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Patrick Stewart Performs the Complete Sonnets of William Shakespeare
When stages went dark during the Covid crisis, all sorts of impromptu performances popped up online. Patrick Stewart’s pandemic hobby was to recite one Shakespeare sonnet each day on social media – a project inspired by him reading one to his wife over dinner. Now, all 154 from the 1609 quarto are collected on Audible – including Stewart’s favourite, Sonnet 116 (Let me not to the marriage of true minds). Almost four hours long, the recording includes his personal commentaries. Available from 7 April.
I Don’t Do Innocents
Simon McBurney directs a radio play by Anne Carson for the Paris Review, with a cast including Emma Corrin – and Carson herself reading the stage directions. Complicité’s production of the wedding drama is a classy proposal indeed.
Big Night of Musicals
Sam Ryder gives a sneak preview of his Jesus Christ Superstar, which comes to the London Palladium this summer, in the BBC’s musical-theatre jamboree on iPlayer. Hosted by Jason Manford in Manchester, its highlights include arch-villain Victoria Hamilton-Barritt singing Pretty Little Dead Things from Paddington: The Musical.
The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington
James Ijames is best known for the Pulitzer-winning Fat Ham, a meaty take on Hamlet. He is also a former artistic director of Philadelphia’s Wilma theater, which has revived his historical satire about the inaugural first lady of the US. Sounds like it could make a fascinating companion to Oh, Mary! in the West End. Available from 9 April to 3 May.
Ibsen on the BBC
Marking the 120th anniversary of his death in May, the BBC presents a comprehensive iPlayer season celebrating the Norwegian playwright, including two Hedda Gablers (Janet Suzman and Ingrid Bergman), two Master Builders (Leo McKern and Donald Wolfit) and two Ladies from the Sea (Eileen Atkins and Irene Worth).
King John
The ever-excellent Rosie Sheehy is up for an Olivier award this month for her performance in Guess How Much I Love You? at the Royal Court. Here she is in 2019 in her RSC debut as one of Shakespeare’s more uncommon monarchs, making her first entrance nursing a king-sized hangover. From Marquee TV.
End
Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves play a couple facing a cancer diagnosis in David Eldridge’s play, filmed at the Dorfman theatre for NT at Home. The first two instalments of Eldridge’s trilogy (Beginning and Middle) are unavailable online but End makes a fascinating double bill with Stephen Poliakoff’s 1991 drama Close My Eyes starring Reeves and Owen.
A Future on Stage
After more than four years, Back to the Future: The Musical leaves London this month to head out on tour (turns out they do need roads after all). Journey back to the show’s beginning with this Amazon Prime “making of” documentary, featuring interviews with co-creators Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis.
