Theatre Interviews – West End Stars

The actor had just a week to rehearse for A Streetcar Named Desire. Fortunately, her turn as tragic belle Blanche DuBois has audiences enchanted

After his amazing success in Happy Valley, James Norton is taking on another dark role, this time on stage. He talks about his lucky streak, fear of failure, grappling with fame and why cold-water swimming keeps him sane

As he slots into the new Tetris movie, Egerton reveals how he struggles with his weight – and why Method acting is ‘indulgent nonsense’

The acclaimed actor – who is to receive a lifetime achievement award at this year’s Olivier Awards – says the demise of repertory theatre is putting paid to the vocal prowess

When the actor accepted the role of Blanche DuBois opposite Paul Mescal, she had just four days to rehearse. Then she knocked the critics’ socks off

The actor, better known as a TV cop, is portraying Julius Caesar’s assassin in a first for the RSC. She reveals why she’s been studying revolutionaries, from Mexican Zapatistas to Welsh nationalists

The award-winning actor on taking on the challenge of Medea, her love of cycling, and playing the long game in TV’s Slow Horses

As Hanya Yanagihara’s ‘trauma porn’ novel hits the stage, cast members Norton, Omari Douglas, Luke Thompson and Zach Wyatt get set to shock

The actor and playwright discusses the joy of putting the Black queer experience on stage (and the pain of turning down ‘The Bill’)

Actor, Bukky Bakray, who at 19, became the youngest BAFTA Rising Star Award recipient as well as one of the youngest ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’ nominees for her critically acclaimed performance in the film Rocks. Bukky makes her stage debut in the coming of age play Sleepova in which four Black teenage friends explore sexuality, identity, relationships and family as they head towards adulthood while struggling to maintain their friendships. Bukky joins Anita in the studio to talk about her career and the power of female friendship.

The Conversations With Friends star and the playwright talk about bringing sex, violence and truly unpleasant women to London’s Almeida Theatre

Bonnie and Clyde the Musical veteran Frances Mayli McCann is about to open in the show for a third time, having appeared in the concert version, limited run at the Arts Theatre and now the musical at the Garrick Theatre. She speaks to Jamie Body about the show’s success and why she keeps coming back…

Anoushka Lucas spent her twenties trying to get signed. Now a wild version of classic musical ‘Oklahoma!’ is making her a very different type of star

The actress likes a fight, whether she’s in EastEnders or playing Shakespeare’s Shylock as a woman. She talks about antisemitism and her family’s role in the Battle of Cable Street

Actor Patrick Vaill has been with Daniel Fish’s ‘sexy Oklahoma!’ since its first outing at his US liberal arts college in 2007. Fifteen years of playing Jud Fry later, he tells Fergus Morgan about his journey with the character and his favourite productions

Superb actors they may be, but Sophie Okonedo and Ben Daniels are really challenging themselves playing Greek tragedy’s most toxic couple, Medea and Jason, in a new West End production – for in real life the stars are the very closest of friends.

Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood’s emotions simmer just below the surface. And it’s exactly this quality that makes her such a luminous actor. She opens up about bullying, bodies and playing Cabaret’s Sally Bowles

The actress talks about taking on the legendary role on stage, the shift that comes with the menopause and why she’s no longer bothered about work

The pop singer is reprising her role as the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in a new version of the hip-hop musical

Creator Kate Prince and star Beverley Knight on how their new Sylvia Pankhurst musical will resonate in the age of Brexit

The actor from Industry, W1A and Mistresses on her return to the theatre, her habit of breaking bones and seeing her husband as Prince Andrew

How do you go from anonymity to being one of the UK’s most-watched stars in the span of three whirlwind years? Kenya Hunt discovers an actor unafraid to challenge convention, on the screen or stage.

As he releases the soundtrack to the West End show, the actor looks back on his musical roots, clown school, and how his career affects his parenting

Having starred in some of Britain’s biggest TV shows, the pair are taking to the stage for Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, a minimalist two-hander where words are strictly rationed. And they can’t stop talking about it

The actress on love, Botox and The Good Life

Her forte is playing strong women — after falling ill at 76, the actress demonstrated why. By Andrew Billen

The Doctor Who actress and star of The Tempest can’t help speaking her mind — on everything from ageing to motherhood

David Harewood is a famous actor, but when he’s stopped in the street it’s because he’s lifted the taboo on mental illness – not least his own psychotic breakdown. He talks to Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson

The actor on painful memories, wanting to read Dante’s Inferno in Italian, and why Trump and Putin are the same person

As she prepares to take on ‘2:22 A Ghost Story’, the pop star and ‘X Factor’ judge talks to Nick Levine about loss, music and Simon Cowell

The actress is appearing in Stephen Moffat’s first play, a deliciously wicked look at why politeness isn’t always the best policy

As well as creating and starring in some of TV’s most deliciously dark and daring comedies, the League of Gentlemen’s Reece Shearsmith has established himself in the West End. As hit comedy The Unfriend prepares to move to London’s Criterion Theatre, the actor talks to Natasha Tripney about his successes, his Shakespearean ambitions and returning to theatre

The Sherlock actress and her partner Jonathan Goodwin, a former stuntman, on his life-changing accident

The actress is appearing in Stephen Moffat’s first play, a deliciously wicked look at why politeness isn’t always the best policy

Her genius one-woman show, er, ‘One Woman Show’ is the hottest ticket of the year. But Liz Kingsman absolutely does not want to be a superstar

The Irish actor on modern masculinity, taking on Marlon Brando – and mortgages

The singer starring in It’s a Wonderful Life talks about the impact of subsidy cuts on the English National Opera and Glyndebourne

The actor and the director Michael Grandage talk about how relevant their staging of Virginia Woolf’s classic work of gender fluidity feels – and remember their own queer battles

The Star Trek actor talks to Louis Chilton about the ‘provocateur’ Ryan Murphy, how TV has damaged debate, and why he thinks democracy may not survive

The Star Trek actor is making his West End debut in a play about the 1968 US TV political debates between Gore Vidal and William F Buckley. But he fears the pair’s fiery exchanges may be partly to blame for today’s polarised politics