The Latest Breaking News from Sam Mendes

After landing the gig to score Skyfall, composer Thomas Newman wound up with a case of the "2 A.M. sweats" because of the opportunity at hand.

The Royal Box is usually occupied by members of the royal family, celebrities and public figures

“There’s been no shortage of stage portrayals of real life VIPs in the past couple of years,” said Clive Davis in The Times. Jack Thorne’s “thoughtful, often wickedly droll” new play, about the relationship between Richard Burton and John Gielgud during rehearsals for a 1964 production of Hamlet on Broadway,…

Sam Mendes reignites Gielgud and Burton’s Broadway Hamlet; a climate crisis play is powered by bikes (and eco-shaming); Timberlake Wertenbaker has fun with Jules et Jim; and Rhiannon Neads hits escape velocity

The star of hot new Sam Mendes play The Motive and the Cue talks fame, fraught rehearsals and theatre’s big culture shift. By Alexandra Jones

Mark Gatiss is superb as Sir John Gielgud in Jack Thorne’s affecting play about Hamlet rehearsals with Richard Burton

Sam Mendes was inspired to commission The Motive and the Cue after finding a book on the tumultous 1964 staging of Hamlet on Broadway - now it’s at the National Theatre

And what a lying, cheating, adulterous bunch they are

The Motive and the Cue depicts John Gielgud’s struggle to direct Richard Burton in Hamlet on Broadway. Its writer describes the task of putting his words into such celebrated mouths