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Here’s a question: You have a Hollywood star making their West End debut in London, with very little theatrical experience. What do you do to allay any misgivings — in the actor herself, or her audience? You give her a handheld microphone, of course, for the entire play.

Well, no, you don’t.

Alongside the practical rebuttals (many actors these days have concealed mics), there are stronger conceptual justifications for Daniel Fish’s move. With her buzz cut and Bikini Kill T-shirt, Brie Larson’s Elektra is presented as a rebel, a provocateur, and the kind of obsessively angry soul who might well carry her microphone around town in order to besmirch her mother and berate the world. She even has some Laurie Anderson-like amp effects for good measure, especially when mocking mom, and it’s true that her spitting into the mike at the mention of anyone she loathes is strangely satisfying.

Dozens of characters live and yearn in Pj Harvey’s songs. There’s the Devil-plagued stalker narrating “To Bring You My Love”; the “prettiest mess you’ve ever seen” in “Angelene”; and, most recently, the lost girl, Ira-Abel, beguiled by an oracle and a ghost-like Elvis figure in all the songs from Harvey’s 2023 album I Inside the Old Year Dying. She brings all of these characters to life with unique performances on her current tour, which kicked off a North American leg last week.

“This show is a theatrical piece,...

Pj Harvey has released a demo recording of “Eugene Alone,” a song she co-wrote with Ben Power for the new play London Tide. Stream it below.

Written from the perspective of character Eugene Wrayburn (played by Jamael Westman), the song’s lyrics express guilt for being involved in a love triangle: “Can I find a way to move on/ From the memory of her dress?”

Get Pj Harvey Tickets Here

“Whenever I approached writing a song for a character I would discuss with Ben and [director Ian Rickson] what the character is going through at that time, and what emotion needed to be expressed through the music,” Harvey shared in a statement on her official website,

The artist continued, “We would talk about what had happened immediately before, what was going to happen next, time of day or night… As the play evolved we began to see how we could make...

P.J. Harvey has shared the demo for “Eugene Alone,” one of the songs she co-wrote for a stage musical titled London Tide that opened today in London.

Harvey and Ben Power co-wrote the original songs for the National Theatre show, which is based on Charles Dickens’s final novel, Our Mutual Friend.

As Harvey’s typewritten lyrics draft reveals “Eugene Alone” was penned for the novel-turned-musical character Eugene Wrayburn.

“Whenever I approached writing a song for a character I would discuss with Ben and [director Ian Rickson] what the character is going through at that time,...

Many of cinema’s hard men are notorious softies in real life. Ray Winstone may well be one of those, even if he admits to not looking particularly approachable.

“My wife always says to me, ‘Why do you look like you’re going to kill someone when you walk into a room?'” he tells Variety. “But I don’t mean to!”

Winstone’s long-standing status as the go-to man to depict violent approach-with-caution individuals or British mob bosses continues to serve him, however, as “The Gentleman” — Guy Ritchie’s eight-part Netflix spinoff of his 2019 gangster comedy feature of the same name — proves. In the series, awash in the classic Ritchie mix of guns, drugs, violence, aristocrats, boxing and tweed, Winstone stars as a gangland patriarch and head of a massive weed-growing empire. Because of course he does — who else would you cast as an elder statesman than the actor...

Pj Harvey will embark on her first North American tour in nearly a decade this fall in support of her latest album, last year’s I Inside the Old Year Dying. Tickets go on sale on Friday.

In addition to the tour announcement, the singer is also releasing a video for the LP’s “Seem an I.” The clip opens with scenes of an ominous barn, a tree with a cutting of black hair hanging from it, and an open meadow. Then actress Ruth Wilson (The Affair, Luther) comes speeding through the shot,...

The Critics Choice Award for chutzpah goes to … the lady swathed in gold lamé, sporting a Mohawk fade hairstyle who, without so much as a by-your-leave, crashed past me and scooped up a bottle of Milagro Silver tequila that was part of the centerpiece on tables at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.

“Can I,” she asks, grabbing the booze.

Wasn’t my liquor.

The thing that made me jump up in my seat was that Mohawk Lady already had bottles under her arm.

