‘This craving to go viral is tiresome’: the artists who’re sick of the pressure to promote on social media

From Stewart Lee in his wolf costume to Werner Herzog’s big steak sizzle-up, artists are now under huge duress to ‘chase the algorithm’ and reach audiences. Many of them are hitting burnout – and hitting backThere was a meme recently featuring Tony Sop…

Continue Reading

Fortune Feimster: ‘The stage was a crate, the sound system was a karaoke machine. No one enjoyed the show’

The standup on playing a beaver in Zootropolis 2, being inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger and why her mother is a great source of comedyWhat is the best advice you’ve ever been given?I used to be quite the worrywart. Especially in this business, there …

Continue Reading

‘I’m a big bear. I lumber’: showbiz superstar Richard Kind on delivering performances you can see from space

The first time Kind starred in Nazi-spoof The Producers, he lost 30lb. Is he – and the West End – ready for his return? And why is he so worried about his old flatmate George Clooney?Richard Kind has played everything from a child’s imaginary friend in…

Continue Reading

Palestine Comedy Club review – roving performance collective finds light in darkness

This portrait of a multi-ethnic comic troupe could do with more unpicking, but its reflections on the grind of war, life on the road and the reactive nature of comedy are insightfulIt must surely, sometimes, seem to everyone involved that the name shou…

Continue Reading

Rab C Nesbitt actor Gregor Fisher: ‘People say: I didn’t realise you could speak properly!’

He’s been in everything from Love Actually to Shakespeare with Al Pacino – but will he always be thought of as the string-vest-wearing boozy Glaswegian? Ahead of a tour as himself, the actor and Instagram cookery guru looks backFew actors are more inde…

Continue Reading

Slow Horses’ Jack Lowden: ‘I feel more at home on stage than I do in life’

Speaking at a screening of hit play The Fifth Step, the actor reveals he is ‘not comfortable at all on camera’Slow Horses star Jack Lowden has said it was a “relief” to return to the stage in the intense role of an alcoholic in the West End hit The Fif…

Continue Reading

Rosie O’Donnell: ‘Meat Loaf’s mother wrote me and said, “You can’t be mean to my son”’

The beloved host and comedian on blubbering fans, scary kangaroos, her favourite Irish person and the strangest job she has ever hadGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailYour show is called Common Knowledge. What do you think should be common know…

Continue Reading

50 First Dates: The Musical review – sunny ensemble serve up breezy romcom

The Other Palace, LondonGeorgina Castle and Josh St Clair make a likable couple who endlessly replay their first meeting but this adaptation needs more emotional punchPerhaps it’s unfair to compare this new musical with the incomparable Curious Case of…

Continue Reading

The best theatre to stream this month: Basil’s back as Fawlty Towers reopens for business

John Cleese’s stage version of his beloved sitcom, a cast recording of Cornish musical The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Robert Wilson’s production of Handel’s Messiah are among September’s highlightsFifty years ago this month, Torquay’s most fam…

Continue Reading

Dirty Work review – a jolly holiday with Mary Floppins

Underbelly Cowgate, EdinburghJessica Barton sets about cleaning up the domestic acts of the men in her audience with comically strict disciplineWe’ve all felt the urge to impose order on the mess of our lives, whether that mess is literal or emotional….

Continue Reading