Latest news with #OlivierAward
Times
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Times
John Standing: ‘I danced with Brigitte Bardot in St Tropez'
The actor John Standing, 90, has been in the business for 70 years — he was nominated for an Olivier award in 1979 for Close of Play at the National Theatre and appeared with Michael Caine in the 2023 film The Great Escaper. A baronet, he is also part of an acting dynasty: his maternal grandfather, Guy Standing, was a Hollywood character actor in the 1930s and his mother, Kay Hammond, starred in Blithe Spirit in the West End. Standing lives in central London with his second wife, Sarah (the daughter of the actress Nanette Newman and director Bryan Forbes), whom he married in 1984. He has four children. I'll never forget dancing with Brigitte Bardot in St Tropez in the mid-1960s. I was at a table in a nightclub with my first wife, the late actress Jill Melford, on a summer's evening. And who should be sitting at the adjoining table with friends? The lovely Brigitte, who had shot to fame a few years earlier in the film And God Created Woman. Brigitte suddenly fancied doing the Madison, a dance popular at the time, and invited me to join her. So I had the pleasure of dancing with this pretty young actress. Thankfully Jill was relaxed about it — it was, after all, just the one dance. As a child the war was raging, so my first real trip was being evacuated from London, where I grew up, to Argyll, Scotland, to escape the Doodlebugs raining down on the capital in 1944. We lived on a farm and it was a magical experience. After the conflict ended my brother and I would holiday in the summer at my mother Kay and actor stepfather John Clements's cottage in East Farleigh, Kent, where I spent many happy hours playing cricket on the village green. I got to know New York pretty well when I was appearing with Maggie [Smith] in Private Lives on Broadway in the 1970s. Rex Harrison, an old family friend who looked upon me as a surrogate son, was starring in a Terry Rattigan play down the road so we would meet up every day, wander around Central Park and, after performing, dine out at Elaine's, a famous Upper East Side restaurant patronised by actors and authors, in the evening. Some of my fondest holiday memories are doing what Rex jokingly referred to as 'high comedy swimming' — larking about in his outdoor pool with him and his pals — at the beautiful villa he owned outside Portofino. He much preferred living in sunny Italy to cloudy England. I also had some memorable adventures with my great friend and fellow actor Peter O'Toole, who invited me to stay with him at his home in the breathtakingly beautiful Connemara, Co Galway, in the 1970s. We had a hilarious time, smoked a lot of weed, usually got back to his house around 4am from the local pub, and played snooker until dawn. We would then sleep until lunchtime and have a can of sardines for lunch. Happy days! We subsequently toured Australia together for six weeks in a ghastly play, Dead Eyed Dicks, emptying theatres. On the plus side, we got to play a lot of cricket. In the mid-1980s I was cast opposite Robert Wagner in the US television drama series Lime Street, so my [second] wife Sarah and I moved to Los Angeles where we spent the next seven years. Being in LA was like being on one long holiday and the sun was out every day. I already knew the city reasonably well having been in films like King Rat which was shot there. Every now and then I'd have lunch or dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel or the Bel-Air, my favourite LA hotel, with a mate of mine, like the actor George Segal. And I saw a lot of LA Dodgers baseball games too. When my family and I returned to the UK in the early 1990s we had a couple of lovely summer holidays in Cornwall. Someone very sweetly lent us a cottage in Fowey, overlooking the bay; I thought it was terribly important that the children learnt how marvellous an English seaside holiday could be, even if the weather sometimes disappointed. I'm also very fond of India, and the state of Rajasthan in particular, which I've visited several times with Sarah over the years. I've usually stayed with my great friend Shatru, a scion of the Deogarh family, and his charming wife Bhavna, who together have transformed their magnificent ancestral home into Dev Shree Deogarh, now one of the finest resort hotels in the country. Going there is a wonderful, life-affirming experience. I don't travel so much these days but I suspect that a visit to Paris could soon be on the cards since my daughter and her husband are threatening to move there. If they do, I'll happily jump on a Eurostar and visit them, and pop into an art galley or two while I'm in Standing's latest film, The Great Escaper, is streaming online. He is a supporter of the Motor Neurone Disease Association ( In our weekly My Hols interview, famous faces — from the worlds of film, sport, politics, and more — share their travel stories from childhood to the present day. Read more My Hols interviews here
Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Martine McCutcheon's pals reveal how Love Actually icon went bankrupt for a second time
Former EastEnders actress Martine McCutcheon is having a rough time of it of late, with the newly single star recently declared bankrupt for a second time Former EastEnders actress Martine McCutcheon has been hit with another blow just a year after parting ways with her husband Jack McManus, with it revealed over the weekend that the newly single star has fallen on hard times financially. The Love Actually actress has reportedly been declared bankrupt, as per court documents, following a petition for insolvency over a debt owed to a finance company, official public records have disclosed. This comes on the heels of her having to reduce the asking price of her beautiful Surrey home. It's now claimed the star, who was once worth millions as an Olivier Award winner with a number one single to her name, lost her money due to "high spending habits" and struggling to land roles amid a battle with ill health. Martine's friends reportedly say their pal made some "highly questionable spending decisions" over recent years, like paying 'thousands' to the Mafia in order to tie the knot with ex Jack in Lake Como, Italy back in 2012. The mum-of-one being diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME) in 2011 and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) has also damaged her bank balance and seen her earnings take a dip. One of the star's friends muses how, despite appearing in one of the nation's favourite soaps and classic Christmas film Love Actually, Martine's most iconic roles came about over 20 years ago and "money does not last for ever if you do not invest it wisely." "It has not helped that she loves the finer things in her life, and it is no secret that she has spent more than she should have done over the years," the pal tells the Daily Mail. "She has had bits and pieces of TV work recently – but nothing has come close to being a blockbuster role that might get her out of her financial mess." They add: "It's a real shame as she's immensely talented with a wealth of experience. Hopefully she can turn things around, but she's had a real tough time." A court document indicates that the insolvency order was issued on 31 March this year, a few months after she announced her split from Jack, her husband of 18 years. The couple share a 10 year old son, Rafferty. The bankruptcy ruling, which was filed under her married name, Martine McManus, was handed down in March at the County Court in Guildford, instigated by a petition from a firm named LDF Finance. Meanwhile, Martine's company, Raven Music Ltd, was also wound up last month, a move initiated by HMRC due to outstanding tax bills. The most recent accounts reveal that the business had a tax liability exceeding £175,000, due within the 12-month period post-February 2022. However, the total amount of Martine's personal tax bill remains undisclosed, and it is yet to be determined whether the Official Receiver will call for a public examination of her bankruptcy, which would lay bare her financial situation. This isn't Martine's first brush with financial woes. Despite a previous net worth of around £2million, she faced bankruptcy in 2013 with debts totalling approximately £187,000, including a hefty £150,000 owed to HMRC. By the following year, Martine had been discharged from bankruptcy and was once again financially solvent. She and her now ex-husband splashed out a staggering £1.3million on their former marital home in Surrey just three years prior. Last year, the pair announced their separation after an 18-year marriage. Announcing their separation on social media, she stated: "After much thought and consideration, Jack has decided it's best for us to separate after 18 years together and I accept his decision. I continue to send Jack, all the love, luck and happiness for the next chapter of his life."
Arab Times
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab Times
Lea Salonga to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
MANILA, Philippines, July 3: Broadway and West End icon Lea Salonga is set to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has announced, though the official date has yet to be revealed. Salonga, most recently seen on Broadway in Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, is being recognized for her extraordinary career spanning stage and screen. Once dubbed the 'Shirley Temple of the Philippines' during her early days as a child star in Manila, Salonga rose to international fame with her groundbreaking performance as Kim in the original London production of Miss Saigon, the follow-up to Les Misérables by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg. Her portrayal earned her an Olivier Award in London and a Tony Award when she reprised the role on Broadway.
