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These pages are changed every two or three weeks whenever possible.
Click below to go to previous News and Gossip from UP WEST
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| National's Hytner Calls Halt
to Youth Obsession??? |
13th January 2003
The National
Theatre's artistic director-designate Nicholas
Hytner has penned a passionate manifesto in which he has
called for a "new agenda for the performing arts". In the
piece, published in yesterday's Observer, Hytner called
into question the increasing emphasis on the need to draw in
young audiences to theatre. According to received wisdom,
"there's evidently a thing called the young audience and
everybody accepts that it's a good thing. And there's also a
white, middle class, middle-aged audience and it's a very very
bad thing indeed." But Hytner believes there's a "real danger
in relentless and exclusive focus on the nature of our
audience....There's nothing inherently good about any
particular audience. We mustn't judge the success of an
artistic enterprise by its ability to pull in an Officially
Approved Crowd." Nevertheless, Hytner went on to caution
against a diminishment of arts education in schools and to
praise the UK's historical balance between subsidy and box
office funding and its consequent blurring of art and
entertainment. Hytner takes over from Trevor
Nunn in April 2003. Amongst his inaugural season will be
productions of {Jerry Springer - The Opera::
L1960524615}, Adrian Lester's Henry V a revival of
Tom Stoppard's Jumpers. The director also has plans to
lower ticket prices to increase audience accessibility.
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| Goodman Pays Back
Producers with Tartuffe??? |
13th January 2003
Two-time Olivier
winner (and seven-times nominee) Henry
Goodman has made one of the fastest Broadway comebacks
ever. Just nine months after his ignominious sacking from
The Producers, Goodman has triumphed on Broadway in the
title role of Tartuffe, which opened 9 January 2003.
Much to the chagrin of many American actors, Goodman was hired
last year to replace role originator Nathan Lane as Broadway
con man Max Bialystock in the mega-hit musical The
Producers. But show producer and creator Mel Brooks
evidently felt that Goodman was not funny enough in the role
and fired him – to international headlines and pronouncements
that Goodman’s Broadway future was doomed – just four weeks in
and before the critics had a chance to pass judgement (See News,
16 Apr 2002). Now, Goodman’s performance in the Moliere
classic has received ecstatic reviews, particularly in the
almighty New York Times, whose critic Ben Brantley
wrote: “Having now seen Mr Goodman’s charismatic eely
Tartuffe, who brings to mind John Barrymore being sinister in
a silent movie, I have to say that I feel cheated by having
missed his Max….It is New York’s good fortune now to have Mr
Goodman strutting his stuff in high, nasty style.” Luckily,
for British theatregoers, New York won’t be monopolising
Goodman’s time. This summer, he’ll return to the Royal
Shakespeare Company stage for the first time in 15 years in
order to take on the title role in Sean Holmes July 2003
production of Richard III at Stratford's Royal
Shakespeare Theatre. |
| Ragtime Finally
Reaches London in March??? |
10th January 2003
Ragtime may at
last be coming to London. The Broadway musical belatedly
received its European premiere in October 2002, playing for
one night only at Cardiff's St David's Hall as part of the
inaugural International Festival of Musical Theatre. So
enthusiastic was the reception that producers - both
ClearChannel and ATG's Sonia Friedman have been linked with
the project - are now hoping to bring it into town as early as
March. EL Doctorow's epic 1975 novel traces the cultural and
political sea-changes in America between the turn of the 20th
century and the start of the First World War. In 1981, Milos
Forman brought the story to the big screen, with a cast that
included James Cagney, Norman Mailer and Elizabeth McGovern.
The musical stage adaptation - with a book by Terrence
McNally, music by Stephen
Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn
Ahrens - premiered in January 1998 on Broadway where it
ran for two years. According to the Daily Mail, Maria
Friedman, Dave
Willetts and Graham
Bickley are being tipped for the cast of the scaled-down
West End production. |
| Wife Woodward Says Newman's
No-Go??? |
7th January 2003
Well, maybe we were
all getting a bit too excited. Following yesterday's gossip
item about a potential transfer of the Broadway revival of
Our Town starring Paul Newman in a rare stage
appearance, comes another whisper on the matter. Apparently,
Thornton Wilder's 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama was nearly
signed and sealed for the Savoy Theatre after its New York run
ends later this month, but Newman's wife has vetoed the plan.
