Latest news with #LyceumTheatre
Scotsman
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Caroline Quentin: Jonathan Creek star to perform in Chekov play in Edinburgh seen 'through Scottish lens'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Caroline Quentin is to star alongside a cast of Scottish actors in a production of an iconic Russian play told 'through a Scottish lens'. The Men Behaving Badly and Jonathan Creek star is to perform in Anton Chekov's The Seagull at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh next season in the first show for new artistic director James Brining. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The facade of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. | Eamonn McGoldrick She said she was looking forward to playing in a 'proper' theatre in Edinburgh, decades after her 'first real successes as an actor' on the Fringe. Ms Quentin said: 'This production of The Seagull is the realisation of so many dreams. I have wanted to play Arkadina since I was in a production playing Masha nearly 40 years ago. 'The city of Edinburgh gave me my first real successes as an actor, on the Fringe with An Evening with Gary Lineker, Trench Kiss and Live Bed Show, all by Arthur Smith, and this year I finally get to play in a 'proper' theatre and they don't come any more beautiful and prestigious than the Lyceum.' Mr Brining, who recently moved back to Scotland after a stint at the Leeds Playhouse, said the play, which will be performed from October 9 to November 1, had been carefully selected as his first performance. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ms Quentin will take takes on the pivotal role of Arkadina, a once-celebrated actress who dominates every room she enters. Her son, the tormented young playwright Konstantin, yearns to escape her shadow, revolutionise theatre and win the heart of Nina - a luminous young woman with dreams of the stage. But when Nina's gaze turns to Arkadina's lover, the celebrated writer Trigorin, egos and passions collide with truly devastating consequences. Mr Brining said The Seagull would 'still be Russian' and have 'Russian references', but 'through a Scottish lens'. He said: 'The play is an examination of theatre itself, which is why it felt like such a perfect introduction for myself as a director in this new role. It felt like a playful choice, in some respects, for my first show, to do something that actually centres, to an extent, on what we're actually doing here, making theatre.' Mr Brining added: 'One of the reasons I was really keen to come back to Scotland to work in the Lyceum was the opportunity to make that kind of work.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Caroline Quentin in The Seagull. Pic: Steph Pyne and Mihaela Bodlovic | Lyceum During his time in Leeds, Mr Brining said he had commissioned a range of 'substantial musicals and opera'. 'I've loved doing that and I want to continue to do that kind of work,' he said. 'But what keen to do over time when I'm here is to make a diverse range of work in order to appeal to a diverse audience. At the Lyceum, I've got the opportunity to do the great plays as well, and The Seagull is exactly that. It is the kind of play we should be doing. It's an option for the Edinburgh audience to reengage in that play or maybe see it for the first time.'
Mint
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Mint
Tony Winner Sam Pinkleton Never Thought Oh, Mary! Would Be a Broadway Hit
(Bloomberg) -- The riotously funny Oh, Mary!—a show that imagines Mary Todd Lincoln as an alcoholic and aspiring cabaret singer—won big at the Tony Awards on June 8, nabbing a best actor trophy for nonbinary comedian Cole Escola as Mary and a best director award for Sam Pinkleton. A veteran choreographer, Pinkleton was previously nominated for choreography in 2016 for Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, but Oh, Mary! is his first Broadway directing credit. The scrappy show started with a sold-out off-Broadway run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the West Village before transferring to the Lyceum Theatre last summer and has since broken box-office records. The wildly inventive, madcap show has been a critical and commercial smash, with talent including Tituss Burgess and Betty Gilpin donning the curly wig and black dress to play Lincoln. Star Escola is back in another limited run on Broadway, which has been extended through September. Despite Oh, Mary! 's massive success, Pinkleton says he and Escola had no inkling the production could become as big as it has. 'We just made the thing we wanted to make, we didn't try to make a hit,' Pinkleton says. 