http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/first-impressions-porgy-and-bess-alvin-theatre-new-york-1935-1823811.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/first-impressions-porgy-and-bess-alvin-theatre-new-york-1935-1823811.html <p> Porgy and Bess represents George Gershwin's longing to compose an American folk opera on a suitable theme. Although Mr Heyward is the author of the libretto and shares with Ira Gershwin the credit for the lyrics, and although Mr Mamoulian has mounted the director's box, the evening is unmistakably George Gershwin's personal holiday. </p> Features Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/on-the-agenda-harry-brown-radley-manchesters-royal-exchange-theatre-masterchef-ctrlaltshift-1814730.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/on-the-agenda-harry-brown-radley-manchesters-royal-exchange-theatre-masterchef-ctrlaltshift-1814730.html ]]> Features Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/a-very-english-playwright-the-return-of-alan-bennett-1815302.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/a-very-english-playwright-the-return-of-alan-bennett-1815302.html ]]> <p>In one of his less felicitously phrased essays, the youthful Clive James once described the poet WH Auden, who had succumbed to premature old age in his ill-judged Oxford retirement, as a "fag at bay". Alan Bennett's eagerly anticipated new play, The Habit of Art (which opens on November 17 at the National Theatre), confronts Auden and the audience with a second "fag at bay", the composer Benjamin Britten. Back in the Thirties, the pair had been collaborators and emotional intimates, with Auden laying down the law on the inner protocols of getting laid and the need to unbutton, psychologically as well as sartorially, in order to do so.</p> Features Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/interviews/akram-khan-you-have-to-become-a-warrior-1815314.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/interviews/akram-khan-you-have-to-become-a-warrior-1815314.html ]]> <p>"In Asian culture," says Akram Khan, "you don't have a voice. You just accept what everybody says." It is, I have to say, rather hard to believe now. The darling of the dance world has a reputation for pushing the boundaries of his form, tossing in a visual artist here, a musician there, a writer there, and then maybe adding, just for fun, an actress who's never danced in her life. Hailed as "the great new hope" and "wunderkind" of contemporary dance, "a phenomenon" and "a marvel", he's an (extremely muscular) human whirlwind, leaping from project to project, and travelling the world on an endless, exhaustive, exhausting quest for new ideas, new creative partnerships, new marriages of story and feeling and form. For a man obsessed with the idea of stillness, he's remarkably bad at it. Brilliant on stage, but not so good in life.</p> Interviews Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-diary-paul-auster-jerry-moffat-punch-magazine-penny-woolcock-1815308.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-diary-paul-auster-jerry-moffat-punch-magazine-penny-woolcock-1815308.html ]]> Features Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/the-ten-biggest-broadway-turkeys-1814033.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/the-ten-biggest-broadway-turkeys-1814033.html ]]> <p> Following the shock closure of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs and the cancellation of its companion piece Broadway Bound, we look at ten of the biggest flops to grace Broadway. </p> Features Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:59:50 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/life-in-the-fast-lane-steven-mcrae-1812303.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/life-in-the-fast-lane-steven-mcrae-1812303.html <p>Stranger phenomena may have graced the stage of the Royal Opera House than a balletic prince who takes his inspiration from motor racing, but maybe not many. Meet Steven McRae, the hot young star of the Royal Ballet who makes his debut tonight as Prince Florimund in The Sleeping Beauty. The son of an Australian drag racer, McRae, 23, has been thrilling Covent Garden balletomanes: blessed with a soaring, secure technique, flaming red hair and a disarming charm that fronts terrific drive, he is living balletic life in the fast lane. </p> Features Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/observations-barbicans-vampire-show-is-theatre-to-get-your-teeth-into-1811323.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/observations-barbicans-vampire-show-is-theatre-to-get-your-teeth-into-1811323.html <p>If imitation is a form of flattery, Twilight star Robert Pattinson ought to be pleased by the posters for new teen vampire flick, Cirque du Freak, whose young lead is a dead (or should that be undead?) ringer. The continuing mania surrounding Twilight on the big screen and the HBO series True Blood on the small meant it was only a matter of time before vampires invaded other cultural spheres.