Latest news with #SophieOkonedo
The Guardian
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
From Hadestown to Hercules: ancient myths are the gods' gift to musicals
Ancient Greek dramas have long thrived on the West End stage. In recent times: Sophie Okonedo's electrifying Medea, Brie Larson's high-wire Elektra and Mark Strong's smoothly political Oedipus. But the likes of Hades and Eurydice are less often found belting out big numbers alongside a dancing ensemble. Until now, it would seem. Mythological musicals are on the rise: Disney's Hercules opens this month and Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown is in its second year at the Lyric while The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical is going on tour this summer. 'Greek theatre has influenced every facet of our lives, from athletics to religion,' says Cedric Neal, who plays Hermes in Hadestown. 'What better than for it to be translated to the stage with music, choreography and dance?' Neal has a good point: Greek tragedies, in their original incarnations, were traditionally performed with dance and music, so it is fitting for them to take the guise of full-blown modern musical theatre. Hadestown revolves around two ancient tales: Persephone's abduction by Hades and the doomed romance between Eurydice, who ventures into Hades's underworld, and Orpheus, who tries to get her out. Hermes is the show's narrator, delivering some of the plot through songs incorporating gospel, jazz, folk, bluegrass and soul. Music is the purest form of telling a story, Neal says, as it touches heart and soul: 'That's what's so effective, and affecting, about it.' He believes that these myths, set to music, reflect our lives back at us with an added emotional catch. Neal plays Hermes as pansexual: 'Hadestown deals with how complex love can be and what we are willing to do [for it], no matter what the government or church or your parents are saying. The story we are telling reminds us that love will conquer all.' The rock musical The Lightning Thief is another hit, currently at the Other Palace in London. Based on the bestselling Percy Jackson book series by Rick Riordan, the story is certainly ancient – of Poseidon's half-god son and Zeus's stolen lightning bolt. But it is also about teenagers living in today's world, feeling like gawky outsiders. Like Hadestown, it ran both off and on Broadway. This new production is directed by Lizzi Gee, who thinks that musical versions of these ancient stories 'can take you even more into fantasy lands' and that they allow you to connect through the heightened emotions of the song and dance. As its choreographer as well, she had no difficulty in creating movement around these mythic characters. 'I always want to be telling the story through dance and these songs are so narratively driven.' She had gone to producer Paul Taylor-Mills about another idea before he suggested this to her. 'He said go away, listen to the soundtrack, and think if it's something you'd like to do. The second I played the opening number I thought 'I'm in'. Every song is narrative so I could immediately picture it all, because of the imagery through the songs. It was really clear to me how I would stage it.' The show features Percy's adolescent posse of 'half-bloods' (part human, part Greek god) at summer camp. 'For me, it's trying to portray the kids at Camp Half Blood as people who could represent the youth of today, so that they see themselves on that stage and see their stories being told – Percy with his ADHD and dyslexia … I feel like I wanted to say: 'These are real people and this is our connection with their stories.'' Its stage design, by Ryan Dawson Laight, does not conjure a traditionally ancient realm but one filled with electricity, water and sewage in the above, beyond and below worlds. Characters wear jeans and hoodies 'but with something a little otherly to them …', she says. What has been rewarding to experience is the impact it has had on audiences. 'Teenagers who are maybe struggling with isolation or thinking about who they are and feeling different from other people … are so grateful for something they can connect with and connect to … What is remarkable is how many young boys come to watch the musical. It's very much connecting to young masculinity.' These mythic stories also offer a counterpoint to the 'presentation' of ourselves that we so often get on social media, she feels. They offer an exploration of authentic identity and finding our true selves – that, in a way, is the purpose of the classic quests in ancient stories – and contemporary ones, too. Hercules the Musical has been adapted from the 1997 Disney animation film, whose music was composed by Alan Menken with lyrics by David Zippel (both are involved in this Disney stage show). Mythological musicals in animated form are not an especially new-fangled idea: DreamWorks has transposed several ancient, biblical stories to screen, their dramas fuelled by music and song, such as Joseph: King of Dreams and The Prince of Egypt (both these stories have since been adapted for the stage). Aspects of the story in Hercules have been reworked, although many of the loved songs are still there, say co-writers of the book, Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah. 'We hope the audience goes 'I know the music that was in the movie and now I'm going to accept this iteration …',' says Kwei-Armah. For Horn, the key question was how to adapt mythology 'without losing the DNA of what it is' while making it relevant to contemporary society – just as in the case of The Lightning Thief for Gee. 'It is a coming-of-age story, for me, but also a story about understanding where you fit in in the world and what your strength is.' Kwei-Armah's entry point to the myth was through the original story of Heracles, the divine Greek hero who later became known as Hercules in the Roman canon. 'What I find interesting,' he says, 'is how the story looks at the qualities that make you a god, the trials you have to go through in order to find out who we are, to find your tribe, to be accepted by the tribe you identify with and not just the tribe that is the dominant tribe. Part of the reason I responded to it so strongly when I was asked to join Robert and the team is that I felt it would be fun to investigate authenticity and the idea of being seen through ancient myth.' While they stayed true to the original story on the whole, they have added some new characters. 'We were given free rein, says Horn. 'That said, there is a musical element to the movie, and certain songs that are iconic. You don't want to lose those. Our job is to make those songs work organically even if we have to change the story. People are going to come to hear them.' Kwei-Armah concurs: 'Go the Distance makes me cry every time that I hear it so there's no way we would even think about trying to lose anything like that.' What is so powerful about setting these old stories to music? 'The fundamental thing behind a musical is the idea 'oh no, I can't say it so I must sing it',' says Kwei-Armah. Horn adds: 'These [mythic] stories are all just a little bit larger than life, so lend themselves organically to being musicalised.' Myths also offer eternally relevant stories, their underlying meanings delivered in metaphorical form, says Kwei-Armah. 'We love a metaphor and there's nothing better than a singing metaphor … I think we like being able to look back and see our everlasting selves [in these myths]. That lends itself to a melody.' Hercules is at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London, from 11 June-28 March 2026. The Lightning Thief is at the Other Palace, London, until 15 June and then on tour from 15 August-1 November. Hadestown is at the Lyric theatre, London, until 15 February 2026
