All stories by Mark Lawson on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

You Me Bum Bum Train: my trip with the Kafkaesque theatrical cult by Mark Lawson

The secretive immersive-theatre sensation is back for another sellout run. It’s an uplifting and unsettling experience – think Disneyland meets DismalandAt the curtain call for Agatha Ch…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:37PM
Friday, September 18, 2015

Lyndsey Turner, Hamlet theatre director who shuns the limelight by Mark Lawson

Tipping the Velvet has opened to less fanfare than her Benedict Cumberbatch production, but Turner seems to prefer it that wayThe last time the theatre director Lyndsey Turner opened a produ…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:18PM
Thursday, September 17, 2015

Abi Morgan and Mike Bartlett are our new superstar dramatists by Mark Lawson

Doctor Foster, Suffragette, Game, Splendour … hits keep on coming for Abi Morgan and Mike Bartlett. The success of these British playwrights comes from transcending the limits of both stag…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:30PM
Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Edinburgh festival 2015: the six shows you shouldn't miss by Lyn Gardner, Mark Lawson and Brian Logan

A Desert Island Discs spoof, brooding circus performers who strip naked and a Yoko Ono-inspired love-fest … our critics choose their hot tickets at this year’s fringeO No!In less skilled…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:49AM
Friday, August 14, 2015

Islamic State replaces SNP as hot topic at Edinburgh festival fringe by Mark Lawson

Last year, with the referendum imminent, playwrights turned their hand to the subject of Scottish independence. This year the big issue is IsisIn Scotland, Labour has largely been replaced b…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:37AM
Thursday, August 13, 2015

Blair, Boris and Thatcher: the politicians providing material at this year's fringe by Mark Lawson

Edinburgh festival has a long tradition of taking on leaders and legislation as dramatic subject matter and this year sees performers’ satire as sharp as everWho is the odd one out among T…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:09PM
Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Echoes at Edinburgh festival review – dark and daring look at colonial cruelty by Mark Lawson

Gilded Balloon, EdinburghHenry Naylor’s impressive work tells the story of a modern-day British jihadi bride in Syria and a Victorian bluestocking in Afghanistan – and manages to conjure…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:00AM
Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Angel in the Abattoir at Edinburgh festival review – a dark and uneasy monologue by Mark Lawson

Gilded BalloonAn amoral anti-love story about the sexual abuse of a Spanish immigrant in Scotland is challenging, and begs the question: what shall we as viewers do?The title will make Anglo…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:28PM
Sunday, August 9, 2015

Edinburgh festival review: Impossible – a duel between Houdini and Conan Doyle by Mark Lawson

Pleasance Dome, EdinburghBizarre miscasting and stodgy dialogue scupper this account of a meeting between the master illusionist and the Sherlock Holmes creatorIn the teeming marketplace of …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:45AM

Jim Cartwright's RAZ at Edinburgh festival review – a real night on the town by Mark Lawson

Assembly George Square Studios, EdinburghJim Cartwright’s raucous, lively study of living for the weekend has the feel of another crossover work from the author of the Rise and Fall of Lit…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:31AM
Saturday, August 8, 2015

Man to Man five-star review at Edinburgh festival – a world of shadows and shape-shifting by Mark Lawson

Underbelly Potterow, EdinburghMargaret Ann Bain sculpts her body and voice to become a cast of dozens in this story of an East German woman forced to take over her dead husband’s identity …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:52AM
Friday, July 24, 2015

Are British theatres falling out of love with bricks and mortar? by Mark Lawson

From radical reinventions of the proscenium arch, to productions that march outside of the theatre altogether, the boards of the British stage are dissolving under a wave of innovationFootba…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:33AM
Friday, July 10, 2015

Bold, versatile and fiercely democratic: an ode to Maxine Peake by Mark Lawson

Actor defied early rejections from drama schools to become one of Britain’s most exciting stage names, winning plaudits for her roles as well as her personalityIt is a mark of the boldness…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:12PM
Thursday, July 2, 2015

Want to lift your spirits? Try four hours of Greek tragedy by Mark Lawson

The Oresteia starts with a child sacrifice – and then gets darker. But it managed to cheer me up even more than the tremendously funny Rules for LivingDoes theatre, as the Greeks believed,…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:26PM
Friday, June 19, 2015

Lion King director Julie Taymor: 'it's so much harder for women to get the opportunity' by Mark Lawson

