All stories by Vanessa Thorpe on BroadwayStars

Saturday, August 25, 2018

British choreographer and mime Lindsay Kemp dies by Vanessa Thorpe Observer Arts and Media Correspondent

Influential avant garde creative force who worked with David Bowie dies in Italy, aged 80Lindsay Kemp, the experimental British choreographer and mime, who made his name in the 1960s and col…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:04AM
Saturday, July 14, 2018

Funny bones run in the family as fringe plays host to comic dynasties by Vanessa Thorpe

This year’s Edinburgh festival features many young standups with parents – from Mark Steel to Gyles Brandreth – who blazed the same trailAmong the many voices booming out across comedy…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:24AM
Friday, July 13, 2018

The Observer Profile: Simon Russell Beale by Vanessa Thorpe

He's probably the most notable stage actor around, a master of the classics who seems to be making Shakespeare's greatest characters his own. Next on the agenda is Macbeth at London's Almeid…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:24PM
Sunday, July 8, 2018

Why does British theatre leave working-class actors waiting in the wings? by Vanessa Thorpe Arts and Media Correspondent

Poorer drama students face an uphill struggle, with funding cuts and rising fees. But British theatre may be the loser unless more actors from a range of backgrounds take centre stageWhen Ir…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:54AM
Saturday, June 30, 2018

What’s trickier than Brexit? Writing a TV drama about it by Vanessa Thorpe Arts and Media Correspondent

Dramatists behind a C4 film and two plays about the referendum must contend with the way facts and key players in this divisive issue are still shiftingIt is the divisive issue that will com…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:54AM
Sunday, June 17, 2018

Life with JB Priestley, by the woman he trusted most of all by Vanessa Thorpe Observer Arts and Media Editor

Lost memoir reveals playwright’s vanities and key friendshipsFrom the haunting theatricality of An Inspector Calls, to the comic charm of The Good Companions and When We Are Married, the b…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:32AM
Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Banned sex play Spring Awakening now a teenage hit by Vanessa Thorpe, Arts and Media Correspondent

Written in the 1890s, censored in the 1960s, tale of young desire Spring Awakening is back on stage as a musicalA story once banned from the British stage due to its celebration of adolescen…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:42PM
Monday, April 30, 2018

Spies, assassins and strip clubs: death of Alexander Litvinenko adapted for stage by Vanessa Thorpe

Award-winning playwright Lucy Prebble tells how Guardian writer Luke Harding’s account of the 2006 murder inspired her new dramaWhen Lucy Prebble tackled financial fraud and the collapse o…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:04PM
Saturday, April 21, 2018

Stage hit celebrates the weatherman who prevented D-Day disaster by Vanessa Thorpe Arts and Media Correspondent

Story of Scottish meteorologist James Stagg’s crucial intervention in Operation Overlord comes to the West End in tense drama PressureA tense historical drama celebrating the D-day interve…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42PM
Saturday, March 31, 2018

Dover turns clock back a century to welcome home Unknown Soldier … again by Vanessa Thorpe, Arts and Media Correspondent

Sir Michael Morpurgo is supporting a large-scale public performance to honour the warrior at the spot where his body returned to British soilIn 1916, the Rev David Railton, a former curate i…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PM
Saturday, March 24, 2018

​Anne-Marie Duff talks divorce, love and loss on Desert Island Discs by Vanessa Thorpe Observer Arts and Media Correspondent

The actor spoke about the end of her marriage to James McAvoy on the BBC Radio 4 showAnne-Marie Duff has spoken of the emotional impact of the end of her decade-long marriage to the Scottish…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:01PM
Saturday, February 3, 2018

London play tells of Network star’s fury at attacks on third marriage by Vanessa Thorpe

New drama Mad As Hell explores how actor Peter Finch’s real-life anger over snobbery and prejudice fuelled his Oscar-winning performance in the 1976 filmHis “mad as hell” outburst as A…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PM
Saturday, January 27, 2018

Practical joker Ken Campbell has the last laugh by Vanessa Thorpe

Stage shows salute theatre genius of king of comic capers 10 years on from his death“Irrepressible” was the word often used to describe the Essex-born performer and writer Ken Campbell. …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PM
Saturday, December 16, 2017

From Calais to London and Paris: UK writers give new life to refugees’ theatre by Vanessa Thorpe

The venue that entertained the razed camp’s migrants will reopen in France – as its playwright founders find acclaim at the Young VicWhen the tent in Calais that housed the Good Chance T…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:42AM
Saturday, November 25, 2017

Shirley Porter’s London housing scandal to be relived on stage near Grenfell Tower by Vanessa Thorpe Arts and Media Correspondent

Director of theatre near fire that killed 71 people picks play about gerrymandering in 1980s as debut productionA play about a notorious social housing scandal is to be staged in a new theat…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:48PM
Saturday, November 18, 2017

‘It’s Peter Pan for grown-ups’: play by Barrie is back on stage by Vanessa Thorpe