Quick as a flash, she repeated the same move at neighboring tables.

By now she had a haul of five or six bottles. Crash! One of them fell to the ground, so she swiped a replacement.

Stirred the former crime reporter in me. Who was Mohawk Lady?

She’s an online critic, someone at another table tells me.

Later on I ask her directly but she mumbles,...

It’s succession season at the UK’s National Theatre with Rufus Norris, the institution’s Artistic Director, announcing that he will step down in 2025 after a decade in the post.

“It’s good to keep leadership evolving,” Norris noted during a press conference at the National’s base on the south side of the River Thames, in the shadow of Waterloo Bridge.

The National’s board will determine Norris’s successor. They will cast a net far and wide and there’s an eagerness to end the white male hold on the Nt’s leadership.

Meanwhile, Norris has been getting on with the business of running the country’s flagship theatre company.

Nt Artistic Director Rufus Norris. Photo by Baz Bamigboye/Deadline.

Succession star Harriet Walter returns to the Nt to lead a new adaptation by Alice Birch of Federico Garcia Lorca’s The House of Bernardo Alba.

It...

Exclusive: Kristin Scott Thomas and Lily James are joining forces to star in a scorching new play by Penelope Skinner, directed by Ian Rickson, that will open in London’s West End in the fall.

Pretty hot names to have atop a theater marquee, that’s for sure.

The drama, called Lyonesse, will open at the Harold Pinter Theatre in late September or early October. Official dates are being determined.

In this new work, Skinner — who won the George Devine Award for most promising playwright in 2011 for The Village Bike — focuses on Elaine (Scott Thomas), a reclusive and brilliant actress who disappeared from public view under mysterious circumstances.

Elaine summons Kate (James), a young film executive, to her remote Cornish estate to facilitate “her glorious comeback,” according to a production source who copped me a premise of the play.

“But who really controls the stories we tell and how we get to tell them?...

Last week’s world premiere for She Said in New York has afforded Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan an opportunity to reflect on the task they just undertook, to tell the story behind the story of Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s 2017 reporting for the New York Times that first exposed the harrowing abuses of Harvey Weinstein. It was a monumental journalistic achievement, and the impact of their reporting, as well as that of the New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow published just a few days later, brought about a seismic shift in industry attitudes to abuse, cracking open a door that survivors of Weinstein and the many other abusers exposed since have been able to step through. Kantor, Twohey and Farrow would go on to share the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting.

Directed by Maria Schrader from Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s script, and produced by Plan B’s Dede Garner and Jeremy Kleiner,...

When she was 23, Sonia Friedman was—to use her expression—thrown into a rehearsal room with Harold Pinter at London’s National Theatre. She was his deputy stage manager during production for the premiere of his one-act play Mountain Language starring theatrical royalty Michael Gambon and Eileen Atkins.

“I was the person sitting right next to [Pinter],” she recalls. “He would whisper into my ear all the way through,” about how he wanted it to look, where’d there’d be a cue. She says the playwright would make almost no changes to his script. “Though he did at one point add a pause and asked me to write that into the script,” she says, smiling at the memory. It was a life-changing moment for her, working with playwrights who directed their own work. “I fell in love at that point, particularly with new work, watching actors mine something that no...

Universal Pictures has set a release date for “She Said,” the film about the Harvey Weinstein investigation starring Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan. The film will hit theaters on November 18, 2022, the studio announced Thursday.

Mulligan and Kazan star in “She Said” as New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who broke the Weinstein scandal and helped usher in the #MeToo movement.

“Unorthodox” director Maria Schrader will direct. Rebecca Lenkiewicz is writing the script. The film will be based on the New York Times bestseller “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement.” It will begin production this summer.

“She Said” will mark Kazan and Mulligan’s third collaboration, although this is the first time they will star appear screen together. The duo previously starred in Ian Rickson’s Broadway production of “The Seagull” in 2008, and Mulligan starred in the 2018 film “Wildlife,” which Kazan co-wrote and produced.

Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan are in talks to star as New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who broke the Harvey Weinstein scandal, in “She Said” for Universal Pictures, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

“Unorthodox” director Maria Schrader will direct. Rebecca Lenkiewicz is writing the script. The film will be based on the New York Times bestseller “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement.” It will begin production this summer.

Annapurna Pictures and Plan B optioned the rights to “She Said” in 2018 under their production deal. Megan Ellison will executive produce for Annapurna with Sue Naegle, while Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner will produce for Plan B.

Mulligan is just coming off of her Oscar-nominated performance in “Promising Young Woman” and is gearing up to film Johan Renck’s “Spaceman” and Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro.” She is represented by CAA,...

Exclusive: Nearly four years after New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor broke the bombshell Harvey Weinstein sex scandal report, Hollywood is ready to tell the story of how these two reporters persevered to break this game-changing story. Universal Pictures is prepping She Said, a drama based on the New York Times bestseller She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement. Uni is in negotiations with Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan to star as Twohey and Kantor. The film is set to begin production this summer and will be directed by Unorthodox director Maria Schrader from a script by Oscar-winner Rebecca Lenkiewicz.

Everyone in Hollywood remembers where they were when the first story ran on October 5, 2017 when Kantor and Twohey revealed an array of alleged sexual harassment and assaults against women by The Weinstein Company co-chairman and indie film mogul Weinstein, misdeeds that dated back decades.

James McAvoy, Andrew Scott, Wendell Pierce and Toby Jones are going head-to-head for best actor in this year’s Olivier Awards, while Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Hayley Atwell, Juliet Stevenson and Sharon D Clarke have been nominated for best actress.

New musical & Juliet has nabbed nine nominations, Trevor Nunn’s Fiddler on the Roof has secured eight and Dear Evan Hansen has scored seven.

The UK awards, which celebrates the best theatre in London, will take place at the Royal Albert Hall on April 5.

Here’s the full list of play and musical nominations:

Best New Play

A Very Expensive Poison at The Old Vic

The Doctor at Almeida Theatre

Leopoldstadt at Wyndham’s Theatre

The Ocean at the End of the Lane at National Theatre – Dorfman

Best New Musical

& Juliet at Shaftesbury Theatre

Amelie The Musical at The Other Palace

Dear Evan Hansen at Noel Coward Theatre

Waitress at Adelphi Theatre...

The actors have written a film version of Richard Ford’s 1990 novel, Wildlife, with Dano directing. Here they discuss giving each other notes and navigating parenthood

As soon as the actor Paul Dano read Richard Ford’s novella Wildlife, he knew he wanted to make a film of it. More than that, it was a story that took hold, would not let him go. It may be that we all have at least one book of this sort in our lives, a story that becomes an obsession, that speaks to us in an irresistibly powerful way. It is now seven years since he read it and he has written a screenplay with his partner, the actor Zoe Kazan, and made a film – his directorial debut – in which Carey Mulligan gives the performance of a lifetime as an unravelling wife and mother, Jake Gyllenhaal plays her tormented husband, and newcomer Ed Oxenbould their bewildered teenage son.

11 June 1933 – 29 August 2016

The actor’s friend and co-star remembers a gentle man whose sensitivity was born from a tough upbringing and a constantly ailing mother

• Alan Rickman remembered by Ian Rickson

• Read the Observer’s obituaries of 2016 in full here

I’ll never forget the first time Gene walked into my house. My God, I thought, it’s Willy Wonka! Gene was working with my then husband, Victor [Drai, a film producer], adapting a French film, Pardon Mon Affaire, which became The Woman in Red (1984). It was my first film. I always say I got the role because I was sleeping with the producer! Gene was the director and the star – and a different, shyer character off camera.

He’d had a tough early life, he’d been abused, and his mother was ill throughout his childhood. He’d always been told to be quiet, sensitive, to make his mother smile. That’s where...

The River opened Sunday night, Nov. 16, at Circle in the Square 50th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. A new play by Jez Butterworth, The River stars Hugh Jackman, Laura Donnelly andCush Jumbo and is directed by Ian Rickson. The production will play a strictly limited 13-week engagement through Sunday, January 25, 2015. BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was there for opening night and you can check out interviews with the company below...

