The actor talks the new UK tour of Miss Saigon.
American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins asserts that the nightmarish workplace depicted in Gloria bears little resemblance to his time at the New Yorker, but that tension between truth and imagination adds a nicely meta layer to this spiky portrait of the ways in which we appropriate, fictionalise and commercially repackage reality.
On my June MoveTo Town and Country Arts page:
Composer Ella Spira and choreographer Pietra Mello-Pittman on new dance musical Voices of the Amazon.
The playwright on the West End return of Rotterdam.
The West End’s new Donna talks Mamma Mia!
Following a sold-out Almeida run, Robert Icke’s thoughtfully contemporary take on Shakespeare hits the West End, with its original cast mainly intact (Derbhle Crotty succeeds Juliet Stevenson as Gertrude on 4 July). The big draw, of course, is the superb Andrew Scott in the title role, but Icke’s production is just as considered in every supporting part, resulting in a wonderfully rich experience.
The stars of Jim Steinman’s musical Bat Out of Hell on landing the leads and working with Meat Loaf.
The actor discusses playing Jean Valjean in the West End production of Les Miserables.
“My mother says you’re tragedy personified,” reports a precocious child to Carol, who recently attempted suicide. It’s typical of Alice Birch’s harrowing new play, which wrings blistering humour as well as despair from its accomplished portrait of women in pain and their disconnect from those around them.