'If we would have tried to make a hit, we would have failed, I know that for sure. That's not how art works.' Bloomberg Pursuits caught up with the director in late April and talked about working with the different actors who played Mary, crafting a hit without a Hollywood A-lister on board and what audiences want to see onstage now. What's it been like directing the show with different actors now? It's been Cole and then Betty and Tituss and now Cole again. It's been absolutely insane. The show was built to run for eight weeks downtown, which felt like the biggest gift ever. Like, we got to do this crazy gay extreme thing off-Broadway and for Cole. That was all we were trying to do. That felt like enough, and we extended forever. But we never thought we were going to go to Broadway, and we certainly never thought it would run for long enough on Broadway to have to replace people. I always think that for Oh, Mary!, the dream coming true happened over a year ago. This has all just been crazy phases of bonus stuff. In one breath, my answer is that it's all been amazing. And in another, it's required a lot of very exacting work to be like, 'Wait, what is this play? What do people love about it? What is a way to keep it what it is but also continue to be surprising?' So every Mary has required rethinking the part a little bit, but Cole wrote such a confident text, and it's become really fun to imagine all sorts of people in it. But I would be lying if I said we started thinking that that would ever be the case. So you didn't go into it thinking it would be on Broadway? Absolutely not. I mean, nobody said the word 'Broadway' until we were in our, like, second extension off-Broadway. If you told me when we were planning this off-Broadway that we might move to Broadway, I would be like, 'You are insane.' And frankly, I think having been in this position on other shows, I think if that had been in the room, the show wouldn't have been as good. I really believe that part of the success of it is that we genuinely were not trying to make some big commercial hit. What do you think about the show that's made it resonate with so many people? I think people really love to be surprised. And theater's really good at that. Cole and I agree on this—surprise is the engine of theater. And I think Oh, Mary! is a play that really loves being theater and delivers that sensation that you can only get in a room with actual people laughing at the same time, screaming at the same time. I'm sure we could find plenty of people who hated it, God bless 'em. But I think, to me, there's something really special about going on a ride with a group of people. And I love standing in the back of the Lyceum and watching 900 people watch the show, many of them at this point, like, families on vacation, which is insane. It feels like a relief. And I'm sure there's plenty of theater people who would hate me for saying this, but there's enough to be serious and sad about. I'm not that interested in making the theater—which is for people choosing to go have a night out—to also be a drag. The world is really good at being a drag. I would like for theater to exist in opposition to that. The world—or at least the news—can definitely be a drag right didn't mean to hit that. And the show is aggressively apolitical. But to put it simply, I just think people like to have a nice time. I spoke with Natasha Hodgson from Operation Mincemeat back in February and asked her a similar question about why her show has resonated with people. She told me that people just want to laugh and have fun. First of all, I'm obsessed with Natasha Hodgson, but that show Operation Mincemeat—we adore each other, and we talk all the time. And even though the shows are so different, I do feel like the missions are aligned, which is to give people a f---ing fun night at the theater. We see all these articles about Broadway shows breaking ticket-price records or making record amounts, and they're largely shows with big stars like George Clooney or Denzel Washington. You and Cole were able to make a hit without an A-list name attached to it. We cast Oh, Mary! with the people we wanted to cast it with, and we were very lucky that we had producers who really trusted Cole and I to make the show. At no point did anyone look at us and say you need to cast, you know, the fourth member of Destiny's Child in order to do the show. That sounds like a dig on Michelle Williams, who is the world's absolute greatest, and she's so good in Death Becomes Her. It's not a dig! But we cast who we thought would be great, and it was important to everyone that when we moved to Broadway, that everybody went with us, including the entire design team, many of whom were making their Broadway debut. I'm not going to knock, like, big starry things as long as they're good. I love working with stars. I'm working with stars right now, but I think the first mission should be 'let's make something good.' And if that happens to have stars in it, awesome. Oh, Mary! didn't. It could have. It didn't. And I'm so delighted that people seem to be coming because they want to see the play. More stories like this are available on
Scotsman
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
David Greig on his final production at Edinburgh's Lyceum Theatre: 'it felt vital that this play be seen in Scotland'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The American playwright Katori Hall was born in Memphis, Tennessee, 44 years ago; so it's perhaps not surprising that early in her career, when she was still only in her twenties, she was moved to write a play that revolves around one of the most momentous events ever to take place in her home city. On 4 April 1968, the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King was shot dead on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel, Memphis. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The previous night, he had delivered his 'I Have Been To The Mountaintop' speech at a rally in the city, as part of an intense campaign tour. Hall's award-winning play – first seen in London in 2009 – is set in the hours following that speech, when King, alone in his room, encounters a hotel maid, Camae; a young woman with the face of an angel, who, it turns out, is something quite other than she seems. Now, the play is receiving its Scottish professional premiere at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. The production also marks the final production of David Greig's ten-year stint as artistic director of the theatre, as James Brining takes over the reins. