The WhatsOnStage Podcast

Luke Norris, Tilda Swinton, Gary Oldman, Ryan Calais Cameron, Robert Aramayo, John Proctor is the Villain and so much more – the Royal Court season is celebrating its 70th birthday in style. We hop into artistic director David Byrne's office to get the lowdown on his programming choices – how he's both honouring and winking at the history of this home for new writing. Plus – his experiences watchi...

Sarah and Alex meet up from opposite sides of the Atlantic to discuss the latest hot news in theatre including Chris Pine’s casting in Ivanov at the Bridge Theatre, how Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are landing on Broadway in Jamie Lloyd’s Waiting for Godot and why the new stage production of The Hunger Games found itself in a lose-lose situation with its first preview Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...

On this special Monday bonus episode, we hopped over to the Garrick Theatre to check in with the stars of The Producers, Andy Nyman and Marc Antolin, who had a very special announcement for the five-star West End production... The duo have been playing the two lead roles in the show since it opened to acclaim at the Menier Chocolate Factory – it now settles in for a stay at the Charing Cross venue...

Following a high-profile launch for the Women's Health in Theatre report at the Harold Pinter Theatre last week, chief critic Sarah Crompton sat down with the report's pioneer, award-winning producer Emily Vaughan-Barratt, at her offices in London. The report's finding were an uncompromising reminder of the constant hurdles placed in front of women in the theatre industry - with issues around fert...

 In this episode, we head to the US where editor David Gordon sits down with director Bill Condon to discuss his new movie version of Kiss of the Spider Woman. Together they explore his approach to adapting the acclaimed story for the stage, the themes of identity and survival, and the creative process behind bringing such an iconic work to life. It’s an insightful look at storytelling, colla...

To be or not to be - that is the question... Or is it "Do You Hear The People Sing?" As Les Misérables celebrates 40 years in the West End, Sarah and Alex reflect on the runaway success of the iconic musical that has enchanted audiences for decades. What does it say about the critics that they got it so wrong? Meanwhile, the National Theatre has opened a new production of Hamlet - laden with Easte...

We’re heading to Manchester to celebrate a remarkable milestone. It’s been ten years since the Hope Mill Theatre first opened its doors, transforming a former textile mill into one of the country’s most respected independent producing houses. With just over 145 seats, it’s an intimate space that’s punched well above its weight — staging acclaimed revivals and brand-new work alike, and helping to l...

Sarah and Alex catch up on the latest in a hectic season of theatre and talk about why The Weir by Conor McPherson really is one of the great plays of the past 50 years. And - actors getting wet is always irresistible, but does it just make you think about drainage? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a little midweek episode, we bring you red carpet interviews from London and New York. On Sunday, Rachel Zegler picked up the Best West End Debut Performer award at The Stage Debut Awards in London for her performance leading Evita in the West End, while over in New York, the stars of the forthcoming production of Chess came together to discuss making all the right moves in the upcoming revival...

As Jane Austen celebrates her 250th birthday, Ava Pickett has adapted Emma for the stage. She’s taken a radical approach. She talks to Sarah about why Austen is still the best portrayer of complex women, how hard it is to write comedy, the freedom of writing period drama and why the craft of women writers still isn’t recognised. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do you bring a play into the present day? That’s the question facing playwright Rob Madge and director Sophie Drake, as they bring Brandon Thomas' 19th century gender-hopping farce into the present day. The show opens at the rustic, beautiful Watermill Theatre, and marks a first collaboration for the award-winning duo.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nima Taleghani is best known as Mr Farouk in Netflix’s Heartstopper. Now his first play - an adaptation of Euripides’ Bacchae - has become the first debut play in the Olivier theatre. And it opens his director Indhu Rubasingham’s first season as artistic director of the National Theatre. They talk to Sarah about making classics contemporary, rhyming verse and why theatre - like life - is best when...