</p> Features Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-diary-chrissie-hynde-london-international-mime-festival-marian-keyes-vobo-awards-national-portrait-gallery-1811330.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-diary-chrissie-hynde-london-international-mime-festival-marian-keyes-vobo-awards-national-portrait-gallery-1811330.html ]]> Features Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/clare-higgins-i-was-a--bit-of-an-odd-child-1811336.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/clare-higgins-i-was-a--bit-of-an-odd-child-1811336.html ]]> <p>Did you have a difficult journey?" says Clare Higgins. For a moment, I see a flicker of Hecuba in her clear, blue eyes, a tiny taste of the spine-chilling froideur that has, over the years, had her winning plaudits for her performances in Greek tragedy. Moments later, when we have established that I am on the dot (have, in fact, been waiting in the cold outside) and that she has been given a time 15 minutes earlier than me and that her day will still be incredibly long, but that the earlier-than-necessary start was not, in fact, my fault, the ice melts, the eyes are sparkling and she is winsome and giggling, like the Kitty she played in a BBC Pride and Prejudice nearly 30 years ago, the one from which she still has Darcy's prosthetic nose, and the one that's still my favourite.</p> Features Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/lucy-kirkwood-britains-brightest-young-stage-writer-1809848.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/lucy-kirkwood-britains-brightest-young-stage-writer-1809848.html ]]> <p>Lucy Kirkwood looks sweet enough. Today, the 25-year-old playwright, dressed in a prim peach blouse, ankle-grazing skirt and brown brogues with her hair piled up in a hasty bun on top of her head, looks like a mildly scatty Victorian governess. But don't be deceived: dark things lurk beneath the bun. Her latest play, at London's Arcola Theatre, with the breathless title, it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now, is currently wowing the critics with its unflinching look at the bruising life of a street-trafficked girl, leading (sell-out) audiences on a grim fairy-tale journey from her condom-strewn working bedroom to her prison cell. "Wonderful," said The Independent's Paul Taylor and others concurred, declaring it "theatre that provokes in the best way" (The Times) and a "great triumph" (Evening Standard). Still, Kirkwood's parents, both retired, haven't seen it yet – and she's worried. "I'm hugely uncomfortable about it," she squirms. "There are certain things you don't really want your parents to know came from your head."</p> Features Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/download-turings-test-an-exclusive-new-radio-play-1808152.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/download-turings-test-an-exclusive-new-radio-play-1808152.html <p> This weekend, The Independent premieres a fictionalised account of the final moments in the life of Alan Turing, in the first collaboration of its kind between a national newspaper and an independent production company. </p> Features Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:55 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/turings-test-meet-the-actors-1808165.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/turings-test-meet-the-actors-1808165.html ]]> Features Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:44 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/jonathan-miller-some-things-ive-done-are-as-deep-as-you-get-1807180.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/jonathan-miller-some-things-ive-done-are-as-deep-as-you-get-1807180.html ]]> <p>Before I met Jonathan Miller, he called me. "Hello," he said, in that voice instantly recognisable from TV pontificatings on the mind, the body and pretty much everything else. "This is Jonathan Miller. I've got a book I'd like you to read before the interview." Okeydoke, I said. I have, I found myself burbling, ordered some of your books on Amazon, but I'll send a bike on Monday to pick it up. On Monday morning, he phoned again. How was I getting on with the reading? What time was I going to pick up the book? Bloody hell, I wanted to say. I do have a life, you know. One thing was clear. An interview with Jonathan Miller is a very serious business. </p> Features Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/party-of-the-week-teenager-in-loves-tale-proves-a-hit-1807183.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/party-of-the-week-teenager-in-loves-tale-proves-a-hit-1807183.html ]]> <p>The UK premiere of An Education – based on the childhood memoirs of journalist Lynn Barber with a screenplay by Nick Hornby – was a highlight of the London Film Festival this week. </p> Features Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100