Ginny Dougary :: Award-winning journalist and writer » Theatre http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk Politics, celebrities, interviews, opinions, travel, and more... Tue, 18 May 2010 16:07:47 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Even Lloyd Webber isn’t sure why Phantom of the Opera is his biggest hit http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2010/02/21/even-lloyd-webber-isn%e2%80%99t-sure-why-phantom-of-the-opera-is-his-biggest-hit/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2010/02/21/even-lloyd-webber-isn%e2%80%99t-sure-why-phantom-of-the-opera-is-his-biggest-hit/#comments Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:15:22 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=298 webber As a sequel to the Phantom opens, he talks about his new ‘almost cool’ status, his father’s roving eye — and the joy of a dirty joke Andrew Lloyd Webber has his kind face on and is looking straight into my eyes as I sing: “Your looks are laughable, unphoto-graphable, but you’re my favourite work of art . . .” No, alas, I am not the new Dorothy and this attempt at My Funny Valentine, in the back of a black cab, is the closest I could get to being auditioned by His Lordship. “Mmmm,” he murmurs, tactfully, “it’s rather nice, actually.” Related posts:
  1. David Blunkett: The Musical
  2. Music, food of Hove: Ginny Dougary prepares some shockingly filthy numbers
  3. How do you pen a song for the Brighton Festival Fringe?
]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2010/02/21/even-lloyd-webber-isn%e2%80%99t-sure-why-phantom-of-the-opera-is-his-biggest-hit/feed/ 0 The many lives of Rebecca Miller http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/07/16/the-many-lives-of-rebecca-miller/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/07/16/the-many-lives-of-rebecca-miller/#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:13:29 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=209 Photo: Mark Harrison About five minutes into the interview, Rebecca Miller starts to cry. We had been talking about writing, and I read out a line from the end of one of her short stories about different women’s lives which touched me. Louisa, a painter who has a complicated relationship with her mother, has come home to lick her wounds after an emotional collapse in New York. The family are around the table and her mother is drinking, as usual, which enrages the daughter, but when she looks up, “Her mother was looking at her with such love that Louisa could hardly bear to see it: it was like looking into the sun.” Related posts:
  1. Peter Hall – my memories of Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett
  2. Oh, what a roguish and pleasant slave
  3. Even Lloyd Webber isn’t sure why Phantom of the Opera is his biggest hit
]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/07/16/the-many-lives-of-rebecca-miller/feed/ 0 Peter Hall – my memories of Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/04/04/peter-hall-my-memories-of-harold-pinter-and-samuel-beckett/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/04/04/peter-hall-my-memories-of-harold-pinter-and-samuel-beckett/#comments Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:48:43 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=182
  • The many lives of Rebecca Miller
  • Steven Berkoff: angry man or cursed by the past?
  • Even Lloyd Webber isn’t sure why Phantom of the Opera is his biggest hit
    • ]]>     http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/04/04/peter-hall-my-memories-of-harold-pinter-and-samuel-beckett/feed/ 0     Steven Berkoff: angry man or cursed by the past? http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/03/24/steven-berkoff-angry-man-or-cursed-by-the-past/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/03/24/steven-berkoff-angry-man-or-cursed-by-the-past/#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:42:51 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=171 You definitely don't want to be around Johnny Friendly when he smiles, and the same could be said of Steven Berkoff, who plays the murderous, most unfriendly, union boss in his play of Elia Kazan's classic film On the Waterfront. The acting-directing-writing-theatre-company-founding polymath has his own intimidating form when it comes to interviewers (particularly women) as well as theatre critics, whom he has abused in various ways, with insults, bannings, even a death threat. Related posts:
    1. Oh, what a roguish and pleasant slave
    2. David, Kimberly, Boris and Petsy: it’s showtime
    3. Peter Hall – my memories of Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett
    ]]>     http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/03/24/steven-berkoff-angry-man-or-cursed-by-the-past/feed/ 0     David Blunkett: The Musical http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2005/10/01/david-blunkett-the-musical/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2005/10/01/david-blunkett-the-musical/#comments Sat, 01 Oct 2005 21:45:15 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=25
  • David, Kimberly, Boris and Petsy: it’s showtime
  • Who is David Cameron?
  • Happy days
    • ]]>     http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2005/10/01/david-blunkett-the-musical/feed/ 0     David, Kimberly, Boris and Petsy: it’s showtime http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2005/04/13/david-kimberly-boris-and-petsy-its-showtime/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2005/04/13/david-kimberly-boris-and-petsy-its-showtime/#comments Wed, 13 Apr 2005 15:57:03 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2005/04/13/david-kimberly-boris-and-petsy-its-showtime/
  • David Blunkett: The Musical
  • Who is David Cameron?
  • David Hockney on why iPhones are the future for art
    • ]]>     http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2005/04/13/david-kimberly-boris-and-petsy-its-showtime/feed/ 0     Out of the shadows http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2002/01/28/out-of-the-shadows/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2002/01/28/out-of-the-shadows/#comments Mon, 28 Jan 2002 20:45:20 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=21 Ginny Dougary Richard Eyre found the making of his first big film about Iris Murdoch a form of therapy, a way of coming to terms with his own parents life and death There is little in Sir Richard Eyre’s person or habitat to suggest a troubled soul beset by fundamental uncertainties. Indeed, if he hadn’t chosen to expose his inner conflict in a memoir which has been described as a minor classic — Utopia and Other Places — it is doubtful whether anyone would still be asking him the questions he attempted to answer for himself so eloquently nine years ago. Related posts:
    1. Steven Berkoff: angry man or cursed by the past?
    2. The many lives of Rebecca Miller
    3. Even Lloyd Webber isn’t sure why Phantom of the Opera is his biggest hit
    ]]>     http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2002/01/28/out-of-the-shadows/feed/ 0     Oh, what a roguish and pleasant slave http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/1992/11/22/oh-what-a-roguish-and-pleasant-slave/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/1992/11/22/oh-what-a-roguish-and-pleasant-slave/#comments Sun, 22 Nov 1992 19:57:28 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=11 Ginny Dougary Kenneth Branagh appears to think he is in a comedy sketch in which the interviewer is cast as the fall guy. Our question and answer routine is like something scripted by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. All the punch lines hinge on the same word. ''Isn't it stressful'', I ask, ''directing the woman you live with?'' ''Well, as Hamlet would say...'' ''Can you only achieve public success at the cost of private happiness?'' ''You know what really fascinates me about Hamlet is...'' ''Do you take part in the showbiz circuit?'' ''I'm no good at small talk. Playing Hamlet reminds you of how precious life is.'' Is he taking the mickey or what? Related posts:
    1. Steven Berkoff: angry man or cursed by the past?
    2. Peter Hall – my memories of Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett
    3. A close encounter with George Clooney
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