Stage Door Jonny

This week Jonny’s guest is on British theatre and film’s Mt Rushmore of writers. Two time Oscar winning screenwriter Sir Christopher Hampton is one of the finest playwrights of the 20 and 21st centuries and in Christopher’s office in Notting Hill that spawned so much of his work they discuss the conditions he needs to write, sometimes needing to go to a posh hotel to finish a script and writing his first west end play in the pub at 18. The crown prince of youthful prodigies tells Jonny about the lesson of terrible reviews, acting with Leonardo di Caprio, why a Christopher Hampton part blighted Jonny’s daughter’s baby photos, the importance of relationships with theatres from Vienna to LA, winning an Oscar and then being unable to get a film made for six years, why writing plays is hard and writing film is a joy- and the remarkable story of Les Liaisons Dangereuses and its journey to becoming the Oscar winning Dangerous Liasons. 

In the second half of his chat with the Ladies of the Hills of California, Jonny hears about the differences between Broadway and the West End, the realities of being a woman in the acting industry, trigger warnings, whether or not they’ve all been ruined by Jez Butterworth, singing for Sam Mendes and the incredible joy of the shared endeavor they are all undertaking onstage.

This week, Jonny’s guests are four actresses: Helena Wilson, Ophelia Lovibond, Leanne Best and Laura Donnelly, who together embody the Webb Sisters in Jez Butterworth’s play, The Hills of California. Currently running on Broadway, Jonny and the ladies chat interesting name rebrands that would turn heads on a Broadway marquee, life-changing cookies, harrowing early stage experiences, holding a kind of theatrical fire in their hands onstage, what happens when Jez Butterworth radically rewrites the play you’ve done 150 times, moving like seaweed together, Jez’s addiction to emergency and what its like to be directed by Sam Mendes.

In the second part of Jonny’s conversation with Bobby Cannavale, Jonny hears about the utterly life-changing experience of working with the great theatre artist Al Pacino, reading the play every day when he’s in performance, what is the joy of acting, being an audition reader and what it taught him about trying to get a job, they debate the pronunciation of Godot, we hear about the time Bobby made sure an audience member will never let their phone ring again in the theatre, F Murray Abraham hiding his Oscar onstage, why he wants to be terrified by Shakespeare and what was the Elizabethan‘s personal portable ring light.

The second half of Jonny’s chat with Cynthia Nixon ranges from playing a version of Marina Abramavich, staring at her costar for 20 minutes before the show (and being helped by a lozenge) to Williams Hurt, David Rabe and their rebellion against Mike Nicholls. From why her first Tony-winning performance as a bereaved mother didn’t capsize her, to whether actors can have qualms about using personal details from their lives. From her run for governor of New York, politics and its relationship to acting, why Andrew Cuomo isn’t Shakespearean but Cynthia is Portia, why she wants to go back to acting class and how being directed feels like her mother’s love.

Jonny’s guest this week is a colleague of his on the new season of HBO’s And Just Like That, she’s Ada Brook in The Gilded Age, she’s won two Tonys, two Emmys, two SAGs and a Grammy, she ran for Governor of New York, she performed two shows on Broadway at the same time and forced Equity to outlaw anyone ever doing so again, for a generation of Sexers of the City she will always and forevermore be Miranda Hobbes, she is the one and only Cynthia Nixon. A child actress since she was 11, Broadway debut at 14 and New York theatre royalty ever since, Jonny shimmied along the hall from his dressing room to Cynthia’s to talk about her remarkable life in the theatre.

In the second half of Jonny's chat with James Corden they discuss OCD and it's links to actor's superstition, James tells the story of delaying the play so he and the audience could watch England win on penalties, the brilliance and oddness of The History Boys, taking a vow of stupidity with Nicholas Hytner, letting down Richard Griffiths and finally getting a burst of Uncle Monty, breaking down the magic of the show that made him, smacking the well-fed rump of a mango-coloured real estate developer from Queens, getting a scoop on James's idea for a new play and his theory about the future of theatre. 

Jonny's guest this week is none other than the man who gave the world Carpool Karaoke, took Paul McCartney back to his childhood, became the star of American late night by playing a man who fights with himself onstage, the writer and star of Gavin and Stacey, the man who'll always be a History Boy - James Corden. On his return to the London stage after a 12 year absence, James and Jonny sit down in his dressing room at the Old Vic to talk coming home, making late night tv into a 1,198 night variety show, mountaineering advice from Chris Evans, being a shy extrovert, the magic of Mathew Warchus, loving a line reading, why actors should take lessons from Formula One, how his pre-show rituals nearly capsized him, the best way he knows to handle nerves- and strap in for the terrifying description of a day at the Late Late Show up until the moment he's completely alone.