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The London Theatre Review
Maggie Siff, Nancy Carroll, Bird Grove and Evening All Afternoon
This week the gang review Bird Grove, the George Eliot origin story that nobody was quite sure they needed. How did Mary Ann Evans become one of the most famous novelists of all time? Did she fall in a vat of radioactive acid? Or get bitten by a radioactive spider? No, the answer is much more church-focused.
They also visit the Donmar Warehouse for Anna Ziegler's new play Evening All Afternoon about a mother/daughter relationship and functionally extinct rhinos.
Mad Men and Billions star Maggie Siff talks to Nick Curtis about playing CS Lewis's lover, the poet Joy Davidman, in Shadowlands at the Aldwych Theatre, and award-winning actress Nancy Carroll answers five questions.
Follow us on Instagram and watch us on YouTube @thelondontheatrereview.
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8. Our Town with Michael Sheen, Broken Glass, Bridgerton's Gracie McGonigal, Monique Touko
46:27||Season 5, Ep. 8Michael Sheen's first production for his new company Welsh National Theatre is Our Town, the classic American play by Thornton Wilder transposed to Wales. Nick, Nick and Nancy give their verdicts. They also visit the Young Vic for Broken Glass, one of Arthur Miller's late plays in which a woman becomes paralysed after reading about the horrors of Kristallnacht. Nick Curtis talks to director Monique Touko about having three plays on simultaneous: Marie and Rosetta, The Boy at the Back of the Class and Jaja's African Hair Braiding. And Bridgerton's Hazel, aka Gracie McGonigal, answers five questions as she stars in Into the Woods as a very bolshy Red Riding Hood. Find us on Instagram and YouTube @thelondontheatrereview.
6. Cynthia Erivo in Dracula, Hugh Bonneville in Shadowlands, Jenna Russell, Laurie Kynaston
49:17||Season 5, Ep. 6The biggest show of the year so far has finally opened, with puns about sucking and biting in full flow. Yes it's Cynthia Erivo's one-woman Dracula, adapted and directed by Kip Williams, in which the Wicked star plays all 23(ish) parts. So as Nick, Nick and Nancy sink their teeth into their review, does it get their blood pumping? Or will they B negative?Downton Abbey and Paddington treasure Hugh Bonneville plays CS Lewis in the West End transfer of Shadowlands. The inimitable Jenna Russell, who brings emotional charge and huge class to every show she stars in, talks to Nick Curtis about The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. And Laurie Kynaston, currently in Terence Rattigan's Man and Boy at the National Theatre, answers five questions. Follow us on Instagram or watch us on Youtube @thelondontheatrereview.
5. Harold Fry, Man and Boy, Chadwick Boseman's hip hop play
49:59||Season 5, Ep. 5This week the gang is talking about walking as they make a pilgrimage to Theatre Royal Haymarket for new musical The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, based on the beloved book by Rachel Joyce with music by Passenger. They also had a dose of daddy issues with Terence Rattigan's little-revived play Man and Boy at the National. Director, writer and theatremaker Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu talked to Nick Curtis about directing the late Chadwick Boseman's play Deep Azure at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and Andor star Elizabeth Dulau answered five questions. Follow us @thelondontheatrereview on Insta and Youtube.
4. Arcadia, Keala Settle, American Psycho the Musical
48:02||Season 5, Ep. 4A few months on from his death, Tom Stoppard's dazzling play Arcadia comes to the Old Vic and puts the brains of Nancy, Nick and Nick to the test - that's if Mr Clark is able to get across Albert Bridge and make it to the recording on time...Then it's back to the eighties for shell suits, ripped bodies and all kinds of excess - and that's just from the LTR gang - as they review American Psycho The Musical at the Almeida. Plus producer Tim talks to musical theatre icon Keala Settle, whose rendition of This Is Me from The Greatest Showman has been watched and streamed by hundreds of millions of people, about taking a break from musical theatre for the moment to star in her first straight play, Mrs President. She plays Mary Todd Lincoln at the Charing Cross Theatre. And writer Miriam Battye answers five questions. Follow us on Instagram or watch us on YouTube @thelondontheatrereview
3. Paranormal Activity, Arty Froushan, Guess How Much I Love You, Fiona Button
38:33||Season 5, Ep. 3Boo!! This week Nancy and the Nicks are cowering behind their large, slightly warm glasses of chardonnay as they experience the stage adaptation of supernatural horror Paranormal Activity. Two out of three critics were terrified - listen to find out who has nerves of steel. The trio also take in Luke Norris's harrowing play Guess How Much I Love You at the Royal Court, and Nick Curtis talks to Fiona Button, currently starring in one of Tom Stoppard's masterpieces Arcadia at the Old Vic. Plus, Arty Froushan takes a break from murdering people in a well-tailored suit as he plays Patrick Bateman in American Psycho: The Musical and answers our five questions. Follow us on Instagram and watch us on Youtube @thelondontheatrereview.
2. Oh Mary! Oh High Noon! Oh Rosie Sheehy!
53:02||Season 5, Ep. 2With pistols drawn and chaps on, Nancy and the Nicks review the stage version of classic Western film High Noon. It's been adapted by the legendary Hollywood screenwriter Eric Roth (Dune, Benjamin Button, Forrest Gump) and stars Billy Crudup and Denise Gough. Then it's back further into the American past with Oh, Mary!, Cole Escola's ridiculously silly Broadway smash play which very much does not tell the story of Mary Todd Lincoln. She may still be the wife of Abraham in Cole's telling, but she's also an alcoholic and frustrated cabaret star. But no fear, because Nick Clark talks to academic Catherine Clinton who has written a definitive biography of Mary Lincoln to get some of the facts straight. And Nick Curtis catches the brilliant actress Rosie Sheehy in a break from rehearsals for new play Guess How Much I Love You by Luke Norris.
1. Into the Woods, Woman in Mind, Mason Alexander Park and Denise Gough
50:24||Season 5, Ep. 1What better way to start the new season than with an absolutely jam-packed episode full of the most exciting things in theatre right now? Nancy, Nick and Nick are back and they are reviewing the mega production of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods at the Bridge Theatre as well as Alan Ayckbourn's 1986 play Woman in Mind starring Sheridan Smith and Romesh Ranganathan at the Duke of York's. The brilliant Mason Alexander Park has taken on the deranged role of Mary Todd Lincoln in the West End transfer of Cole Escola's Broadway smash hit Oh, Mary! They took time out of drinking paint thinner to talk to Nick Curtis. The extraordinary Denise Gough - Olivier Award winner for her roles in People, Places and Things and Angels In America, currently appearing in High Noon - answers our five questions. And because this is the first episode of the season, and we thought you deserve a treat, we have an extra five questions interviewee, the great Forbes Masson, who is performing in Orphans at the Jermyn Street Theatre.
13. A Christmas present just for you...
24:41||Season 4, Ep. 13The latest season of the podcast may be over, but 'tis the season for things like presents and surprises - so here is both! Just in time for Christmas, enjoy this bonus episode in which producer Tim talks to Paddington writer Jessica Swale and Julian Clary slips away from playing King Julian in his panto at the Palladium to answer our five questions. Happy Christmas and thanks for listening this year. The London Theatre Review will return...