After a painful failure with Spider-Man, Taymor has bounced back with stage and now film versions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Here she talks about why there are still few female director…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:56PM
Thursday, June 18, 2015

Theatre of dreams: the best 11 plays about football by Mark Lawson

Patrick Marber has scored a hit with The Red Lion at the National Theatre. Here’s a first XI of stage dramas inspired by the beautiful gameAlthough football is England’s most popular tea…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:38AM
Monday, June 8, 2015

Tony awards 2015: how the Brits won Broadway's vote by Mark Lawson

New York’s theatre community put aside tribal loyalties to crown British stars Helen Mirren, Richard McCabe and Alex Sharp at this year’s Tonys• Alex Sharp and Helen Mirren head roll-c…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:02PM
Friday, June 5, 2015

Theatre history as told by the Tony awards by Mark Lawson

A Streetcar Named Desire is one of several landmark works that failed to win best play at past Tonys ceremonies. Which other classics have been snubbed at prizegivings?A remarkable 34 of the…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:18AM
Thursday, May 28, 2015

To curse or not to curse: the problems of publicising a potty-mouthed play by Mark Lawson

Both the National and Bush theatres are putting on plays with sweary titles this year. But how will they promote them? And what should journalists call them? Continue reading...

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:25AM
Monday, May 18, 2015

The Rehearsal review – Niamh Cusack’s cunning countess is glorious by Mark Lawson

Minerva, ChichesterJeremy Sams directs his own vivacious translation of Jean Anouilh’s smart comedy Continue reading...

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:07AM
Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Britain's strong showing at the Tony awards is about more than just talent by Mark Lawson

The UK has become an experimental studio for risk-averse Broadway – but that shouldn’t detract from the great British talent nominated for this year’s Tonys Continue reading...

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:41PM
Sunday, April 26, 2015

British theatre and American film: a match made in box-office heaven by Mark Lawson

Damian Lewis and John Goodman, in American Buffalo, are the latest Hollywood stars to tread London’s boards, in a deal that benefits both theatre and film Continue reading...

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:03PM
Thursday, April 23, 2015

Who's in charge? The dramas of running a theatre by Mark Lawson

Recent announcements at the National, the Garrick and the Old Vic show that casting the management is as important as contracting the actors In theatre companies, as in all organisations, a …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:09AM
Saturday, April 18, 2015

Dahling, you were divine: religion on the stage by Mark Lawson

As Stoppard and Shaw plays at the National debate the likelihood of God, Shakespeare’s King John is revived in a church and the St Paul’s Occupy protests are staged, Mark Lawson asks why…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AM
Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Missing in action: meet the invisible stars of contemporary drama by Mark Lawson

From Harvey’s six-foot white rabbit to Mike Leigh’s hard-partying Abigail, some of the biggest characters around never set foot on stage. Mark Lawson raises a toast to absent friendsWith…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:02AM
Thursday, March 26, 2015

TV has lost its nerve with political drama by Mark Lawson

In the run-up to 7 May, British TV will become a no-go area for plays relevant to the election. Thankfully, theatre has the courage to provide our fix Continue reading...

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:17AM
Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Should some plays be seen and not read? by Mark Lawson

Stoppard’s The Hard Problem became richer when I read the script, but the playtext of Game lessens the experience of the Almeida’s unsettling stagingBuy a programme for Mike Bartlett’s…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:00PM
Friday, February 20, 2015

Alan Howard: 'A perfectly-tuned musical instrument made flesh' by Mark Lawson

Alan Howard, who has died aged 77, was the quintessential Shakespearian monarch, capable of a vast range of interpretation. But it was his voice was the core of his greatness Obituary: Alan …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:00AM
Friday, February 13, 2015

David Oyelowo takes the civil rights fight to the acting profession by Mark Lawson

Friends suggest that playing Martin Luther King has heightened the actor’s sense of public duty and quiet rage Continue reading...

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:50AM
Saturday, February 7, 2015

Timberlake Wertenbaker: ‘You can’t get a straightforward history of America’ by Mark Lawson

The Europe-raised playwright is hoping for a rapprochement with her American roots with her new play about Thomas Jefferson – but she thinks the founding father has a lot to answer forHavi…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AM
Thursday, February 5, 2015

Ralph Fiennes and Simon Godwin: our satanic take on Shaw’s Superman by Mark Lawson

Most productions cut a whole act from Man and Superman. But Ralph Fiennes and director Simon Godwin plan to unleash its full Nietzschean powerAlthough it may be little consolation, Ralph Fie…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:30AM

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