Boston Globe
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘Back to the Future' celebrates 40 years, and a musical reworking
Luke Antony Neville, left, and Lucas Hallauer, right, in "Back to the Future." McLeod9 Creative Advertisement However, as they met with potential producers, they faced skepticism. 'We thought, 'This is going to be easy! Everybody and their uncle ought to be lining up to do this,'' Gale says. 'But it wasn't like that. They'd always say, 'Well, you guys have never done musical theater before. What makes you think you can do it?' And we'd say, 'Well, we invented the franchise! We know a whole lot about these characters and the story.'' Advertisement After a long-and-winding development path, 'Back to the Future: The Musical' finally bowed in Manchester, England, in 2020 before opening in London the following year, where it won the Olivier Award for Best Musical. Broadway beckoned in 2023, and now its national tour speeds into the Citizens Opera House, July 8-20, presented by Broadway in Boston, on the heels of the film's 40th anniversary on July 3. But as with the paradox that Marty unleashes by time-traveling back to 1955 and nearly screwing up his parents' courtship, the musical headed to Boston would've been erased from existence if not for a few 'sliding doors' moments. It all started with a storm that flooded screenwriter Bob Gale's childhood home in St. Louis. While helping his parents clean out the basement, he found his father's high school yearbook and saw his picture as senior class president. 'I thought about the president of my class, who was one of these rah-rah school spirit guys who I would've had nothing to do with,' Gale recalls. 'And I wondered, 'Was my dad that kind of guy? Would I have been friends with my dad if I'd gone to high school with him?'' As he stared at the photo, a lightning-bolt thought struck him: What if I could go back and meet my father back then? That sparked the idea for a film about a teenager who gets accidentally whisked back in time, encounters his parents as high schoolers, and tries to ensure they fall in love with each other so he doesn't get deleted from history. As Gale and Zemeckis began developing the musical, they enlisted the film's composer Alan Silvestri and Grammy-winning songwriter Glen Ballard to write the score, with influences from both 1980s and 1950s rock. But the road was strewn with potholes. By 2014, they'd parted ways with visionary theater auteur Jamie Lloyd, who just won a Tony Award for his reimagining of 'Sunset Boulevard' ('He had some wacky ideas,' Gale says), and hired Tony-winning ' Advertisement It was important to them to strike a balance between honoring the original film while creating something new for a different genre. 'One of the things that we were very resolute about was that we did not want this stage production to be a carbon copy of the movie,' Gale says. Many of the movie's famous lines and classic moments remain, but other aspects were altered or excised. So you'll see the DeLorean fly and Doc declare, 'Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads.' Lorraine ( With a musical, though, you can crack open the characters' hearts and inner-lives in song. Silvestri and Ballard wrote a heartfelt second act number for Doc Brown (David Josefsberg), 'For the Dreamers,' where he sings about creative visionaries, both the famous and the failed, who have big ideas and 'never stop believing in them.' 'Musical theater gave us a way to really go deep into Doc Brown's head,' Gale says. 'And because Doc Brown sings, he automatically becomes a warmer character.' Advertisement They wrote a 1950s-style doo-wop number, 'Pretty Baby,' for Marty's mother Lorraine to sing in the 1955 timeline to the handsome young stranger asleep in her bed, as Marty nervously fends off her advances. 'Musical theater can take the reality of a situation and put it into a heightened, kind of twisted place,' Rando said. For Marty's meek father, George (Mike Bindeman), who's bossed around by his high school bully, Biff (Nathaniel Hackmann), where 'we learn about him and how he wants the girl, but he's afraid to go after her,' Gale says. Then in 'Put Your Mind To It,' Marty tries to boost George's self-confidence so he can win Lorraine's heart by 'teaching him to dance and to stand up for himself and fight for what he wants.' Ultimately, the father-son dynamic is key. 'The boy learns about his parents in a way that he had never dreamed of and finds himself closer to his family at the end,' Rando says. Naturally, the car is the 1.21 gigawatt star. So the team needed to create the illusion that the flux-capacitor-powered DeLorean speeds across the stage at 88 miles per hour, travels through time and later achieves liftoff. That meant leaning into the innovative magic of Tim Hatley's scenic design, Finn Ross' video design, and Chris Fisher's theatrical illusions. 'It's really spectacular,' Gale says. 