Latest news with #NationalTheatre
Leader Live
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Leader Live
Singer Olly Alexander ‘knew' he would not win Eurovision in 2024
The 35-year-old performed his song Dizzy at the 2024 contest in Malmo, Sweden, and said he is glad he competed despite finishing 18th with 46 points, in an interview with Tatler. He said: 'Everyone said, 'you're going to bring it home, Olly', I knew I wouldn't. 'Now that I've had a bit of time away, I'm so proud I got to do it, but it was also very stressful, it can be very vulnerable and isolating.' Alexander added: 'I've never had so much pressure put on a song. People are brutal anyway, but because we're in a competition, people are really going for you. I was like, 'God, I'm just trying to give people a fun time'.' During the interview, Alexander went on to speak about how a media adviser told him not to 'come out' as gay during his 20s due to the impact it would have on his career. He said: 'You'd never give that advice now, and it was terrible advice then. I knew it was never really going to be an option for me, but it did feel like a fork-in-the-road moment.' But the former Years And Years singer said he had received much better advice from Dame Judi Dench, who he made his West End debut alongside in Peter And Alice. Alexander said: 'The best thing Judi Dench taught me was that you can be a legendary star and still be the most chill diva ever. 'She's always down for a laugh, she loves a naughty joke.' The singer released his debut solo album Polari in February this year, and has had a UK number one single with Years And Years in King, along with four other top 10 singles, while the pop band also had two number one albums. Alexander has also embarked on an acting career that has seen him appear in Channel 4 drama It's A Sin, make a cameo appearance in EastEnders, and perform in a number of stage roles. He will play idle gentleman Algernon Moncrieff in the National Theatre's production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest at the Noel Coward Theatre in London's West End from September. The role was played by Doctor Who and Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa during a recent successful run at the Lyttelton Theatre. The full interview can be read in the September issue of Tatler, available by digital download and on newsstands from August 7.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Helen Mirren turns 80: Celebrating the remarkable career of the 'Queen of British acting royalty'
Dame Helen Mirren knows a thing or two about wearing a crown. Over her six-decade career, she graced our stages and screens with her regal portrayals of powerful, complex women, from Cleopatra to Elizabeth II and Catherine the Great of Russia. She is also the only actor to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on screen. Helen Mirren turns 80 this Saturday. For her milestone birthday, Euronews Culture looks back at the memorable roles of a British acting royalty. Helen Mirren was born lyena Lydia Mironov in London in 1945, to a Russian-born father and Scottish mother. The family chose to anglicise their surname to Mirren in the early 1950s. She began her career on stage, joining Britain's National Youth Theatre at 18. There, she distinguished herself playing the Queen of Egypt in 'Antony and Cleopatra', a role she reprised in 1998 opposite Alan Rickman at the National Theatre. A year later, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she remained for 15 years. From the stage to the screen Mirren got her first major film role in Michael Powell's 1969 romantic comedy-drama The Age of Consent. She later gained further recognition for her parts as an emperor's wife in the 1979 erotic drama Caligula, a gangster's girlfriend in The Long Good Friday and Morgana le Fay in Excalibur. She earned her first Academy Award nomination for her role as Queen Charlotte in the 1994 film The Madness of King George. The actor married American director Taylor Hackford in 1997, 22 years after they met on the set of his musical drama White Nights. It was not until the early 2000s that Helen Mirren truly reached global stardom. She captured the public's hearts and minds with her leading role in British police TV series Prime Suspect. During her 15 years as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison, Mirren created 'the template for complex and compelling on-screen female characters in every genre', the Guardian wrote in 2020. With success came always more honours and accolades. She won three BAFTA TV awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards for her part in Prime Suspect. Queen Elizabeth II made her a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003. Three years later, Mirren stepped into the shoes of the United Kingdom's longest-reigning monarch in Stephen Frears' drama The Queen. Her nuanced portrayal of the sovereign in the weeks following Princess Diana's death won her an Academy Award for Best Actress. Defying stereotypes Helen Mirren has earned a reputation for her elegance and wildness. Often described as a sex symbol in her youth, she said she never applied the label to herself. In recent years, she has defied stereotypes against older women, becoming the face of L'Oréal at 69 years old in 2014. Mirren has also publicly embraced feminism. 'When I was growing up, it was thought to be unbelievably sluttish to even have a bra strap showing. Everything was about women conforming', she told the Telegraph in 2016. 'I love shameless women. Shameless and proud!' Unafraid of challenges, she kept on pursuing diverse, sometimes unexpected roles. She was Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the 2023 film Golda, a ruthless crime boss in TV series Mobland, and even Kendrick Lamar's therapist in his 2022 'Count Me Out' music video. Happy Birthday Helen Mirren!
