This is to allow audiences to see both stars of the show in the leading roles, as Benedict Cumberbatch andJonny Lee Miller alternate in the parts of Victor and his monster.
A screening on 17 March 2011 will see Benedict Cumberbatch star as the Creature and Jonny Lee Miller as Victor, and on 24 March this is reversed, with Jonny Lee Miller as the Creature and Benedict Cumberbatch as Victor.
This new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic Gothic novel has been reimagined by Nick Dear and told from the point of view of the monster. The first block of performances for the play are already sold out.
NT Live is an initiative to broadcast live performances of the National’s plays onto cinema screens in the UK and worldwide. The second season of National Theatre Live, which now covers 360 screens across 20 countries, recently screened the Donmar Warehouse’s production of King Lear, with Derek Jacobi, filmed at the Donmar’s home in Covent Garden on 3 February; following Frankenstein, Howard Davies’s production of The Cherry Orchard starring Zoe Wanamaker will be filmed on 30 June. A third season begins in the autumn.
Check the NT Live websites for times and locations
LINKS
News: Brian Cox to reveal Frankenstein science
News: Frankenstein cast: Cumberbatch and Miller
War Horse the Movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch, directed by Steven Spielberg
January 30, 2011
One of Steven Spielberg’s big projects for 2011 is a movie version of War Horse.
Steven Spielberg on the set of War Horse
Already an enormous hit for the National Theatre – first at their South Bank home and currently at the New London Theatre – the movie goes back to Michael Morpurgo’s novel and features a screenplay by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall and Love Actually’s Richard Curtis.
Dreamworks, which now sits within Disney, has moved forward the planned release date of the film to 28 December 2011 such is the excitement surrounding the project.
The cast features rising young star Jeremy Irvine as Albert, plus Sherlock’s Benedict Cumberbatch as Major Stewart, who is about to star in Frankenstein at the National Theatre. The movie also includes Tom Hiddleston as Captain Nichols, David Thewlis as Lyons, Emily Watson as Albert’s mother and Patrick Kennedy as Lt. Waverly.
Music comes courtesy of close Spielberg collaborator John Williams (ET, Schindler’s List, Indiana Jones).
CAST
Jeremy Irvine
Benedict Cumberbatch as Major Stewart
Tom Hiddleston as Captain Nichols
David Thewlis as Lyons
Emily Watson as Albert’s mother
Toby Kebbell as Geordie
Peter Mullan as Albert’s Father
David Kross as Gunther
Jeremy Irvine as Albert
Niels Arestrup as Grandfather
Geoff Bell as Sgt. Sam Perkins
Sarah Jane O’Neill as French Refugee
Christian Black as British Soldier
Benedict Cumberbatch
Patrick Kennedy as Lt. Waverly
Nicolas Bro as Friedrich
Rainer Bock as Brandt
Michael Koltes as German Lieutenant
Mark Shrimpton as WWI British Lewis Gunner
Michael Kranz as Young German Officer
Pauline Stone as Devon Villager
Peter Benedict as German Officer on the Bridge
Robert Emms as David Lyons
Chris Bowe as Scottish Highlander
Leonhard Carow as Michael (as Leonard Carow)
Celine Buckens as Emilie
Irfan Hussein as Sgt Major Singh
LINKS
Book tickets to War Horse at the New London Theatre
