As Shrek the Musical opens, star Nigel Lindsay tells Catherine Usher about his nightly transformation into a green monster, finally finding a role that makes his daughters proud and why the show will test his endurance
Whether you have kids or not, if you’re offered the chance to play Shrek the Musical at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, it doesn’t get much better than that… When I go and drop the kids off at school, all the little girls come up and go, “It’s Shrek, it’s Shrek”. I’ve given them a bit of kudos in the playground
As she switches from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg to Lend Me a Tenor in the space of a fortnight, Joanna Riding tells Matthew Hemley about the challenges of being an in-demand musical star while also raising a family
It’s not about career moves anymore and “should I be doing this or that?” It’s about “Am I going to have a good time doing this, is there a nice group of people and does it feel happy and comfortable so I am not stressed out with the kids?”
Celia Imrie, who is starring in Radio 3’s production of Money by Edward Bulwer-Lytton on Sunday, tells Matthew Hemley about “location radio” in a stately home, voice acting and her next project, Julian Fellowes’ Titanic
I am given to making faces a lot of the time and you have not got that on radio. You have to take your grimaces and faces and channel that into your voice, which is quite difficult really… The great thing about this job is that we were not in an airless studio, but very often radio dramas are in studios which are completely airless and windowless
Also this week:
Dany Louise on the summer festivals season
Mark Shenton reports from the 2011 Tony Awards
AK Bennett-Hunter on Belfast’s new £18m Lyric Theatre
Professor Stanley Wells on Shakespeare’s life as an actor
Dear John advises singers on moving from a recorded backing track to using live musicians
Susan Elkin visits the Royal Opera Houses new set-building and training facility
We look at the range of part-time training courses on offer in our special supplement
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