'I think we raised the bar on what you could do on stage.' Of course, they worried about disappointing fans with a stage version that didn't live up to the film. But Gale says that most fans he's encountered have adored the show, including one woman in London who told him she quit therapy and instead spent that money on tickets to see 'Back to the Future' every week—and she's happier for it. Advertisement Gale speculates that the story continues to resonate 40 years later because it captures the moment in every child's life when 'they suddenly understand that my parents were once young like me. That's a cosmic idea.' It also powerfully illustrates how one decision in life can have far-reaching effects. 'We see these two different timelines for the McFly family—one where George stands up for himself, and one is where George wimps out. So it's a good reminder to people to say, 'The things that I do in my life matter. This may be an important decision I'm making, and I need to give it thought.' BACK TO THE FUTURE Presented by Broadway in Boston. At: Citizens Opera House, July 8-20. Tickets: from $40;
RTÉ News
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
SIX star Alexia: 'I think it's quite inspirational'
Hit musical SIX is back in Dublin and the show's original star Alexia McIntosh has also returned – and she's having a ball - as Anna of Cleeves. Currently running at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, SIX follows the six wives of the infamous English King Henry VIII as they take to the mic to tell their own personal tales, remixing five hundred years of historical heartbreak into an 80-minute celebration of 21st century girl power. For her performances, Alexia received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical and recently reprised the role on-screen in the record-breaking SIX the Musical Live. RTÉ Entertainment caught up with her the day after the show opened in Dublin and she was in great form. "Oh, it was brilliant," she said when asked about opening night. "I always enjoy performing SIX, it's such a great vibe." And she speaks as someone who there, back at the start, of course . . . "Yeah, back in 2018. The original. It's been quite a journey. It's been a dream come true for me." SIX has enjoyed a remarkable run of success since then. Unlike most hit shows, it was a first-time effort from Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, a pair of students who thought it would be a good idea to write a musical about the six wives of Henry VII from the wives' perspectives. They couldn't have dreamed of the heights the show has attained. It became a global hit that rocked both London's West End and Broadway in New York. No mean feat. "Exactly!" says Alkexia. "And I remember getting the phone call asking if I'd like to audition. Two students from Cambridge have made this musical. And none of us really knew what it was about. "So we were thrown in at the deep end. I was cast at the last minute, then a week later we hadn't read the script but had to rehearse a song to then perform at West End Live in Trafalgar Square. "You can look that up on YouTube. It's in a raw format. We're all in our clothes (laughs) - and we still hadn't read the script yet! "To see it become the phenomenon that it is, is just amazing." With the exception of prog rock keyboard whiz Rick Wakeman's 1973 concept album The Six Wives of Henry VIII, it's not a subject that would've been part of pop culture. Naturally, it's also not the kind of topic that would feature highly in history lessons in Irish schools, but Alexia McIntosh grew up in Birmingham. Even then, she admits no previous expertise on the subject before SIX came calling. "Well, in school you're taught a bit about Tudor history . . . you don't really go into detail. For me, I knew kind of the basics, but to be able to research these women, it just changes your whole outlook on life because you can't believe what was going on in those times - and what they got away with, really. As for Henry himself? "He was a bit bipolar I think! If you got on the wrong side of him, you would end up dead! I think people were walking on eggshells, to be honest."And a lot of these women were teenagers, they were Ladies in Waiting. To know that they all knew each other and some form of friendship, association, makes it even more amazing. "Because that's not really taught [in English schools]: how he was cheating on his wife with this one; he was in love with these teenage girls; it starts to become really dark when you get into the nitty-gritty of what went on. "I think I was shocked. Disgusted. These women really do need a voice, to say what they went true - we just need to keep their legacy alive." Of course, that's the thing about SIX - it takes this dark tale, six of them really, and turns it in a joyous, uplifting show. That's quite an achievement. The fact that it's been such a hit – and not just in its native England, but all around the world – tells a tale about its impact as a show. "They always say there's nothing new under the sun," says Alexia. "Unfortunately, people will experience some form of trauma in their lives. "I think that the style of the show is telling these stories through songs so that makes it more palatable . . . and actually, we need to celebrate these lives and show that there is hope. "I think it's quite inspirational and that's why people gravitate towards this musical."
