Tag: Wyndham’s Theatre

Art by Yasmina Reza, Wyndham’s Theatre, 11 January 1997

Oh by gosh we enjoyed this one. I wrote in my log:

Great fun. Subsequently, the cast changed every five minutes, but we saw the “original” UK cast.

And what a cast that was: Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay and Ken Stott.

Unusually, it was Janie who booked this one. How do i know – because the details are all over her diary, not mine…and boy did Janie write down details. So I can report that the play was 1 hour 40 minutes without an interval and that we sat in K22 & K23.

While the play/production was a huge hit and ran for yonks, it was not universally praised by the critics.

Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard quite liked it:

Art Nicholas de Jongh StandardArt Nicholas de Jongh Standard 16 Oct 1996, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

My friend Michael Billington was not too sure about the take on art while accepting that it was an enjoyable night at the theatre:

Art Billington GuardianArt Billington Guardian 16 Oct 1996, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

While David Benedict in the Independent wrote:

Art David benedict independentArt David benedict independent 26 Oct 1996, Sat The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Three Tall Women by Edward Albee, Wyndham’s Theatre, 19 November 1994

We didn’t book much theatre or concert stuff that autumn, what with the birth of Z/Yen and all that going on, but we did book a handful of things we couldn’t bear to miss. This was one of those. Edward Albee’s new play, Three Tall Women.

Janie even put aside her Maggie Smith aversion in the interests of seeing this one.

Michael Billington interviewed Edward Albee ahead of the press night:

Billington Albee Part OneBillington Albee Part One Wed, Nov 9, 1994 – 28 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Billington On Albee Part TwoBillington On Albee Part Two Wed, Nov 9, 1994 – 29 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

We both thought the play and production was very good.

Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for this production.

I cannot find on-line reviews for the original cast (which we saw) but this Independent piece compares and contrasts the originals with their replacements a year or so later…

…but I can find review clippings – Michael Billington for example:

Billington On Three Tall WomenBillington On Three Tall Women Wed, Nov 16, 1994 – 35 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Here is Kate Kellaway on the production:

Kate Kellaway On Three Tall WomenKate Kellaway On Three Tall Women Sun, Nov 20, 1994 – 84 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

The original three; Maggie Smith, Frances de la Tour and Anastasia Hille, were all superb in my view.

Albee doesn’t always work for me (us) but this one surely did.