The River opened Sunday night, Nov. 16, at Circle in the Square 50th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. A new play by Jez Butterworth, The River stars Hugh Jackman, Laura Donnelly andCush Jumbo and is directed by Ian Rickson. The production will play a strictly limited 13-week engagement through Sunday, January 25, 2015. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you photos of the cast in the BroadwayWorld.com series 'In The Spotlight' by acclaimed photographer Walter McBride...

The River opened last night, Nov. 16, at Circle in the Square 50th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. A new play by Jez Butterworth, The River stars Hugh Jackman, Laura Donnelly and Cush Jumbo and is directed by Ian Rickson. The production will play a strictly limited 13-week engagement through Sunday, January 25, 2015. BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was on the red carpet to chat with the opening night guests before the curtain went up, and you can check out interviews with Rob Ashford, Jerry Seinfeld, Ellen Burstyn and more below...

The River opened last night, Nov. 16, at Circle in the Square 50th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. A new play by Jez Butterworth, The River stars Hugh Jackman, Laura Donnelly andCush Jumbo and is directed by Ian Rickson. The production will play a strictly limited 13-week engagement through Sunday, January 25, 2015. BroadwayWorld was on hand for all of the opening night festivities and you can check out photos from the star-studded theatre arivals below...

The River opened last night, Nov. 16, at Circle in the Square 50th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. A new play by Jez Butterworth, The River stars Hugh Jackman, Laura Donnelly and Cush Jumbo and is directed by Ian Rickson. The production will play a strictly limited 13-week engagement through Sunday, January 25, 2015. BroadwayWorld was on hand for all of the opening night festivities and you can check out photos from the after party below...

The River is currently in previews at Circle in the Square 50th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, where it will play a strictly limited 13-week engagement through Sunday, January 25, 2015. A new play by Jez Butterworth, The Riverstars Hugh Jackman, Laura Donnelly andCush Jumbo and is directed by Ian Rickson. The production will open on Sunday, November 16 at the Circle in the Square Theatre 50th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at the cast in action below...

We chat to Mackenzie Crook about new comedy The Detectorists, Game Of Thrones, Pirates 5, and why he'd never do an Office reunion…

“I hate the word gentle” Mackenzie Crook tells us, “it just sounds like unfunny.” Reviews of The Detectorists, a new BBC Four comedy about a pair of metal-detecting enthusiasts written and directed by Crook, have relied heavily on the g-word.

It’s understandable in many ways. Crook’s series is difficult to pigeonhole. It rolls along the English countryside telling a low-key story about Andy and Lance’s preoccupation with searching for ancient objects - a search more likely to bring up 1980s ring-pulls than a hoard of Saxon gold. It’s no gag-fest, but it’s certainly not unfunny. The Detectorists’ sense of humour is wry, bathetic, and steeped in very British references. Where else would you find a hymn to William G. Stewart’s tenure...

Score a huge one for Todd Haimes, longtime artistic director of the nonprofit Roundabout empire. The company, which operates three Broadway venues, will launch its 50th anniversary season next October with Keira Knightley as Emile Zola’s adulterous heroine, in Thérèse Raquin, perennial catnip for playwrights and screenwriters. Haimes commissioned the latest adaptation, by Helen Edmundson. It was first presented in summer 2014 at the UK’s Bath Theatre Royal (Knightley was not involved). Evan Cabnet (Poor Behavior, The Model Apartment) will direct.

Story revolves around the title character, whose passionless marriage to Camille, an epicene simp, is blown up with the arrival of hot’n’handsome Laurent, resulting in sexy dark business later recycled in any number of films noirs, plays, TV miniseries, an opera and even a Broadway musical by Harry Connick Jr. (Thou Shalt Not, which didn’t).

Knightley (Pirates Of The Caribbean, Begin Again, etc.) stars in...

The River, a new play by Jez Butterworth, starring Hugh Jackman,Laura Donnelly and Cush Jumboand directed by Ian Rickson, begins preview performances in four weeks on Friday, October 31 and will open on Sunday, November 16 at the Circle in the Square Theatre. The production will play a strictly limited 13-week engagement through Sunday, January 25, 2015.The cast just met the press this week, and BroadwayWorld was there for the special day. Check out full photo coverage below...