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'With the world in polarised chaos,' says David Greig, 'it just felt urgent and vital to me that this play be seen in Scotland. Caleb Roberts and Shannon Hayes in rehearsals for The Mountaintop PIC: Daniel Holden 'Dr King's 'I Have A Dream' speech was such a high point in postwar history, and his assassination a corresponding low. 'Both are the seeds of so much of the world we live in now; and Katori Hall's play is a modern classic, that tackles that moment head on.' In Edinburgh, the play will be directed by Rikki Henry, a young British director who has worked extensively in France and Germany in recent years, with Shannon Hayes playing Camae, and Caleb Roberts in the role of Martin Luther King. 'I first saw the play almost ten years ago, when it was revived at the Old Vic,' say Henry, 'and it really made me concentrate, and begin to see things differently. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It shows Martin Luther King in a new light, as a human being rather than an iconic hero, and I think there's a real urgency about reviving it now, when all these ideas are being challenged again. Caleb Roberts in rehearsals for The Mountaintop PIC: 'Towards the end of the play, King talks about legacy, and about passing on the baton of the huge campaigns he led. 'And I think that today, when there's so much political chaos, the question we have to ask is where is the baton? Who has it now, and how can we support them? "One thing the play makes clear, though, is that you don't have to be a celebrity to play your part, and to make an impact.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I've been reading a lot about Dr King's life,' says Caleb Roberts, 'and watching film of him, of course, and certainly his presence is huge, and it's a challenge to capture that. "Without giving anything away, there are aspects of this production that make it easier to show how strong he was, physically as well as emotionally and intellectually. "But he was human, too; and I hope this play encourages people at least to see him a little differently. I know theatre can't often change people's minds; but it can maybe change their perspective a little, and I hope this play does that.' And Shannon Hayes agrees. 'I think one of the most important messages of this play is that no matter how low or small you are, or feel yourself to be, your actions still matter. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad "Everybody has a shared responsibility in shaping what the future looks like, and no one can avoid that responsibility by putting the whole weight on the shoulders of a leader who is supposed to fix it all. "And if we can make people feel that shared responsibility for taking Dr King's legacy forward – well, then we'll be doing a good job, with this amazing play.
Scotsman
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Keli, Edinburgh review: 'magnificent'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Keli, Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh ★★★★★ Ten days, and two new shows about the scars left by Scotland's mighty coal industry, and its bitter end in the miners' strike that was called off 40 years ago this spring. The first was Sylvia Dow's Blinded By The Light, premiered in Bo'ness last week; and now, here comes the National Theatre of Scotland's Keli, a bigger and even more theatrically ambitious exploration of very similar themes, built around the brass band music that was such a vital part of mining communities' lives, and written and composed by Martin Green of the acclaimed Scottish-English band Lau, whose company Lepus co-produces the show. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Liberty Black in Keli | Mihaela Bodlovic Like Blinded By The Light, Keli sets up an interaction between a younger generation living with the aftermath of coal, and those involved in the industry decades ago; but whereas Dow places her two time frames in parallel, Keli goes boldly for the more surreal option of bringing past and future face to face. Its heroine, Keli, is a fierce 17-year old girl growing up in a former mining town half-way between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Her language is ear-poppingly obscene, and her life desperately stressful, with her mother suffering a long-term mental breakdown that makes it almost impossible for Keli to juggle her home commitments with both college and her rubbish part-time shop job. Keli, though, also has a gift. She is a brilliant horn player, the best her local brass band - a long-term survivor of the mining era - has ever seen; and her life reaches crisis point when she is chosen to play a supremely difficult horn solo at a major UK competition in the Albert Hall. It's on her return from this traumatic trip to London that, through a bruising chain of events, she suddenly finds herself underground, talking to a 20th century man who should be dead, but whose life as an acclaimed horn player in the band both mirrors and contrasts with her own. Keli | Mihaela Bodlovic All of this is handled in brave and spectacular style in Green's play, many years in development, and based on what was once a lockdown audio drama. The story has a flashback structure which places Keli's conversation with the man from the past, one William Knox, front and centre; while the events and stresses that lead to their encounter emerge from the darkness around them, on Alisa Kalyanova's powerful underground cavern of a set. