325 stories by "Michael Coveney"
Birmingham Repertory Theatre: It is a sign of the times in the reps that you are as likely to find a revival of Alan Ayckbourn or Ibsen as a touring production of, well, a perfectly decent c…
Stage engineer and theatre consultant whose innovative use of the latest technology changed the way audiences saw playsThere was a moment in 1988 when the future of theatre suddenly loomed l…
Stage and screen actor best known for his roles in Only Fools and Horses, The Vicar of Dibley and Harry PotterThe talented and idiosyncratic character actor Roger Lloyd Pack, who has died of…
Rising star of British theatre design gifted with freewheeling, witty inventivenessOne of the emerging stars of British theatre design, Naomi Wilkinson, who has died aged 50, was unusually g…
Comedian and actor best known for the satirical television show Bremner, Bird and FortuneJohn Fortune, who has died aged 74 after a long illness, was a distinguished member of the Oxbridge g…
Influential comedy agent who wheeled and dealed to turn his clients into starsThe colourful comedy agent Addison Cresswell, who has died suddenly at the age of 53, changed the face of Briti…
Birmingham Hippodrome: Although Snow White is really a fairytale, it has become one of the top six most popular pantomimes over the past 50 years, combining the basic Grimm story with elemen…
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon: JM Barrie's Peter Pan play was first performed in 1904 and his novel, Wendy and Peter, published in 1911. Ella Hickson's modern new …
Noel Coward Theatre, London: Jude Law doesn't swagger as Henry V, he ambles. And just in time, too, as he hovers on the brink of maturity: a facially stubbled, spiritually troubled youn…
Noel Coward Theatre, London: Jude Law doesn't swagger as Henry V, he ambles. And just in time, too, as he hovers on the brink of maturity: a facially stubbled, spiritually troubled youn…
Stage and screen actor known for playing battle-axe aunts, village gossips and servantsWhen Mel Brooks visited the film set of Up at the Villa (2000), in which his wife, Anne Bancroft, was s…
Prolific comedy actor who worked with Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan and Hattie JacquesThe stony-faced, beaky comedy actor Graham Stark, who has died aged 91, is best remembered…
Powerful stage and screen actor often cast as an aristocrat, king or moustachioed villainWhen the whisky flowed, according to the writer John Heilpern, the actor Nigel Davenport looked "as i…
Distinguished translator of postwar German playsAnthony Vivis, who has died suddenly aged 70, was a renowned translator of postwar German plays that habitually documented mythical misery in …
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon: The Royal Shakespeare Company enters a new era under Gregory Doran with this decisive, intelligent and notably well-spoken revival of a chroni…
Actor who played many major Shakespearean roles on the stageFew actors played as many major Shakespearean roles as did Paul Rogers, a largely forgotten and seriously underrated performer, wh…
Old Vic, London: Strained, perverse, unfunny: in this geriatric wartime Much Ado, Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones (combined age, 158 years) unwisely extend the possibility of love'…
Noel Coward Theatre, London: The Michael Grandage Company's fourth play in a season of five is a straightforward, fast and furious revival of Shakespeare's most popular comedy. It&…
Stage and screen actor who started in satirical revue and went on to become a familiar figure on television and radioNot many actors encompass political satire on the radio, comedy at the Ro…
Versatile actor who brought intelligence and grace to her many roles on the Irish stageIce cool on stage, with sharp good looks and a wit to match them, Susan FitzGerald, who has died aged 6…
Passionate actor who commanded the stage at Glasgow's Citizens theatre and the RSCGerard Murphy, who has died of prostate cancer aged 64, was a rare sort of full-hearted actor, always on the…
One of Poland's greatest playwrights whose most famous play, Tango, was a modern-day HamletAlthough he spent his final years in France, and has died aged 83 in Nice, SÅ‚awomir Mrozek was …
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon: Nancy Meckler's revival of a "problem" play that always delights begins with a series of mimsy tableaux in silhouette.
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Michael Coveney explores the work of Michael Grandage Company Futures, taking a look at the group's response piece to The Cripple of Inishmaan
Elegant and meticulous actor whose roles ranged from Shakespeare to EastEndersPaul Bhattacharjee, who has been found dead aged 53, was one of the country's leading British Asian actors, a ke…