The River, a new play by Jez Butterworth, starring Hugh Jackman,Laura Donnelly and Cush Jumboand directed by Ian Rickson, begins preview performances in four weeks on Friday, October 31 and will open on Sunday, November 16 at the Circle in the Square Theatre. The production will play a strictly limited 13-week engagement through Sunday, January 25, 2015.The cast just met the press this morning - and BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was on hand for the special day. Check out interviews with leading man Hugh Jackman and the rest of the company below...

Rehearsals begin today, Thursday, October 2 in New York City for The River, a new play by Jez Butterworth, starring Hugh Jackman, Laura Donnelly and Cush Jumbo and directed by Ian Rickson. The River begins preview performances in four weeks on Friday, October 31 and will open on Sunday, November 16 at the Circle in the Square Theatre 50th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. The production will play a strictly limited 13-week engagement through Sunday, January 25, 2015.

Further cementing a fruitful professional partnership after their successful collaborations on The Seagull, Betrayal and Old Times in London and New York, Kristin Scott Thomas and director Ian Rickson come up with the goods again for Electra, a powerhouse rendition of Sophocles’ classic tragedy. Staged in the round at London's Old Vic using Frank McGuinness’ 1997 adaptation of the text, the production strikes a smart balance between antiquity and modernity. Sparse, period-suggestive but not literal design and eerie music (by rock star Pj Harvey) rub up against instantly accessible performances, stippled with surprisingly effective moments of humor. Thomas rightly

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The River, a new play by Jez Butterworth, starring Hugh Jackman, Laura Donnelly and Cush Jumbo and directed by Ian Rickson, has announced three new ticket access policies for 35 day-of seats, standing room and an additional ticket block which is being added to the theatre's seating configuration for the production. The River begins preview performances on Friday, October 31 and will open on Sunday, November 16 at the Circle in the Square Theatre 50th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. The production will play a strictly limited 13-week engagement through Sunday, January 25, 2015.

Hugh Jackman on Broadway is a hot enough ticket. Hugh Jackman on Broadway in one of Broadway’s smallest theaters? Go form a line outside now, why don’t you?

The Tony-winning actor will return to the stage this fall in The River, a new play (in the States, at least) by Jez Butterworth and directed by Ian Rickson. Also starring Laura Donnelly and Cush Jumbo, the intimate production will begin previews on October 31 at the Circle in the Square Theatre (current home to Audra McDonald’s Tony-nominated turn in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill). Opening night is...

New York – Hosting the 68th annual Tony Awards next month is just a warmup for a full-fledged return to the stage. Hugh Jackman will be back on Broadway in the fall, starring in British dramatist Jez Butterworth's The River. Directed by Butterworth's frequent collaborator Ian Rickson, the play will begin previews on Oct. 31 for a limited 13-week engagement at the Circle in the Square Theatre, with official opening set for Nov. 16. Jackman will play a reclusive fisherman living in a remote cabin on the cliffs high above a river who takes a woman trout-fishing on a

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Stephen Daldry will direct Mulligan and Bill Nighy, who returns to a role he played in 1997

Carey Mulligan will make her West End debut this summer in a revival of David Hare's Skylight to be directed by Stephen Daldry.

Skylight, which will preview at the Wyndham's theatre in June, will also mark a double return for Bill Nighy. Not only will it be his first London stage appearance in 13 years, since Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange, it is also another shot at a part he played in 1997, when he inherited the role of Tom Sergeant from Michael Gambon in Skylight's first West End run.

In Hare's play, Tom, a whizzy, newly widowed restaurateur, pitches up at the flat of his younger ex-lover Kyra Hollis – who will be played by Mulligan – with a view to rekindling a relationship.

Mulligan is already a well-regarded stage performer, having turned in an acclaimed...

Hollywood heads to the Great White Way, with Close appearing in an unnamed production, Bradley Cooper playing The Elephant Man and Hugh Jackman teaming up with Jez Butterworth

Broadway will welcome an influx of Hollywood superstars as Bradley Cooper and Hugh Jackman have confirmed forthcoming runs on the Great White Way. However, both have been overshadowed by the news that Glenn Close – a three-time Tony award-winner – will end a Broadway absence of more than 10 years to star in a play in the autumn.

