This week we headed to Wembley to catch up with Joseph Fiennes as he prepares to play England football manager Gareth Southgate in the West End.
Dear England, by James Graham, about how Southgate changed the toxic culture of English football, opened earlier this year at the National Theatre and played to packed houses and transfers to the Prince Edward Theatre shortly.
Find out if Southgate has seen the show, how Fiennes considers performing in the West End as his “World Cup Final” and whether the actor agrees with Graham that the England football manager is a Shakespearean hero. Also, what is it like for an actor when an entire auditorium leaps to its feet to sing Sweet Caroline?
This week we also review Andrew ‘Hot Priest’ Scott’s bravura performance in all the roles of Simon Stephens’ retooled Uncle Vanya (known just as Vanya) and lament the postponement of Death of England: Closing Time after cast illness.
In the general chat Nancy, Nick and Nick talk about news that Steve Coogan is to star in the theatre adaptation of Dr Strangelove in the West End, how Minority Report is coming to the Lyric Hammersmith stage, and their take on the pictures of Nicole Scherzinger starring as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.
Listen above, or wherever you stream your podcasts.
