After more than 20 years since the movie, the stars of the new musical version of Ghost, Richard Fleeshman and Caissie Levy, tell Matthew Hemley about that pottery scene, what it’s like to evoke the story’s spirit, and why Unchained Melody had to stay
Unchained Melody flirts with our characters throughout and it’s used in a beautiful way. It’s vital. You couldn’t do the show without it there
A year into his appointemnt as artistic director of Soho Theatre, Steve Marmion tells The Stage how the venue is continuing to expand despite suffering a cut in funding and why the building’s watering hole has an important role to play as a meeting place for artists of different disciplines
I think comedy is a much sniffed at section of the industry, in the same way panto is. But I think it’s really important and, for me, comedy is the gateway drug — it’s the cigarettes that get you on to the hardcore of new writing or opera.
Broadcasting: As the first season of programming under her stewardship begins this summer, Channel 4’s arts commissioning editor Tabitha Jackson tells Matthew Hemley she will focus on contemporary work and collaborate with theatre producers
We live in a vibrant, multicutural, outward-looking country, and we also have a great sense of humour and sense of mischievousness and cheekiness. Where is that in arts broadcasting? It seems to have backed itself into a corner which it may as well try and get out of.
Also this week:
Insight: As more concerns surface of an exodus of black actors from the UK, Ben Dowell analyses the current climate and whether the glass ceiling is real or perceived
The arts sector needs to follow the example of the environmental lobby and get to grips with economics if it is to win the argument for public funding, argues NESTA’s Hasan Bakhshi
Stuart Piper on why actors should always be paid
Dear John: I have a concept for a new TV show, but are there other ways of launching it besides waiting for a commission?
Tourists descending on Edinburgh this summer won’t just be in the audience - some will be performing. This year, a glut of stand-ups from the USA will be packing their bags, jumping on a plane to Scotland and wishing they’d brought a sweater. Tony Cooke talks to three of them:
Margaret Cho: “You end up living in somebody’s apartment. I was renting a flat from this woman and it was really, really strange. I felt like I shouldn’t see her. Like if I saw her, I should kill her. It was really like Single Asian Female.”
W Kamau Bell: “I googled racism, plus UK, and Jeremy Clarkson’s name came up about a thousand times.”
Hal Sparks: “Quite frankly, you guys have lowered your standards and let us in.”
Founder of the Surviving Actors convention and one of the candidate on this year’s The Apprentice, Felicity Jackson explains why she wants to help actors to take control of their lives and find ways to fund themselves, so they can sustain a career in the profession
John Gielgud’s biographer Jonathan Croall charts the great actor’s debt to Anton Chekhov
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