Photos: The Audience at the Gielgud Theatre starring Helen Mirren

Production photos of The Audience at the Gielgud Theatre starring Helen Mirren

Stephen Dalrdy’s production of The Audience by Peter Morgan has opened at the Gielgud Theatre in London.

Joining Helen Mirren who plays The Queen in the world premiere of Peter Morgan’s The Audience are Michael Elwyn as Anthony Eden, Haydn Gwynne as Margaret Thatcher, Richard McCabe as Harold Wilson, Nathaniel Parker as Gordon Brown, Paul Ritter as John Major, Rufus Wright as David Cameron and Edward Fox as Winston Churchill. The Equerry is Geoffrey Beevers and the role of Young Elizabeth is played by Bebe Cave, Maya Gerber and Nell Williams. David Peart plays James Callaghan who is joined by ensemble members Jonathan Coote, Ian Houghton and Charlotte Moore.

The Audience runs until 15 June 2013 at the Gielgud Theatre. Designs are by Bob Crowley with lighting by Rick Fisher, sound by Paul Arditti, music by Paul Englishby and video by Ian William Galloway.

Photos by Johan Persson

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The Audience starring Helen Mirren – Reviews Round-up

A round-up of reviews of The Audience starring Helen Mirren at the Gielgud Theatre.

Helen Mirren follows her acclaimed on-screen performance as Elizabeth II in a new play by The Queen writer Peter Morgan, charting the 60 years of weekly audiences the Queen has granted her Prime Ministers.

Award-winning director Stephen Daldry directs Mirren and an all star cast of British Prime Ministers through the ages including Michael Elwyn as Anthony Eden, Haydn Gwynne as Margaret Thatcher, Edward Fox as Winston Churchill, Richard McCabe as Harold Wilson, Nathaniel Parker as Gordon Brown, Paul Ritter as John Major and Rufus Wright as David Cameron. The Equerry is Geoffrey Beevers and the role of Young Elizabeth will be played by Bebe Cave, Maya Gerber and Nell Williams.

Read reviews of The Audience, below, from the Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, Evening Standard and more.

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Book tickets to The Audience starring Helen Mirren at the Gielgud Theatre in London

First Look: Helen Mirren in The Audience

Helen Mirren as Her Majesty The Queen in Peter Morgan’s new play The Audience at the Gielgud Theatre in London.

The first photo has been released of Dame Helen Mirren as The Queen in new play The Audience at the Gielgud Theatre in London.

Written by “The Queen” screenwriter Peter Morgan, the play is set during the Queen’s weekly audience with her Prime Ministers and spans The Queen’s entire 60 year reign.

Stephen Daldry directs Mirren and an all star cast of British Prime Ministers through the ages including Michael Elwyn as Anthony Eden, Haydn Gwynne as Margaret Thatcher, Robert Hardy as Winston Churchill, Richard McCabe as Harold Wilson, Nathaniel Parker as Gordon Brown, Paul Ritter as John Major and Rufus Wright as David Cameron. The Equerry is Geoffrey Beevers and the role of Young Elizabeth will be played by Bebe Cave, Maya Gerber and Nell Williams.

The Audience is now playing at the Gielgud Theatre in London until 15 June 2013.

Photo by Johan Persson.

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Photos: The Audience rehearsals – starring Helen Mirren at the Gielgud Theatre

Rehearsal photos of The Audience starring Helen Mirren at the Gielgud Theatre.

Some productions are hyped as “greatly anticipated” and some actually deserve the badge. In the last few years it’s hard to think of a new West End play that has created such a buzz as The Audience, the latest work by The Queen and The Deal scriptwriter Peter Morgan.

Morgan returns to the subjects of Her Majesty The Queen and government in this new play set during the Queen’s weekly audiences with her Prime Ministers.

Directed by Stephen Daldry, fresh from managing the success of the opening and closing ceremonies at London’s Olympic games, The Audience sees Helen Mirren put her crown back on as The Queen, following her Oscar winning movie performance as the monarch.

