Ever since the days of Shylock and Sir Epicure Mammon, theatre’s loved having a pop at capitalists. And there’s nothing like a recession for sharpening the claws. Anyone who hasn’t already booked tickets for the Royal Court production of Lucy Prebble and Rupert Goold’s ‘Enron’ has little to no chance now of catching it in Sloane Square, but after a sold out run there and rave reviews in Chichester it’s just announced its transfer to the Noel Coward Theatre in January. Oh, and anyone who’s super-keen to witness David Hare ‘seek to understand the financial crisis’ can catch the first preview of ‘The Power of Yes’ on 29 September (it officially opens at the National on 6 October).
'Enron' at the Royal Court Theatre - © Manuel Harlan
Theatre ticket sales have actually stayed remarkably buoyant despite our troubled economic waters. Michael Grandage’s West End season proved that a quality straight play plus a big star equals an increasing share of the market in a West End which is traditionally dominated by musical blockbusters. So the producers will be hoping that Anna Friel’s turn as Ms Holly Golightly in Samuel Adamson’s wartime adaptation of ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ will have just the right mix of grit and glamour to pull the punters in when it opens officially on 29 September. Like original author Truman Capote, adaptor Adamson has been less soft-focus than the movie about what Holly actually does for a living. Shame, then, that the questions on the blogosphere’s lips are so very predictable: will she be naked? Will she be blonde? (answers yes and yes, but you’ll have to wait until the 30th for the full report).
© Robert Day
Turning from a 1940s update of a 1930s story to one that actually premiered in Moscow in 1945, Friday is opening night (or should that be re-opening night) for ‘An Inspector Calls’ – not the original Alexander Tairov production but Stephen Daldry’s radical 1992 revival which won just about every award in the cabinet. It should be interesting to see how Daldry’s take on JB Priestley’s swingeing moral investigation of a prosperous middle class family (yes, they’re prominent capitalists) stands up in a new era with, erm, entirely different preoccupations…
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@ 16yrs old, John Rowles brought me to arousal without ever touching me. John Rowles smouldered off the cover of Now & Then like a Daytime Soap Opera star. Bedtime came on and I felt hot, woozy and short of breath. I couldn’t focus to see. Had to leave the room before my parents noticed. Could barely walk a straight line. Needed to lean against the hallway wall to guide me to my room. Only played John Rowles when home alone after that, regularly. I still remember thinking, “Boys have Playboy and I have a John Rowles record. Girls are so different from boys!” No other man has ever had that effect on me. Elvis and Tom Jones never have. Saw John’s last Sydney Show and he still works a treat! Will fly into Hawaii for 3 nights just to see his Show at the Hawaii Theatre, Nov 8th 2009. Cannot wait!
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