Front Row - David Walliams, Jeanne Moreau and Sam Shepard remembered, Zinzi Clemmons, Jukebox musicals
Download David Walliams, Jeanne Moreau and Sam Shepard remembered, Zinzi Clemmons, Jukebox musicals
David Walliams has just notched up his 100th week as the UK's best-selling children's author. Among his most popular books is Gangsta Granny, and a stage version is about to open at the London's Garrick Theatre. David Walliams tells Samira Ahmed why he thinks the play is better than the book, and how his career as a children's author developed out of the comedy sketch show he created with Matt Lucas - Little Britain.
Cultural commentator Agnès Poirier reflects on the life of Jeanne Moreau, the French film actress and leading light of the Nouvelle Vague, whose death was announced today; and New York Times London theatre critic Matt Wolf remembers the American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and actor Sam Shepard, who has died aged 73.
Debut novelist Zinzi Clemmons was brought up in the USA, with roots in South Africa and Trinidad. She discusses her fragmentary book What We Lose, which was inspired by her own experiences nursing her mother through terminal cancer and explores motherhood, race and grief.
Ever since Mamma Mia! burst onto the West End stage in 2001, the jukebox musical - using a popular artist's back catalogue of music to tell a theatrical story - has become a phenomenon. But why do some make millions and some spectacularly flop? Are they a great way of bringing theatre to the masses, or simply a lazy ploy by producers to guarantee a cash cow?
Presenter Samira Ahmed
Producer Harry Parker.
Published on Monday, 31st July 2017.
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