She is joined by a solid line-up of talent to play her prime ministers through the ages, including Michael Elwyn as Anthony Eden, Haydn Gwynne as Margaret Thatcher, Robert Hardy as Winston Churchill, Richard McCabe as Harold Wilson, Nathaniel Parker as Gordon Brown, Paul Ritter as John Major and Rufus Wright as David Cameron. The Equerry is Geoffrey Beevers and the role of Young Elizabeth will be played by Bebe Cave, Maya Gerber and Nell Williams.

The Audience kicks off at the Gielgud Theatre from 15 February 2013.

Photos by Johan Persson.

Viewing this on a tablet or mobile? Click here to see photos

Book tickets to The Audience starring Helen Mirren at the Gielgud Theatre

HELEN MIRREN in The Audience

Oscar winning actress Helen Mirren returns to the role of Her Majesty The Queen in Peter Morgan’s new drama The Audience.

Helen Mirren has never been scared of returning to play a character that she loves. She immortalised DCI Jane Tennison in the extraordinary ITV detective series Prime Suspect over a period of 15 years, with the final two instalments both coaxing her back to the part.

So it’s not unexpected that Mirren has agreed to return to another role for which she has enjoyed huge acclaim, and another notably strong female character at that.

Her Oscar-winning performance in Peter Morgan’s film The Queen, set against the death of Princess Diana, was a career-defining role for the actress.

And now Peter Morgan has returned to the subject of Her Maj in new stage play The Audience, that covers The Queen’s weekly private audiences with her Prime Ministers, to open at the Gielgud Theatre from 15 February 2013.

Helen Mirren stars as The Queen in Peter Morgan’s The Audience alongside Michael Elwyn as Anthony Eden, Nathaniel Parker as Gordon Brown, Rufus Wright as David Cameron, Haydn Gwynne as Margaret Thatcher, Robert Hardy as Winston Churchill and Paul Ritter as John Major.

With Stephen Daldry, fresh from his Olympics success, directing the play and Bob Crowley designing, we expect great things.

Book tickets to The Audience at the Gielgud Theatre in London

 

 

Evening Standard Theatre Awards winners announced

At a starry ceremony last night at the Savoy Hotel in London, the Evening Standard presented the winners of its annual theatre awards, hosted by James Corden.

The Royal Court enjoyed a timely success as its West End transfer of Constellations starring Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall scooped a Best New Play award for Nick Payne. Currently playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre, Payne, at 29, is the youngest playwright to win the award.

Royal Court associate director Simon Godwin also won a new award, the Burberry award for emerging director, after being nominated last year for best newcomer for Nick Payne’s Wanderlust at the Royal Court. His recent Royal Court productions include The Acid Test, Goodbye To All That and The Witness.

This year’s ceremony felt dominated by the world of fashion, including a star-turn by American Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who is daughter of the late Standard editor Charles Wintour, and sponsorship by Burberry, with their chief creative officer Christopher Bailey co-hosting the awards.

Charles Wintour’s name is associated with the most promising playwright award, which this year went to Lolita Chakrabarti for her sell-out play Red Velvet starring Adrian Lester at the Tricycle.

The creativity of the London Olympics opening ceremony was honoured as Danny Boyle and his team took home the Beyond Theatre award, with Boyle using his acceptance speech to argue for the inclusion of arts subjects in the English Baccalaureate. Creative director of the Olympic ceremonies Stephen Daldry was also presented with a special award at the end of the evening by Stephen Fry.

Dame Judi Dench received an award for her contribution to world theatre, saying that she loved making movies such as recent James Bond film Skyfall but that her “absolute passion is the theatre”. She will star alongside Skyfall’s Ben Wishaw this March in Peter and Alice, part of Michael Grandage’s new season of plays at the Noel Coward Theatre.

First up in the Grandage season is Privates on Parade starring Simon Russell Beale, who took home the best actor award last night for his performance as Stalin in Collaborators at the National Theatre.

It was a good night for the National with the National Theatre’s artistic director Nicholas Hytner winning the best director gong for his production of Timon of Athens – which also starred Simon Russell Beale – and the Lebedev special award for Hytner’s dynamic directorship of the National Theatre. David Hare, who has had a long and successful association with the National Theatre, was awarded the Editor’s award for his contribution to theatre.

Nicholas Hytner joined the protests about Arts cuts saying that they made no economic sense and calling for Culture Secretary Maria Miller to fund theatres to stimulate philanthropic giving.

