All stories by Claire Armitstead on BroadwayStars

Monday, October 24, 2022

Mud, murder and homemade schnapps: eco-thriller Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead roars back by Claire Armitstead

As Complicité’s Simon McBurney brings Olga Tokarczuk’s feminist detective story to the stage, the pair discuss its eccentric sleuth, isolated landscape and climate alarm Time feels out …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:49AM
Friday, October 21, 2022

David Farr: ‘The 60s generation created the most selfish age there has ever been’ by Claire Armitstead

In his new play, the screenwriter and author investigates ideas of individualism, sexual freedom and mortality through a woman who recreates herself as a cyborg David Farr is perplexed by tw…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:19AM
Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Blues for an Alabama Sky review – Harlem renaissance drama is a tale for our times by Claire Armitstead

Lyttelton theatre, LondonA group of friends in 1930s New York pursue diverging dreams in a transfixing production of Pearl Cleage’s play directed by Lynette Linton ‘You’re a genius wit…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:33AM
Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Edinburgh fringe 2022: 20 theatre, comedy and dance shows you shouldn’t miss by Brian Logan, Catherine Love, Mark Fisher, Anya Ryan, Rachael Healy, Kate Wyver, Claire Armitstead, Arifa Akbar and Lyndsey Winship

In the first of our festival previews, we round up some of the best offerings we’ve already reviewed – including Tim Key, Liz Kingsman, La Clique and Hungry This searing, sweaty disco is…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48AM
Friday, May 20, 2022

The Father and the Assassin review – gripping tale of the man who killed Gandhi by Claire Armitstead

Olivier theatre, LondonAnupama Chandrasekhar artfully unpicks the forces of history with a tale of violence and colonialism that echoes into today When it comes to taboo-busting, Anupama Cha…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03AM
Monday, April 18, 2022

‘Don’t tell actors how to act, Mum!’: Kate Mosse on how her debut play was a family affair by Claire Armitstead

How did the novelist adapt her bestseller The Taxidermist’s Daughter for the stage? By stripping out the gore, ratcheting up the revenge – and asking her actor son for tips ‘I’ve ver…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:12AM
Thursday, March 10, 2022

The Key Workers Cycle review – a tender collaboration to keep the darkness at bay by Claire Armitstead

Almeida theatre, LondonA cycle of nine community pieces that use black comedy and cautionary tales to celebrate the people who keep things going For its latest show, the Almeida, in Islingto…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:42AM
Friday, February 25, 2022

The Animal Kingdom review – thrilling portrait of a family in collapse by Claire Armitstead

Hampstead theatre, LondonRuby Thomas peels back the emotional layers in a group-therapy drama that fizzes towards a devastating finale A family of four and a therapist tiptoe around one anot…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:18PM
Tuesday, February 8, 2022

‘My nails are longer than my future’: Our Generation, the 254-scene play about teens, cuts and Covid by Claire Armitstead

Sieges, riots, serial killings, sex work … Alecky Blythe has put them all on stage. She reveals all about her latest project – an epic look at the comic ups and touching downs of teenage…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:18AM
Friday, November 5, 2021

The Ocean at the End of the Lane review – Neil Gaiman’s monsters will leave you cowering by Claire Armitstead

Duke of York’s theatre, LondonShapeshifting creatures take centre stage in Katy Rudd’s production that terrifyingly evokes childhood nightmares and family trauma Neil Gaiman’s short, l…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:06AM
Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Mark Gatiss: ‘I’m currently very, very ashamed of being English’ by Claire Armitstead

The former League of Gentlemen star on his love of low-budget British spinechillers, his loathing of Brexit and a slew of projects opening this winter Mark Gatiss scans the breakfast menu at…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:33AM
Monday, October 11, 2021

Send us to Coventry! How the Turner Prize and a touring bin put the city on the map by Claire Armitstead

It started with lockdown and a broken angel, but Coventry’s year as city of culture is highlighting its reputation for resilience Shortly before midnight on 23 January 2020, security came…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:54AM
Wednesday, October 6, 2021

The Mirror and the Light review – Cromwell’s spell is finally broken by Claire Armitstead

Gielgud theatre, LondonThe climactic play based on Hilary Mantel’s magisterial trilogy has wit and grace but no great dramatic release It’s a truism all too well known to Thomas Cromwell…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:06PM
Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Actor Renu Arora: ‘I saw my leg go under the bus and thought I was dead and gone’ by Claire Armitstead

Four years ago, she was involved in a horrific accident. Little did she know it would leave her uniquely prepared to play a noblewoman hit by a falling elephant in the RSC’s new Christmas …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:06PM
Friday, September 10, 2021

Pink Lemonade review – a lewd, jubilant induction to the queer black body by Claire Armitstead

Bush, LondonHumiliation meets humour as Mika Onyx Johnson tells of his hard-won transformation through rap, storytelling and dance From the moment Mika Onyx Johnson bounces on to the stage, …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36AM
Monday, August 23, 2021

I’m finally seeing live shows again – and I feel like a kid in a sweetshop by Claire Armitstead