Jackman took to Twitter to confirm reports that he will lead the Us premiere of Jez Butterworth's The River, which was first staged at the Royal Court, in London, in 2012. He will play a hobbyist fisherman seen taking two different women to a remote wood cabin retreat. The production, directed by Ian Rickson, is likely to open in early 2015.

Jackman is one of the most valuable...

Jackman, whose Broadway credits include A Steady Rain, The Boy From Oz (which garnered him a Tony Award) and Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway, will retun to the stage to star Jez Butterworth's revival of The River in 2015. Ian Rickson will return to direct the play that originally opened at the Royal Court Theatre. "At dawn I went back to the river, and I took off my clothes and dived in the freezing water. I searched and searched but it was gone. But when I surfaced, I was holding something. "Something else." The River tells the story of a man who invites a woman to a remote cabin on the cliffs for a romantic weekend. Their interlude is interrupted over the course of a moonless night when another woman appears. Jackman was slated to star in the Broadway show Houdini in the 2015/16 season...

Former Harry Potter star Rupert Grint on making his stage debut as a Soho dealer and watching Shia LeBeouf drop acid

Rupert Grint's dressing table is piled high with throat lozenges and manuka honey. On stage for eight performances a week in Jez Butterworth's Mojo, his voice is suffering: "I've had to have vocal massages, which are extremely painful. You basically get strangled."

When it was announced that the Harry Potter actor would be making his stage debut in a play about rival gangs in 50s Soho, it was seen as a risk. But as the drug-dealer Sweets, he is finally distancing himself from his alter ego, Ron Weasley. He has been nominated for a Whatsonstage.com award, London newcomer of the year, and the run has been extended. "I love the fact that it's not a play for the theatre elite. Young people are camping out for the £10 day tickets,...

Before Jerusalem, a 24-year-old Jez Butterworth electrified British theatre with a swaggering story of pill-popping Soho gangsters. Nearly two decades on, he tells Ryan Gilbey why it's time to put it back on the jukebox

Theatrical monster hits of recent years don't come much bigger than Jerusalem, which bounced from the Royal Court to the West End and on to Broadway, scooping awards and prompting all-night camp-outs for tickets. But more than a decade earlier, Jerusalem's writer, Jez Butterworth, and director, Ian Rickson, had launched another stage phenomenon at the Royal Court.

The rock'n'roll thriller Mojo, Butterworth's first play, was set amid the pill-popping frenzy of 1950s Soho where two gangland bosses are locked in a power struggle over the pretty young heartthrob Silver Johnny. The reviews were glowing: this paper's Michael Billington called it "the most dazzling main-stage debut in years", while the Telegraph's Charles Spencer said of the...

Ian Rickson directs Brendan Coyle Mickey, Rupert Grint Sweets, Daniel Mays Potts, Colin MorganSkinny, Ben Whishaw Baby and Tom Rhys Harries Silver Johnny in a major West End revival of Jez Butterworth's award-winning Mojo, reuniting director and writer who previously collaborated on the play's world premiere at the Royal Court in 1995. Mojo will preview at the Harold Pinter Theatre from 26 October 2013 with press night on 13 November and is booking to 25 January 2014. Designs are by Ultz with lighting by Charles Balfour, music by Stephen Warbeck and sound by Simon Baker. Check out the rehearsal photos below...

October 11th, 2013, 9:16am– We only have to wait 15 days for the day when Rupert Grint makes his stage debut on the West End in Mojo and we have a hard time containing our excitement. Today, the very first rehearsal pictures of all the actors have been released and they are all looking very intense and hard at work. Rupert is playing Sweets in the play and you can check out the picture of him below. tn-1000_rupertgrint(sweets)inrehearsalsformojophotobysimonannand We’ve uploaded all the images in the gallery here – pictured are actors Ben Whishaw, Colin Morgan, Daniel Mays, Brendan Coyle and Tom Rhys Harries as well as director Ian Rickson. You can still buy tickets for Mojo here. The play will run from October 26th to January 25th 2014 at the Harold Pinter Theatre. - See more at: http://www.rupert-grint.us/#sthash.CcNCSlJw.dpuf...

