Chris Wiegand

London

Theater, Comedy and Dance Editor at The Guardian

Theatre, comedy and dance editor at the Guardian

Featured in: Favicon

theguardian.com Favicon

msn.com

yahoo.com (+4) Favicon

flipboard.com Favicon

irishtimes.com Favicon

newsbreak.com Favicon

directionsmag.com Favicon

streetfightmag.com Favicon

ourcommunitynow.com Favicon

bookbusinessmag.com + 5 more

Articles

New report says ‘government must act’ to ease pressures on British theatres

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Chris Wiegand

A report by the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre, released on Thursday, puts the spotlight on an industry struggling with rocketing production costs and in need of urgent funding.
Shucked review – terrific songs add zest to undercooked corn country musical

2 weeks ago | msn.com | Chris Wiegand

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
Shucked review - terrific songs add zest to undercooked corn country musical

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Chris Wiegand

Aw, shucks. There’s plenty to love about this US import, a country musical with a zany corn obsession and a message about breaking down barriers that suits this open air theatre. But just how much corn-fed wordplay can you stomach? You’ll soon find out. There’s a maze of maize jokes, some kernels of truth amid the cornball sentiment, a husk of a plot about a corn doctor mistakenly assumed to treat ears not feet and a few painful gags about cornholes.
Actor and writer Gawn Grainger dies aged 87

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Chris Wiegand

The actor and writer Gawn Grainger, highly esteemed by stage and screen audiences alike over his long career, has died at the age of 87. His death on Saturday, surrounded by his family, was confirmed by his agent Judy Daish. He is survived by his wife, the actor Zoë Wanamaker, and by his children, Charlie and Eliza, from his previous marriage to the actor Janet Key.
The Fifth Step review - Jack Lowden and Martin Freeman go head to head

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Chris Wiegand

Jack Lowden wasn’t away from the stage for as long as his Slow Horses co-star Gary Oldman but it’s still a thrill to find him returning to theatre. Seen at the Edinburgh international festival last summer, The Fifth Step – his first play since 2018 – gives him a character both volatile and vulnerable in a two-hander bristling with playwright David Ireland’s signature style of knotty provocation and ribald comedy.
Charles Strouse, Tony award-winning composer of Annie, dies aged 96

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Chris Wiegand

The composer Charles Strouse, a three-time Tony award-winner whose hits included Annie, has died at the age of 96. His death at home in New York on Thursday was announced by his four children. Over the course of a long and illustrious career, Strouse composed music for the Broadway shows Bye Bye Birdie, Golden Boy, Applause, Rags and Nick & Nora. But he was perhaps best known for his score for Annie which opened in New York in 1977 and ran for almost six years.
Oedipus at Colonus/Electra review – a double shot of Sophocles in Sicily

3 weeks ago | msn.com | Chris Wiegand

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
‘Like making whisky’: how The Curious Case of Benjamin Button aged into a timeless musical

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Chris Wiegand

Jethro Compton (book and lyrics, director and stage designer): The Olivier awards were a huge boost for us. I wasn’t aware of the impact an Olivier win could have. We were already in conversations with different organisations around the world about getting the show out internationally – those have stepped up quite dramatically. Philippa Hogg (actor, musician and creative associate): The ceremony was so much fun. We came on at the Royal Albert Hall to this roar from thousands of people.
Oedipus at Colonus/Electra review - a double shot of Sophocles in Sicily

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Chris Wiegand

Concurrent London productions recently presented Oedipus as a modern politician pledging a new start (Mark Strong in the West End) and as a distant detective investigating a climate catastrophe that jeopardises Thebans’ future (Rami Malek at the Old Vic). Sophocles’ late play Oedipus at Colonus, less commonly known, looks not ahead but backwards. This elegiac tragedy finds the exile reaching the end of his life.
Three Hens in a Boat review - Jerome K Jerome inspires funny voyage of family reflection

4 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Chris Wiegand

Jerome K Jerome was not kind about Reading in Three Men in a Boat. Sculling along the Thames, his narrator observes how the town “does its best to spoil and sully and make hideous as much of the river as it can reach” yet concedes it is “good-natured enough to keep its ugly face a good deal out of sight”. Reading Rep, which co-produces this new comedy with Newbury’s Watermill, does not hold a grudge.