While Newman was said to be keen to reprise his rare stage
appearance in London, Joanne Woodward feared that her husband
might be a high-profile terrorist target if he travelled
abroad with the production. |
| But King's Keen on London
& Mr Goldwyn??? |
7th January 2003
Luckily, American Alan
King doesn't seem put off by the potential terrorist threat.
As previously tipped (See The
Goss, 26 Jul 2002), he'll reprise the title role in Mr
Goldwyn, about one of the most powerful producers during
Hollywood's "Golden Age". The play ran Off-Broadway last
summer and has toured regionally in the US. Though a venue is
not yet confirmed, it's due to open in the West End in March.
Set in 1952 in Samuel Goldwyn's Los Angeles office, the
two-hander - in which a secretary occasionally interrupts her
verbose boss - recounts the story of the Polish-born
filmmaker's rise from poverty to fame and fortune as the man
behind films such as Guys and Dolls and Wuthering
Heights. |
| Paul Newman Brings Our
Town to London Town??? |
6th January 2003
The Broadway revival
of Thornton Wilder's Our Town - starring Paul Newman in
a rare stage appearance - may be heading to London for a
limited, and no doubt sell-out, West End season. Originally
presented in Westport, Connecticut, the production opened at
Broadway's Booth Theatre on 4 December 2002 with a box office
advance of more than $2 million. Newman is internationally
famous for his many films such as The Sting, Cool Hand
Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Hustler, The
Prize and, last year, Sam Mendes' The Road to
Perdition, but Our Town marks his first Broadway
role in nearly 40 years. Set at the turn of the 20th-century,
Our Town examines life in a small town in New Hampshire
town, tracing the relationship of childhood sweethearts Emily
Webb and George Gibbs. When it first opened on Broadway in
1938, it won the Pultizer Prize. The current revival continues
in New York until 26 January 2003. |
| Sher Rails Against Jacobean
"Failure" Charge??? |
6th January 2003
Actor Antony
Sher has fought back hard against a piece in Saturday's
Guardian claiming the current West End season of rarely
performed Jacobean plays, in which Sher stars, has been a
failure. According to the newspaper's report, the box office
for the five-play repertory has been "pitiful", taking only
£20,000 a week when £100,00 was needed to break even. But
commercial co-producers Thelma Holt and Bill Kenwright have
always maintained that the transfer was fiscal "lunacy", and
as Sher puts it, financial success "as always impossible -
with 28 actors, 20 musicians and a huge stage crew, working on
a season of plays that are not blatantly commercial". And yet,
the "adventurous" productions have been acclaimed and playing,
says Sher, to enthusiastic audiences at all performances. In
fact, the repertory schedule has now been extended by two
months at the Gielgud Theatre (see Today's News).
"So what do you want," asks Sher in a letter to the newspaper,
published today, "a West End full of musicals and American
stars, or a West End with plays like
these?" |
| Scotsman Brian Cox Queries
Queen's Honour??? |
2nd January 2003
According to press
reports, actor Brian
Cox seriously considered turning down the CBE, for
services to drama, that he was awarded this week in the
Queen's New Year Honours list. The actor found it "very
difficult" to accept because he does not agree with how the
honours system is run in this country. After having discussed
it with friends and family, he relented because "I felt it
would be helpful to the theatre and film industry in Scotland
if I accepted the honour." He was also influenced by his
fellow actor Paul
Schofield, who previously rejected a knighthood but, in
2001, was agreed to a Companion of Honour distinction. "If
it's good enough for Paul Schofield, it's good enough for me,"
Cox told Ananova. Born in Dundee, Scotland, Cox was the first
actor to play Hannibal Lecter on screen. His recent London
stage appearances include the premiere of Dublin Carol
at the Royal Court. |
| Belated Cat &
Timely Number Cross Pond??? |
31st December 2002
Last year's
award-winning West End revival of Tennessee Williams' Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof looks like it might at last receive
its Broadway shot in late 2003. When the Bill Kenwright
production opened in London in autumn 2001 - starring
Hollywood's Brendan
Fraser, Frances O'Connor and Ned
Beatty - it was tipped to cross the pond fairly swiftly
(See The
Goss, 22 Nov 2001). Belatedly, the transfer is now close
to confirmation, though only director Anthony
Page and Beatty, who won the 2002 Whatsonstage.com
Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor for his
performance as patriarch Big Daddy, will remain. According to
the Daily Mail, screen star Ashley Judd is signed up to
replace O'Connor as Maggie the Cat, with Mark Ruffalo in talks
to play Brick. Also likely to hit the Great White Way via
London in 2003 is the Royal Court premiere production of Caryl
Churchill's A
Number, featuring its original stars Michael
Gambon and Daniel
Craig. With claims of the first human clone making
international headlines, Churchill's drama about a father and
his multiple cloned sons is highly topical. Craig won the
Evening Standard Best Actor award and has been nominated for a
Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers'
Choice Award for his portrayal of the three siblings.
