Michael Sheen launches Welsh National Theatre; new podcast episode: 59E50 Theaters' Brits Off Broadway season; US visa issues; a lovely tribute to BTG's reviews
News, reviews, features and podcast on theatre across the UK
The British Theatre Guide Newsletter
No 1206: 6 April 2025
Editorial
About a month ago, we released a podcast episode about the Manchester International Festival in which I spoke to (amongst others) the festival’s Artistic Director, John McGrath. Towards the end, I asked him for his thoughts on the demise of National Theatre Wales, for which he was the founding Artistic Director before his return to Manchester to head MIF in 2015.
He spoke diplomatically about how the company went “on a complicated journey through the periods of COVID, et cetera” and about the economic challenges that Wales as a whole has faced, but he ended on this more hopeful note: “I do think there's positive hope for the future. I was in touch with Michael Sheen recently, of course, who's stepped in to think about what the future would be for English language national theatre. And I think he's got some great plans.”
Sheen has now announced those plans, and Philip Fisher has had a look at them for his latest feature. This successful actor not only advocates for a national theatre for his homeland but is prepared to take personal risks and use his celebrity to make it happen. His opening programme sounds very interesting and may be worth a trip across the border to take a look.
Another theatre company we have looked at this week that runs on the philanthropy of an enthusiastic founder is much further away in New York, but 59E59 Theaters has had a tradition for two decades of staging a Brits Off Broadway season, transferring shows that aren’t at the scale required for a Broadway transfer, many from the Edinburgh Fringe.
This year’s programme features a few productions—such as The Last Laugh—and companies—Guildford Shakespeare Company—that have previously featured on our podcast, as well as on our reviews pages, but for the latest episode, I spoke to the theatre’s Artistic Director, Val Day, and Managing Director, Brian Beirne, about this year’s programme, the history of the season and the operation of a theatre that Brian described as a “unicorn” in the way it is funded.
We also touched on the growing number of stories of people being turned away or even interned by US border guards when they tried to enter the country, including performers from the UK. Brian said he was expecting issues but so far this year hadn’t had problems with getting visas, but who knows what the future will hold?
On the subject of visas, Brian said a lovely thing about BTG’s reviews that really highlights just how important they can be other than just for people to see whether it might be worth buying a ticket.
“I just do want to say David, one of the things that I do is get visas for all of the artists to perform in New York, and so I am applying to the US government, making a case that all of these actors are important.
“And so there is one source that I go to more than any else, which is finding reviews of plays that they have been into in the past in British Theatre Guide.
“I read so many reviews in British Theatre Guide of plays I have never seen, and I’m never going to see, but it is it is an unbelievably helpful resource about everything theatre in the UK.
“Is that a blurb for a commercial for you? It is, because it’s a great source. I really enjoy it.”
It’s great to know that we are providing a valuable service—and enjoyment—to someone, as we rarely get such feedback.
Hayman tours as Miller's Willy Loman Actor David Hayman and director Andy Arnold on the current touring production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Cathy Tyson will play Martha in a new production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? which Leicester’s Curve will stage in its studio in autumn 2025.
Royal and Derngate's première of Samson Hawkins’s Top G’s Like Me will “follow a group of rudderless young adults in a post-playground world of seething toxic masculinity”.
Birmingham Hippodrome has announced that No Such Thing as Wolves by Horrible Histories writers Gerard Foster and Richie Webb will be one of its 2025 festive productions.
Royal and Derngate's première of Samson Hawkins’s Top G’s Like Me will “follow a group of rudderless young adults in a post-playground world of seething toxic masculinity”.
Birmingham Hippodrome has announced that No Such Thing as Wolves by Horrible Histories writers Gerard Foster and Richie Webb will be one of its 2025 festive productions.
Stiletto Patrick Bywalski for the Robert Stigwood Organisation and Steven M Levy for Charing Cross Theatre Productions Limited at Charing Cross Theatre
Tambo & Bones Actors Touring Company, Stratford East and Royal & Derngate, Northampton Co-Production in association with Belgrade Theatre, Leeds Playhouse and Liverpool Everyman at HOME, Manchester
Dear Evan Hansen (Nottingham Playhouse in association with Ambassador Theatre Group Productions) - The Crucible / Lyceum Theatre / Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, Sheffield, –
