The UK’s two most famous (and generously funded) theatre companies, the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, have gone head to head in the West End this week, both enjoying transfers of critically lauded work to London’s theatreland. The NT’s production of One Man, Two Guvnors (starring James Corden) opened to raves at the Adelphi, while (not to be outdone) Matilda the Musical got its long-awaited London bow at the Cambridge theatre last night, with the critics similarly gushing Photograph: Tristram Kenton
The NT and RSC were among the winners at the Evening Standard awards last weekend, but this week’s biggest winner was Sheridan Smith, who swept up gongs at both the ES and Clarence Derwent awards. The actor, who has already won an Olivier earlier this year for her exuberant performance in Legally Blonde the Musical, was on this occasion recognised for her more reserved turn in Trevor Nunn's revival of Terrence Rattigan’s Flare Path
Photograph: David Fisher/Rex Features
Tributes too – but of a more sombre kind – for Shelagh Delaney, who passed away on Sunday. The Taste of Honey author created her breakthrough work for the stage when only 19, and went on to work for TV, film and radio. And she wasn’t the theatre’s only loss this week, with the death of John Neville, a great classical actor who was the first artistic director of the Nottingham Playhouse and played Hamlet opposite Judi Dench’s Ophelia at the Old Vic in 1957 Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive
Opera North has become the latest company in the opera world to embrace the digital sphere, with plans unveiled for a digital download service so that fans can stream full-length works or acts on to their PCs. It has yet to be announced when the service will go live or how much it will cost. Meanwhile, in Covent Garden, the Royal Opera House has been staging Yes, a new work with a libretto by the playwright Bonnie Greer, who has turned her appearance on Question Time, alongside BNP leader Nick Griffin, into an opera Photograph: Tristram Kenton
Sir Bruce Forsyth, Brucie to his friends, has announced he will be making his first London stage performance in more than a decade when he stars for one night only (as they say) at London's Royal Albert Hall. Bruce Live will showcase comedy and music and – one would hazard a guess – his well-worn catchprase. In unrelated news, the Leicester comedy festival has launched a competition targeting the more mature comedian – only those aged over 55 are allowed to enter. Perhaps, at 83, Brucie might be tempted Photograph: Rex Features
Meanwhile, news of two truly bizarre-sounding film-to-stage adaptations have emerged: musical versions of A Fish Called Wanda and Rocky. John Cleese has revealed that he is at work on an adaptation of his 1988 comedy, after MGM agreed to sell the rights to the stage version. Meanwhile, Sly Stallone has teamed up with Ukrainian heavyweight boxers (I’m not making this up) the Klitschko brothers to create Rocky Das Musical in Germany. I for one can’t wait to see the chicken-chasing scene as a song and dance number Photograph: Snap/Rex Features
Up in Glasgow, there are more conventional theatrical goings-on. Dominic Hill, the new artistic director of the city’s Citizens theatre, has announced his inaugural season, which features an impressively heavyweight lineup of King Lear, Pinter’s Betrayal and a Beckett double bill. Ticket prices are conversely lightweight, with a limited number of tickets priced at only 50p. Over at Hill’s old stomping ground, Edinburgh’s Traverse, there’s news that the theatre is planning to work with 50 playwrights to celebrate it 50th anniversary in 2013 Photograph: Jane Bown
