Musicals Company and Come From Away top the Olivier Awards 2019 nominations with nine nods each, while The Inheritance is the most recognised play with eight nominations. The ceremony takes place on Sunday 7 April at the Royal Albert Hall, hosted by Jason Manford.
NEWS: Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance & gender-swapping Company are the big winners at the Critics’ Circle Awards
Matthew Lopez’s epic two-part drama The Inheritance was the big winner at the 2018 Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards held today at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London’s West End, hosted by Critics’ Circle Drama Section chairman Mark Shenton.
Rev Stan’s favourite plays of the year (& first six-star production)
It’s time for Rev Stan’s best plays of 2018 overall, gleaned from everything I’ve seen – large productions and small, commercial theatres, subsidised and fringe.
‘Theatre has been the lodestar’: A Top 10 of Theatre in 2018
“The inheritance of wisdom, community and self” – Matthew Lopez. Each year, around March, I think of a brilliant way to start the Best of the Year list. Each year, around December, I forget it. In the year when football nearly came home and the UK has been stuck on a political pause, theatre has been the lodestar.
‘Blew me away’: SUMMER & SMOKE – West End ★★★★★
Rebecca Frecknall’s production of Summer & Smoke with its chorus of pianos fits as snugly into the Duke of York’s as it must have done at the Almeida.
‘There’s not a weak link here’: SUMMER & SMOKE – West End
Rebecca Frecknall’s production of Summer & Smoke has lost none of its charge, mainly through retaining the electric chemistry between its leads – an exceptional Patsy Ferran as Alma and Matthew Needham as John.
‘Shows exactly why we need more women directing in London theatre’: SUMMER & SMOKE – West End
Summer & Smoke, the latest Almeida Theatre West End transfer, is the first thing I’ve experienced in a while where the theatre audience is really, properly engaged in a play. It’s like you could literally hear a pin drop.
Top recommended London openings for November
Here’s Love London Love Culture’s guide to some of the best shows opening in the capital in November.
NEWS: Almeida production of Tennessee Williams’ Summer & Smoke transfers to the West End in November
Following a sold-out run at the Almeida Theatre, Tennessee Williams’ rarely staged classic Summer and Smoke will have a limited West End run from 10 November 2018 to 19 January 2019 at the Duke Of York’s Theatre, with press night on 20 November.
‘Fresh, revolutionary and utterly new’: SUMMER & SMOKE – Almeida Theatre
Summer & Smoke is a production where the rich talents of all its creatives have come together to take something old and transform it into something fresh, revolutionary and utterly new without once betraying the essence of and truth in Williams’s script.
‘Engages our empathy with sensitivity & subtle wit’: SUMMER & SMOKE – Almeida Theatre ★★★★
Tennessee Williams’ Summer & Smoke is undergoing a revival at the Almeida Theatre and makes for an interesting comparison with the playwright’s other mature work.