Theatre News: Tennant & Tate, Imelda Staunton, Mark Curry and More

Who's excited about this then? Doctor Who co-stars David Tennant and Catherine Tate are going to co-star again, this time in Shakespeare. Yes, the Doctor and the Annoying One are going to appear as Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing in the summer at Wyndhams. (I've been on stage there, fnarr.)

I have to say, I'm just not that fussed. I think David Tennant is lovely (of course); I quite enjoy watching bits of old Doctor Who episodes, even though I rarely know what's going on, and I'm certainly gutted to have missed his Hamlet live. (On TV it was a bit naff.)

But I really don't enjoy watching Catherine Tate act. Not on TV; not on stage (I saw her in Under the Blue Sky and didn't like it). It's a totally personal thing. (I'm not even saying I think she's bad.) I just don't like her acting. I find it very lifeless, somehow distracting, and horribly samey. I can't stand the idea of her playing Beatrice. Not when I've seen the fantastic Samatha Spiro do it so well at the Open Air Theatre. (Apologies for that annoying "I was there when" theatrical reference, I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again.)

Happily there's more interesting cast news about this week:

• Imelda Staunton in A Delicate Balance at the Almeida
• Colin Morgan in Our Private Life at the Royal Court
• Mark Curry in Company at the Southwark Playhouse (perhaps I can see this and kill two birds with one stone: see my first Sondheim, and go to the SP, which is so close to work it seems imposible I haven't been there yet)
• Oliver Ford Davies in Goodnight Mister Tom (sniff!)

It's all looking rather exciting for 2011. I just hope I can keep up!

Read the rest of this week's Theatre News on the Visit London Blog

My West End Debut: An Inspector Calls at Wyndham's Theatre

See those people there? The ones in the picture? They're on stage in An Inspector Calls, one of my favourite plays from last year.

(Read my londonist review here.)

Guess what? Next week, I'm going to be one of them. I'm going to be a "Super". I'm going to the theatre for about 5pm, meeting the Wig Mistress, the Wardrobe Mistress, getting my make-up done, being talked through my, ahem,*part* by one of the actors, and then, at 7.30, the curtain will go up on my West End debut.

I *KNOW*!!

The Little Dog Laughed: Friend, and a Friend of a Friend

Last week's second trip al teatro was to see the new (to London) American play, The Little Dog Laughed.

As well as all the excitement of a movie star's West End debut, seeing a Bond Girl live on stage alongside Charles Dickens' great-great-great-grandson AND the quite wonderful Tamsin Grieg (she should play a funny, ballsy lesbian more often: it makes her very, very sexy), really, the most exciting thing was knowing that, at any moment, should any evening-cancelling accident befall either of the guys up on stage, Taylor would have to step in.

Yes, my one famous actor friend-of-a-friend Taylor James (JC was at school with him) is trying his hand at the mysterious art of understudying.

Of couse, I find this totally fascinating. What does he do all evening? How does he keep psyched up to go on stage at any moment, knowing he probably won't? What does he do with all that adrenaline and energy when eventually the evening's over, and he hasn't been able to get that audience-reaction buzz that surely fuels all performers? Is he bored? Does *he* get a night off? What if he's ill? And, in a show where there's one understudy to the two male characters, what happens if they're both run over by buses?

(I know the answer to this last one: they've got insurance. Mundane, but true: if both boys are ill, people would get refunds on their tickets.)

And here's a link to my review on londonist.

The Little Dog Laughed is very slick and very funny; but I thought it was a little too glib to be truly brilliant. That's glib as in lacking in sincerity, being a bit too blase or facile: lacking in depth.

And I felt a bit awkward about some of the laughs. Here we have a liberal, South-East England, middle class audience, who've all happily bought tickets knowing they're seeing a play about homosexuality, with the odd gay kiss and at least one bare male bum (clenched). No-one's offended, enlightened, or otherwise: everyone's just laughing along jollily. Are we laughing at gays as a group? No, sir. Are we laughing at gays being afraid of coming out? Not really. I suppose we're laughing at Hollywood's homophobia. We're laughing at the ridiculousness of a huge, showy, glittery industry being openly anti-gay.

And I'm not sure if that's laugh-out-loud funny.

Hence my slight confusion over some of the laughs.

But then JC pointed out that satire doesn't have to be about something funny. In fact, quite often its about things which really aren't funny at all. Which of course, is true. (Today's story about Chris Morris' Four Lion being a perfect example.) JC's clever.

Theatrical Excitement: Madame De Sade @ Wyndhams Theatre

After being blown away by Ivanov, with Ken Branagh, directed by Michael Grandage, as part of the Donmar West End Season last year, I'm very, very, VERY excited to be seeing Madame De Sade tomorrow night, on what appears to be the second press night.

Hurrah. I was offered the (single, meh) press ticket by my boss. Amazing. I'm so grateful.

The excitement crescendos on a number of levels.

First, and most importantly, I'm getting to see the lovely Dame Judi Dench on stage for the first time. I've been a big fan for a long time now. It probably triggered by seeing her in Mrs Brown, in Bond films, in Shakespeare in Love and on telly. Or by reading about her playing a wonderful Lady Macbeth at the age of 20, while I was studying at Liverpool. (This last fact may or may not be correct - I'm sure it was wonderful, I just don't know how old she was - but surely the point is that my interest was aroused...) Tonight's research has revealed a few more choice nuggets:

• I love the fact that when she played Lady M opposite Ian McKellen at The Other Place in Stratford, Michael Billington was there, reviewing it: "If this is not great acting I don't know what is." (Not that exceptional a quote, I'm sure MB said other things besides, but apologies: I'm using wiki. Here's hoping he's there tomorrow; he might be seeing it tonight, though.)
  
• She's also a singer, having played Sally Bowles in Cabaret. Here it is on YouTube. She played Sally when she was 34. Which kinda kills my current silly "life's-going-to-be-over-when-I'm-30" vibe stone dead...
  

Second, the rest of the cast is pretty impressive. I can't wait to see Rosamund "Perfect Skin" Pike do her thing on stage either. She was at uni with JC, dontcha know.

Third, this is the kind of show that's got even the sensible people at the Guardian getting into mischief: Dame Judi Brings Home the Bacon...

Fourth, and cheeky, I know, but it's a press ticket, so hopefully I'll get a great seat. I saw Ivanov from a vertigo-inducing standing position at the back of Wyndham's, for just a tenner, on the last weekend. Even from that distance, after that many shows, watching the top of Branagh's head and missing some of the play through awkward sight-lines, I could still tell that the acting, the directing, the whole shebang was brilliant. I can't wait to be able to see that from a decent seat (in the stalls?).

It's going to be good.