Sunday 4th August 2013 by Will Langdale
The West End is full of talent, with some superb singers, actors, dancers and all-round performers making some incredible works night after night – hats off to them! Yet there are plenty of extremely talented performers who start life on TV and find that there’s something missing. Being in front of millions of viewers hundreds or even thousands of miles away is all very well, but the visceral feedback of a live audience is missing. Being funny or dramatic for that one final cut can produce some fine television, but the tension of the performance, night after night, adds a danger and derring-do to the mix that is part of the magic of the theatre. A great stage actor must be part-athlete, both in body and mind, unlike their TV-actor brethren, who, like paltry mortals, can hang about at the lunch trailer smoking between takes.
So here’s a list of some fine performers you’ll probably have seen on the telly, but who will be plying their trade on the boards in the next few months. Each of them has a very different set of skills, and each of them are there for very different reasons, but they’re all an absolute joy to watch live.
1. Stephen Mangan and Matthew Macfadyen in Jeeves and Wooster. You’ve seen Mangan in The Green Wing and Macfadyen in Spooks, and now they’re taking on the P G Wodehouse’s characters familiar to most people via the excellent Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie TV series. There’s something about Mangan’s gawky grin on the promotional images that says he’s going to nail this one – like Wooster’s a reverse Guy Secretan and Mangan can’t wait to be everything Secretan isn’t. Come on, down to London with you, pip pip! You can catch this at the Duke of York’s Theatre from late October.
2. Lenny Henry in Fences. The standup has had an on-off relationship with TV, moving between writing and starring in shows like Three of a Kind, and later, The Lenny Henry Show, and working the alternative comedy circuit in the 1980s. His work in comedy has spanned the best part of four decades, but he’s appeared in some surprisingly straight-laced stuff in the past few years, including an absolutely stunning Othello in 2009. Fences, written by August Wilson in 1983, is about an ex-Negro League baseball player, and the bitterness that is destroying his family. The play won a Pulitzer and a Tony, and this is Henry as you’ve never seen him before. Fences is currently running at Duchess Theatre.
3. David Walliams and Sheridan Smith in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Walliams is currently knee-deep in the panel show circuit, but rose to fame with the idiosyncratic Little Britain along with fellow-writer/comedian Matt Lucas. He’s not a stranger to the stage (he met Matt Lucas at the National Youth Theatre), but is positively wet behind the ears compared to the award-winning Sheridan Smith. Her TV work includes Jonathan Creek and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, but she led a sensational production of Legally Blonde in the West End, but also put in outstanding performances in recent revivals of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabbler and Rattigan’s Flare Path. Playing the daft craftsman Bottom who is hilariously doted upon by the proud (and enchanted) fairy queen Titania, Walliams and Smith are skilled comedy actors, and will make this an unmissable production. A Midsummer Night’s Dream begins at the Noël Coward Theatre in September.
4. Joe Pasquale, Les Dennis and Warwick Davis in Spamalot. Spamalot’s a fantastic musical. An homage to the hilarious Monty Python film, the King Arthur part is quick to pick up for a professional performer, and works surprisingly well when filled with a seasoned comedian. Thus, a slew of celebrity faces have filled the role over the years, including Marcus Brigstocke, Rory Bremner – and now standup Joe Pasquale, who has the reins until September, when entertainer Les Dennis takes over. Warwick Davis, whose recent work includes Ricky Gervais comedy Life’s Too Short and the upcoming An Idiot Abroad 3 with Karl Pilkington, joins the cast later in September as Patsy. Spamalot is currently running at the Playhouse Theatre.
5. Lee Evans in Barking in Essex. Yes, yes, he’s primarily a standup comedian and thus doesn’t really fit as a TV personality, but shush. Evans has actually spent plenty of time on film – how could you forget that he was in The Fifth Element? And all that time charging about in the Doctor Who special Planet of the Dead! Did you forget the flying bus? For shame. Evans moved briefly to stage acting with an excellent production of Harold Pinter’s 1957 play The Dumb Waiter. The original play wasn’t staged until 1960 but that didn’t stop Evans performing in a 50th anniversary production in 2007. Regardless, Barking in Essex should be an absolute riot. Funnily enough, it’s also got Keeley Hawes in it, who’s also from Spooks, and is married to Matthew Macfadyen. Small world! Barking in Essex runs at Wyndham’s Theatre from mid-September.