Lynette Linton: Last News

David Benedict Part of the instant appeal of “Friends” was that, from the get-go, the relationships between the members of the gang who hung out in the apartments above Central Perk felt not just likeable but absolutely lived-in. The same is absolutely true of the perfectly meshed cast of Lynette Linton’s beautifully directed National Theatre production of Pearl Cleage’s “Blue for an Alabama Sky” in London. Cleage’s 1930s-set rooming-house drama is far more wide-ranging — it ultimately encompasses tragedy as well as comedy — but its glowing hallmark throughout is its ability to keep audiences basking in its warmth. Glowingly lit by Oliver Fenwick with a palette rising to richly expressionist crimson, Frankie Bradshaw’s towering, vividly atmospheric set goes from the front stoop to the rafters of a down-at-heel Harlem house. It’s here we meet drunk Angel (a birdlike yet commanding Samira Wiley, in her U.K. stage debut), who staggers back to the home of snappy costume designer Guy (hilariously smart-mouthed Giles Terera, London’s knockout Burr in “Hamilton”). A self-styled “notorious homosexual,” he takes pity on his long-time friend who has not only lost her boyfriend but her job singing in a nightclub.

Naman Ramachandran Idris Elba, Maya Jama and Little Simz have signed on as producers for the London West End transfer of Bush Theatre’s production “Shifters.” The trio joins Eleanor Lloyd Productions, Chuchu Nwagu Productions, and Sonia Friedman Productions to bring Benedict Lombe‘s romance to London’s Duke of York’s Theatre from West London’s Bush Theatre. Written by Lombe (“Lava,” Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner) and directed by Evening Standard Theatre Award-winner Lynette Linton (“Blues for an Alabama Sky,” “August in England”), the play will run for a limited nine-week engagement, Aug. 12 – Oct.

Lily Collins and Álvaro Morte will make their West End debuts in racy thriller Barcelona at the Duke of York’s Theatre.

Naman Ramachandran In a notable convergence of screen talent and stage production, Lily Collins (“Emily in Paris”) and Álvaro Morte (“Money Heist”) are set to make their London West End debuts with Bess Wohl’s “Barcelona.” “Barcelona” is billed as a two-hander play that unfolds during a late night in the titular Spanish city. The narrative follows an American tourist who goes home with a handsome Spaniard, with what begins as a casual encounter evolving into a more complex situation where personal and political elements intertwine.

Naman Ramachandran Tim Sheader, the new artistic director of London’s Donmar Warehouse, has announced his inaugural season, featuring two world premieres, a U.K. premiere and a revival. The season opens with “The Fear of 13,” a world premiere by Lindsey Ferrentino, based on the documentary film by David Sington that tells the true story of Nick Yarris, who spent 22 years on Death Row.

David Tennant will take on the lead role in Macbeth at the end of the year for a new Donmar Warehouse production of the William Shakespeare play.

Peter Morgan (The Crown) was among the top winners at this year’s Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards with his latest production, Patriots, which took home the coveted Michael Billington Award for Best New Play.

Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) won the best actress prize at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards for her West End debut performance playing a criminal barrister specialising in defending rapists — who is then sexually assaulted herself.

Doctor Who is long overdue.