Gizmodo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
‘The Wheel of Time' Was a Damn Good Show
Three seasons—and then an abrupt end. It's a routine genre fans are unfortunately familiar with. There are still people out there (me included) holding out hope for fourth seasons of The Orville and Hannibal. The latest three-season casualty is Prime Video's The Wheel of Time. Sometimes a miracle happens and another platform steps in; remember when Lucifer made three seasons at Fox, then got resurrected for three more at Netflix? Or when The Expanse was rescued from the Syfy scrap heap after its third season, and got a few more notches on its belt from Amazon? Amazon's the one doing the scrapping this time around: The Wheel of Time fans learned last week that the fantasy show will not be returning for a fourth season. Pickup elsewhere seems like a grim prospect, no matter how passionate the online outcry, mostly because the reason given for its cancellation was how much it cost to produce—a price tag that apparently wasn't justified by its viewership numbers. That's a true shame, because The Wheel of Time was a damn good show. Its budget wasn't as lavish as Prime Video's other big fantasy series—The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which is currently working on its own third season—but it definitely wasn't made on the cheap. It had a large cast headed up by Rosamund Pike as Moiraine Damodred; though the rest of the main characters were mostly played by up-and-comers, more familiar faces (Sophie Okonedo, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Olivia Williams, Lindsay Duncan, Hayley Mills) were sprinkled through the supporting cast. Across the board the performances were excellent; special shout-out to Madeleine Madden for Egwene's absolutely searing season-two arc, though. Its production values were outstanding; on a show filled with a vast array of cultures across diverse landscapes—deserts, forests, cities, villages, throne rooms, dungeons, freaky in-between worlds—it did a striking job creating tones and textures that felt distinct and detailed. The costumes were particularly notable in this regard. I'm still haunted by the spooky outfits, especially the gold mouth shields, forced onto the magic-wielding 'damane' slaves in season two. The special effects were also impressive, bringing both practical creatures (Loial the Ogier, brought to life by Hammed Animashaun in heavy prosthetics, being particularly emotive) and mystical magic 'weaves' to the screen. Much like Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time is based on a beloved book series, though as popular as Robert Jordan's work is, it's definitely not part of mainstream culture the same way JRR Tolkien's work is. There's no Oscar-winning trilogy of epic movies for The Wheel of Time, for one thing. Though there had been games (both video and tabletop) based on The Wheel of Time in the past, the TV adaptation drew in a lot of newcomers along with seasoned readers, and the show was careful to remain accessible for the former while also dotting in winks and Easter eggs for the latter. The worldbuilding was high-quality, and if the story felt familiar and trope-y at times—it's kind of Tolkien meets Game of Thrones but with more women-powered magic, and an end-of-the-world prophecy that's both cyclical and inevitable—the series, broken into eight-part seasons of episodes that ran at or just under an hour, was still propulsive and enjoyable. The tone was overall fairly serious (as we mentioned, the fate of the world is at stake here!), and many of its storylines dealt with darker themes of trauma and grief, as well as the frustration of being powerless to control one's fate, especially in a world where prophecies are seen as both irrefutable and subject to interpretation, depending on who you ask. But The Wheel of Time also made room for humor, romance, music, and even some delightfully campy moments, especially as the show found its footing in seasons two and three. Perhaps the biggest bummer about the show's cancellation is that it was clearly building toward something very big. The Wheel of Time's 'Last Battle' is, as implied, the showdown at the end of days between the Dragon Reborn, the reincarnated chosen one, and a villain so sinister he's known only as the 'Dark One,' with lieutenants running around among humankind known as 'Darkfriends' (if they're mortal) and 'Forsaken' (if they're not). The Last Battle was teased throughout all the show's seasons, with the character of Rand learning in season one that he was the Dragon Reborn. Season two followed him as he came to terms with that awful yet awesome responsibility, compounded by the known fact that in this world, men with magical abilities will inevitably go insane. And season three saw him begin to prepare, strengthening his control over his burgeoning powers while building an army of supporters. Every other character, without exception, is also invested in the Last Battle in some way. They're on different sides and serve different purposes, but they're all counting down to it just the same. It is the defining event of the story. Everyone knows it's coming. And Amazon pulled the plug before the show got there. This is all the more crushing because Wheel of Time series creator Rafe Judkins had high hopes that Amazon would grant the space to tell 'the whole story,' as he explained to io9 in an interview ahead of season three. There are over a dozen books in the Jordan series, so you can't imagine he meant that Wheel of Time would continue for a decade. But he definitely had plans for a fourth and maybe a fifth season, and you can tell that season three was plotted accordingly. While fan campaigns are now underway to save Wheel of Time (read more about that on Nerdist), maybe the best case scenario would be a made-for-Amazon movie. Another Prime Video show that's meeting an early end for entirely different reasons—Good Omens—is getting a send-off movie in place of a third season, wrapping up that show's own tantalizing cliffhangers. With a fourth season apparently relegated forever to Tel'aran'rhiod, The Wheel of Time's slippery dream world, would it be too much to ask for, say, one more jumbo-sized episode to craft a satisfying conclusion? Especially for fans who invested time and emotions into the three existing seasons? Of course it would be. At least you can always pick up Jordan's books and find out how the author envisioned the Last Battle—then stick around to dive deeper into the world the show, after just three seasons, has sadly left behind.
