Stage Door Jonny

In the second half of his conversation with a hyper-talented young performer already making waves in the acting world, Jonny and Rhea discuss the differences between acting for tv and the theatre, never taking a phone to set, the beautiful words to “Maybe This Time” and not going under playing Sally Bowles. On struggling sometimes with contemporary writing, Rhea’s interest in female rage, why she’...

Two weeks after she finished her West End run as Sally Bowles in Rebecca Frecknall’s triumphant staging of Cabaret, Jonny sat down with Heartstopper star, Rhea Norwood. They discussed her illustrious predecessors in Cabaret, Alan Cumming’s dressing room being sponsored by a booze company, her Sally Bowles feeling like a car crash (in a good way), wild wee-ing, coping with repetition and...

In the second half of Jonny’s chat with the great Christopher Hampton, Sir Chris continues the story of the race to turn his play into the Oscar winning movie, Dangerous Liaisons- and get it out before Milos Foreman‘s rival film; doorstepping a startled John Malkovich; the Queen being sent to sleep by the inaugural play at the National Theatre; the difference between translation and adaptatio...

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 writi...

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. Hosted on Acast....

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...

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...

Jonny’s guest this week is two time Emmy winner (for Will and Grace and Boardwalk Empire), two time Tony nominee and perennial engine of fun, Bobby Cannavale. Jonny could talk to Mr Cannavale every day. And very nearly did. They talk about shared experiences (a love of apples, playing Jason in Medea at BAM’s Harvey Theatre, working with talented wives), Bobby’s affection for reading plays as...

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...

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...

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 t...

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 i...

Jonny’s guest this week is the actor, theatre maker, political activist and Bolton royalty- Maxine Peake. Two weeks into devising her new theatre piece, Robin/Red/Breast, Maxine gave up a lunch hour to talk about the goddess MAAT, playing legendary singer Nico, walking audience members round the block while they processed what they’d seen, the loneliness of one-person shows, audience interruptions...

The second part of Jonny’s chat with the great Alan Cumming ranges from why black joy, queer joy and trans joy feels like an act of resistance - to dealing with Joan Collins in his dressing room after playing a concentration camp inmate in Bent . It goes from going under while playing Hamlet to going under, naked, in an onstage swimming pool after singing George Michael’s 'Father Figure' - and eme...

Welcome to Season 4 of SDJ and who better to kick it off with than Olivier award winner, two time Tony award winner, BAFTA winner and the man who just won his second Emmy award for hosting The Traitors US- Scottish icon, national treasure, the Dionysus of 21st century theatre, the eternally youthful Alan Cumming. In Act 1 of their two part chat, Alan and Jonny have a frank, funny and freewhe...

As a prelude to the new season of the podcast, Jonny remembers one of our greatest ever theatre artists, Dame Maggie Smith. In 2023 Jonny interviewed her son, the actor Toby Stephens, and his stories of his brilliant mother are a fitting tribute to a performer who was unlike any other. You can listen to Jonny's conversation with Toby in full here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more i...

After the interval, Jonny hears how Matthew Broderick was pulled out of depression by a play from an unknown writer called Harvey Fierstein; doing things his own way as a young actor; the incredible story of the day his life changed forever- and the sadness underneath it; the last conversation he ever had with his father and how his dad’s example revisits him onstage; why he can drive directors ma...

In the last double episode of the current season, Jonny rounds off by talking to a bona fide star who’s been one almost all his acting life: two time Tony Award winner and, for a generation of movie-goers, the patron saint of being young- Matthew Broderick. Matthew is the star of movies like Ferris Bueller, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Election, You Can Count on Me and The Producers, but his career in...

In the second half of their live chat, Alison Balsom and Sam Mendes discuss what it’s like for him to have been everyone’s Dad professionally since he was 24 (just don’t take his sausage roll); being a woman in a predominantly male art form, changing the paradigm of the trumpet and the spirituality of playing music in church; Sam’s transformative memory of Jackson Pollock in Venice and the joy of...

This week Jonny sees you “the coolest power couple in British theatre” (Jez Butterworth and Laura Donnelly, S3, E8) and raises you one “coolest power couple in British culture”, theatre and film powerhouse Sam Mendes and one of the world’s greatest classical and jazz trumpeters, Alison Balsom. In the first interview they’ve ever given as a couple, they treat SDJ Live at Jermyn Street Theatre to a...

This week’s guest is a man of many talents. James Shapiro is the Larry Miller Professor of English at Columbia university, he is the Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at the Public Theater in New York and he is the author of the mighty 1599, Baillie Gifford Award Winner for the best non-fiction book of the last 25 years. Jim has spent his life making Shakespeare come alive- on the page, in the rehe...

The second half of Jonny’s chat with actress Laura Donnelly and playwright Jez Butterworth, recorded live at Jermyn Street Theatre, delves into the twelve endings Jonny had to learn and perform for Jez’s play Parlour Song at Atlantic Theatre in New York; writing for the person you’re in love with; an actors contract with the audience and Sam Mendes’s opinion on Laura’s; what Jez believes is the fo...

Stage Door Jonny goes live with “the hottest power couple in theatre” (Vogue Magazine). This week’s episode talks to the doyenne of 21st Century playwrights, Jez Butterworth (Jerusalem, The Ferryman, Hills of California) and the leading actress in his last three plays, Laura Donnelly, partners in life as well as art. Act 1 of this live show at London’s Jermyn Street theatre covers: their first mee...

In Act II of Jonny’s chat with Simon they discuss the difference between immersion and identification; how much mystery Simon leaves in his understanding of a play; the director’s 3am thinks; why Simon has no problem with leaving a show; how directing can be like working in HR, his love of first days; Shakespeare’s school of life; what Simon fears most in the theatre- and why A Christmas Carol at...

This week’s guest is Simon Godwin, one of the finest directors on either side of the Atlantic. Simon sits down with Jonny in majestic surroundings (work with me here) and they discuss how Simon (and Hamlet) came to Jonny’s aid when he was trying to buy a house; how Simon assembled the site-specific Macbeth that is currently playing; his three play collaboration with its star, Ralph Fiennes; the di...