Theatre Interviews with Top West End Stars

Exclusive interview with Dear Evan Hansen creators Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Steven Levenson

Janie Dee on London Climate Change Festival: "Theatre is a woke community"

With protest groups like Extinction Rebellion gluing themselves to buildings and climbing on trains and planes to spread their message, as well as young activists like Greta Thunberg inspiring millions of children to become involved in the fight for the planet, conversations on climate change are beginning to be heard. Starting next month, the London Climate Change Festival, based at the Charing Cross Theatre will run at the London venue from 23rd March to 16th May. Figures from the worlds of...

Oliver Johnstone: "The Haystack questions whether mass surveillance is necessary"

If you had the equipment to be able to find out anything you wanted to online, how deep would you search? That's the decision two computer geeks have to face as they're recruited into the national defence security team, using cutting-edge technology to investigate a questionable journalist.Exploring the consequences of surveillance in the present day, Al Blyth's world premiere of The Haystack asks what happens when methods develop faster than the law.Ahead of the official opening night, we asked...

Sara Bareilles and Gavin Creel: A Waitress dream team reunite in the West End

Approaching its one-year anniversary in the West End, Waitress follows Jenna Hunterson, a small-town woman who enters a pie-making competition in the hopes of winning a cash prize to start a new life. It's been the talk of the town in recent weeks, with Desi Oakley flown over from the US to step into the production after the lead and covers were unable to perform, proving that the show really does go on in the West End.But, it's not often that a musical's composer themself appears in their own...

Gary Beadle and Jasper Britton: "The Sunset Limited asks questions about belief and faith"

The lives of two men who find themselves together on a subway platform are the sole characters in Cormac McCarthy's 2006 play The Sunset Limited. After a world premiere in 2006 and a subsequent film adaptation in 2011 starring Samuel L. Jackson, Terry Johnson directs the play's London premiere at the Boulevard Theatre.Opening tonight at the Soho venue, we spoke with The Sunset Limited co-stars Gary Beadle and Jasper Britton about the big questions asked in the show, performing at the Boulevard...

Jenna Russell: 'Everything was telling me that doing this role was wrong, wrong, wrong'

The West End may have produced bigger musical theatre stars than Jenna Russell, but few, I'd wager, who radiate more sincerity, both onstage and off, or whose performances elicit a warm glow of empathy in audiences.In shows from Michael Grandage's revival of Guys and Dolls, for which she earned an Olivier nomination in 2006, and Sunday in the Park with George, for which she won the Olivier the following year, to Merrily We Roll Along (another Olivier-nominated performance), Urinetown and Fun...

Jac Yarrow interview: 'The entire Joseph process has been a surreal one'

More than one critic - myself included - reached for the superlative "a star is born" when describing the West End debut of Jac Yarrow in the title role of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat: "He received a spontaneous standing ovation on the first night at the end of his rendition of "Close Every Door"; but this is a performance that will open every door to him from here on in."Opening night was just four days ago when I met him backstage at the London Palladium, London's premiere...

Lizzy Connolly interview - 'You'll have never seen a Sweet Charity like this before'

Josie Rourke's final production of her seven-year tenure as artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse opens this week, as she directs Anne-Marie Duff in Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields and Neil Simon's Sweet Charity.Alongside Duff's Charity, an optimistic New York dancer-for-hire with terrible luck with men, is Lizzy Connolly as fellow dancer and friend Nickie. Connolly makes her Donmar debut having previously starred in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Savoy, On The Town at Regent's Park Open Air...

Alex Kingston, Sarah Hadland and cast talk Admissions ahead of London premiere

Set in the admissions department of an American high school, Joshua Harmon's play Admissions poses a lot of tricky questions around privilege and quotas, and proves that answering these questions isn't as simple as it may seem. The play stars Alex Kingston, the head of the department who is pushing for better inclusion in the school's student body, and better representation across the institution's image. But her morals are put to the test when her own son faces the realities on the other end of...

Natalie McQueen: I'm playing Dolly Parton's character on 9 to 5, but putting my own spin on it

There's pressure when any performer takes to the stage in a major musical in the West End, that comes with the territory. But it's surely amplified when you're playing a role made famous by the legend whose name is above the door, in the musical titled after her biggest hit?It doesn't bother Natalie McQueen. She's currently playing Doralee Rhodes in 9 to 5 the Musical, the role Dolly Parton played in the 1980 hit movie, and, while she's been paying close attention to the way Dolly walks and...