Curtain Call Theatre Podcast

Latest Episodes:

137 - House of Kittens, Immersive Erotic Theatre Oct 15, 2019

Show notes

Sophie Cohen, founder of House of Kittens, an erotic immersive theatre company sat down to chat with me about her new show Amatory Asuylum. The audience will find themselves transported into a world of sensual theatre to experience a unique, immersive journey embracing the surreal, the dramatic and the erotic.

Sophie and I chatted about her concepts for House of Kittens, the shows they create and how immersive theatre is a perfect fit for their shows. But don't worry, you won't get dragged up on stage to take part in a spanking…

House of Kittens Tickets (NSFW)

136 - It's The Bard, Jim... Oct 11, 2019

Show notes

We're going off-piste this week.

This week, we're going to give you a three of the bard's finest works as you have never heard them before.

A colleague of mine many years ago in the Reduced Shakespeare Company, and also a fantastic actor - Mikey O'Connor - well, we started a little project where we wanted to take classic literature and turn them into palatable short versions that you would hear around a campfire, including folk songs.

You get Romeo & Juliet as a country ditty, Henry V as a campfire tale and a Bob Dylan Hamlet.

Curtain Call Website

135 - Ken Davenport, Broadway Producer Oct 01, 2019

Show notes

Ken Davenport is a multiple-Tony Award-winning Broadway producer whose work spans around the globe. For those of you here in the UK, you may be familiar with a few of his productions including "Kinky Boots", which won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 2016 and Blithe Spirit with Angela Lansbury.

Ken is also busy giving back as much as he can to the theatre community at large. In that vein, he puts on a conference - The Producer's Perspective Super Conference - every year where the world's top theatrical talent gather for a weekend of education, inspiration and connection.

We talk to Ken about The Super Conference where hundreds of the world's smartest creators descend upon New York City to learn what's new, what's hot, and what's actually working and trending.

Book tickets here: Super Conference Website and make sure to use the unique code CURTAIN19 to get your special discount to the conference.

Curtain Call Website

134 - David Malloy, Ghost Quartet Sep 24, 2019

Show notes

There's a new theatre in London. And there's a London debut to mark its opening. The Boulevard Theatre, right-smack-bang-in-the-middle of Soho, is London's most technologically advanced theatre with a capacity of up to 165, and featuring a full revolving balcony and auditorium!

David Malloy's Ghost Quartet will open the Boulevard. You may not have heard of the show, and it's probably because it has never played London. But you've most likely heard of David or his shows before, Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812 being his most high profile offering, picking up 12 Tony nominations in the 2016-2017 Broadway season and winning many awards on its way there during its off-Broadway run.

Ghost Quartet is a song cycle - a staged concept album, if you will - about love, death, and whiskey. It's a series of songs that take you through the interwoven previous lives of four characters collective histories.

Carly Bawden, Niccolò Curradi, Maimuna Memon and Zubin Varla will star in what is a heavy hitting West End cast.

I sat down with Malloy last week to chat to him about the concept of Ghost Quartet, its London premiere and working with the creative team that drove the success of the pie shop Sweeney Todd, which ran for ages in Tooting, the West End and in New York.

Curtain Call Website

Preludes Tickets

133 - More "Evita" Sep 20, 2019

Show notes

Earlier in the week, we brought you Samantha Pauly, Trent Saunders and Ektor Rivera as they got ready to go on stage. But I thought that just wasn't going to be enough to really show you backstage before a show.

Hopefully you'll get a feel of what it's like to be part of a company as I go from room to room and chat with some of the fantastic theatre professionals working on Jamie Lloyd's production of "Evita" at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre.

132 - Open Air Evita Sep 17, 2019

Show notes

We were back at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre this week - one of our favourite places to do our Curtain Call visits. It was a welcome return for us to see not only a Jamie Lloyd production, but following the sell-out success of Jesus Christ Superstar two years ago, another Andrew Lloyd Webber hit show.

We sit down with the company members who play the three main antagonists in the show, Samantha Pauley as Evita Peron, Trent Saunders as Che and Ektor Rivera as Juan Peron to discuss their journey from across the Atlantic to Regent's Park here in London to perform one of musical theatre's classic rock scores.

Curtain Call Website

Evita Official Page

131 - What's in a Name? Sep 10, 2019

Show notes

This week, we talk to The Inbetweeners Joe Thomas, Olivier Award nominees Summer Strallen and Alex Gaumond, as well as Bo Poraj and Laura Patch about their new dark comedy "What's in a Name?", in which a dinner party gets wildly out of hand when a father-to-be suggests his son just might given the name of one of history's most vile human beings.

In a slight variation to a normal press junket, they actually performed the play in a rehearsed reading before we got to speak with them. And it was fantastic. We laughed. A lot. Which bodes well before they head off on a UK tour.

130 - Shure Microphone's John Born Sep 03, 2019

Show notes

Shure have come up with a microphone that is hitting the theatre world by storm. Smaller, lighter, better response and performance along with a body back that is far less conspicuous than those they have released before. Sitting alongside their big initiative called "This is the Moment", highlighting the critical moment where every single piece of the production puzzle comes together at the moment a performer takes a breath to speak, sing or even play a note.

I had the pleasure of talking to the Senior Product Manager, Microphones at Shure about the years of development and incredible invention and iteration that has seen their new Axient digital wireless system and the Twinplex system used on shows such as Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, War Horse and the new musical Jagged Little Pill.

This is the Moment video

This is the Moment - "Jagged Little Pill"

Shure website

129 - Dominic Dromgoole is Making Noise Quietly Jul 23, 2019

Show notes

As Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on London's South Bank, Dominic Dromgoole oversaw 10 successive and extremely successful seasons at the Bard's theatre. His tenure started with his directing Corialanus with Alastiar Macaulay for The Financial Times saying, "If Dromgoole can build from this promising start, the best years at Shakespeare's Globe lie ahead.". And the final production he directed, The Tempest, was similarly well received with The Stage saying "Few directors can take a space and make Shakespeare feel as alive in it as Dromgoole." But he oversaw many productions from a multitude of talented directors including Jeremy Herrin's 2016's production of Macbeth was similarly revered with David Lister of the Independent stating "This is the Globe at its best."

In his last season, two of the Globe's productions would hit the West End with Nell Gwynn and Farinelli and the King… the later even ended up on Broadway picking up 5 Tony Award nominations.

And now, Dominic Dromgoole is turning his hand to film directing, with his feature film debut "Making Noise Quietly" which hit the screens on the 19th of July and is written by Robert Holman - the script having been adapted from the acclaimed stage play of the same name and written by Holman, Nick Drake and Mark Rosenblatt.

I sat down to talk to Dominic about the transition from theatre to film, working with some of his favourite actors and what he sees himself doing next.

128 - The Actor's Nightmare Jul 16, 2019

Show notes

The Actor's Nightmare, a collection of Christopher Durang's short plays, is having it's World Premiere this week at the Park Theatre here in London. I sat down in their rehearsal room at the Jerwood Space with director Lydia Parker, and pretty much all of the company including Meaghan Martin, Layo-Christina Akinlude, Stefan Menaul and Kate Sumpter to talk about getting their heads around playing many characters in numerous plays in the same production, the language of Durang, working in the round and their own actors nightmares.

Tickets for Park Theatre

3 hearts canvas website

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