Howdy! This week on The Standard Theatre Podcast, saddle up as we ride into town (well Sloane Square) to review Cowbois at the Royal Court. We’re also running the slide rule over The Good John Proctor at the Jermyn Street Theatre and interview Anaïs Mitchell, the creator of Hadestown, which included a first for the podcast.
Nancy and the Nicks were all at the Court to see Cowbois, described as a “rollicking queer western like nothing you’ve seen before”. It was written and co-directed by Charlie Josephine the writer of I, Joan at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2022.
This RSC transfer features a stellar cast (in some stellar costumes) including Sophie Melville, Vinnie Heaven, Bridgette Amofah and Lucy McCormick but did our reviewers have a rootin’ tootin’ good time?
We also review The Good John Proctor, which is a response to Arthur Miller’s classic play The Crucible by Talene Monahon and directed by Anna Ryder. Set shortly before the events of Miller’s work it looks at the world in which the adolescent girls Betty Parris and Abigail Williams find themselves in.
Hadestown returns to London shortly after a run at the National Theatre in 2018, and this time it’s heading to the West End. Mitchell, who wrote the music, lyrics and book tells us how she’s been working on the show, in various forms, for about 20 years.
It started as a song that came to her while driving between gigs for her day (or night) job as a musician, became an amateur show, a concept album, an actual show that went to Canada, the National and then Broadway where it won nine Tony Awards.
In a very special first for the podcast, Mitchell plays two of the songs from the show live on the podcast: Way Down Hadestown and We Raise Our Cups.
Elsewhere in news, we discuss the RSC’s inaugural season under Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans, as well as the casting announcement that Adrian Dunbar, star of Line of Duty, is going to be making his musical theatre debut.
Get in touch with us at theatrepod@standard.co.uk.
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