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Martin Green's music, directed on stage by Louis Abbott, is quite extraordinary, sometimes played live on stage by brass musicians Andrew McMillan and Hannah Mbuya with support from the cast, sometimes involving a full and glorious brass band (either Whitburn Youth Band or Kingdom Brass), and sometimes integrated into George Dennis's powerful sound design; but always combining the familiar harmonies and strains of brass band music with passages where those sounds refract and shatter, spinning off into aural images of chaos and breakdown. Director Bryony Shanahan orchestrates all these elements to perfection, in the edgy, bold-brush-stroke style Keli's story demands; and the five-strong acting cast rise to the challenge magnificently, with Liberty Black heartbreakingly raw, angry and quick-witted as Keli, and Karen Fishwick superb as her broken Mum, among other roles. A beautiful metaphor to do with pressure runs through the show; a reflection on the pressures suffered by miners then and Keli now, and how extreme air pressure from the lungs - harnessed by brass players - can help build something beautiful, what Keli calls great cathedrals of sound. And the play also captures how those pressures were and are entangled with questions of class, even in an age of individualism bereft of the political solidarity and high moral aspirations that gave William Knox's generation hope; leaving survivors like Keli with only the band music, celebrated in the play's glorious finale, to offer them a glimpse of what might be possible, in a more humane and convivial world. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
Time Out
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
One of Tokyo's most popular doughnut shops has landed in NYC
If you happened to find yourself in Times Square over the past few months, you may have spotted a glowing white question mark stamped on a wall across the street from the Lyceum Theatre. You might've asked yourself, 'What does it mean' or 'Is it an art piece?' But before you question your existence for too long, we are here to tell you the mysterious logo is tied to I'm donut?, a shop known for its airy and light doughnuts imported straight from Japan. Your next question might be, 'So what is I'm donut ? all about?' I'm donut ? officially opened its doors in Times Square this morning (154 West 45th Street), and by the looks of it, the lines are already around the block. Founded by chef Ryouta Hirako, this is I'm donut ?'s first foray outside of Japan where it has six locations across Tokyo and Fukuoka. So why now and, more importantly, why New York? According to Chef Hirako, he knew his airy and light creations would find a home here. 'When I began seeing people's excitement and reactions to their first bite of one of my donuts, I knew I had something special. Surprise, sometimes confusion, happiness and smiles,' says Chef Ryouta in a press release. "I decided that I wanted to share these donuts with people everywhere. Everyone in the world knows Times Square—this became my dream.' The Times Square store keeps a minimalistic cool with translucent panels and exposed wooden beams made to look like traditional shoji screens and elements of stone including a granite standing table and counter made to mimic a Japanese rock garden. There's a small area for retail upfront, including stickers, hoodies and sweatshirts designed by Japanese designer Yuni Yoshida and even candles made to look like doughnuts. While you wait, you can peer behind the counter for views of the tiered open kitchen to see how the doughnuts get made. Focusing on the concept of 'nama' or fresh, Chef Hirako pushes the boundaries of what a doughnut can be. Several favorites from Japan are available including the brioche-style powdered sugar, I'm donut ? original, with variations made with matcha and chocolate. Custardy cream-filled donuts are also on rotation, including the Matcha Cream and the Caramel Espresso Cream. The shop also has a number of selections unique to New Yorkers, including the PB&J, with a blend of smooth peanut butter cream and Concord grape, and the Sake Cream, with dry junmai sake and chantilly cream filling. Savory items sandwiched between two doughnut halves are also exclusive to NYC, including breakfast bites like the Scrambled Eggs and Sausage in a Blanket. Heartier appetites call for the NY BLT crafted with local and small-batch smoked bacon, a thick tomato slice, lettuce and an organic egg. Chef Hirako didn't forget about vegans either, as the NYC shop has vegan-friendly Pistachio White Chocolate, Strawberry Chocolate and Glazed doughnuts. If you need something to wash it all down, the shop offers hojicha and ceremonial-grade matcha for iced drinks and lattes on the go. Much like many of the bakeries that have opened as of late (including the second location of Radio Bakery and Filipino bakery Kora, to name a few) waits are to be expected. But if you'd rather be first in line, put on your most comfortable shoes to see what's new and happening in the doughnut sphere.