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| Hare Returns from National
Exile in 2003??? |
31st December 2002
Playwright David
Hare has been talking more about his next play and his
planned 2003 return to the National Theatre (See The
Goss, 13 Aug 2002). Hare's last NT production was Amy's
View, which starred Judi
Dench and transferred to the West End and Broadway. But
that was back in 1997, one of the last projects under
then-artistic director Richard
Eyre. Speaking in the Daily Mail, Hare revealed
some apparent resentment towards present director Trevor
Nunn who, he says, has shut him out for the past five
years in favour of a 'musical climate'. "I was sent into
exile. I worked for 20 years at the National Theatre - and it
was my theatre," he said. Amongst Hare's previous
triumphs at the NT was the early 1990s trilogy - comprising
The Absence of War, Racing Demon and Murmuring
Judges, which dissected the modern institutions of
politics, Church and law respectively. As luck would have it,
Nicholas
Hytner, who takes over from Nunn in April, is predisposed
to both Hare and his new work "about what life is like under
this particular government". |
| Chicago Contributes to
Holden/Dennis Split??? |
30th December 2002
Big Brother
and Neil Morrissey aren't the only entertainments being blamed
for the collapse of Les Dennis and Amanda Holden's marriage.
The West End production of Chicago
reportedly has a part to play, too. Back in 2000, comedian and
game-show host Dennis appeared in the musical as Amos Hart,
aka "Mr Cellophane", Roxie's cuckolded husband, but he left in
order to spend more time with his wife. Apparently not so
concerned with spending nights at home, Holden - best known
for her TV roles in series such as Cutting It and
Hearts and Bones - is said to be poised to join the
cast of the musical. Several newspapers have tipped her to
take over from Gaby
Roslin as prison matron Mama Morton in the spring. A
spokesman for Chicago
has, however, denied this. He told Whatsonstage.com today that
the actress has not even been seen for a role in the
show. |
| Humble Jones Pens Book
for Lloyd Webber's Woman??? |
27th December 2002
Award-winning
playwright Charlotte
Jones has reportedly been drafted in to write the book for
Andrew
Lloyd Webber's new musical based on Wilkie Collins'
19th-century romantic novel The Woman in White (See The
Goss, 4 Nov 2002). Jones' Humble
Boy - which premiered at the NT Cottesloe before
transferring to the West End where it closed this past August
- won both the Critics' Circle and the Whatsonstage.com 2002
Theatregoers' Choice Awards for Best New Play. Her other stage
plays include Airswimming, In Flame and Martha,
Josie and the Chinese Elvis. In 2002, she won the Critics'
Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright. The Woman in
White tells the story of a man who meets a mysterious
woman (dressed in white) on a road one night and helps her
flee from pursuers. Neither a lyricist, director or designer
has yet been attached to the project though, according to the
Daily Mail, ATG's Sonia
Friedman will be involved in co-producing the musical,
anticipated for a West End premiere in early 2004.
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This page is re-produced with the kind permission of the website whatsonstage.com
References to "The Goss" in the text refer to the gossip pages of Whats on Stage.
If you are planning a trip to a West End theatre check out the Whats on Stage pages first.
There are always lots of concessions on offer.
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