Johan Persson News

One of the few positives that has come out of the pandemic is that there has never been more opportunity to experience something new. Theatre, ballet and opera companies have quickly realised that their reach is now potentially world-wide and a new audience awaits online. For many, their introduction to Shakespeare came at school and this experience probably set up your opinion of his work until this day. You may have fallen in love with him, but often people’s memories are of dry, tedious and impenetrable text. Broadway World would like to try and change that with this beginner's guide.

This weekend, producers Robert Fox and RZO Entertainment Inc are exclusively releasing the filmed London production of Lazarus for three streamed performances only, January 8-10, in remembrance of David Bowie on his birthday and to mark the fifth anniversary of his untimely death.

This weekend, producers Robert Fox and RZO Entertainment Inc are exclusively releasing the filmed London production of Lazarus for three streamed performances only, January 8-10, in remembrance of David Bowie on his birthday and to mark the fifth anniversary of his untimely death.

Moving into the Sondheim Theatre for a limited run, Les Misérables – The Staged Concert brings the barricades back to the West End.

The Crown has held as one of Netflix's top series since the release of Season 4 on November 15 perhaps partly due to the stellar performances from its cast. Did you know that many of the company members have extensive background onstage in London and around the world.

Uncle Vanya was one of many West End shows that saw their run abruptly cut short when COVID-19 hit. But, with their set still up at the Harold Pinter Theatre, back in August the show was performed once again, this time to cameras instead of an audience, allowing Uncle Vanya to have a nationwide cinema release.

What are you prepared to sacrifice for your art? Filmed at Sadlera??s Wells in January, Matthew Bournea??s The Red Shoes asks what a passionate obsession might cost a person. First seen in 2016, this wonderful show was a double Olivier Award winner and perfectly demonstrates Bournea??s deep understanding of and devotion to dance.

With the news of the Government financial package to safeguard the future of the arts, culture and heritage industries, #scenechange continue to wrap theatres across the UK and Ireland in a message of hope.

This summer, we're sadly not going to be seeing all the outdoor theatre that we've loved in past years - whether at venues like Regent's Park and Shakespeare's Globe or dedicated festivals and other open-air arts gatherings. So, until we can welcome all these wonderful events back again, BroadwayWorld reviewers are paying tribute to them with some of our favourite memories!

A Streetcar Named Desire was the hottest ticket in town back in the summer of 2014. Six years later, it remains the fastest selling play in the Young Vic's history. It enjoyed a New York transfer and was broadcast in cinemas around the globe thanks to National Theatre Live.

Continuing their series National Theatre At Home, this week the world is treated to a wonderful version of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, with truly dazzling performances from Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo. At the height of both their powers, one of the three rulers of Rome, the once-great Antony, becomes infatuated with Cleopatra, the dramatic Queen of Egypt. Choosing ego and love over duty leads Antony to make some fatal strategic decisions, leading to war, betrayal and death.

The X-Files became a '90s cult classic, running for nine seasons and spawning two movies and two miniseries revivals. But since portraying FBI agent Dana Scully, Gillian Anderson has carved out a diverse career both on screen and stage. The much-loved star spoke to BroadwayWorld about her career ahead of the National Theatre at Home's screening of the critically acclaimed A Streetcar Named Desire.

In the third and final installment of Reel Adventures-A Festival of Classics, the wonderful Matthew Bourne's The Car Man celebrated its 20th anniversary last night with a screening on Sky Arts. Set in an Italian-American community in sixties America, the story owes more to film noir influences and the story of The Postman Always Rings Twice than Bizet's opera.

You may have thought you had seen every possible version of Shakespeare's tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and yet the masterful Matthew Bourne manages to surprise you anew. Set in the sterile white of Verona Institute, where the young are forced into submission, this is the story as you will have never seen it before.

The industry has long grappled with a simple question: how do you get non-habitual theatregoers into the theatre? COVID-19 may be a serious threat to the arts, but it's going to accelerate a long overdue change. So, enter stage left, theatre at home.

Andrew Lloyd Webber continues to indulge theatre lovers in lockdown with his generous weekly stream of one his works on the dedicated The Shows Must Go On YouTube channel to raise money for charity. This week's offering is the 25th-anniversary performance of The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall and live-streamed in cinemas in 2011. 

Polly Findlay's brilliant gender-bending production of Treasure Island for the National Theatre was a hit back in 2014 and now comes to a screen near you as part of their National Theatre At Home series.

Finbar Lynch has enjoyed an extensive acting career, spanning stage, film and television. His theatre work includes Girl From the North Country (Noel Coward Theatre, Gielgud Theatre and Toronto) Translations (Donmar Warehouse), Richard III (Almeida Theatre), Antony and Cleopatra (National Theatre), and Antigone (Barbican and world tour). In 1999, he was nominated for both Tony and Drama Desk awards for his performance as Canary Jim in Tennessee Williams' Not About Nightingales. He talks to BroadwayWorld about his role as the Stage Manager in the London transfer of Paula Vogel's Indecent at the Menier Chocolate Factory. A Tony Award-winning hit on Broadway, Indecent explores the origins of the controversial play God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch.

Chamberlin, Powell & Bon's brutalist design is an instantly recognisable part of London's architecture; the grade II listed building formed the inspiration for the film adaptation of JG Ballard's novel High-Rise. Formerly the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Barbican Theatre was also the original London home of long-running musical Les Misérables before its transfer to the West End.

Last year, Rob Houchen was seen on both sides of the Atlantic in The Light in the Piazza, and returned to the role of Marius in Les Miserables: The Staged Concert at the Gielgud Theatre. He's also part of the team behind the successful West End Does concert series. Rob spoke to BroadwayWorld about his career and his most recent role in the anticipated West End transfer of the Olivier Award-winning production City of Angels, now in previews at the Garrick Theatre.