Rare revival of the author’s play Dear Brutus will drop adults into a Neverland-like worldNeverland, the magical place made famous by JM Barrie’s Peter Pan, will be closer than you think…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54PM

London diners get immersed in the jazz age, Bombay style by Vanessa Thorpe Arts and Media Correspondent

Actors reproduce lost world of ‘Indian noir’ in former art deco department store, which will afterwards become part of the Dishoom restaurant chainAmid clouds of cigarette smoke and the …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:04AM
Saturday, November 11, 2017

Theatre to serve Nigel Slater’s Toast with a side order of ham by Vanessa Thorpe, Arts and Media Correspondent

Audience to be given food during stage version of Nigel Slater’s memoirToast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger, the bestselling food memoir by Observer writer Nigel Slater, is to be brought t…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:48PM
Saturday, October 14, 2017

Lost short plays by Harold Pinter and John Mortimer to be revived by Vanessa Thorpe

Nottingham Playhouse celebrates its 50th aniversary with a night of little-known worksLost short plays by Harold Pinter, John Mortimer and Shelagh Delaney are to be performed again for the f…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:42PM

Harold Pinter’s best friend reveals playwright’s painful secrets by Vanessa Thorpe

Memoir tells how legacy of tragic first wife haunted his workFor 60 years actor Henry Woolf was the intimate friend of Harold Pinter, the Nobel laureate widely judged the greatest theatrical…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:12PM
Saturday, September 2, 2017

Political anorak James Graham makes sense of Labour’s drama by Vanessa Thorpe

Playwright finds inspiration for his new play in the travails of the faction-riven partyJames Graham’s 2012 hit play This House, set in parliament in the 1970s, raised a few pertinent que…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:18PM
Saturday, August 26, 2017

Edinburgh festival fringe comedy award shared for first time by Vanessa Thorpe Observer Arts and Media Correspondent

Judges could not choose between shows by Hannah Gadsby and John Robins – so have given both the £10,000 first prizeFor the first time in the history of Edinburgh’s festival fringe, the …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:04AM
Sunday, August 6, 2017

Shakespeare, satire and sex: Edinburgh festival’s key to growing old gracefully by Vanessa Thorpe

A look back at the evolution of the event, now celebrating its 70th year, and how risk-taking has kept it ahead of the gameSacrifice in the name of art was more than just a noble sounding id…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18AM
Saturday, August 5, 2017

Edinburgh fringe fights for right to party amid corporate ‘oasis’ of calm by Vanessa Thorpe Observer Arts and Media Correspondent

Spectacular light show in New Town square has shut down smaller events and venues, say criticsIt was meant to celebrate all that the summer festival season has come to mean to Edinburgh and …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24PM
Saturday, July 29, 2017

Grocer Jack has his day as A Teenage Opera finally goes on stage by Vanessa Thorpe

Keith West and Mark Wirtz’s haunting 60s hit is centrepiece of completed showGrocer Jack – properly known as Excerpt from a Teenage Opera – the strange novelty song that made the numbe…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:48PM

Globe director Emma Rice embroiled in new funding controversy by Vanessa Thorpe Arts and Media Correspondent

Rival arts organisations cry foul at award of £2m in Arts Council funding to her next theatrical venture, Wise ChildrenThe beleaguered stage director Emma Rice, who is to step down from run…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:04PM
Saturday, July 22, 2017

Stars from comedy’s punk past return to the Edinburgh fringe by Vanessa Thorpe Observer Arts and Media Correspondent

They were at the vanguard of political comedy. Now Alexei Sayle, Craig Ferguson and Sue Perkins are heading back to the festival, as it celebrates its 70th birthdayUnknown talents and studen…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:54PM
Saturday, July 8, 2017

Lloyd Webber backs Tim Rice in row over ‘political’ change to musical by Vanessa Thorpe

As he picks up a lifetime achievement award, Andrew Lloyd Webber reflects, in an exclusive interview, on his career and the censoring of a Dreamcoat lyricAndrew Lloyd Webber has intervened i…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54PM
Saturday, July 1, 2017

You wait years for the new Rudolf Nureyev – then three come along at once by Vanessa Thorpe

A trio of leading men from Russian companies are set to restore British passion for the ballet after a year of backstage drama at the BolshoiBefore he was fired as director of the Bolshoi Ba…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:24PM
Saturday, June 24, 2017

Curtain rises on Gielgud's gay scandal by Vanessa Thorpe, Arts and Media Correspondent

Critic's play shows how the famous actor's arrest was part of the 1950s homosexual witch-huntsThe scandal that almost ended the career of Sir John Gielgud is to be brought to the London stag…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:24PM
Saturday, June 17, 2017

Theatreland reinvents the musical – with politics, porn and Meat Loaf by Vanessa Thorpe Arts and Media Correspondent

A singalong show about the collapse of Kids Company may seem unpromising, but productions like it are already proving big hits with audiencesFor many theatregoers a big night out on the town…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:12PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards