Congratulations to our 2019 Olivier Award Nominees, Robert Hands who is nominated in the Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical category for Come From Away and Natasha Gordon whose debut play Nine Night is nominated for Best New Comedy.
Special mentions as well to Hywel Morgan in Home I’m Darling, Dan Rabin in King Lear, Gavin Spokes in Company & Quiz and Melissa Vaughan in The Wider Earth whose shows have all received nominations this year.
RADA graduate Leah Gayer makes her professional debut in Always Alys a gripping new psychological thriller by Lucinda Coxon playing at The Bridge Theatre and directed by Nicholas Hytner. Lyndsey Turner directs RWCMD grad Ashna Rabheru as Kit and Charlotte Lucas as Win in a revival of Caryl Churchill’s landmark play Top Girls at The National Theatre. Stephen Kennedy joins Josie Rourke at The Donmar for her final show as Artistic Director.
West End transfers include Robert Hands in Come From Away opening at The Phoenix Theatre from The Abbey, Dublin; Sophie Stone as Margaret Clifford in The Globe’s Emilia at The Vaudeville, Hywel Morgan as Marcus in Laura Wade’s Home I’m Darling at The Duke of York’s and Daniel Crossley who joins The Almeida’s production of The Twilight Zone at The Ambassadors.
Jodie Mc Nee returns to The RSC in 2019 to play Belvidera in Venice Preserved with Prasanna Puwanarajah directing and Patrick Brennan also joins the company in As You Like It directed by Kimberley Sykes and Measure for Measure with Greg Doran. Colm Gormley joins Julie Hesmondhalgh in Mother Courage at The Royal Exchange with Amy Hodges directing whilst Trevor Nunn’s production of Agnes Colander with Sally Scott transfers from The Bath Ustinov to Jermyn Street.
Gavin Spokes continues as Harry in the acclaimed Company playing at The Geilgud Theatre whilst Natasha Gordon performs as Lorraine in Nine Night her award winning debut play now running at Trafalgar Studios.
Natasha Gordon’s hugely successful Nine Night which premiered at The National this spring transfers to The Trafalgar Studios from December. Natasha will take the role of Lorraine in the West-End transfer of her debut play for which she recently won the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright at The Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2018.
Gavin Spokes will play Harry in Marianne Elliot’s updated production of Company Stephen Sondheim’s musical comedy about life, love and marriage which will run at The Gielgud Theatre, West End from October. Tom Edden joins the Jamie Lloyd Company for Pinter at The Pinter, a season of one act plays in which he will perform Trouble in the Works, Night and Girls. Anita Reynolds joins the cast of ear for eye at The Royal Court Theatre with Debbie Tucker Green directing. Robert Hands will play Nick in the Tony Award Winning Come From Away directed by Christopher Ashley and premiering at The Abbey Theatre Dublin before transferring to the West End in January. Nicholas Lumley transfers to the Garrick, West End with the RSC’s Don Quixote with Angus Jackson directing with Richard Dempsey also joining the cast as Duke. Elsewhere graduate Patricia Allison will play Hermia in The Sheffield Crucible production of A Midsummer Nights Dream directed by Artistic Director Rob Hastie, Hayley Carmichael joins Les Bouffes du Nord’s production of The Prisoner directed by Peter Brook, Michelle Bonnard plays Darina in Iqbal Khan’s Tartuffe at The RSC, Sara Powell joins the cast of Adam Penford ‘s revival of The Madness Of George III with Mark Gatiss in the title role at Nottingham Playhouse.
Openings include Dan Rabin in the Chichester transfer of King Lear playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre and staring Ian Mckellen, Scott Karim joins the cast of The Village, Nadia Fall’s first production as artistic director at Theatre Royal Stratford East. Howard Ward, Sophie Stone and Clemmie Sveaas all join Michelle Terry’s inaugural season at Shakespeare’s Globe (in The Winter’s Tale & Eyam, Emilia and Othello. Jenna Augen and Peter McGovern, meanwhile, continue at the Criterion Theatre in the hit show The Comedy About A Bank Robbery, Jason Callender continues in the West End company of The Play That Goes Wrong.
Lisa Palfrey plays Big Mamma in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for the Young Vic at the Apollo Theatre, West End with Benedict Andrews directing. The Broadway hit Oslo opens at the National’s Lyttleton Theatre before transferring to the Harold Pinter Theatre, West End; Geraldine Alexander and Howard Ward join the London cast with director Bartlett Sher.
Gavin Spokes returns to The Almeida over the summer in Against, Christopher Shinn’s new play with Ian Rickson directing whilst Queen Ann opens at The Haymarket, West End for the RSC with Hywel Morgan reprising his role as Prince George. Andrew Koji is at Regents Park for A Tale of Two Cities directed by Tim Shearer whilst Graham Turner opens in Dessert a new play premiering at Southwark Playhouse which Trevor Nunn directs.
In Bath, Sam Alexander and Michelle Bonnard both join Jonathan Church’s revival of Racing Demon whilst in Manchester Natasha Gordon performs What If Women Ruled the World as part of the festival with Vicky Featherstone directing. Also in Manchester, new graduate Patricia Allison makes her professional stage debut in Our Town with Sarah Frankcom as director.
The Ferryman receives its West End opening with Eugene O’Hare in the cast, The Committee opens at The Donmar with Robert Hands, Jodie McNee and Sarah Malin continue in the astounding Anatomy of a Suicide at The Royal Court whilst David Seadon Young joins Rachel Kavanaugh for Oklahoma at The Royal Albert Hall as part of this years BBC Proms season.
[jwplayer config=”Client-Showreel-Player” file=”https://www.eamonnbedford.com/latestvideo/20160405.mp4″ image=”https://www.eamonnbedford.com/images/Showreel_Image.jpg” html5_file=”https://www.eamonnbedford.com/latestvideo/20160405.mp4″ width=”100%” height=”450px” autoplay=”true”]
On television this spring catch the much anticipated third series of Line of Duty featuring Lisa Palfrey, Natasha Gordon and Melanie Kilburn starting on BBC2 from the 24th March. On BBC1 new drama The A Word with Pooky Quesnel will screen from 22 March whilst royal drama The Crown, Peter Morgan’s biographical story of the royal family with Chris Gordon and Tony Guilfoyle begins on Netflix later this year as does Dark Angel the true story of the Victorian poisoner Mary Ann Cotton featuring Ferdy Roberts on ITV. On Sky keep an eye out for Stephen Kennedy in Lucky Man Thursdays 11pm on Sky 1 and Derek Hutchinson in Canal +’s Versailles airing Saturday nights on BBC2. In other TV news Reece Dinsdale is to direct an episode of Jimmy McGovern’s ever popular Moving On for the BBC later this year.
Josie Walker will play Mrs Gogan and Stephen Kennedy Fluther Good in a revival of Sean O’Casey’s Plough and The Stars, directed by Howard Davies for The National Theatre and marking the centenary of the Easter Rising. Also for The National, Pooky Quesnel joins the cast of The Suicide in a fresh adaptation of Erdman’s original script relocated to contemporary London directed by Nadia Fall. Tom Edden will play The Good Angel in The Jamie Lloyd Company’s West End Production of Dr Faustus with Kit Harrington in the title role whilst at the Royal Exchange, Jodie McNee takes on the role of Kay in Sarah Waters’ The Night Watch directed by Rebecca Gatward. Sam Alexander returns to Hampstead Theatre in Howard Brenton’s new play Lawrence After Arabia with John Dove directing, Hywel Morgan joins the cast of the RSC’s The Alchemist directed by Polly Findlay, Natasha Gordon joins Mel Giedroyc in Simon Dormandy’s production of Luce at the Southwark Playhouse and Michelle Bonnard plays Jess in The Quiet House by Bruntwood Prize winning writer Gareth Farr at The Park Theatre. For the West Yorkshire Playhouse and London’s South Bank Centre, Carla Harrison Hodge plays Avocado and Pomegranate in two hander The Fruit Trilogy, 3 short plays from the Tony Award winning playwright of the Vagina Monologues Eve Ensler whilst over at The Birmingham Rep Sophie Stone plays the Postmaster in Artistic Director Roxanna Silbert’s innovative new production of Gogol’s The Government Inspector. Also out of London Tony Guilfoyle plays Prospero in William Galinsky’s production of The Tempest at Hippodrome/Great Yarmouth and Kate Maravan joins the cast of Phelim McDermott’s new show Opening Skinner’s Box for Improbable.
Lisa Palfrey and Natasha Gordon join the much anticipated Line of Duty III series and Lisa can also be seen in Fox’s Bastard Executioner alongside Stefan Kalipha. Joe Sims plays Greff in ITV’s epic new take on Beowulf, Rocky Marshall plays Palace Security Agent James Hill in E!’s cult drama The Royals, Hayley Carmichael can currently be seen in Michaela Coel’s new Channel 4 comedy Chewing Gum and Thomas Coombes appears in Jekyll & Hyde again for ITV. Terence Beesley will appear in this winter’s BBC blockbuster War and Peace as well as the new series of The Musketeers whilst newcomer Carla Harrison Hodge and a busy Thomas Coombes will all appear in Tiger Aspect’s new police drama Cuffs at the end of this month. And keep tuned too for more of Roger Sloman’s gripping portrayal as Les and alter ego Christine currently playing out in Eastenders.
