Noël Coward Theatre

There is evidence to suggest that giving the hero of Edmond Rostan’s French classic a big prosthetic nose is increasingly considered passé. Certainly the last major London revival – a brooding, rap-battling affair directed by Jamie Lloyd – was a case in point. James McAvoy starred as Cyrano, the brilliant wordsmith with an obtrusively big schnozz. But he did it sans stuck-on snout – it worked by suggesting Cyrano’s inability to directly woo his love Roxane was down to a crippling case of low self-esteem, amounting to body dysmorphia.  Lloyd’s take was a modern-dress masterpiece. So when posters appeared of this RSC transfer – with Adrian Lester in period clobber and sporting a spectacularly fake conker – it looked kinda stuffy by comparison. But not a bit of it! Yes, co-adaptors Simon Evans (who also directs) and Debris Stevenson restore the work to 1640 France – a time when the country was stuck in the Thirty Years’ War – and yes, it comes with all the trimmings of that era (pocket swords! Mournful violin players!). It’s very much the romantic tragicomedy Rostand wrote, but despite its period setting, it feels wholly current.  Lester’s Cyrano appears as a man of swaggering confidence – a soldier as adept with a sword as with a quill. Though there’s no mistake his nose has held him back in life – it seems to prompt a Tourettes-like response from those who meet him – he takes it on the chin, keeping his insecurities stoically bottled up. Rarely does limerence sound as...

Into the Woods finishes its Bridge Theatre run on May 30. It will transfer to the Noël Coward Theatre in September, with Kate Fleetwood the only confirmed cast member so far. The Bridge Theatre has an incredibly consistent track record with musicals. Admittedly that’s because it’s only previously staged one musical. But it was a really good one, the visionary immersive production of Guys & Dolls that wrapped up a two-year-run in January. And great news: rising star Jordan Fein’s sumptuous revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods makes it two for two. After the slightly stodgy tribute revue Old Friends and the weird semi-finished ‘final musical’ Here We Are, this is the first actual proper major Sondheim revival to be staged in this country since the great man’s passing. And the main thing worth saying about 1986’s Into the Woods is that it’s the work of a genius at the peak of his powers: a clever send up of fairytales that pushes familiar stories into absurd, existential, eventually very moving territory. It’s both playful and profound, mischievous and sincere, cleverly meta but also a ripping yarn. While Sondheim is the marquee name, the book is by James Lapine (who also did the honours for Sunday in the Park with George and Passion), who does a tremendous job twisting the convoluted narrative into droll, accessible shape. But every second is filled with Sondheim’s presence: his lush, motif-saturated score of baroque nursery rhymes feels as vividly alive as the...

Michael Sheen has quite a history with Peter Shaffer’s masterpiece Amadeus. He first starred in it as a young man, way back in 1998, playing the naive, vulgar, supernaturally gifted Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the Old Vic, opposite David Suchet as his embittered nemesis Antionio Saliere. A few years back, Sheen took on the mantle of Salieri for a production in Sydney that undertstandably made relatively few waves over here. Now he’ll bring a fresh take on Salieri to the West End – the next London outing for his new Welsh National Theatre. Sheen has been no stranger to the London stage of late, but the fact Amadeus will be his first West End outing in 20 years underscores the fact that he seems to have thoroughly changed his life and habits for the sake of WNT, which he leads. It’s the company’s biggest show to date, and the first without a Welsh director, with the experienced Jeremy Herrin doing the honours. It will, nonetheless, debut in Cardiff (at the New Theatre, Mar 9-27 2027) before locking in a 16-week run at the Noël Coward. It will also feature a major rising Welsh star alongside Sheen in the form of It’s A Sin man Callum Scott Howells. Set in Vienna, 1820, the story follows an obsessed Salieri’s attempt to destroy the incadescently talented prodigy Mozart – exactly how ‘true’ it is, it remains a remarkable work about jealousy and genius.  Note that there appear to be no weekday matinees, presumably connected to Sheen’s new side hustle presenting quiz show Pointless.