A whole generation of comedians started out at the Windmill Theatre in Soho " Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd, Dick Emery et al. In many respects it was the Comedy…
Rose, Kingston-upon-Thames: A domestic comedy about a family of murdering drug dealers might seem like a tall order but the resourceful Richard Bean is nothing if not ambitious. Read the ful…
Returning to her award winning role in a Doll's House, Hattie Morahan talks to Nick Smurthwaite about why she is pleased to revisit such an iconic part and how her confidence is growing with…
Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond: Can a woman still be feminine, soft and nurturing in a relationship if she is also the main breadwinner? Read the full review
Chuckle muscles at the ready, I prepared to be simultaneously tickled and enlightened by David Mitchell's History of British Comedy. Sadly, however, it turned out to be an all-too-familiar t…
Rose Theatre, Kingston-upon-Thames: While there is no doubting the shock value of The Vortex, the play that put Noel Coward on the map, when it was first produced in 1924, today it seems mer…
Nick Smurthwaite catches up with original Oh What a Lovely War cast member Murray Melvin to reflect on the controversial production on it's 50th anniversary revival
Nick Smuthwaite talks to the author of the hit West End play The 39 Steps, Patrick Barlow
Was there ever a time when Ken Dodd wasn't waving his tickling stick while firing off more gags than most of us ever learn in a lifetime? Now 85, the indefatigable jester of Knotty Ash...
Orange Tree, Richmond upon Thames: During his 40-year tenure at the Richmond venue, Sam Walters has made many forays into the world of farce, both as director and actor. The fact that he fee…
Even before the iconic Genevieve came out in 1953, Dinah Sheridan was well known as an archetypal English rose, having appeared in more than 20 British films since the mid-1930s. The irony w…
Nick Smurthwaite talks to Judy Craymer about her new musical Viva Forever!
Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond upon Thames]: Ibsen scholars should hurry along to Richmond's theatre in the round for this little known, rarely produced early curiosity, newly translated…
Thanks to the internet, pornography isn't what it used to be. Fifty years ago, raincoated men snuck into cinemas showing X certificate films full of furtive anticipation. Now that porn is re…
Ruthie Henshall talks about her new book for aspiring performers
Nick Smuthwaite talks to casting director Donna Soto-Morettini about television talent shows and her new book on audition techniques
Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond upon Thames: Catch 22 meets the West Wing in this UK premiere of Jules Feiffer's 1970 satire on the lengths US politicians will go to be re-elected. Read t…
Nick Smurthwaite talks to Adrian Lester and Indhu Rubasingham, about Red Velvet, a new production at the Tricycle based on the life of Ira Adridge
Finborough Theatre, London : In this companion piece to the same playwright's better known Da, we are invited to spend the evening with a deeply unlikeable character, Desmond Drumm, who…
Like the Beatles in their early years, the Beach Boys' music was crude and simplistic when the band started out in the early 1960s. That all changed with the release of no fewer than three..…
Rose Theatre, Kingston: Somerset Maugham is scarcely cutting edge, yet this impassioned 1929 drama about a mercy killing seems oddly topical given ongoing preoccupation with how and when we …
Richmond Theatre: In the Dickens bicentenary year, this is a bold and original reworking of one of his best-loved works, using every trick in the director's book to mostly good effect. …
Orange Tree Theatre, London: Famous for unearthing curiosities, the Orange Tree here turns to Spain's dramatic canon for a meditation on hopelessness written in 1973, the tail-end of Fr…
Orange Tree, Richmond-upon-Thames: Following on from last year's acclaimed revival of Allan Monkhouse's Mary Broome, written in 1911, comes this equally neglected yet impressive 19…
Rose Theatre, Kingston: Unusually for Michael Frayn, Here was not well received on its first outing at the Donmar Warehouse in 1993. Read the full review