800 stories by "Alistair Smith"
On the final lap of his stewardship on the South Bank, Nicholas Hytner talks to Alistair Smith about the National's auditoria, its raison d'etre and its ability to court controversy
Rufus Norris has been appointed to succeed Nicholas Hytner as director of the National Theatre. Hytner, who has run the South Bank venue since 2003, will step down in 2015. Although he has n…
Simon Callow will receive The Stage award for outstanding contribution to British theatre at the UK Theatre Awards later this month. Born in London in 1949, Callow trained at the Drama Centr…
The Ambassador Theatre Group has revealed that it is looking into selling the naming rights to some of its historic London and regional venues. The move comes as part of a push from the UK's…
Paul Coxwell, the one-time West End producer turned regional theatre operator also known as Paul Parker, has been charged with fraud and repeatedly breaching an order preventing him from ser…
Playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney has been announced as one of 24 new fellows of the MacArthur Foundation, recipient of what is widely known in the US as a "genius grant." The $625,000 award …
UK theatre audiences are younger and more experimental than is commonly thought, according to new research published by Ticketmaster. The report, State of Play: Theatre, marks the first majo…
Nica Burns, co-owner and chief executive of Nimax Theatres, has been recognised as private businesswoman of the year at the UK Private Business Awards. Burns owns and operates the Palace,…
Trevor Nunn’s new staging of Scenes from a Marriage at the St James Theatre has cancelled its opening night, due to one of its cast members falling ill. Mark Bazeley, who plays Johan i…
Ben Miller is to star in a new West End play about the parliamentary expenses scandal, opening at the Vaudeville Theatre in December. The show will also feature Nancy Carroll, Debbie Chazen,…
Maxine Peake is to appear in a ‘radical re-imagining’ of Hamlet, directed by Sarah Frankcom at the Manchester Royal Exchange. Peake is joining the theatre as an associate arti…
Lichfield Garrick's chief executive Adrian Jackson has encouraged theatres across the UK to get involved and "embrace" the My Theatre Matters! campaign. The 562-seat Garrick Theatre has been…
Cameron Mackintosh has reported that his forthcoming revival of Miss Saigon took more than £4 million in sales in its first day at the box office. The show went on sale yesterday (Septemb…
The National Theatre’s production of War Horse has extended booking until October 2014, taking the show into its sixth year in the West End. The show, which premiered at the National T…
Sue Owen has been appointed permanent secretary at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, succeeding Jonathan Stephens who left the DCMS in July. Owen in currently director general, st…
Martin Shaw, Jeff Fahey, Nick Moran and Robert Vaughan are to star in a new staging of Twelve Angry Men at the Garrick Theatre this November. The production, which opens at the Birmingham Re…
Gene David Kirk, artistic and executive director of new London arts venue Clapham Omnibus, has left the organisation weeks before the theatre’s gala opening. Kirk has said he is steppi…
Derren Brown is to bring his latest stage show, Infamous, back to London in 2014 for a three-night run at the Hammersmith Apollo. The production, which has recently completed a West End run …
Peterborough's Broadway Theatre is to reopen, hosting performances for the first time since it shut in 2011. At the time of the closure, operator StageLive owed hundreds of thousands of poun…
Kenneth Branagh is to make his New York stage debut next year when the Manchester International Festival production of Macbeth transfers to the US in June. Directed by Rob Ashford and Branag…
Performers at the Edinburgh Fringe were given a chance to have their revenge on critics this week, by pelting them with tomatoes. A handful of critics – including Amy Taylor from Th…
The London run of beleaguered new musical The Golden Voice has been cancelled, its host theatre has confirmed. Following repeated delays due to problems securing investment from China, the p…
The Public arts centre in West Bromwich has confirmed it will close in November, after the local council said it could not afford to continue to fund the venue. As reported by The Stage last…
Playwright Mark Ravenhill and Young Vic artistic director David Lan have joined the judging panel for the inaugural Adrian Pagan Award, organised by the King’s Head Theatre in London. …
Ben Richards has been cast to play Bill Sykes in Sheffield Theatres’ forthcoming revival of Lionel Bart musical Oliver!. Richards has appeared in West End productions including Priscil…
