280 stories by "Richard Jordan"
In my last column I asked if 2014 had been one of the best years for play productions over the past decade. I believe that it was, and already underway in 2015 are West End…
Let's face it, 2014 wasn't a great year for British musicals. Stephen Ward and I Can't Sing! both made undeserved early exits. The arrival of Made in Dagenham offers reassurance that the Bri…
It's a question you hear a lot over the festive season: what happened to…? A few weeks ago a UK colleague asked me if I knew whatever happened to Scottish actor and comedian Craig Ferg…
Why do musicals often get treated as second-class citizens in the theatre industry? South Pacific, Next to Normal, Urinetown " these shows fearlessly tackle issues such as race, tol…
For the many thousands of pounds often spent on marketing and press for a production, one has to admire Shakespeare’s Globe for its recent coup. Posters for its production of John Ford…
I love the fact that theatre can blindside you on an idle Wednesday afternoon. I found myself at the Bush Theatre a couple of weeks ago watching Chris Thompson’s new play Albion, fo…
British readers may not be aware of US-style TV drug advertising. These pharmaceutical promotions invariably come with the sort of rapidly-spoken disclaimers you might recognise from financi…
After weeks of speculation in the media about Lindsay Lohan's impending disaster in David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, the production opened last week at London’s Playhous…
Regular readers of this column will know I grew up in Norwich where I discovered my interest in the theatre attending performances at the Norwich Theatre Royal, Arts Centre and Playhouse. Th…
Every evening, lights are going down in theatres and different audiences are all having unique and individual experiences watching performances. It's a thrilling idea, and to choose which of…
We live in a society increasingly driven by a cycle: consume, discard, repeat. And while this consumerism is usually applied to material things, it risks spreading into theatre too, potentia…
There is an underpass called Potterrow by Bristo Square in Edinburgh. When asked what has been one of my defining moments of this year's Edinburgh Fringe it's walking through this underpass …
Before August 1, 2014, few people had heard of The City. It was simply one of 2,700+ Edinburgh Fringe shows, a non-political musical theatre production playing at the Underbelly. Today, it h…
Last June, my colleague Mark Shenton wrote a blog about the return of the new production of Les Miserables to Broadway. One reader responded to his article: How sad that with all of the reso…
“When was the last time you met a new play that was so smart it made your head spin? Not in years, huh? Well, get ready to reel, New York. Anne Washburn's downright brilliant "Mr……
So it’s official: Lindsay Lohan will be the latest US film star treading the West End boards at the Playhouse Theatre in David Mamet’s Speed the Plow this autumn. The last big US…
“The most famous man nobody has ever heard of”. That's the description given to legendary theatre and film producer Michael White in Gracie Otto’s moving and affectio…
In October last year, the Tony Award's focus was centred upon four new musicals: Bullets Over Broadway, based on the Woody Allen movie directed by Susan Stroman; Rocky, adapted from the Sylv…
Who are the most important people in the theatre? The actor and the writer are obvious answers, but a close third, alongside the backstage team that run the production, are the ushers, yet t…
This week’s closure of I Can’t Sing, the X-Factor musical, makes it one of the biggest failures in West End history. As the most anticipated new musical of the season, its rapid …
If there is ever any argument as to whether, in 2014, cinemas are still necessary, the BAFTA and Oscar multi-award winning feature Gravity demonstrates why they most definitely are. Here is …
Goodbye Stephen Ward, Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest musical which played its final performance at the Aldwych Theatre on Saturday just over three months after its world premiere, making it hi…
I am currently in India, where I am co-producing a new play, Ali J by Shekinah Jacob, with Evam, a Chennai-based theatre company. We premiered the production at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe fol…
Last month, I met George Washington. I can report that he was alive and well and could be found in full regalia strolling around the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) conferen…
Screenings of theatre in cinemas are becoming a more and more common feature of our industry. This can be wonderful for audiences around the world to have the opportunity of watching a perfo…
