325 stories by "Michael Coveney"
Character actor of energetic comic brilliance, notably as Falstaff at the RSC and in Alan Bennett's The History Boys
The character actor Desmond Barrit, who has died aged 81, was renow…
Film and theatre producer who made The Audience the starting point for The Crown, and was behind Another Country, The Lady in the Van, Iris and Notes on a Scandal
Scion of one of the great t…
Prolific and successful producer of star-laden pantomimes, musicals and West End shows
The ebullient and engaging West End producer Paul Elliott, who has died aged 84, was one of a group of …
Founder of the Young Vic who later became the director of the Edinburgh international festival
A pocket dynamo of a man who seemed to bounce as he walked along, Frank Dunlop will be remember…
Playwright and activist who, with her husband John Arden, was committed to politically engaged theatre
Political activism, protest, dissent and conflict with the theatrical establishment wer…
One of Britain's most outstanding playwrights famed for the 'hypnotised brilliance' of his prose and dialogue
After the first night of his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at the …
Versatile actor, director and playwright who found television fame in the detective series Wycliffe
The actor Jack Shepherd, who has died aged 85, was, in his own quiet and modest way, a Ren…
Theatre director and founder of Talawa, the company that champions writers and actors of African and Caribbean heritage
By the time she founded her influential and still thriving Talawa thea…
Actor who played senior police officers on TV and delighted critics with his Falstaff for the English Shakespeare Company
John Woodvine, who has died aged 96, was a proud Tynesider and stalw…
Theatre and opera director whose work stretched from Gilbert and Sullivan to Shakespeare
Ian Judge, who has died aged 79, enjoyed a wide-ranging career as a theatre and opera director withou…
Artistic director of the Glasgow Citizens theatre with a reputation for extravagant productions and a daring repertoire
There have been many golden periods in the British postwar regional th…
Actor who had a long career on the London stage, mentored by Lindsay Anderson, and appeared in films and popular TV series
When he burst on to the stage of the new Abbey theatre in Dublin in…
Performance artist, set designer and director who created haunting, sometimes plotless tableaux to great effect
The career of Robert Wilson, the visionary performance artist, designer " of f…
Playwright once dubbed 'the American Noël Coward', who skilfully poked beneath the surface of his middle-class characters' lives
The American playwright Richard Greenberg, who has died ag…
Witty and elegant actor whose roles ranged from Shakespeare to Dot Cotton's gentleman friend in EastEnders
There is a dying breed of classically trained, romantic, heroic actors who should n…
Innovative artistic director at theatres including the Liverpool Everyman, the Sheffield Crucible and the Lyric, Hammersmith
Peter James, who has died aged 84, was once described as the best…
Director in the West End and regional theatre for five decades who often worked with the playwright Alan Ayckbourn
Although he never worked for the National Theatre or the Royal Shakespeare…
Actor who began her career in 'dolly bird' roles and became the star of plays by Edward Bond and David Hare
It was once said of the actor Barbara Ferris, who has died aged 85, that she was t…
Tony-winning Broadway composer who wrote the music for Annie and Bye Bye Birdie
Like his fellow Broadway composers Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, Charles Strouse, who has died aged…
Theatre producer of the longest running comedy of all time, No Sex Please, We're British, who was also a great talent spotter
The elegantly rumbustious West End theatre producer John Gale, w…
Actor who toured with Laurence Olivier and Peter Brook, starred on Broadway and had a long career in film and TV
The start of postwar theatre in London was signalled by the birth of the Old …
Literary editor and chief book reviewer of the Times who later joined the Observer as its theatre critic
Michael Ratcliffe, who has died aged 89, was the former theatre critic of the Observe…
South African playwright whose work dealt with the injustices and absurdities of the apartheid era
Apartheid in South Africa cut both ways. The white Afrikaner playwright Athol Fugard, who h…
Veteran stage, radio and TV actor whose many notable Shakespearean roles included Falstaff and Bottom
With a portly but athletic physicality, a rich baritone voice, a bloodhound, drooping vi…
Composer, playwright and theatre director who often worked with her husband, the actor Mark Rylance
Claire van Kampen, who has died of cancer aged 71, was a concert pianist, a musical direct…