In a WhatsOnStage Podcast first, we exclusively reveal that Kate Fleetwood will be playing the Witch in Jordan Fein’s upcoming Into the Woods revival, playing at the Bridge Theatre from early December. We want to hear about how it feels for the performer to appear in their first EVER Sondheim production, and what might be in store for audiences when they head over to the Bridge this winter… Hosted...

Sarah and Alex make their top picks for shows towards the end of the year from plays such as End, The Line of Beauty and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo to the great raft of musicals coming our way. Plus, how will Paddington tackle the bear question? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Another mid-week bonus episode of the WhatsOnStage Podcast sees Alex talking to the team behind the world premiere production of 13 Going On 30 The Musical, which opens this September in Manchester. Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith, who penned the original Hollywood classic, are back at the helm of the new stage production, which reunites Lucie Jones and David Hunter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/...

This week, Emma Rice rechristened her company Wise Children with the new name Emma Rice Company, and we took the opportunity to sit down and reflect on her career so far – from touring new work, to enchanting families at Christmas and taking productions across continents. She explains her efforts to try and solve the problems around regional tours, her opinions on her time as artistic director at...

In this episode, we sit down with Olivier Award-winning actor Kyle Soller to talk about his latest role in Romans, a novel, Alice Birch’s ambitious new play at the Almeida Theatre. Directed by Sam Pritchard, the piece is a sweeping exploration of masculinity from the nineteenth century to today. Kyle reflects on what drew him to the project, the challenges of embodying such expansive storytelling,...

As the nights draw in, Sarah and Alex discuss some of their favourite shows about to hit the stage in the next couple of months including a stage version of The Hunger Games, the return of the Conor McPherson classic The Weir and appearances from Joe Alwyn, Nicola Walker, Letitia Wright, Susan Sarandon and many more Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As she wraps up a month at the Edinburgh Fringe, Laura Benanti travels south to present her solo comedy show Nobody Cares. She explains her inspiration for the show, why it isn't like anything else she's done on stage, and how she's found a month of performing at the iconic Scottish arts festival. Oh, and why it's such a scary time for comics in the current climate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/...

It's a packed agenda on this week's episode of the WhatsOnStage Podcast. First up, Sarah reflects on her latest trip north of the border to talk on a panel about all things criticism, alighting on the subject of critic Arifa Akbar's wonderful series on criticism available on BBC Sounds. From there, Alex and Sarah mull over Sarah's fantastic interview with Alicia Vikander, due to sail onto the Lond...

 In this episode, we’re joined by two leading lights of musical theatre who are stepping into one of the most beloved shows in the canon. Phillip Attmore and Lucy St. Louis star as Jerry Travers and Dale Tremont in Top Hat at Chichester Festival Theatre this summer, taking on roles made famous by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.  We also discuss how the Harlem Renaissance influenced the o...

Sarah has been to the Edinburgh Festival at the same time as Oasis and Liam Gallagher chose to make a few choice remarks about there being another event up the road. She and Alex discuss why his comments - he said the festival consisted of people “juggling f---ing b------s… swallowing swords” and “s----y card tricks” - cut against the spirit of festivals. And why a new book about the Gre...

Luke Newton has won over millions of hearts as Colin Bridgerton, but will face a wholly different challenge when he stars in Darrah Cloud’s House of McQueen off-Broadway at The Mansion at Hudson Yards. Newton will take on the role of Lee Alexander McQueen, more commonly known simply as Alexander McQueen, in a show based on the iconic fashion designer's life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

It’s wedding season and Alex is away at one of the numerous celebrations he’s been invited to this summer. Which made him and Sarah think about the way that weddings are used on stage, screen and television. As Beth Steel’s Till the Stars Come Down packs them in in the West End, they look back at plays by writers such as Lorca, Shakespeare and more surprisingly Brecht have used the conve...

West End star Rosalie Craig will be returning to the stage this summer to appear alongside Sean Hayes in the London transfer of Good Night, Oscar, now playing at the Barbican Theatre. We sat down to have a virtual chat about the show, why it fits the Barbican so well and how for Craig, it's something of a homecoming. Beyond that, she also pined for an actor-musician version of Company – perhaps re...