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- Welcome back to London Calling,
the latest lowdown for every Broadway buff
about what's happening on the other side of the pond.
Later, we'll catch up with Paul Hilton,
who is currently starring in the extraordinary epic,
"The Inheritance," on Broadway.
But first, let's take a quick look
at which shows the Brits are getting
into one of their infamous queues for.
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There's life after Romeo.
New musical, "& Juliet," which asks,
what if Shakespeare's Juliet's famous ending
was really just her beginning?
Is heating things up this winter
at the West End Shaftesbury Theater.
Featuring the songs of Max Martin,
it was written for artists you might have heard of
like Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Backstreet Boys,
Pink, Katy Perry, and Ariana Grande.
Numbers include classics such as:
"Baby One More Time," and "Everybody, Backstreet's Back."
Directed by Luke Shepherd
and starring Miriam Teak Lee in the title role,
Broadway insiders are keeping an eye on this one,
as they are on the world premiere of "Leopoldstadt,"
helmed by Patrick Malboro, Top Stoppard's latest
is described at his most humane and heartbreaking play.
Meanwhile, over at the Playhouse Theater,
James McAvoy is headlining "Cyrano de Bergerac,"
an inventive new adaptation
of Edmond Rostand's masterwork by Martin Crimp,
with direction by Jamie Lloyd.
At the Other Palace, a reworked "Amelie: The Musical,"
has garnered solid reviews.
The West End is also current playing host
to Sara Bareilles and Gavin Creel in "Waitress,"
and "Dear Evan Hansen," which has recently begun
waving through a window to much acclaim across the pond.
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Thumbs up to Samantha Barks, who'll be letting it go
in "Frozen," when it makes its West End premiere.
The star of Broadway's "Pretty Woman,"
and the "Les Mis" movie, will take on the role of Elsa
when Disney's hit reopens the newly restored
Theater Royal Drury Lane in October, 2020.
The cold never bothered her anyway.
Thumbs down to Samantha Barks
for being unable to be in two places at once.
"Pretty Woman" will open at the Piccadilly Theater
this year without her.
However, never fear, the fabulous Amy Atkinson
and original cast member of "Six,"
has been tapped Vivian,
with Danny Mack appearing as Edward.
This trip to Rodeo Drive is in safe hands.
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The royal family has been in the news lately,
so we thought we'd take a look one of the gigs
Harry and Meghan have, by the looks of things,
decided isn't for them.
Every year, a couple of senior members of the royal family
get glammed up and head to the West End
for The Royal Variety Performance.
It's a televised annual variety show
that raises money for charity.
The first performance was back in 1912,
when it was known as the Royal Command Performance
and had King George V and Queen Mary in attendance.
Famous performers over the decades
have included everyone from the Beatles to The Supremes
to Broadway.com regular Elaine Page.
So the event has led to some of the eclectic photos
ever taken with the royals.
This year, the duke and duchess of Cambridge
chatted with the cast of "Mary Poppins,"
who must have impressed them.
Kate later took Prince George and Princess Charlotte
to the classic musical as a holiday treat.
And now, it was fascinating to sit down with Paul Hilton,
who originated the roles of Morgan and Walter
in "The Inheritance" in London.
Reenvisioning E.M. Forster's masterpiece, "Howard's End,"
to 21st century New York.
The show has critics buzzing and audiences laughing
and sobbing in equal measure.
Paul, thank you so much for doing this.
- It's my pleasure.
- Set the scene for us,
for those people at home,
they've heard of "The Inheritance," they know it's an epic,
but it's based around "Howard's End," isn't it?
Which was in 1910.
- Yeah, people are gonna be in for a surprise,
you don't have to know "Howard's End," I think,
or any of, you know, you just arrive
and there's these young men on stage,
and they're all trying to tell a story.
And our principal character refers to "Howard's End,"
as E.M. Forster's a great hero of his,
and he's trying to find a way
into beginning to tell his story,
and then Morgan appears.
And then I play E.M. Forster and an audience
is kind of trying to marry these two worlds together.
And then we realize that we're telling a kind of template
of how "Howard's End" through the perspective
of a young gay man in New York in the 21st century.
- So, the show is commissioned by Hartford Stage
here in the US, but it basically began in London.
- [Paul] Yes.
- However, it's a quintessential New York tale
on so many levels.
- Very much so.
- For you on first preview, how was it playing Broadway?
I mean, that must have been one of the most
emotional experiences of your whole career.
- Yes, yes, it was.
And I think because we played it in London,
because I know the power of this piece,
I've been inside it and drove it for so long,
I was so excited about playing it
in front of a New York audience,
and just to see what that would bring.
You know, that character is certainly in the story.
Here we are.
So there was this enormous kind of release for me,
it was like we finally, this is where this story
is meant to be told.
