Category Archives: Theatre

Bernard Slade: From ‘Bewitched’ to Broadway

Posted on May 2, 2025 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Bernard Slade, who was born on this day in 1930, created TV shows such as “The Flying Nun” and “The Partridge Family” but he had his greatest success with the smash hit Broadway play “Same … Continue reading →

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Stephen Sondheim was grateful for London’s ‘fresh eye’

Posted on March 22, 2025 by admin

By Ray Bennett It wasn’t only Broadway that Stephen Sondheim loved. In London in 2011 to mark his 80th birthday, the Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist who was born on this day in 1930, accepted a Special Laurence Olivier Award … Continue reading →

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Martin Shaw hasn’t always been a TV copper

Posted on January 21, 2025 by admin

By Ray Bennett Martin Shaw, who turns 80 today, is known best for playing TV coppers in “The Professionals” and “Inspector George Gently” but he also has had a long stage career in roles from Stanley Kowalski to Lord Goring … Continue reading →

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That time when Lauren Bacall gave me a smacker

Posted on September 16, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett ‘You know how to whistle, don’t ya? Just put your lips together and blow.’ Whenever I watch the movie ‘To Have and Have Not’, that provocative line Lauren Bacall (photo below) says to Humphrey Bogart always gives … Continue reading →

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The sad fate of Carolyn Jones, the original Morticia Addams

Posted on April 10, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett The Ringwood Music and Dramatic Society production of the hit Broadway musical ‘The Addams Family’ this week is the latest in a long run of versions of the original one-panel cartoon series created by cartoonist Charles Addams … Continue reading →

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Trevor Howard on hellraising with Flynn and Mitchum

Posted on September 29, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – ‘Nonsense,’ said English actor Trevor Howard. I had asked him if all the tales of him being a hellraiser were true. ‘Well, of course, one used to make noise when one was much younger but … Continue reading →

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Why Anthony Quayle was upset about the movie ‘Sleuth!’

Posted on September 7, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – British actor Anthony Quayle, who was born on this day in 1913, was instrumental in the enormous success of the stage thriller ‘Sleuth!’, and he was angry about being ignored for the hit first film … Continue reading →

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Robert Lansing, intense and unhappy with television

Posted on June 5, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – ‘Television is just awful,’ Robert Lansing told me. ‘I’ve done a lot of it but not from choice. I’ve done an awful lot of garbage; an awful lot of lousy things. I’m not saying I’m … Continue reading →

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Why British comic Eric Sykes didn’t become a movie star

Posted on May 4, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Eric Sykes, who was born on May 4 one hundred years ago, was one of Britain’s most treasured comedians on radio and television but he might have become a leading actor in movies too as … Continue reading →

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When Gillian Anderson hit a home run onstage

Posted on June 14, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – At the Royal Court Theatre in April 2004, a  tiny, waif-like creature strolls silently onto a wide, spare stage with the audience still settling and chattering and then suddenly becoming quiet. There is a window … Continue reading →

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