In the last double episode of the current season, Jonny rounds off by talking to a bona fide star who’s been one almost all his acting life: two time Tony Award winner and, for a generation of movie-goers, the patron saint of being young- Matthew Broderick. Matthew is the star of movies like Ferris Bueller, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Election, You Can Count on Me and The Producers, but his career in the theatre has been immense, not least the five plays of his great mentor and collaborator Neil Simon. The last of these, Plaza Suite, with his wife Sarah Jessica Parker has brought him to London and ..read more

In the second half of their live chat, Alison Balsom and Sam Mendes discuss what it’s like for him to have been everyone’s Dad professionally since he was 24 (just don’t take his sausage roll); being a woman in a predominantly male art form, changing the paradigm of the trumpet and the spirituality of playing music in church; Sam’s transformative memory of Jackson Pollock in Venice and the joy of throwing paint; where emotion lives in their work; the trumpet piece that reflects who you are at any stage of your life; being uningratiating onstage; why Sam was in a kind of dream-state directing H ..read more

This week Jonny sees you “the coolest power couple in British theatre” (Jez Butterworth and Laura Donnelly, S3, E8) and raises you one “coolest power couple in British culture”, theatre and film powerhouse Sam Mendes and one of the world’s greatest classical and jazz trumpeters, Alison Balsom. In the first interview they’ve ever given as a couple, they treat SDJ Live at Jermyn Street Theatre to a voyage round their remarkable life and times: what is was for them both to be prodigies and whether they miss their younger selves; Alison’s calling to play the trumpet and not feeling like a soloist ..read more

This week’s guest is a man of many talents. James Shapiro is the Larry Miller Professor of English at Columbia university, he is the Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at the Public Theater in New York and he is the author of the mighty 1599, Baillie Gifford Award Winner for the best non-fiction book of the last 25 years. Jim has spent his life making Shakespeare come alive- on the page, in the rehearsal room and the lecture hall and no one does it better. This is a conversation that takes in: judging the Booker Prize; Hamilton’s 50 foot wave; working on the scary and tempestuous production of a ..read more

The second half of Jonny’s chat with actress Laura Donnelly and playwright Jez Butterworth, recorded live at Jermyn Street Theatre, delves into the twelve endings Jonny had to learn and perform for Jez’s play Parlour Song at Atlantic Theatre in New York; writing for the person you’re in love with; an actors contract with the audience and Sam Mendes’s opinion on Laura’s; what Jez believes is the foundation of drama; the ease of acting Butterworth; having daughters and writing women when you’re not one; Laura Donnelly’s locked door and Jez’s knack for finding the numinous in his everyday life; e ..read more

Stage Door Jonny goes live with “the hottest power couple in theatre” (Vogue Magazine). This week’s episode talks to the doyenne of 21st Century playwrights, Jez Butterworth (Jerusalem, The Ferryman, Hills of California) and the leading actress in his last three plays, Laura Donnelly, partners in life as well as art. Act 1 of this live show at London’s Jermyn Street theatre covers: their first meeting in an, ahem, audition room for Jez’s play The River and Laura’s observation that made the future father of her children sit up and take notice; Jez’s myesthesia, 1,000 oranges and the dangers of ..read more

In Act II of Jonny’s chat with Simon they discuss the difference between immersion and identification; how much mystery Simon leaves in his understanding of a play; the director’s 3am thinks; why Simon has no problem with leaving a show; how directing can be like working in HR, his love of first days; Shakespeare’s school of life; what Simon fears most in the theatre- and why A Christmas Carol at The Tabard theatre is so special to him. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

This week’s guest is Simon Godwin, one of the finest directors on either side of the Atlantic. Simon sits down with Jonny in majestic surroundings (work with me here) and they discuss how Simon (and Hamlet) came to Jonny’s aid when he was trying to buy a house; how Simon assembled the site-specific Macbeth that is currently playing; his three play collaboration with its star, Ralph Fiennes; the difference between certainty and confidence; why he suddenly stopped his directing career to go and train his body- and what Rupert Goold said to him as he was leaving; the moment that sticks in Jonny’s ..read more

In this week’s chat Jonny takes a stroll down memory lane with acclaimed director Dominic Cooke. They both started at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the early 90’s and Dominic rose to become artistic director of the Royal Court, Olivier-award winner, CBE and now the director of a new blockbuster stage production based on The Biggest TV Show in History. No not Seinfeld. Jonny and Dominic chat about the very particular flavour of the RSC when they met, their problem with stage violence, the “liberating duality of the theatre”, why we don’t talk enough about being bored, the unsu ..read more

In the second part of Jonny’s chat with director Dominic Cooke they discuss getting the end of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom wrong, some strategies actors use to avoid being vulnerable, Sophie Okonedo and giving her performance up to the gods, experiencing vulnerability as a director and having to be dragged back to see his own shows, his fears for free expression in young writers right now, his long collaboration with Caryl Churchill- and how Caryl was right in her play Seven Jewish Children. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more