Hancock, Suchet and Walter lead honours
January 2, 2011
Veteran stage and screen actors Sheila Hancock, David Suchet and Harriet Walter have been awarded New Year honours, along with Les Mis lyricist Herbert Kretzmer.
Sheila Hancock
Sheila Hancock and David Suchet have both been awarded CBEs, and Harriet Walter is to be made a dame, 11 years after becoming a CBE.
Hancock, 77, has enjoyed a 50 year career that includes a recent stint in Sister Act at the London Palladium and as a judge on BBC talent show “Over the Rainbow” to cast a Dorothy for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s forthcoming production of The Wizard of Oz at the Palladium. She was awarded an OBE in 1974 for services to drama and has appeared in numerous stage, film, TV and radio roles, from the RSC to EastEnders and Carry On films.
Harriet Walter is best known as a stage actor, performing for companies such as the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, including her recent performance as Cleopatra opposite Patrick Stewart at the RSC and as Mary Stuart in the West End at the Donmar Warehouse and on Broadway. She told the Guardian in London that she has, “reservations about some parts of the honours system”, but despite fearing that it is not a fair system, felt that it would allow her to speak up in defence of the theatre and “square the circle” by acknowledging the award.
David Suchet is best known in the UK and around the world for playing Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot on television, and is also a seasoned stage performer with recent appearances including All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre alongside Zoe Wanamaker and Complicit at the Old Vic in 2009 opposite Richard Dreyfuss.
Also acknowledged in the honours is lyricist Herbert Kretzmer, who co-wrote the lyrics to the world’s longest running musical, Les Misérables, and is to become an OBE.
OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Actress Winners
June 19, 2010
OLIVIER AWARDS – BEST ACTRESS WINNERS
Best Actress
2011 Nancy Carroll for After the Dance
2010 Rachel Weisz for A Streetcar Named Desire
2009 Margaret Tyzack for The Chalk Garden
2008 Kristin Scott Thomas for Chekhov’s The Seagull
2007 Tamsin Greig for Much Ado About Nothing
2006 Eve Best for Hedda Gabler
2005 Clare Higgins for Hecuba
2004 Eileen Atkins for Honour
2003 Clare Higgins for Vincent In Brixton
2002 Lindsay Duncan for Private Lives
2001 Julie Walters for All My Sons
2000 Janie Dee for Comic Potential
1999 Eileen Atkins for The Unexpected Man
1998 Zoë Wanamaker for Electra
1997 Janet McTeer for A Doll’s House
1996 Judi Dench for Absolute Hell
1995 Clare Higgins for Sweet Bird Of Youth
1994 Fiona Shaw for Machinal
1993 Alison Steadman for The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice
1992 Juliet Stevenson for Death And The Maiden
1991 Kathryn Hunter for The Visit
1989/90 Fiona Shaw for Electra, As You Like It and The Good Person Of Sichuan
1987 Judi Dench for Antony and Cleopatra
1986 Lindsay Duncan for Les Liaisons Dangereuses
1985 Yvonne Bryceland for The Road To Mecca
Actress of the Year in a New Play
1988 Pauline Collins for Shirley Valentine
1984 Thuli Dumakude for Poppie Nongena
1983 Judi Dench for Pack Of Lies
1982 Rosemary Leach for 84 Charing Cross Road
1981 Elizabeth Quinn for Children Of A Lesser God
1980 Frances de la Tour for Duet For One
1979 Jane Lapotaire for Piaf
1978 Joan Plowright for Filumena
1977 Alison Fiske for Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi
1976 Peggy Ashcroft for Old World
Actress of the Year in a Revival
1988 Harriet Walter for Twelfth Night and The Three Sisters
1984 Vanessa Redgrave for The Aspern Papers
1983 Frances de la Tour for A Moon For The Misbegotten
1982 Cheryl Campbell for A Doll’s House
1981 Margaret Tyzack for Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
1980 Judi Dench for Juno And The Paycock
1979 Zoë Wanamaker for Once In A Lifetime
1978 Dorothy Tutin for The Double Dealer
1977 Judi Dench for Macbeth
1976 Dorothy Tutin for A Month In The Country
Best Actress in a Musical
2011 Sheridan Smith for Legally Blonde – The Musical
2010 Samantha Spiro for Hello Dolly!
2009 Elena Roger for Piaf
2008 Leanne Jones for Hairspray
2007 Jenna Russell for Sunday In The Park With George
2006 Jane Krakowski for Guys And Dolls
2005 Laura Michelle Kelly for Mary Poppins
2004 Maria Friedman for Ragtime at the Piccadilly
2003 Joanna Riding for My Fair Lady
2002 Martine McCutcheon for My Fair Lady
2001 Samantha Spiro for Merrily We Roll Along
2000 Barbara Dickson for Spend Spend Spend
1999 Sophie Thompson for Into The Woods
1998 Ute Lemper for Chicago
1997 Maria Friedman for Passion
1996 Judi Dench for A Little Night Music
1995 Ruthie Henshall for She Loves Me
1994 Julia McKenzie for Sweeney Todd
1993 Joanna Riding for Carousel
1992 Wilhelmenia Fernandez for Carmen Jones
1991 Imelda Staunton for Into The Woods
1989/90 Lea Salonga for Miss Saigon
1988 Patricia Routledge for Candide
1987 Nichola McAuliffe for Kiss Me Kate
1986 Lesley Mackie for Judy
1985 Patti LuPone for Les Misérables and The Cradle Will Rock
1984 Natalia Makarova for On Your Toes
1983 Barbara Dickson for Blood Brothers
1982 Julia McKenzie for Guys And Dolls
1981 Carlin Glynn for The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas
1980 Gemma Craven for They’re Playing Our Song
1979 Virginia McKenna for The King And I
Women Beware Women – National Theatre – Review
April 28, 2010
At the end of Thomas Middleton’s 1621 tragedy Women Beware Women, there are more dead bodies on stage than in the final moments of Hamlet. It’s the gory, Grande Guignol climax to a rude, crude Jacobean romp in which lust, greed, incest, murder, sexual infidelity and rape are the order of the day – and night.
It all begins when a rather nerdish and indigent Florentine bank clerk called Leantio (Samuel Barnett), elopes with the beautiful Bianca (Lauren O’Neil), a wealthy heiress, and marries her.
Unbeknownst to the hapless Leantio, Bianca has caught the eye of the libidinous Duke of Florence (Richard Lintern), who, with the conniving help of the reptilian widow Livia (Harriet Walter), lures Bianca to his courtly residence where he rapes her.
Livia also cunningly contrives a marriage between her niece Isabella (Vanessa Kirby) to a punkish idiot (Harry Melling) while at the same time paving a way for her brother Hippolito and Isabella to have an incestuous affair on the side.
And if that’s not damage enough, she then sets her sites on poor Leantio whom she seduces with promises of wealth and status.
Though it is the scheming of the kind of treacherous woman the play’s title asks you to beware, it’s the Duke and Hippolito who benefit most from her machinations.
As in most Jacobean tragedies, immorality comes at quite a price with the web of deceit in which the protagonists are ensnared resulting in murder most foul.
Director Marianne Elliott stages the play’s bloody final act as an orgiastic masque in which actions speak more ghoulishly than words. She’s assisted by Lez Brotherston’s set which goes into permanent revolve mode during this elaborate and inventively staged dance of death.
Once again the full resources of the Olivier’s remarkable facilities are effectively employed with particularly striking use being made of a quartet of impressive chandeliers.
Yet the most memorable scene is the intimate chess-playing encounter between Livia and Leantio’s frumpy old mum (Tilly Tremayne) which takes place while the Duke is having his way with Bianca in another part of the court. Unaware that her daughter-in-law is being ravished against her will, the old woman listens innocently to the chess-related metaphors and sexual innuendos spoken not so innocently by the knowing Livia.
It’s staged in modern dress and with an accompanying jazz score. But as the atmosphere at its very core is so endemic to the morals, mores and machinations of Jacobean tragedy, to take it out of the period that defines it seems pointless.
Still, it’s a generally well-staged revival with a deliciously subtle yet poisonous performance from Harriet Walter, who, with Harry Melling’s preening, doltish idiot, stands out from a cast that’s merely routine.
National Theatre Olivier.
CLIVE HIRSCHHORN. Courtesy of This Is London.
OTHER REVIEWS
INDEPENDENT 
‘Marianne Elliott’s magnificent and disturbing National Theatre revival benefits from updating the Italian Renaissance to a period mish-mash of New Look couture, dead cool and punk primitivism.’
‘The wealthy widow Livia, played in the very likeness of the Duchess of Windsor by an elegantly acerbic Harriet Walter.’
DAILY TELEGRAPH 
‘Almost indecently enjoyable.’
‘The anti-heroine, Livia, played by Harriet Walter like a mix of Cruella De Vil, the White Witch in the Narnia books and Margaret Thatcher in her prime.’
‘The closing carnage… presented as a brilliantly choreographed dance of death complete with black angels and sinister exotic references.’
‘As well as Walter’s compelling performance, there is much fine work elsewhere, especially from Lauren O’Neill as the initially warm and loving Bianca, whom we see hardening in the play; from Richard Lintern as the suave, fascistic Duke; Vanessa Kirby as the sweet teenager gulled into incest with her uncle; and Harry Melling as the idiotic ward she is supposed to marry, and who spends much of his time trying to look up her dress.’
‘Dark, decadent and immensely stylish, Women Beware Women makes you laugh even as you shiver.’
MAIL ON SUNDAY
‘Wicked. It’s the only worf for this stylish revival of Thomas Middleton’s seldom staged, dark, devilish and decadent Women Beware Women.’
‘The climactic scene of heartless lust, greed and carnage is one of the best ever staged at the Olivier. The stage – haunted by devilish creatures in skull caps and black wings – revolves, revealing one spectacular4 fatality after another in a whirling dance of death.’
‘Wickedly entertaining theatre. And thanks to the Travelex £10 ticket scheme, available for £10.’
