Curtain Call Podcast

Last week we brought you the first part of a two-part episode with Polly Bennett, the movement director behind Rami Malek’s breathtaking transformation into Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury for the hit film Bohemian Rhapsody. This week, we really wanted to delve deep into her passion project and full time job as creator of The Monobox. The Monobox is one of the best resources around for “emerged” a...

In the first part of a two-part discussion, we speak to Polly Bennett - a woman who has taken the idea and profession of Movement Director to new heights. In addition to being a superwoman running a business that supports artists, she worked with the RSC before going on to work at multiple Olympics ceremonies and top notch cross-over directors like Sam Mendes, who she worked with directly after Bo...

This week, we sit down with the writer of the world premiere of "Omish" - written by former Curtain Call employee Sophie Soanes and directed by Ewa Dina, as well of two of its cast members Joyce Omotola and Naomi Emanuelle at Above the Arts Club last week. We were super impressed by the enthusiasm at which this group of women was attacking the problems of not only putting on a play in London, but...

During the final week of Jonathan Munby's production of King Lear at the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End, we talk to King Lear company members Michael Matus, James Corrigan, Richard Clews, Anthony Howell, John Hastings, John Vernon, Scott Sparrow, James Millard, Caleb Roberts, Jake Mann, Johanne Murdock and Jessica Murrain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The John Lyons Theatre is located in Covent Garden within the CityLit building on Keeley Street between Holborn and Covent Garden tube stations. I sat down with Carys and asked her speak about what’s on offer there, both in continuing professional development opportunities for the theatre professional, but also about the history of the theatre, their recent productions and just how you can use thi...

Milly Thomas doesn’t pull any punches in either her acting or her writing, and her latest play "Dust" tackles the issue of depression and suicide head on with no apologies. In one of our most honest chats to date, I sat down with Milly Thomas to talk to her about the genesis of her show, its journey to the West End, and all of the emotions contained therein.   Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

Kirsty Bushell, Claire Price and Anita-Joy Uwajeh, who play Lear's daughters had more to offer including a number of cast changes. Nearly half of the company are new to the production which can be tricky. We also touched upon the political aspects of the play - something which Sinead Cusack also had a bit to say about. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Curated by The Mono Box's Polly Bennett, the panel's discussion were kicked off by two questions about mental health and issues of self-worth. Those two questions took half an hour to address, and I thought I would let you listen to how the conversation unfolded. I found it fascinating, and hopefully you will, too.  It is apparent that we, in this industry, find it very hard to talk about how we a...

This week, Matt Humphrey and I sat down to talk with Vicki Mortimer, multi-award-winning designer...and just all round fantastic theatre professional. Vicki’s career is so full and varied, it’s one to be envied for anyone considering a career in theatre design. And not just theatre as we speak about it on day to day, but any production in a theatre. Musicals, drama, dance, opera, ballet...you name...

The company of the National Theatre's production of "Julie" talk about how exciting it is bringing this 19th Century Swedish classic to the 21st Century London and being able to share it beyond the walls of the National Theatre's home on the South Bank to cinemas around the globe in their NT Live broadcast on the 6th of September 2018. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Theo Bosanquet talks to George Richmond Scott about his career as a vocal coach, how that role has helped him develop as a director, his time at the Sheffield Crucible, assisting on “Everybody’s Talking about Jamie”, why he chose “Blood Wedding” as his next project and why he set it in London in this reimagining of the piece. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We chat to London's Bring it On! company members Robin McIntyre (who plays super-earnest Campbell) and Isabella Pappas (who plays super-bitchy Skylar) along with musical director Chris Ma before the show at the Southwark Playhouse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, I talk to the company of the latest revival of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice which begins playing at The Park Theatre later this month, where the director Tom Latter believes that, despite being nearly 30 years old, the play absolutely stands up in today’s fame-crazed social media driven world.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to John Goodman, Uzo Aduba and Michael C Hall share their experiences from the London stage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We sat down with Rafe Spall and talked about Ivo van Hove’s Hedda Gabler rehearsal process, the intricacies of trying to look cool at all times on stage, avoiding slip ups on rose petals (you’ll have to listen to see what I mean) and just what it takes to come back to the stage as not only a theatre professional, but a theatre professional with a young family. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

For the last 30 years, the Stage Management Association (SMA)has been presenting awards to the Stage Managers - students and professionals alike - with awards that recognise their hard work through hardship, misstep and mishap, hard work that ensured that the shows would go on. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We sat down with one of the founders of The Stable Musicals, Neil Marcus, a theatre producer with a distinguished history of developing new musicals and a massive supporter of emerging British musical theatre talent to discuss the growth of The Stable Musicals, their slate of new musicals and just how far they have come in the last four years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a...

The Factory is a theatre company like no other. No sets, no props, no blocking, no set cast, no auditions, open rehearsals...you name the theatrical convention and they are tearing it down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I went to go see a show, as they say in the business. And that show was “Building The Wall” at The Park Theatre. Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Robert Schenkkan’s hard-hitting piece. I got to speak to Angela and Trevor about their thoughts on the play at the Park Theatre, performing in front of major theatre stars, the immediacy of this new piece and what keeps bringing them back to the theatre...

Earlier in the year, we had the pleasure to visit the incredible show An American in Paris. I don’t think we have covered a show that was so full of triple threats… and maybe even quadruple threats - singing, acting, dancing, and stage management / technicians. There was so little in the way of automation of set pieces coming on, it was dazzling to see so much movement from the company, pushing an...

Curtain Call co-founder, Matt Humphrey, sat down with multiple award-winning lighting designer Paule Constable to talk about the proposed EU regulations, the huge implications they bring and explain in simple terms what it means for the industry here in the UK and across Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We sat down with Sean Kingsley, Sanne Den Besten and Louis Maskell about how hard it is to place and describe The Grinning Man, (the musical transfer from The Bristol Old Vic to Trafalgar Studios), working with puppets and keeping the voice in fine working order in one of toughest sings on stage at the moment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode Lesley Manville, Jeremy Irons, Rory Keenan, Matthew Beard and Jessica Regan talk about their experience of bringing the classic Eugene O'Neill play Long Day's Journey Into Night from the Bristol Old Vic to the Wyndham's Theatre in the West End before their trip across the Atlantic to BAM in New York and the Wallis Centre in Los Angeles.  Curtain Call Show Page   Learn more about yo...

Listen to Mark Gatiss, Olivia Williams, Matt Cardle, Denise Gough and Lesley Manville talk about their love of theatre. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I want to give you guys the experience that we have when we go backstage. And no better an example to be in one of the boys’ dressing rooms of Giovanni Spano, Patrick Sullivan and Dom Hartley-Harris during a quick break while “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” is blaring out of the tannoy. You can hear mid-show vocal chord steaming, working out and having a light snack…this is what it takes them to...