This is what one wants in a husband.

Oh! It's cake day! Hope Andrew has been baking (or buying).
McTeer & Rylance were heaven. Also Tamsin Grieg ( won the Olivier) & Joseph Millson. Eve Best played Beatrice twice and was a riot both times, once before she went to RADA opposite Will Keen and then at the Globe opposite Charlie Edwards.

Explosive happiness The juxtaposition of pleasure and pain in Much Ado About Nothing makes it memorable. I changed my name in tribute to the play

Declan Donnellan did it with Cheek by Jowl (with Matthew Macfadyen as a sublime Benedick opposite Saskia Reeves) in a production which, at last, made that clear. Did you see I posted this?
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/4910...

NONE AT ALL.

Pick up the nearest book, turn to p. 42, and post the second sentence:

At these actions the Widow Crumb lets out a scream and drops the bowl of salad on the floor.

Emma was the best thing in it. The "comedy" performances were ghastly.

Eve was brilliant. She'd done it before (wonderfully) at Southwark Playhouse (her professional debut before she went to RADA) opposite Will Keen. A superb production in the 90s with lots of women in roles usually played by men (before this was commonplace) directed by the late James Menzies-Kitchin.

point of the Claudio/Hero plot is that their relationship is underwritten for a reason: he's not interested in her. His relationship is with Don Pedro. He is able to be loudly outraged because his "love" for her is an act which covers his connection to DP. There are lines to prove it. 2/2

I wrote a column dismissing the film. On the day it came out I was sitting outside a cafe and who should stroll by but my friend Kim and his longstanding chum... Emma Thompson. I remember blushing scarlet as I was convinced she would have read it and would realise it was me. Meanwhile, the 1/2

Today is one of my favourite days of the year: since 2008 I've chaired the annual judging of The Profile Awards for lighting of UK theatre, opera & dance: gathering judges together to enthuse, challenge and argue as we champion designers.
Winners announced June 4.
profileawards.com/theatre/

Explosive happiness The juxtaposition of pleasure and pain in Much Ado About Nothing makes it memorable. I changed my name in tribute to the play

Thank you. Much Ado is hands down my favourite Shakespeare*. But I do actually think Henry IV I and 2 together are an utter masterpiece and would quite possibly rate them equally highly.
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/4910...

Yes! LLL at 7??? And Much Ado far too low in the list. I've never understood those who get cross because they regard its mix of comedy and tragedy as a kind of failure when, of course, it's the reason it's so great. (Also, Branagh's Shakespeare as Timotei advert film is hideously overrated.)

Matt Applewhite on the importance of space to creativity Caring about the long-term health of creatives means asking ourselves questions about how we treat the people who make it, says Nick Hern Books’ Matt Applewhite

Attention all playwrights and artistic directors of theatres: a call to arms from @nickhernbooks.bsky.social publisher Matt Applewhite.
www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/thea...

Hah. I've sung with him. Just the once...

Richard Rodney Bennett wrote the score, obviously.

I think George Segal and Honor Blackman were in the movie.

The Left-Handed Theorbo is the title of a thriller. Or should be.

World at One - Fired civil servant accuses PM of 'dangerous misunderstanding' over Mandelson affair - BBC Sounds Sir Olly Robbins tells MPs that Lord Mandelson never failed his vetting.

I don't get it. The vetting was "leaning into" Mandelson being a risky appointment yet Robbins decided this was OK because he would put safety measures in place... yet told no-one. What? And he's somehow the hard-done-by hero?
Listen to Emily Thornberry from 26.50. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Can we agree that "Please choose from the following options" is The Worst Phrase Of the 21st Century? I've endured two days on hold and endless automated responses with my phone provider, police and bank over my stolen phone. Yes, much is to do with security and we got there in the end but ye Gods!

Wordle 1,767 5/6

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Strangely, lists of novels about music – Patrick Gale's Take Nothing With You, Rose Tremain's Music and Silence, Vikram Seth's An Equal Music, Ann Patchett's Bel Canto etc – rarely include this lesser-known title, notwithstanding this edition's full embrace of the notion of the single entendre.

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Wordle 1,766 4/6

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I avoided.

Once in every generation, an ignorant director reads PL and discovers it to be seriously good about the pain as well as the pleasures of marriage and directs it like Strindberg.
But Elyot says "Has it ever struck you that flippancy might cover a very real embarrassment?" Joyous surface wit is vital.

Zoe Wanamaker? If you mean the National Theatre production that Lesser was in, his Amanda was Juliet Stevenson whose assumption of the role was achieved, according to critic Paul Taylor, with (I paraphrase mildy from memory), "all the light touch and throwaway wit of George Eliot." I agree.

The inability of audiences/readers to distinguish between a character's views/words and those of the author is seriously depressing.

Quite.

"Striking" as a term for hitting has rather fallen into desuetude. It's possible wicked Elyot had a great deal to do with it.

Amanda: I was brought up to believe it was beyond the pale for a man to strike a woman.
Elyot: A very poor tradition. Certain women should be struck regularly, like gongs.

I remember seeing this. Unfortunately, that is the only thing I remember about it. Having looked it up, I am flabbergasted by the list of cameos – none of whom, David Bowie aside, I would have recognised.

I messaged said gentleman to his right t'other day having discovered that in 1966 he'd recorded Hedda Gabler for BBC Radio. He gave his Eilert Lovborg to the Hedda of, um, Fenella Fielding.
I know.
I asked if he had memories. All he could recall was that he was miscast and that her wig was askew.