Kitchen discos and archive performances kept us going – but being stuck at home made me pine for a full house In the early months of the pandemic, as the survival instinct of the live arts…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48AM
Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Piaf review – the rise and fall of the Little Sparrow by Claire Armitstead

Nottingham PlayhouseJenna Russell captures the tragedy in this rags-to-rags story but the power of the songs can’t hide the play’s weaknesses From the moment Jane Lapotaire stepped out a…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36AM
Sunday, July 4, 2021

Meet Little Amal, the puppet girl refugee about to walk 8,000km by Claire Armitstead

Later this month, in one of the most ambitious live artworks ever staged, a giant puppet will trek from the Syria-Turkey border to Manchester, in a moving-theatre show of solidarity with as…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:12AM
Sunday, June 20, 2021

Stars aligned: Sheila Atim and Ivanno Jeremiah on reviving a mind-bending classic by Claire Armitstead

Eight big-name actors are rebooting the award-winning love story Constellations in London’s West End. The first couple discuss their parallel careers - and their hotly disputed encounter a…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AM
Thursday, June 10, 2021

Godot Is a Woman review – cheeky, geeky take on Beckett’s men-only rule by Claire Armitstead

Pleasance, LondonThe playwright only wanted men to perform Waiting for Godot – Silent Faces ask why half the world’s population is excluded in a funny, pop-culture show If you see it thr…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:42AM
Tuesday, April 27, 2021

‘I wanted to capture the joy’: J’Ouvert writer Yasmin Joseph on bringing Europe’s biggest carnival to the stage by Claire Armitstead

Joseph’s soca-saturated play about three young women losing themselves to the best and worst at Notting Hill carnival parades into the West End and on to our screens In the summer of 2019 …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:32PM
Thursday, February 25, 2021

Hello Las Vegas! How livestreaming is transforming the stage by Claire Armitstead

It was meant to provide theatres with a lifeline during Covid. But livestreaming is now giving them extraordinary reach. Can it be sustained – and could it turn out to be a new existential…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:48AM
Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Sally Bayley: what Shakespeare taught me about my family by Claire Armitstead

Falstaff, Mistress Quickly and the fairy rulers of A Midsummer Night’s Dream helped the author through a traumatic childhood and feature in her memoir No Boys Play Here Sally Bayley was ab…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:42PM
Sunday, February 21, 2021

‘You can smell the sweat and hair gel’: the best nightclub scenes from culture by Peter Bradshaw, Claire Armitstead, Keza Macdonald, Simran Hans, Ammar Kalia, Lanre Bakare, Lyndsey Winship, Alexis Petridis, Arifa Akbar, Aniefiok Ekpoudom and Jonathan Jones. Artist Interviews By Ben Beaumont-Thomas

Writers and artists including Róisín Murphy, Tiffany Calver and Sigala on the art that transports them to the dancefloor during lockdown There have been many notable nightclubs in film his…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03PM
Friday, December 18, 2020

A Christmas Carol review – Andrew Lincoln's Scrooge is a tearjerking gem by Claire Armitstead

Available onlineThe Old Vic’s Zoom-broadcast version of the Dickens classic is full of heart – and pulls back the curtain on Covid-era theatre Three years ago, Matthew Warchus’s produc…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:48AM
Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Michael Clark review – from the syringe solo to the bum-revealing jeté by Claire Armitstead

Barbican Art Gallery, LondonThe Scottish dance iconoclast married extraordinary technique with boundless imagination – and his work is as provocative as ever It’s one of time’s more ba…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:12AM
Sunday, October 4, 2020

Radha Blank: ‘Failure is a great tool in comedy’ by Claire Armitstead

After years of struggling on Broadway, the writer, actor and director takes aim at New York’s theatre establishment in her hit film The Forty-Year-Old Version There’s a moment in The For…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:36AM
Sunday, June 14, 2020

Locking down Leopoldstadt: what happened when the West End closed overnight by Claire Armitstead

Tom Stoppard’s new play was enjoying a sold-out run when venues closed. Its producer, Sonia Friedman, recalls how the crisis unfolded Leopoldstadt in limbo: Tom Stoppard, Patrick Marber an…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:48AM
Tuesday, May 26, 2020

The Beginning of the And: Ali Smith and Sarah Wood light up Hay online by Claire Armitstead

Hay Festival DigitalWith inimitable style Smith excavates a common pun and, illustrated by film clips, explores the transformative power of a single word The best arts and entertainment dur…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:54AM
Sunday, May 24, 2020

Paapa Essiedu: 'Michaela Coel captures the reality of lives that I recognise' by Claire Armitstead

Since his electrifying breakthrough as a hip-hopping Hamlet, the actor hasn’t stopped. He talks about overcoming challenges and his role in the provocative new BBC series from the creator …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03AM
Monday, December 9, 2019

I Wanna Be Yours review – a love story with heady chemistry by Claire Armitstead

Bush theatre, LondonRagevan Vasan and Emily Stott star as a couple pulled apart by their backgrounds in this play by slam poet Zia Ahmed The question of how to build intimacy across the div…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:18PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic
TBA: Ragtime