Pooky Quesnel will play Louise in The A Word a six part drama about an autistic boy and his family directed by Dominic LeClerc. Rose O’Loughlin shoots Small Town the story of two Irish youngsters who head off to London to start again for TV3 written and directed by IFTA winning Gerard Barrett. Ken Bones continues shooting Medici Kingdom of Gold in Rome, Max Fowler is back in Atlanta reprising his role as Krispin Stockley in the second series of Powers for Sony Picture Entertainment.
Hayley Carmichael will be in Cannes this month for the premiere of Tale of Tales, Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone’s dark fairy tale which is in competition for the 2015 Palme d’Or. Weaving together three different stories, Hayley features as Dora in The Two Old Women segment with Vincent Cassel.
Filming starts, meanwhile, on Beowulf, ITV’s epic new 13 part warrior drama in which Joe Sims has been cast in the role of Greff. Set in the dark ages of Britain’s mythical past and based on the enduring literary poem of the same name, shooting will take place in the north east with Stephen Woolfenden directing. As the excellent Atlantis comes to the end of its on screen run, Ken Bones goes onto film season II of Tyrant, the Fox drama set in the Middle East. Terence Beesley finishes shooting on the BBC’s new adaptation of War and Peace and moves onto Series III of The Musketeers where he will film the role of General Lantier whilst Natasha Gordon joins Series III of Line of Duty which Lisa Palfrey is already filming.
New series coming up include Cuffs, Tiger Aspects fast paced new cop show for the BBC in which Thomas Coombes has landed the guest role and Jericho, a new prime time series for ITV about the building of the railways during the nineteenth century’s industrial revolution in which Kent Riley teams up once more with ‘Cilla’ director Paul Whittinton.
Max Fowler plays regular Krispin Stockley in POWERS. The series based on the award winning comic books is a combination of noir police story and real world superheros from the producers of ‘Breaking Bad’ and premiers this month for Sony. Also premiering this month, Richard Teverson features as Lib Dem politician David Laws in Channel 4’s new political drama Coalition which details the days after the 2010 general election and the formation of the current government. Joe Sims is in BBC 3’s second series of Uncle and Geraldine Alexander is in ITV’s period drama Arthur and George. Over on Sky catch Cosima Shaw real time medical drama Critical and Joseph May in new comedy I Live With Models for Comedy Central. Meanwhile Robert Hands can be seen playing Henry in the BBC’s 7-part fantasy drama Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Also for The BBC Thomas Coombes plays Stefan in the final series of Wallander opposite Kenneth Branagh whilst in the US Ken Bones plays regular Annas in the 12 part Biblical drama AD from Lightworkers Media, premiering Easter Sunday. In UK cinemas Tom Edden plays The Lizard Footman in Branagh’s live action Cinderella released on the 27th of March and Jodie Mcnee plays Rosencrantz in The Manchester Royal Exchange’s Hamlet with Maxine Peake, in cinemas now.
Lisa Palfrey will join the regular cast of BBC2’s police corruption thriller Line of Duty which returns for a much anticipated third series. Also for BBC2 Jay Simpson plays Ernie in new 8 part comedy drama From The Cradle To The Grave written by Jeff Pope and based on the memoirs of Danny Baker. Natasha Gordon will play Pearl, Danny’s older sister in Danny and The Human Zoo a 90 minute semi autobiographical drama written by Lenny Henry for RED productions. Thomas Coombes will play Kieran Benson in CUFFS an 8-part police drama written and created by Julie Gearey for Tiger Aspect/BBC1. Meanwhile Richard Teverson reprises his role as Dr Ryder in series 6 of Downton Abbey and Joe Sims will feature in the third series of Endeavour directed by Sandra Goldbacher for ITV/Mammoth Screen.
Richard Dempsey will play Reggie Byng in Damsel in Distress at Chichester Festival Theatre this summer. The musical with songs from George and Ira Gershwin is based on the novel by P.G Woodhouse and is well-known from the popular 1937 comedy film. Daniel Rabin joins the cast of the rarely staged King John directed by James Dacre for The Globes ‘Season of Plenty ‘and Scott Karim will play Morocco in The Merchant of Venice directed by Jonathan Munby also for The Globe. Ferdy Roberts plays Stefano in Anders Lustgarten‘s political two hander Lampedusa at The Soho Theatre directed by Steven Atkinson.
