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Shenton's View
Shenton's View

The week ahead in London, May 20-26

20 May 2013 West End

No sooner have I returned from New York late last night, after a madcap whirl of 8 shows in five days, there’s a crazy week ahead in London with multiple openings on the same nights,…

Hemley on TV
Hemley on TV

Hemley’s BAFTA etiquette – a guide for Sheridan Smith and others

16 May 2013 TV

The red carpet has been rolled away for another year, and the winners of last weekend’s BAFTAs will now be wondering where to place their trophies. In Olivia Colman’s case, she will be wondering what…

Education & Training
Education & Training

Should student shows be marketed better to the public?

16 May 2013 Theatre

The Director of Performance at Mountview, Stephen Jamieson, told me last week that it isn’t always easy to persuade the general public to come to student shows. “They don’t seem to know that they can simply…

Fringe Focus
Fringe Focus

Crowd funding on the Fringe

16 May 2013

Is it ok to ask friends and fans to fund your art? In the wake of criticism unleashed upon Zach Braff for financing his new film through Kickstarter it seems that for the very rich…

Performer's Perspective
Performer's Perspective

The drama school bubble

15 May 2013 Schools

There is a familiar sight in zombie films: ruthless, inhuman creatures scrambling to feed on destruction, a mindless follower mentality drawn by the promise of brains/food/life. Let’s relocate that image, make the carnage less visible…

En pointe
En pointe

Choreography to make you Scarlett with envy

14 May 2013 West End

The Royal Ballet’s Artist in Residence, Liam Scarlett is yet again a hot topic around town. His first full-length narrative ballet received mixed reviews during its four day run at the Linbury Studio Theatre at…

Short Shorts 85: An actor bites back and clowning around

17 May 2013 Shenton's View Broadway 💬1 comment

I’m in New York this week, and though I wasn’t here in time to see The Testament of Mary that closed the weekend before last with Fiona Shaw, I just made it into town in…

Declan Bennett and Zrinka Cvitesic in the London production of Once. Photo: Tristram Kenton

Once is definitely not enough

16 May 2013 Shenton's View West End 💬2 comments

I try not to be what a friend of mine in New York calls a “quotes whore” – someone who writes reviews so that they get emblazoned on the marquees outside theatres. But I also…

When the drearies do attack/ and a siege of the sads begins…

15 May 2013 Shenton's View Theatre 💬3 comments

I guess we just have to get used to it: life can frequently be depressing. But I never get used to suffering from depression, which is a different (though sometimes related) thing entirely. Just the…

Show about DJ scandal could be hit and miss

14 May 2013 Chit Chat 💬Leave a comment

It was only going to be a matter of time before the Jimmy Savile scandal made its way to the stage in some shape or form. But where would such a show find a home…

The (mis)information highway and the online haters

14 May 2013 Shenton's View Theatre 💬1 comment

It’s a fact of life that there’s now an unstoppable tide of information (and in turn misinformation) about, thanks to Twitter and the speed at which it can disseminate information. I am implicated and complicit…

When musicals go bad

14 May 2013 Mister Producer Theatre 💬Leave a comment

Why is it that musicals frequently get treated without the proper respect they deserve? No other art form suffers from the stigma musicals often have directed towards them and frequently this is from the arts…

Did Forbes fall foul of the Scottish play’s curse?

13 May 2013 Chit Chat 💬Leave a comment

Not surprisingly, recent tributes to director Bryan Forbes have focused on his distinguished film career, only mentioning in passing the contribution he made to one of the great theatrical disasters of all time – namely,…

A lasting Olympic legacy for the arts?

13 May 2013 Arts funding 💬Leave a comment

There were plenty of us deeply cynical when, six years ago, James Purnell (remember him? now not only an ex-culture secretary, but an ex-politician who is one of Tony Hall’s new brains at the Beeb)…

Tackling mental health discrimination

13 May 2013 Education & Training 💬2 comments

Education and training in this industry takes many forms, as I often point out. And it often – inclusivity being what theatre is so good at – supports vulnerable sections of the community really well….

The week ahead in London, May 13-19

13 May 2013 Shenton's View West End 💬Leave a comment

Theatre is usually more feast than famine, as regular readers of this weekly column will know from the variety and choice of what’s routinely on offer to see in London and beyond. But this week,…

The Yin and yang of comedy crowd control

12 May 2013 Situation: Comedy Comedy 💬1 comment

Billy Connolly let rip at an official venue photographer last week in Killarney, for apparently impeding his line of vision. The incident was condemned by some of the Scot’s own fans and, by all accounts,…

Short Shorts 84: Twitter connections and Let It Be

10 May 2013 Shenton's View West End 💬1 comment

I’m sad that no sooner did I highlight the wonderful Twitter account of Sir Little David Hare (@LittleDavidH) yesterday than I’ve found the profile ‘suspended’. I hope that this important “gift to the nation”, as it…

Ian MacNeil's set takes centre stage in the 2009 NT revival of An Inspector Calls. Photo: Tristram Kenton

You should come out whistling the set (lights, sound) …

9 May 2013 Editors' Blog Theatre 💬6 comments

Is it a paradox that sound in theatre is something we rarely shout about – unless it’s the inappropriate noise emanating from one or other end of whoever’s in the next seat? Thanks to the…

Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi in Vicious. Photo: ITV/Brown Eyed Boy

ITV’s Vicious – the sitcom even Ian McKellen can’t save

9 May 2013 Hemley on TV TV 💬15 comments

When ITV’s new sitcom Vicious premiered last week, I quipped on Twitter that the only way it could be any worse was if Miranda Hart suddenly popped up in it. I’d like to take that…

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