This week the London theatre bloggers discuss The Painkiller with Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon, new musical Miss Atomic Bomb and fringe play German Skerries at the Orange Tree Theatre.
En garde for the French revolution in theatre (and I don’t just mean Florian Zeller)
I recently wrote about super-hot French playwright Florian Zeller’s London hat trick – with The Father, The Mother and, still running at the Menier Chocolate Factory, The Truth. As I sat down to catch up on my Theatre Diary of other plays I’ve seen recently, however, I realised London’s theatre landscape is going Gallic for far more than Zeller. In the West End alone at the moment, you can catch three heavyweight French offerings, even if you don’t realise it. All three have been given modern English-language makeovers and relocations.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: The Painkiller, West End
Rob Brydon and Kenneth Branagh team up for Sean Foley’s production of Francis Veber’s The Painkiller. But are they a combination that works? The latest in the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company season at the West End’s Garrick Theatre, The Painkiller continues until 30 April 2016.
THE PAINKILLER – West End
Well, you’ll never see our Kenneth Branagh more exuberantly violent, nor tumbling into more compromising positions; nor so crazedly drugged, veering from a bout of the ketamine-staggers to full amphetamine mania with a loaded Heckler and Koch automatic in a hotel bedroom
Curtain Up: News from the last week in theatre, tickets on sale
In the theatre news round-up this week: Dreamgirls, The Painkiller, In the Heights and more.
NEWS: Full cast announced for The Painkiller, starring Kenneth Branagh & Rob Brydon
It is announced that Claudie Blakley, Marcus Fraser, Mark Hadfield and Alex Macqueen will join previously confirmed cast members Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon in the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company’s new comedy The Painkiller. The fifth production in the Plays at the Garrick season will play from 5 March until 30 April with press night on 17 March.
Mark Shenton: My top ten ticket picks for 2016
Looking ahead to this year’s highlights, from Broadway imports and Pulitzer prize winners to Kenneth Branagh and Matthew Warchus’s ongoing seasons.
Weekly Theatre Podcast: Mr Foote’s Other Leg, Pure Imagination
This week the London theatre bloggers discuss Mr Foote’s Other Leg, starring Simon Russell Beale and now transferring to the West End following a sell-out at Hampstead Theatre, Leslie Bricusse musical tribute Pure Imagination and Tamsin Oglesby’s Future Conditional at the Old Vic.
What do the Old Vic and Labour Party regime changes have in common?
I’ve witnessed at first-hand two regime changes over the past few days and curiously they have a man in common: Ed Miliband. The political regime change, the announcement of Jeremy Corbyn as Miliband’s Labour Party leadership successor, has of course dominated the news this weekend. As a Labour Party member myself – and one who […]
FUTURE CONDITIONAL – Old Vic
With the news we’ve been having this week, a play about education policy may seem a little lightweight. For most of the first half it was. But the play pulls that neat Love Actually trick. Tedious for the most part, yet satisfying in the end. Little sense, little structure, little point, but plenty of character and warming comedy. Its arguments are highly worn, but it has wheeled out engaging and intriguing characters to tell them to us again.
Press pass: All the news, interviews and opinions on the Old Vic’s changing of the guard
Less than two days after the star-studded gala to bid farewell to Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic, his successor Matthew Warchus is making headlines with an inaugural year-long season and commanding statement of intent. It’s undoubtedly a whole new era down Waterloo way – the award-laden Young Vic down the road, be warned. Warchus […]
Matthew Warchus brings real star-quality – and a major rebrand – to his first season at the Old Vic
One of the most awkward moments at the Olivier Awards last week came during Kevin Spacey‘s acceptance of his Special Award – when he forgot the name of his successor. “As nice as this is,” said Spacey, Olivier in hand, “I don’t want to necessarily spend a lot of time looking back at the past […]
Press pass: All the news, interviews, opinions (and booking) for Kenneth Branagh season
Just days after Kevin Spacey gave his (literal) swansong when accepting his Special Award at the Oliviers, our own homegrown Hollywood star has announced his plans to take over a West End theatre as actor-manager. As you will have noticed from the avalanche of coverage and quickening social media frenzy, Kenneth Branagh is back. Though […]