Rebecca Frecknall: Last News

David Benedict Having the audacity to harness stabs and slashes of Prokofiev’s celebrated ballet score for “Romeo and Juliet” for a production of Shakespeare’s play suggests remarkable confidence on the part of white-hot director Rebecca Frecknall. It’s not misplaced. Her startlingly visceral production, with a cast led by Toheeb Jimoh of “Ted Lasso,” is not only lit up by the power of bodies leaping in space and dramatically alert even when in repose; it’s also alive to the detailed drama of Shakespeare’s language. The intensity she engenders in her actors is sometimes ramped-up too highly and everything boils over, but at its finest, the fiercely articulate passion is electrifying. The fact that the rulebook is being rewritten is made plain from the get-go. The famous opening address about “two houses alike in dignity” is not spoken: The text is lit up on the wall covering the entire front of the stage. Beneath Gareth Fry’s low growl of a soundscape, the company gathers one by one to claw against it before sending it crashing to the ground. But this is not just a shock tactic. Frecknall is illuminating the line about “taking the wall of any man” and using physical energy to punch into a vigorously staged fight between the warring Montagues and Capulets.

It’s succession season at the UK’s  National Theatre with Rufus Norris, the institution’s Artistic Director, announcing that he will step down in 2025 after a decade in the post.

Ted Lasso star Toheeb Jimoh features in an upcoming theatre production of Romeo and Juliet in London's West End. The actor, who recently reprised the role of Sam in the third season of the Jason Sudeikis sports dramedy, will play Romeo opposite Isis Hainsworth's Juliet at the Almeida Theatre.

Naman Ramachandran The Royal Shakespeare Company’s theater adaptation of Studio Ghibli’s “My Neighbor Totoro” swept the Olivier Awards on Sunday, taking home six out of the nine categories it was nominated in, including the Sir Peter Hall Award for best director, awarded to Phelim McDermott and the Noël Coward Award for best entertainment or comedy play. The Almeida Theatre also had a successful night, with three of its productions taking home awards. Will Keen won best supporting actor for his performance in “Patriots” and “Tammy Faye” garnered two acting awards – Katie Brayben for best actress in a musical and Zubin Varla for best actor in a supporting role in a musical. Rebecca Frecknall’s revival of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” won best actor for Paul Mescal’s portrayal of Stanley Kowalski and best actress in a supporting role for Anjana Vasan’s performance as Stella. The play also won the best revival award.

Jodie Comer and Paul Mescal have secured top gongs for their West End debut performances at the Olivier Awards, hosted by Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham, as the biggest night in British theatre returned on Sunday.

Jodie Comer and Paul Mescal are among the big winners at the 2023 Olivier Awards, which are being revealed this evening at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Scroll down for a list of the winners that will be updated as the names come in. 

EXCLUSIVE: Toheeb Jimoh, who plays AFC Richmond’s goal-scoring Sam Obisanya onTed Lasso. will tackle rhyming couplets when he and Red Rose actress Isis Hainsworth play William Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers in what’s expected to be a sizzler of a Romeo and Juliet production in London this summer.

Paul Mescal has clocked his first Olivier Award nomination for his leading performance in Rebecca Frecknall’s buzzy stage adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire. Scroll down for the full list of nominees.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Tony-awarding-winning choreographer Sonya Tayeh behind the stage adaptation of “Moulin Rouge!” has joined the creative team of the upcoming “Gatsby” musical. The show’s producers Amanda Ghost, Len Blavatnik, Jordan Roth and American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) also announced that the stage adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel will have its World Premiere at A.R.T. in 2024. With “Hadestown” alum Rachel Chavkin on board to direct. As previously announced, Florence Welch, the force behind Florence + the Machine will write the lyrics. Welch will be joined by Thomas Bartlett to work on the show’s music.

Naman Ramachandran Oscar-nominated actor Paul Mescal has revealed he was groped by a fan outside London’s Almeida Theatre, where he is starring in a sold-out season of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Mescal, who is nominated for best actor for “Aftersun,” told U.K. outlet ES Magazine that he agreed to pose for a picture outside the Almeida. “As we posed for it, she put her hand on my ass,” Mescal said. The actor said he thought it was an accident and moved away, “but the hand followed. I remember tensing up and feeling just, like, fury. I turned to her and said, ‘What’re you doing? Take your hand off my ass.'” “The last thing I want to do is call somebody out in front of the theater — it’s uncomfortable for everyone involved — but it was really not okay. It was so gross, creepy.” On the price of fame Mescal told the magazine: “97% it is really nice — then 3% is somebody, like, grabbing your ass.”

EXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed award-winning British-Spanish actress Patsy Ferran for representation in all areas, with plans to help her secure new opportunities across film, television, theatre and more.

Paul Mescal freely admits that Stanley Kowalski is a wife beater and a rapist. The star of indie favorite Aftersun says he has “a lot of sympathy for him because that’s my job” — Mescal is playing the brutal antagonist in a revival of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire at London’s Almeida Theatre.

Paul Mescal enters the north London cafe having trudged a short distance through the snow from his gym. Heads turn, but Mescal is oblivious. He shakes himself out of a hooded coat then nonchalantly removes a sweater to reveal a ribbed torso sheathed in a white T-shirt. More stares. The star of Aftersun, Scottish director Charlotte Wells’s tender visual poem about a father and daughter, takes a seat and rubs his tummy. In that moment it’s all too easy to compare him to Marlon Brando, with the tight-ish whitey shirt and all that.

EXCLUSIVE: Life is literally a Cabaret for Aimee Lou Wood, star of Netflix comedy Sex Education and awards season movie Living, who is rehearsing to make her West End musical debut as Sally Bowles in the radical revival of the classic show by John Kander and Fred Ebb.

Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley show off their awards after winning big at the 2022 Olivier Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday (April 10) in London, England.

who was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for “The Lost Daughter” — and the aforementioned spittle incident went down at the new West End production of “Cabaret” in London.It wasn’t a loogie of outrage (although me being a critic, perhaps it was), but an outgrowth of the wild unpredictability of Sally Bowles, the troubled British singer who plies her trade at Berlin’s seedy Kit Kat Club.After Sally was introduced by Eddie Redmayne’s Emcee during “Willkommen,” Buckley ran up to my balcony seat and fluttered her salivated lips like a baby who didn’t want her carrot puree. “So that’s why I had to take a COVID test to be here,” I figured.The A-list show, which is up for 11 Olivier Awards on Sunday, tries to differentiate itself with that brand of breathing-down-your-neck intimacy and immersion.

Cabaret’s London stage revival has triumphed at the 31st Annual Critics Circle Theatre Awards, taking home three of this year’s top honors.

What’s Florence Welch been doing in lockdown? That’s what we’re all wondering, isn’t it? Well, turns out she’s been writing a musical. Adapting F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ into a big sing-song.

Florence + The Machine‘s Florence Welch is set to score a new Broadway adaptation of The Great Gatsby.Alongside original music and lyrics from Welch, the new musical is also set to feature music from Thomas Bartlett, who records music as Doveman. It will be directed by Rebecca Frecknall.“This book has haunted me for a large part of my life.