The Donmar Warehouse’s first season under the stewardship of Josie Rourke saw the best design award go to Soutra Gilmour for Inadmissible Evidence plus design of Antigone at the National, and much talked-about young British actor Matthew Tennyson won a Milton Shulman award for outstanding newcomer for the Donmar’s Making Noise Quietly.

In other categories, Hattie Morahan won the best actress prize for her performance as Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House at the Young Vic and best musical went to Jonathan Kent’s production of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd starring Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton, which transferred from Chichester to the Adelphi Theatre.

Hosts of the awards included Homeland’s Damian Lewis and Tinie Tempah, with guests including Colin Firth, Sir Ian McKellen, Ruth Wilson, Bill Nighy and Ralph Fiennes.

LINKS

See a full list of winners of the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2012

Book tickets to Constellations at the Duke of York’s Theatre

PHOTOS

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Haydn Gwynne, Robert Hardy And Paul Ritter Join Helen Mirren In The Audience

Joining Helen Mirren as The Queen in the world premiere of Peter Morgan’s The Audience will be Haydn Gwynne who will play Margaret Thatcher, Robert Hardy as Winston Churchill and Paul Ritter as John Major. Stephen Daldry’s production will preview at the Gielgud Theatre from 15 February 2013, with press night on 5 March 2013 and is currently booking to 15 June 2013. Designs are by Bob Crowley, lighting by Rick Fisher and sound is by Paul Arditti and video by Ian William Galloway. Further casting will be announced shortly.

For sixty years Elizabeth II has met each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace – a meeting like no other in British public life – it is private. Both parties have an unspoken agreement never to repeat what is said. Not even to their spouses.

The Audience breaks this contract of silence – and imagines a series of pivotal meetings between the Downing Street incumbents and their Queen. From Churchill to Cameron, each Prime Minister has used these private conversations as a sounding board and a confessional – sometimes intimate, sometimes explosive. In turn, the Queen can’t help but reveal her own self as she advises, consoles and, on occasion, teases.

From young mother to grandmother these private audiences chart the arc of the second Elizabethan Age. Politicians come and go through the revolving door of electoral politics, while she remains constant, waiting to welcome her next Prime Minister.

Haydn Gwynne is reunited with Stephen Daldry having played Mrs Wilkinson in the world premiere of Billy Elliot The Musical, a role she later recreated on Broadway where she won the Outer Critics Circle Award and Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Musical. She can currently be seen on tour playing Stephanie Abrahams opposite William Gaunt in Duet for One. Her other recent theatre credits include Queen Elizabeth I in Richard III in Sam Mendes’ The Bridge Project, Susan in Becky Shaw at the Almeida Theatre and Mrs Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor in Greg Doran’s Royal Shakespeare Company production. On television her credits include Midsomer Murders, The Great Game, New Tricks, Dalziel & Pascoe, Consenting Adults and Drop the Dead Donkey. Her film credits include Hunky Dory, These Foolish Things, Remember Me and The Pleasure Principle.

Paul Ritter has recently been seen at the National Theatre in Marianne Elliot’s sell-out production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. His other National Theatre credits include The Hothouse, The Reporter, The Coast of Utopia, Howard Katz and Coram Boy and for the Royal Shakespeare Company his credits include Troilus and Cressida and The White Devil. His other theatre credits include The Norman Conquests and The Birthday Party in the West End and Accidental Death of An Anarchist for the Donmar Warehouse. On television he can currently be seen in Channel 4’s Friday Night Dinner. His other television credits include The Function Room, Vera, Great Expectations, Land Girls, The Night Watch and Lark Rise to Candleford. His film credits include Complicit, The Eagle, Nowhere Boy, Quantum of Solace, On a Clear Day, The Libertine and The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz.