Geek Girl Authority
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
Prime Video Cancels THE WHEEL OF TIME After 3 Seasons
Highlights Prime Video has canceled The Wheel of Time five weeks after its Season 3 finale. The Wheel of Time The reason for its axing is a financial one, as it is purportedly well-liked creatively by Prime Video executives. Season 3 dipped in viewership, eventually slipping from the Nielsen's Top 10 Originals chart. The Wheel of Time's Fate Decided The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills … well, at least according to Prime Video. Epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time has been canceled after three seasons. According to Deadline , the decision comes after 'lengthy deliberations.' RELATED: The Wheel of Time : Robert Strange on Playing an Eelfinn in the Season 3 Finale That Explosive Finale 'He Who Comes With the Dawn,' the show's Season 3 — and now series — finale, aired on Thursday, April 17. It delivered a handful of loose narrative threads, including Elaida do Avriny a'Roihan (Shohreh Aghdashloo) ordering Siuan Sanche's (Sophie Okonedo) execution and deposing the latter as the Amyrlin Seat. Meanwhile, in Tanchico, Mat Cauthon (Dónal Finn) strikes a potentially hazardous deal with an Eelfinn (Robert Strange), and Liandrin Guirale (Kate Fleetwood) gets away with the cuffs and matching collar needed to capture the Dragon Reborn, aka Rand al'Thor (Josha Stradowski). Nynaeve al'Meara (Zoë Robins) seemingly breaks through the block on her ability to channel the One Power, too. In the Aiel Waste, the Aiel declare Rand as the true Car'a'carn, while Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) battles Lanfear (Natasha O'Keeffe) and reels in the aftermath following Siuan's decapitation. Egwene al'Vere (Madeleine Madden) watches in terror in the finale's last moments as Rand struggles to stop channeling, indicating we could've seen a darker turn for the Dragon Reborn in a potential fourth season. Not to mention, the penultimate episode also sees Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford) captured by the White Cloaks — yet another cliffhanger. RELATED: Read our The Wheel of Time recaps The Why of It All Deadline reports that Prime Video decided to cancel The Wheel of Time for financial reasons, but there's also a viewership component. The adaptation of Robert Jordan's bestselling fantasy novels stayed in Nielsen's Top 10 Originals chart for the first three weeks of Season 3 before dropping out. The show remained on the chart for its previous seasons' entire runs. However, it returned to the Top 10 list the week after the Season 3 finale. According to Deadline , its performance, viewership-wise, wasn't strong enough to offset its pricey budget. Its contemporary, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power , is currently in pre-production in the UK. This certainly comes as a shock. Season 3 is the show's best yet, and episode four, 'The Road to the Spear,' might be one of the best episodes of fantasy television out there. It's currently sitting at 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes on the critics side. Perhaps it can find life elsewhere. All three seasons of The Wheel of Time are streaming on Prime Video. Davina Lamont and Sharon Gilham Craft Looks That Bring THE WHEEL OF TIME Season 3 to Life Contact: [email protected] What I do: I'm GGA's Managing Editor, a Senior Contributor, and Press Coordinator. I manage, contribute, and coordinate. Sometimes all at once. Joking aside, I oversee day-to-day operations for GGA, write, edit, and assess interview opportunities/press events. Who I am: Before moving to Los Angeles after studying theater in college, I was born and raised in Amish country, Ohio. No, I am not Amish, even if I sometimes sport a modest bonnet. Bylines in: Tell-Tale TV, Culturess, Sideshow Collectibles, and inkMend on Medium. Critic: Rotten Tomatoes, CherryPicks, and the Hollywood Creative Alliance.
Daily Mail
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Undercover: Trailer, certificate and where to watch
Sophie Okonedo and Adrian Lester star as husband and wife in a tangled drama of lies and deceit 2016
