Curious Incident and Hamilton Major Drama Desk Winners

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time On Broadway

The National Theatre’s production of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time picked up six Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Play, Oustanding Actor In A Play and Outstanding Director Of A Play, beaten only by Hamilton, the new musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda that won seven awards, the first time since 1983 that an Off-Broadway show (Little Shop Of Horrors) has beaten its Broadway counterparts. Helen Mirren won Oustanding Actress In A Play for her performance in The Audience. Jim Dale’s one man show Just Jim Dale currently on stage in London won Best Revue. The Drama Desk Awards, given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York City theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway compete against each other in the same category. Formed in 1949 by a group of New York City theater critics, editors, reporters, and publishers, … Read more

Netflix To Adapt The Audience Into TV Series

Helen Mirren The Audience

Netflix has announced that it has commissioned a 10 part drama about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The series called The Crown will be based on the hit West End Play The Audience and will be created by Peter Morgan and Stephen Daldry – the writer and director of The Audience. It has been rumoured that Claire Foy has been approached to play the young Elizabeth II but no casting announcement has been made regarding Helen Mirren appearing in the series. The Crown will chart the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, from the death of her father George VI in 1952 to the present day. Like the stage show the series will focus on the relationship between the monarch and her prime ministers. The Crown will reach television screens in 2016. Dame Helen Mirren will play the monarch in The Audience on Broadway next year, and Kristin Scott Thomas … Read more

Kristen Scott Thomas Plays Queen In Audience Revival

Kristen Scott Thomas to play The Queen in The Audience

Kristin Scott Thomas will play the Queen in a new version of Peter Morgan’s The Audience which will preview at the Apollo Theatre from April 12, 2015. For sixty years Elizabeth II has met each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace. Both parties have an unspoken agreement never to repeat what is said, not even to their spouses. The Audience imagines a series of pivotal meetings between the Downing Street incumbents and their Queen. From Churchill to Cameron, each Prime Minister uses these private conversations as a sounding board and a confessional – sometimes intimate, sometimes explosive. In turn, the Queen can’t help but reveal her own self as she advises, consoles and, on occasion, teases. These private audiences chart the arc of the second Elizabethan Age, from the beginning of Elizabeth II’s reign to today. Politicians come and go through the revolving door … Read more

REVIEW: The Audience, Gielgud Theatre ✭✭✭✭

The Audience review Gielgud Theatre

The Audience, written by Peter Morgan, starring Helen Mirren and directed by Stephen Daldry, is one of those rare theatrical experiences which embraces and delivers all of the possibilities in a rich, perfectly-pitched and played meditation on the UK Monarchy, the office of Prime Minister and the state of the evolving UK society…If all West End productions were this good, London would expire from sheer pleasure.