London, July 27: Rupert Grint will make his first appearance on stage alongside Ben Whishaw in a West End revival of Jez Butterworth's hit debut, 'Mojo'.

Ian Rickson, who will be at the helm of the play, told a UK publication, that he cast the 'Harry Potter' star after placing him in a read-through of the play, the BBC reported.

Rickson said that he had seen the Potter films with his daughter and always thought that the actor was truthful as his character as Ron Weasley.

He added that there's something ordinary and centered about Grint and in the world of Mojo you want that grittiness.

Other stars to act in.

Los Angeles, July 27: Actor Rupert Grint will make his debut on the West End theatre scene with a crime drama-based play "Mojo".

"Mojo", inspired by real life events, is being directed by Ian Rickson, who was impressed with the 24-year-old actor's work in the "Harry Potter" franchise.

"I'd seen the Potter films with my daughter and always thought Rupert was truthful as Ron Weasley," dailymail.co.uk quoted director Rickson as saying.

"There's something ordinary and centred about him, and in this world of Mojo you want that grittiness," Rickson added.

"Skyfall" actor Ben Whishaw, "Downton Abbey" star Brendan Coyle.

July 26th, 2013, 12:50pm– It was just confirmed yesterday that Rupert Grint would be playing Sweets in the Jez Butterworth play Mojo. But you can already reserve your tickets today! We have received the following official announcement from Rupert‘s representatives which also gives instructions as to how to book early advanced tickets for the show’s preview run: Rupert Grint Makes West End Debut In “Mojo” This Autumn, Rupert Grint will make his stage debut in a new production of Jez Butterworth’s Olivier award-winning play Mojo, directed by Ian Rickson. Tickets officially go on sale for this limited season in September but sign up now for exclusive access to the first few weeks of performances at special preview prices. Set against the fledgling rock ‘n’ roll scene of 50s Soho, this savagely funny play delves into the sleazy underworld and power games of London’s most infamous district.

London — Rupert Grint is following his "Harry Potter" co-star Daniel Radcliffe onto the stage.

Producers announced Friday that Grint, who was ginger-haired wizard Ron Weasley in the Potter films, will play a pill-popping gangster in a West End revival of Jez Butterworth's "Mojo" later this year.

Ben Whishaw, Daniel Mays and "Downton Abbey" star Brendan Coyle are also in the cast of Butterworth's savagely funny drama about London's 1950s' underworld.

It will be directed by Ian Rickson, who also led the play's original 1995 production at the Royal Court Theatre. Butterworth went on to write Tony-winner "Jerusalem."

"Mojo" begins previews at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London in October.

Radcliffe has taken stage roles in London and New York and is currently starring in "The Cripple of Inishmaan" in London.

Harry Potter actor to make first stage appearance in production of Jez Butterworth's debut play about rival gangs in 1950s Soho

Rupert Grint is to make his first stage appearance in an all-star West End revival of Jez Butterworth's hit debut, Mojo.

Ben Whishaw, Daniel Mays and Brendan Coyle, best known for playing Mr Bates in Downton Abbey, will join the Harry Potter star in Butterworth's play about rival gangs in 1950s Soho and its nascent rock'n'roll scene.

The play has almost as much draw as the cast. When it premiered in 1995, Mojo was the first main-stage debut at the Royal Court for 40 years, the last being John Osbourne's Look Back in Anger. It subsequently transferred to the West End, before being made into a feature film two years later. Butterworth's commercial clout has only grown with his 2009 global success Jerusalem.

Former Royal Court boss Ian Rickson,...

Rupert Grint is following his Harry Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe onto the stage.

Producers announced Friday that Grint, who was ginger-haired wizard Ron Weasley in the Potter films, will play a pill-popping gangster in a West End revival of Jez Butterworth’s Mojo later this year.