Theatre, film and television actor Robert Hardy has previously played Churchill seven times including Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years and most recently in Celui qui a dit Non in Paris in French. His extensive theatre career includes four seasons in Stratford for the Royal Shakespeare Company and two seasons at the Old Vic. In the UK and US his theatre credits include Hamlet, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and King Lear and in the West End his credits include Rosmersholm, The Rehearsal, A Severed Head, The Constant Couple, Habeas Corpus and Dear Liar. His film credits include The Shooting Party, The Far Pavilions, Paris by Night, War and Remembrance, Sense and Sensibility, Mrs Dalloway, The Titchborne Claimant ,The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and four Harry Potter films as Cornelius Fudge. He played Siegfried Farnon in the television adaptation of James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small and was made a CBE in the 1981 Queen’s Birthday honours.

The Audience is produced in the West End by Matthew Byam Shaw for Playful Productions, Robert Fox and Andy Harries.

Release issued by: Premier PR

LINKS

Book tickets to The Audience starring Helen Mirren at the Gielgud Theatre

The Audience starring Helen Mirren at the Gielgud Theatre

Helen Mirren follows her acclaimed on-screen performance as Elizabeth II in a new play by The Queen writer Peter Morgan, charting the 60 years of weekly audiences the Queen has granted her Prime Ministers. From young mother to grandmother, The Audience charts the extraordinary arc of the second Elizabethan Age.

For sixty years Elizabeth II has met each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace – a meeting like no other in British public life – it is private. Both parties have an unspoken agreement never to repeat what is said. Not even to their spouses.

The Audience breaks this contract of silence – and imagines a series of pivotal meetings between the Downing Street incumbents and their Queen. From Churchill to Cameron, each Prime Minister has used these private conversations as a sounding board and a confessional – sometimes intimate, sometimes explosive.

From young mother to grandmother, these private audiences chart the arc of the second Elizabethan Age. Politicians come and go through the revolving door of electoral politics, while she remains constant, waiting to welcome her next Prime Minister.

Award-winning director Stephen Daldry directs Mirren and an all star cast of British Prime Ministers through the ages including Michael Elwyn as Anthony Eden, Haydn Gwynne as Margaret Thatcher, Edward Fox as Winston Churchill, Richard McCabe as Harold Wilson, Nathaniel Parker as Gordon Brown, Paul Ritter as John Major and Rufus Wright as David Cameron. The Equerry is Geoffrey Beevers and the role of Young Elizabeth will be played by Bebe Cave, Maya Gerber and Nell Williams.

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Theatre: Gielgud Theatre

 

Helen Mirren to reprise role of Queen in new West End play by Peter Morgan

Dame Helen Mirren is set to reprise her role as the Queen in new West End play The Audience written by Peter Morgan and directed by Stephen Daldry.

Following her Oscar winning performance as Elizabeth II in Stephen Frears’ 2006 film The Queen, writer of the screenplay Peter Morgan has penned a new play about the Queen.

The Audience is about the confidential Wednesday weekly meeting at Buckingham Palace between the Queen and the Prime Minister and will cover some of the 12 Prime Ministers who have served during her reign. The play will be directed by Stephen Daldry, who directed both the movie and stage version of Billy Elliot and is currently creative director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the London Olympic games.

Helen Mirren won a slew of awards in for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in the 2006 movie The Queen, which showed the monarch struggle to come to terms with the country’s out-pouring of grief following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Mirren was meticulous in her research for the role and it has been rumoured for some time that she would like to return to further explore the Queen. There is already speculation that the play may be turned into a movie, directed by Daldry.

Mirren last appeared on the London stage in 2009 playing Phedre at the National Theatre.

Peter Morgan has written a host of successful plays and screenplays, with particular focus on dramatising real-life events, including The Deal about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and the successful Donmar play and subsequent movie Frost/Nixon.

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Bridget Jones’s Diary The Musical

Helen Fielding’s best-selling book Bridget Jones’s Diary set for blockbuster musical remake.

Directed by Stephen Daldry (The Hours, Billy Elliot) and choreographed by Peter Darling (Billy Elliot), the show will feature numbers by Lily Allen and Greg Kurstin, and a script by the author of the original books, Helen Fielding.

Sheridan Smith, recent star of Trevor Nunn’s Flare Path at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre, is tipped to play Bridget.

The musical is being developed by Working Title, who are currently in development on a third Bridget Jones movie.

2012 will be a big year for Daldry, who is producing the London Olympics opening ceremony with Danny Boyle, and directing Disney’s Dumbo on Broadway.

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