- Because you play two characters on the stage,
because, so you've got Morgan,
who's the E.M. Forster character--
- Who's the Forster character.
- And then you've got Walter.
- And then he has an opportunity
to step into a contemporary character,
a man of a certain age living in New York now.
And that's liberating for Morgan, if you like.
It allows him to explore facets of himself
that wasn't allowed to in his lifetime.
- And a lot of people talk and you mentioned about this,
the monologue that Walter has.
We don't want to spoil things,
but it does bring up the AIDS crisis and so forth.
- Yes.
- [Imogen] There's sobbing in the audience.
- Yeah.
- How do you cope with that?
- I hear it, I listen to it, I feel it,
and I try to pay due reverence to that
because, you know, for me,
I think I said very early on in the early preview stages,
when we did this at the Young Vic,
I've done a lot of theater,
this is the closest I've ever felt to kind of church,
you know?
Theater and a communion, if you like,
of souls, a congregation.
And in that moment where we're evoking,
conjuring the spirits of all those beautiful people
that we lost in the AIDS crisis, you know,
it's the closest we ever get to a kind of memorial
or church, you know.
There is a sense of people palpably connecting
with the spirits of the people that they loved and lost.
And you have to acknowledge that,
you can't, you know, skirt over that,
that's the center of the play,
that kind of love and connection with our past
and those that we left behind.
- What's fascinating, watching it on Broadway,
is that Stephen Daldry has created
what I would call a safe space.
You must very much feel that as actors.
- Oh yes, and that's one of Stephen's great gifts.
He's an eternal child, he's really in touch
with his inner child,
and so that allows a great freedom in the rehearsal room.
- Now, this show is your Broadway debut.
And what a show to be making it with.
- Indeed.
- [Imogen] I mean, on some levels, a dream come true.
- Totally, yeah.
- How are you finding the Broadway community?
'Cause I think as Brits, before I moved here,
I always heard about the Broadway community
and I thought, really?
Does that really exist?
Is that really a thing? - Yeah.
- But it is, isn't it? - It is, yeah.
I mean, for me as well, I tended to,
when we played London, well,
generally when we play in theaters,
I tend to go out the front of house,
I don't like to door stage door encounters.
I think when I was a young person,
going to the theater as a teenager,
if I saw an actor in the bar after a show,
something was lost, you know? - Oh really?
- There is a magic that disappeared.
- Okay.
- Or I suddenly saw them out of character.
So, in my imagination,
I always to preserve that sense of the character.
But in this, in the Broadway community,
you have to meet the stage door,
you have to meet those people.
You know, I've never done that before,
so to get something back off an audience
in that way on a nightly basis, it's food,
that's the thing that's getting me
through these lonely days, you know,
it's just those audiences are so generous.
And also other ensembles, you know?
We had that first night, we had this thing
where all the companies had put their messages out to us
on the wall, you know, and it's every single actor
on Broadway had signed a good luck wish.
That was extraordinary,
I've never seen that in the West End.
So, those kinds of things are just beautiful.
- And a long way from really where you were born,
you were born in the north of England.
- Yeah.
- How did you get into acting?
'Cause West End's a long way from where you were born.
- Yeah, yeah, well, a brilliant teacher,
brilliant drama teacher, brilliant school drama.
But particularly one individual, Colin Snell,
who's nurtured so many young people.
Matthew Dunster, he's about to open "Hangmen,"
he's a Colin Snell protege.
A lot of people went through here,
and he just selflessly took us to the theater.
You know, his passion for theater was so infectious.
And that, you know, age 13, I was hooked.
I didn't wanna do anything else.
So I made inroads, I wrote to the BBC,
all the television shows, how do I get into this?
Constantly pushed away, no, no,
you have to go the professional to,
you have to go to drama school,
you have to, you know,
for a young, poor lad from Oldham,
that was very difficult.
So I just kept doing and doing and doing,
and I found my own way, you know,
but it's so difficult for young people,
I think, if you don't have that access.
And it's crucial to mental health, to development,
to empathy, to all of those things, you know.
- And you must get that with kids
coming to see the show.
- Yeah, but that's the most moving thing, you know?
My daughter is 16 years old,
she was so, so opened by this piece,
you know, in a way that I can't even begin to,
I couldn't even begin to teach her about,
you know, life and the complexities of relationships,
she just needed to watch this piece
and her understanding of love and the nature of love,
you know, I think she'll be armed for life,
you know, by having seen, sat through this.
So, for me, that's the value of theater.
It's transformative, people leave that auditorium
and they are transformed.
There's no question about it,
they've experienced something
that's taken them out of themselves, you know?
- I think there's no better way to end that.
Thank you so much, Paul, for coming in as well.
- Great pleasure, lovely to meet you.
- Thank you.
See you next time!
Cheerio!
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