FINANCIAL TIMES
‘Womanly wiliness is centre stage in [Marianne Elliott's] magnificently seductive production.’
‘Elliott updates the action from Renaissance to 1950′s Florence. This makes for a slinkily good-looking production, with women in Dior New Look, as set from Lez Brotherston that is at once opulent and oppressive, and lashings of sultry, dark jazz music (Olly Fox).’
‘It is a world steeped in glamour, decadence and greed. Here men treat women like parcels, trading them, owning them, locking them away. It is only Livia, a wealthy widow, who can pull strings. Harriet Walter’s Livia is superb: her poise, acid wit and attractive energy put you in mind of Richard III’
‘The acting is beautifully precise, with strong performances from Samuel Barnett as Bianca’s jealous husband, Vanessa Kirby as Isabella and Harry Melling as the idiot she must marry. It is a witty production, revelling in Middleton’s bitter black humour and enthusiasm for sexual innuendo.’
‘The production gradually darkens as it approaches the climactic masked ball, delivered here on the revolving stage as a dizzying dance of murder.’
‘This is a staging that wraps its inky fingers around you and holds you, spellbound’
DAILY EXPRESS
‘Here is a court thick with corruption and Marianne Elliott’s almost hypnotic production updates the action to the late fifties / early sixties and perfectly captures the louche immorality.’
‘It all adds up to a typically Jacobean-style bloodbath but this terrific production gives us enough humour to lighten the load, particularly with Harry Melling’s ludicrously camp heir.’
‘In a top quality cast, Harriet Walter is magisterial as Livia and Lauren O’Neill makes for an impassioned Bianca.’
‘Most effective of all is the finale of the masked ball, where the swirling set, smoky air and seductive music turns the final roll call of bodies into a heady orgy of death.’
SUNDAY TIMES
“The National’s bravura production”
“This is a rich production, full of the theatrical flourishes that are the director Marianne Elliott’s trademark.”
“Harriet Walter, as Livia, is a cold-eyed manipulator, and comically vampish when seducing Leantio (Samuel Barnett), but the younger actresses are outstanding. Lauren O’Neill, as Bianca, conveys a potent mix of anger and bitter bewilderment, her delivery crystal clear. Vanessa Kirby is excellent and understated as the unwittingly incestuous Isabella. Harry Melling, as the obsessively bawdy Ward, delivers nice clownish comedy.”
OBSERVER
“Harriet Walter dazzles as the subtle villainess.”
“A fiercely felt, finely wrought, seldom-seen play by one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. A play whose subject is corruption and whose language is pungent. Producing such a drama is, surely, one of the reasons the National theatre needs to exist.”
“Marianne Elliott’s production of Women Beware Women has verve and nerve.”
“It’s an extravaganza that Elliott delivers with relish. There’s a strong case against ever updating Women Beware Women. The inturning, winding verse is of a piece with a Jacobean architecture of dark corners, twists and complications. But this production – in which every densely written line is delivered with brutal clarity – is as good as a modern dress could be.”
“Walter, who is at the peak of her powers as an actor, is, here and throughout, a magnificent source of fascination and energy.”
EVENING STANDARD
‘Marianne Elliott’s production of this 1621 play by Thomas Middleton culminates in a gorgeous, debauched masked ball. ‘
‘Elliott brings a lavish sensibility to his work’
‘Harriet Walter gives a performance at once measured and full of relish: there’s passion in her destructiveness, yet also clarity in her unscrupulous plans. Lauren O’Neill makes a sympathetic Bianca, while Harry Melling gets to prance around in a delightfully cretinous fashion as The Ward, and Samuel Barnett’s Leantio is a nerdy sort of libertine.’
Tony Awards nominations announced
May 5, 2009
British production BILLY ELLIOT receives 15 Tony Award nominations. Brits do well in annual theatre awards nominations.
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The nominations for this year’s Tony awards were announced today in New York.
The 63rd annual awards will see the Broadway version of Billy Elliot lead the pack with 15 nominations.
Close behind were two productions that originated in the UK – The Norman Conquests, with 7 nominations, and God of Carnage with 6 nominations.
British director Matthew Warchus received two nominations for his direction of both God of Carnage and The Norman Conquests. He’s competing with another UK director, Phyllida Lloyd, whose production of Mary Stuart garnered 7 nods.
Other Best Play nominations include 33 Variations, currently starring Jane Fonda who was also nominated for Best performance by a leading actress in a play.
Other Brits celebrated in the line-up include Elton John and Lee Hall for music and lyrics of Billy Elliot, Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter for Mary Stuart, Angela Lansbury for Blithe Spirit, Amanda Root for The Norman Conquests, Haydn Gwynne and Carole Shelley for Billy Elliot, and director Stephen Daldry for Billy Elliot.
Other big nominees include musicals Next to Normal (11 nods), Hair (8), Shrek The Musical (8) and Nine to Five The Musical (4).
See the full list of 2009 Tony Awards Nominations
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Book discount tickets to see Billy Elliot The Musical in London.
