Curtain Call Podcast

Tyrone Huntley and Georgie Henley are currently on stage at the Southwark Playhouse in Phil Ridley’s “Angry” – not so much a play as a theatre piece with Huntley and Henley performing what Ridley describes as “vespers” or stand-alone monologues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you haven't heard of The HandleBards yet, you are in for a treat. As they describe on their website, they are "charmingly chaotic bicycle-powered Shakespeare". A roving company of bards who travel the country (and beyond), bringing a particular style of Shakespeare to audiences across the UK and beyond. Listen to Tom Dixon, a founding HandleBard and one of their producers, as he discusses the c...

Jonathan Ajayi, Sope Dirisu and Anthony Welsh make up the brilliant onstage company of The Brothers Size along with Manuel Pinheiro playing live music while the action takes place. This critically lauded play is on at The Young Vic and has been wowing. audiences and critics alike. This week, Anthony Welsh, who plays the non-brother in The Brothers Size, Elegba, speaks about his journey with this p...

John Schwab goes backstage to talk to the company of There or Here, Jennifer Maisel's new play, playing at the Park Theatre in London's Finsbury Park. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alastair Coomer and Ginny Schiller, both members of the Casting Directors' Guild in the UK sit down and talk all things casting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s not often that shows that have played the National Theatre Olivier stage come back for another bite of the apple. Those occasions are few and far between. But that is exactly what is happening this Thursday, the 11th of January at the NT when Amadeus returns. Peter Shaffer’s timeless tale set in Vienna, directed by Michael Longhurst, was such a quick sell out that the powers-that-be at the Na...

What is it like to be a swing on a hit West End show? Find out in this week's podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last year we covered Claire Van Kampen’s Farinelli and the King after it transferred from the Sam Wannamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe to the Duke of York’s Theatre in London’s West End. This past Sunday, it opened on Broadway. The reviews have been raves pretty much across the board. Getting just as many great notices as the play’s star are Sam Crane and Iestyn Davies who play Farinelli an...

Earlier this week, in Episode 70 of the Curtain Call Theatre Podcast, we brought you the company of People, Places & Things...well, not the entire company. There were three local actresses that joined the West End Transfer at the St. Anne's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York. I chatted to them about their previous experiences of the show, what it was like joining an already well-established company a...

Matt Humphrey and I had the opportunity to fly over to New York and catch People, Places & Things at the St Anne’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. With both of us having seen the show a couple times before, we got to watch it again before heading backstage last Friday night. And I cannot begin to tell you how phenomenal this production was. The company has grown in stature, taking Jeremy Herrin’s productio...

The Evening Standard Theatre Awards shortlist was revealed with two cast members from The Ferryman among those nominated. Laura Donnelly has been nominated for Best Actress and Tom Glynn-Carney for the Emerging Talent Award. Curtain Call paid a visit to The Ferryman when it was on at The Royal Court, just as they announced their transfer to The Gielgud in London's West End. Learn more about your a...

We have seen a recent spate of high profile actresses making acceptance speeches at awards nights - highlighting the unequal representation of actresses on stage and screen and the need to redress the balance. It kicked off in earnest with Denise Gough at the 2017 Olivier Awards, actor Jimmy Nesbit even chipped in at the BAFTA TV awards, and is continuing as witnessed by Deirdre Mullins’ speech af...

A few months ago, we went over to the ENO London Coliseum to take in the theatre spectacle that is Bat Out of Hell: The Musical. It started in Manchester before moving down to London, and last weekend the entire London company started their run in Toronto at the Mirvish Theatre. Bat Out of Hell is like nothing I have ever seen...or heard. The sound system in that theatre was incredible. And there...

We were fortunate enough to find time with multi award-winning lighting designer Paule Constable, an associate of the National Theatre where her many credits include Follies, Angels in America, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and War Horse. She talked to Theo Bosanquet and Matt Humphrey about her serendipitous entry into the profession, her design process and collaborations with...

Curtain Call attended The Mono Box September Speech Surgery and talked to Niall Bishop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I have been waiting to chat to my next guest for ages! I first met Olivia Williams when I was understudying Matthew Fox in Neil Labute’s two-hander “In a Forest Dark and Deep” back in 2011, and have had the privilege to share the stage with her on numerous Word Theatre stages around London. I am in AWE of her talent. Olivia doesn’t just play characters, she inhabits them. Rosemary Cross in Rushmor...

Curtain Call had the privilege of attending a Q&A after a performance of Man to Man at the Wilton's Music Hall this week. A fascinating discussion with Director Bruce Guthrie and Translator Alexandra Wood. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's podcast was recorded in the press room of The Stage Debut Awards, where winners and guest presenters spoke to Curtain Call's Theo Bosanquet about their own debuts. The answers were touching and surprising in equal measure (suffice it to say, we're keen to see Rufus Norris reprise his performance of a chicken). Guests you'll here from include Preeya Kalidas, Dan Gillespie Sells, Grace M...

This week, I thought I would sit down with the Casting Directors Guild and find out just what it means to be a casting director. What it means to have those three little letters (CDG) following your name, and the path one takes to become a casting director in today's industry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's podcast is all about gender, a hot topic both in the news headlines and the arts world currently. It features a conversation with Camden People's Theatre (CPT) artistic director Brian Logan and acclaimed writer/director Lucy J Skilbeck. CPT is about to launch its festival Come As You Are, which features 'a host of gender-anarchists with more questions than answers'. Theo Bosanquet went...

Reece Shearsmith celebrated a birthday this past weekend, and I thought we’d help him celebrate by bringing you a little chat we had with him when he was appearing in Hangmen at The Royal Court. Reece played the character of Syd, the stammering ex-assistant to David Morrissey’s ex-hangman Harry, both of whom are coming to terms with the abolition of capital punishment in Britain. Learn more about...

Bat Out of Hell The Musical starts just like it’s title, and doesn’t stop all evening. I have rarely been to a musical that kicks the door down with a wall of sound as big as it does here, and then carries on. Big props to the sound department on the show. And HUGE props to the entire company of Bat Out of Hell for a belting sound you produce. The singing on this show is off the charts. And we loo...