Ben Whishaw, Daniel Mays and Downton Abbey star Brendan Coyle are also in the cast of Butterworth’s savagely funny drama about London’s 1950s’ underworld.

It will be directed by Ian Rickson, who also led the play’s original 1995 production at the Royal Court Theatre. Butterworth went on to write Tony-winner Jerusalem.

“Mojo...

July 26th, 2013, 6:54pm– We have just received word from Rupert Grint‘s representatives that we have something very special to look forward to this coming autumn. Rupert is now confirmed (as of today – we like our news fresh!) to play Sweets in the play Mojo directed by Ian Rickson. The play is set to start its run on October 26 at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London with rehearsals to begin in mid-September. This article from The Daily Mail also features some lovely quotes from director, Ian Rickson, about Rupert: Rickson explained how he met Grint and then placed him in the Mojo read-through. ‘I’d seen the Potter films with my daughter and always thought Rupert was truthful as Ron Weasley. There’s something ordinary and centred about him, and in this world of Mojo you want that grittiness,’ Rickson told me. He noted that he’d spoken to David Yates,...

July 5th, 2013, 1:48pm– MojoCover The internet has been buzzing since last night when The Daily Mail published an article about Rupert Grint being in talks to make his theatre debut in the West End production of Mojo. The news spread quickly, especially since the article states that Rupert already took part in a reading with director Ian Rickson and actors Ben Whishaw, Daniel Mays and Rupert’s former Cherrybomb costar Robert Sheehan. This is very exciting news and we definitely need to keep our fingers crossed. We have just heard back from Rupert‘s representatives, and although they are not ready to make any confirmation on the news, they do say that he is in talks to star in the play. The Jez Butterworth play has previously been adapted for the stage as well as the cinema, and although we don’t know yet which character Rupert is being considered for,...

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Top Hat lead the charge in this year's theatre, dance and opera awards

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is the leading contender at this year's Olivier theatre, dance and opera awards, with nominations in eight categories, including best new play and best director.

Luke Treadaway, the young lead in the National Theatre production of Mark Haddon's bestselling novel, is also nominated for best actor, up against Rupert Everett's portrayal of Oscar Wilde in The Judas Kiss, James McAvoy's Macbeth, Mark Rylance's Olivia in Twelfth Night and Rafe Spall in Constellations.

In numerical terms, the crowd-pleasing musical Top Hat gets the next biggest number of nominations – seven, including best actor and actress in a musical nominations for its stars Tom Chambers and Summer Strallen.

The Observer's critics pick the season's highlights, from the Misanthrope to Johnny Marr, Lulu to Lichtenstein, H7steria to Hitchcock. What are you most looking forward to? Add your comments below and download a pdf of the calendar here

December | January | FebruaryDecember

1 Film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (3D)

Well, not so very unexpected. Every move has been tracked by fanboys, from the casting of Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Benedict Cumberbatch as the dragon Smaug to the return of the king, Peter Jackson, to take over directing from Guillermo del Toro. But Middle-earth (or, as it's sometimes known, New Zealand) is back for the next three Christmases.

3 Pop Scott Walker

The avant-garde Walker Brother returns with his first album since 2006's The Drift. Not for the faint-hearted, Bish Bosch finds the former romantic hero deep in dystopian territory, at once sonorous and rigorous.

3 Classical H7steria

World premiere of...

Young writers James Graham and Nick Payne vie with Caryl Churchill, while actor Hattie Morahan goes up against Cate Blanchett as Young Vic gains five nominations

Young playwrights James Graham and Nick Payne will compete with the legendary Caryl Churchill for best new play at this year's Evening Standard theatre awards.

Churchill, who won her first Evening Standard award 25 years ago for Serious Money, is shortlisted for Love and Information at the Royal Court, London, while Graham, 30, is up for political thriller This House, and Payne, 28, Constellations, currently previewing in the West End.

By a strange quirk of fate, Graham and Payne are younger than two of the nominees for the Charles Wintour most promising playwright award: actor Lolita Chakrabarti, 43, and screenwriter John Hodge, 47, both of whom saw their first plays staged this year in Red Velvet and Collaborators respectively. That category is completed by Tom Wells, author of The Kitchen Sink.