Euronews
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Happy 80th Birthday Helen Mirren! Celebrating an incredible career
Dame Helen Mirren knows a thing or two about wearing a crown. Over her six-decade career, she graced our stages and screens with her regal portrayals of powerful, complex women, from Cleopatra to Elizabeth II and Catherine the Great of Russia. She is also the only actor to have portrayed both Queens Elizabeth on screen. Helen Mirren turns 80 this Saturday. For her milestone birthday, Euronews Culture looks back at the memorable roles of a British acting royalty. Helen Mirren was born lyena Lydia Mironov in London in 1945, to a Russian-born father and Scottish mother. The family chose to anglicise their surname to Mirren in the early 1950s. She began her career on stage, joining Britain's National Youth Theatre at 18. There, she distinguished herself playing the Queen of Egypt in 'Antony and Cleopatra', a role she reprised in 1998 opposite Alan Rickman at the National Theatre. A year later, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she remained for 15 years. From the stage to the screen Mirren got her first major film role in Michael Powell's 1969 romantic comedy-drama The Age of Consent. She later gained further recognition for her parts as an emperor's wife in the 1979 erotic drama Caligula, a gangster's girlfriend in The Long Good Friday and Morgana le Fay in Excalibur. She earned her first Academy Award nomination for her role as Queen Charlotte in the 1994 film The Madness of King George. The actor married American director Taylor Hackford in 1997, 22 years after they met on the set of his musical drama White Nights. It was not until the early 2000s that Helen Mirren truly reached global stardom. She captured the public's hearts and minds with her leading role in British police TV series Prime Suspect. During her 15 years as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison, Mirren created 'the template for complex and compelling on-screen female characters in every genre', the Guardian wrote in 2020. With success came always more honours and accolades. She won three BAFTA TV awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards for her part in Prime Suspect. Queen Elizabeth II made her a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003. Three years later, Mirren stepped into the shoes of the United Kingdom's longest-reigning monarch in Stephen Frears' drama The Queen. Her nuanced portrayal of the sovereign in the weeks following Princess Diana's death won her an Academy Award for Best Actress. Defying stereotypes Helen Mirren has earned a reputation for her elegance and wildness. Often described as a sex symbol in her youth, she said she never applied the label to herself. In recent years, she has defied stereotypes against older women, becoming the face of L'Oréal at 69 years old in 2014. Mirren has also publicly embraced feminism. 'When I was growing up, it was thought to be unbelievably sluttish to even have a bra strap showing. Everything was about women conforming', she told the Telegraph in 2016. 'I love shameless women. Shameless and proud!' Unafraid of challenges, she kept on pursuing diverse, sometimes unexpected roles. She was Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the 2023 film Golda, a ruthless crime boss in TV series Mobland, and even Kendrick Lamar's therapist in his 2022 'Count Me Out' music video. Happy Birthday Helen Mirren!
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
'She's an absolute nightmare!': Why those who know Martine McCutcheon aren't surprised she's gone bankrupt, as they whisper truth about her marriage and deliver damning verdict to GRANT TUCKER
There was a time when Martine McCutcheon had the world at her feet. She became the nation's sweetheart playing loveable barmaid Tiff in EastEnders in the Nineties before bagging a number one record with her single Perfect Moment, and went on to achieve worldwide fame opposite in . There was even a Laurence Olivier Award, for her role as Eliza Doolittle in the 2002 National Theatre's stage production of My Fair Lady.
Daily Mail
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
PATRICK MARMION reviews Inter Alia at the Lyttelton, National Theatre, London: All rise for Rosamund: Pike's a force of nature in electrifying sequel to hit courtroom drama
Inter Alia, Lyttelton, National Theatre, London Has lightning struck twice? Rosamund Pike was sensational on Wednesday night as a High Court judge in a new play at the National Theatre by Australian writer Suzie Miller – the woman who wrote that other hit play about the law, Prima Facie, starring a similarly sensational Jodie Comer in 2022. Intriguingly, Inter Alia is a mirror image of Prima Facie. Where Comer was Tessa Ensler, a have-it-all barrister defending rape suspects, Pike is Jessica Wheatley, a High Court judge trying and sentencing the same. Both plays have Latin titles and run for 100 minutes without an interval. Both are directed by Justin Martin and designed by Miriam Buether. And both turn the tables on their heroines to create devastating moral dilemmas. The difference is that, unlike Prima Facie, Inter Alia isn't entirely a monologue. We first encounter Pike as a clever, light-touch judge, feminising an alpha-male profession with her 'soft skills'. Then we discover her at home as a crusading super-mum: marinating veg, sorting laundry and doing the ironing – all before heading back to court and 'the manosphere'. Pike's Jessica is a force of nature, going out on karaoke nights with girlfriend barristers. But like every good middle-class mother she's also riven with guilt about not being good enough. And although her supportive husband Michael (Jamie Glover) is a sensitive yet adventurous lover, the god of her idolatry is her son Harry (Jasper Talbot). And it's because of Harry that her seemingly perfect life falls apart, despite best-practice parenting, including warning him about social media and online porn. It's reminiscent of Netflix's smash hit Adolescence, so no prizes for guessing why the wheels come off Jessica's dream. The fact that we can see it coming a mile off simply adds to the sense of dread in Martin's helter-skelter production. The only thing that rankled with me is the play's presumption that we are enchanted by Jessica's middle-class values and 'parenting style'. Even so, Inter Alia – whose title means 'among other things' – plays out like a Greek tragedy. Both the male characters are reduced to benign stereotypes. Michael is a basically good, if corner-cutting husband. And Harry is a basically good, if desperate-to-fit-in son. But Pike... she blazes alone: multitasking in the kitchen and in her judge's chambers, walking a mental tightrope and talking us through her 360-degree collapse. Increasingly uncomfortable to watch, just like Prima Facie it will keep the chattering classes chattering long into the night.
