88 stories by "David Benedict"
I was 11 years old, terrified in a strange building and I blame Antony Hopkins. No, not the one who played Hannibal
Nominated for the 1991 Booker prize, Reading Turgenev by the late, great Irish novelist William Trevor lost out to Ben Okri's The
"Who are the judges?" At least three high-profile nominees at Sunday's Olivier awards asked me that question. They weren't asking it out
"I think the Eighties are going to be stupendous." That's the moment when the capital P political dimension of Caryl Churchill's most
Having caught the Lucinda Coxon adaptation of Harriet Lane's novel Alys, Always during its final week at London's Bridge Theatre " reader,
"I hate musicals, I hate 'em." So said Richard Hawley in an interview quoted last week on BBC Radio 4's Front Row.
Leading theatremakers including Vicky Featherstone, Rufus Norris, Dominic Cooke and Maxine Peake tell David Benedict about the writer's influence on their work
Stage adaptation of Elizabeth Strout's novel is a one-woman tour de forceIn Harold Pinter's memory play Old Times, one of the women declares, "There are some things one remembers even t…
The stakes are high in the West End transfer of Nina Raine's play about marriage, rape and the law Question: is Consent, transferred from the National to the West End, a sharp-tongued c…
One part Angels in America to six parts Howards EndAbout a decade ago, theatre-makers started routinely describing themselves as being in the business of storytelling.
The playwright-director reflects on his 1999 play, revived at the Donmar and Sheffield CrucibleFingers on buzzers… Question: What's the connection between Days of Wine and Roses, Small Cha…
'WHY WE UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER': Peter Gill on 'The York Realist'The playwright-director reflects on his 2001 play, revived at the Donmar and Sheffield CrucibleFingers on buzzers… Question:…
Jennifer Saunders gets laughs, but Kathy Burke's lamentable production misses the pointImagine, if you will, discovering a ninth-rate old melodrama about upper-class nonsense, hiring a …
Look no strings: long-nosed cartoon character is humanised by a magical stagingFrom Nicholas Hytner and Alan Bennett's wonderfully nostalgic version of The Wind in the Willows through Coram …
The TV and theatre star charts her route from 'EastEnders' and 'Toast of London' to 'Fiddler on the Roof'What do you call a woman who murdered Dirty Den, is the…
Kenneth Grahame-inspired musical starring Rufus Hound is at once overly perky and dramatically weightlessAn enormous amount rides on a musical's opening number. Without explicitly expressing…
Glorious reimagining of Broadway rarity at Regent's Park Open Air TheatreOn 8 April 1952, screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green were chatting to Charlie Chaplin at a party when he…
Star power isn't the reason to catch ENO's Rodgers and Hammerstein pricey co-production "Then I'll kiss her so she'll know." At the sound of his ringing voice, the girls part to re…
She made a huge hit of Stephen Sondheim's most-famous flop " not bad for a girl who dropped out of school when she was 15 and was rejected as a theme-pub singer. Maria Friedman talks to…
In this treasure chest of lyrics and essays, Stephen Sondheim appraises his own work with eye‑widening honesty
My (very) small haul of autographs collected as a schoolboy ran the gamut from Peter Pears to Linda McCartney but even back then I knew the classiest signature I bagged was that of Elaine St…
"God," wrote Stephen Sondheim, "is in the details." Of course, he didn't actually coin the phrase but throughout his published collections of lyrics he cites it as one of his three guiding p…
How do you solve a problem like...no, not Maria, Candide? Musicals are loved for their scores " and Leonard Bernstein's one for this really is a cracker " but they're held together by their …
In a moment of scalding intensity at the climax of of Ghosts, terrified Oswald sees the sun. Throughout the rest of Ibsen's celebrated drama about the sins of the past, light is fairly absen…
They're back, and this time it's Gorky.read more
