The WhatsOnStage Podcast

Today, artistic director Selina Cartmell unveiled her brand new season at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, coming hot on the heels of the 50th anniversary celebrations at the beloved theatre. Featuring new work by Simon Stephens and Ben Power as well as revivals of Faith Healer and Much Ado About Nothing (featuring the legendary Beverley Knight), Cartmell spills the beans on championing the theatre’s central ethos and telling vital stories for 2027 and beyond.She also had a lot to say about her love of Sondheim and her plans for an all-string orchestra for A Little Night Music, opening this Christmas.

Finally reunited after Alex's foreign forays, Sarah runs through her tireless fortnight of reviews – featuring Rent with Gaten Matarazzo, Hay Fever with Richard E Grant and Christine Baranski, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup, and As You Like It with Fisayo Akinade and Jonathan Groff. The conversation brings up a range of questions about reviewing revivals, the nature of star ratings and whether we should have more music critics reviewing musicals. After that, the pair discuss the new Almeida and Pitlochry seasons, and what audiences might expect from the new Tarantino play.

On Friday night, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera turned 40 – with the event seeing a special reunion between original stars Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman. We chatted to the pair, Lloyd Webber, Cameron Mackintosh and current stars Jordan Donica and Beatrice Penny-Touré on the show's red carpet as this musical blockbuster hits four decades in London.

The great British actor is currently on stage as the great American showman Liberace. As he finished rehearsals he talked to Sarah about how to play characters with whom you have little sympathy, returning to the stage after serious illness, the Shakespeare roles he longs to play and working with Tom Stoppard just before the playwright’s death.

Hello WhatsOnStage Podcast listeners! With Alex freshly back from a fortnight away, he lets intrepid video expert Tom Millward sample some of his finest, starry interviews from the last couple of weeks – featuring multi-award-winning stage star Gillian Anderson and the legendary Derren Brown, explaining their experiences in their respective shows – Anderson leading the five-star Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Brown with his new West End residency with Only Human.

Sarah and Alex continue their journey through the finest new plays of the 21st century. This episode, Harry Potter hits the stage,climate change becomes a major theme and James Graham has an exceptionally busy year. Plus new plays by Lucy Kirkwood, Caryl Churchill, Mike Bartlett and a romance from David Eldridge.

Welcome to this bonus episode of the WhatsOnStage Podcast, brought to you by the West End production of Wicked. Last night, Wicked celebrated its 20th anniversary at the Apollo Victoria in the West End with a special celebration. While a certifiably joyous, hair-raising spectacle, the work being done on hair backstage is much, much more complicated – and pulled off with equal aplomb. We sit down with Wicked's head of wigs Heather-Jay Ross to reflect on the technical expertise happening behind the scenes, some of the incredible moments working on the show and some misconceptions about the world of wigs in theatre.

Ahead of the RSC’s all male As You Like It, Jonathan Groff and Fisayo Akinade discuss the similarities between Shakespeare and musicals, their best theatre experiences, the importance of Ian Charleson and the fun of dressing up in very glamorous frocks.

What do Into the Woods, Cabaret and Jesus Christ Superstar all have in common? That's right, this year they're all being mounted in the West End, and they're all being designed by the same man: the Tony Award-winning Tom Scutt. We sit down with Scutt to discuss his design process, getting into the reeds of Into the Woods and where his artistic drive comes from.