Name: John Gabriel Borkman
Start: 2022-09-24
End: 2022-11-26
Location: Bridge Theatre

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Bridge Theatre - Covid Protocol

This venue has additional Covid-19 safety measures in place to ensure the health and well-being of the staff, performers, and guests.

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John Gabriel Borkman [19558] - LON

Genre: Play

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John Gabriel Borkman

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Simon Russell Beale plays Borkman in Ibsen’s towering masterpiece.

Simon Russell Beale was born in Penang, British Malaya in 1961. After graduating with a first in English at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, he later studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Russell Beale started his London theatre career at the [Royal Shakespeare Company](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/actor-profile/royal-shakespeare-company), where he performed in such plays as *The Man of Mode* by George Etherege and *Restoration* by Edward Bond. In 1990, Russell Beale received commendation at the first Ian Charleson Awards for his performances in *The Seagull, Troilus and Cressida* and the title role in *Edward II*, all of which were at the RSC.

Later, Russell Beale performed in Iago in *Othello* at the National Theatre, Malvolio in *Twelfth Night* at the Donmar Warehouse and the title role in *Uncle Vanya* alongside Helen McCrory and Mark Strong. Other National Theatre appearances include *Volpone*, *Jumpers* and the lead role in *Humble Boy* which was written especially for him. He also appeared as Joseph Stalin in *Collaborators*.

In 2005 Russell Beale appeared as Cassius in *Julius Caesar* opposite [Ralph Fiennes](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/stars-on-stage/ralph-fiennes) at the Barbican, following which he played King Arthur in Monty Python’s *Spamalot* at the Palace Theatre. But he's also been in musicals, winning an Oliiver Award for his performance in *Candide*.

Outside the theatre, Russell Beale has appeared in many television and film roles, namely as the Baker’s Father in *Into the Woods*. In 2014, Russell Beale was honoured as the Cameron Mackintosh Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University.

In 2015, he played Samuel Foote in *Mr Foote’s Other Leg* at the Hampstead Theatre, later transferring to the Theatre Royal Haymarket. In 2017, he played Prospero in *The Tempest*. More recently, he's starred in productions at the Bridge Theatre, including *Bach & Sons* and *A Christmas Carol* at the Bridge Theatre, as well as winning a Tony for *The Lehman Trilogy* on Broadway. 

Simon Russell Beale - LON

The Lehman Trilogy [14729] - LON

The Lehman Trilogy

The Lehman Trilogy [14729] - LON Product Media

In September 2008, the top brokerage firm Lehman Brothers collapsed. It was the largest bankruptcy filing America had ever seen, and sparked the greatest financial devastation since the Great Depression.Adapted from Stefano Massini's play, in this production for the <a href="/theatres/national-theatre">National Theatre</a>, Ben Power and director Sam Mendes tell the story of the men behind the world-famous corporation, from the moment the three brothers from Rimpar, Bavaria - Henry (Simon Russell Beale), Emanuel (Ben Miles) and Mayer (Adam Godley) Lehman - made the crossing to America in the mid-1840s.The production is epic. Divided into three acts of almost an hour each, it covers the history of this family over almost two centuries. The scope of the play is quite unbelievable, but Power's script is expertly paced, with the dialogue set to the soundtrack of Candida Caldicot's beautiful piano, rhythmic like a divine clock compelling time onwards.Tragic, funny and full of the wit and rhythm of poetry, <a href="/show/the-lehman-trilogy">The Lehman Trilogy</a> is narrated by the Lehman trio in the third person. Initially, this takes some getting used to, as it keeps the audience at a remove that doesn't exist in dramatic realism. But the narration elevates the storytelling to something like biblical authority and allows the characters to express their ambitions, fears and motivations with clarity and great humour.Es Devlin's&nbsp;set is an impressive, revolving, giant glass box split into what looks like the meeting rooms of a New York office. Behind it, a screen conjures up the backdrops to this cross-generational tale, from the plantations of Alabama to the skyline of New York.Mendes' play is one of shifting parts and constant movement. The accents change from German to New York as the immigrant brothers are overtaken by a new generation; the sign of the Lehman Brothers shop constantly evolves, each one marked in pen like a memory on the glass walls of the set; the actors use cardboard file boxes to build platforms and staircases as the giant set revolves and the years pass.Beale, Miles and Godley are astonishingly good. They play three generations of Lehman men as well as all the supporting roles. They are as malleable as clay, switching fearlessly from playing young men to old, from women to children, and the different characters are established through unique and playful refrains, repeated over and over like the chorus of a Greek tragedy.This is a long play, but the actors attack a dense script with such energy, humour and classical mastery that the drama canters weightlessly on through 174 years. This is one of those occasions when the idea of a different cast taking on the mantle is heartbreaking. The singular alchemy of acting, design and direction in this production is so superb that it must be witnessed.<a href="/show/the-lehman-trilogy">The Lehman Trilogy</a> is at the <a href="/theatres/piccadilly-theatre">Piccadilly Theatre</a> until 31st August.&nbsp;<a href="/show/the-lehman-trilogy">The Lehman Trilogy tickets</a> are available now.&nbsp;

Review - The Lehman Trilogy at the Piccadilly Theatre

Read our review of The Lehman Trilogy starring Simon Russell Beale at the Piccadilly Theatre on London Theatre.

The Lehman Trilogy Piccadilly Theatre Review | London Theatre

The Piccadilly Theatre opened on 27 Apr. 1928. The Piccadilly Theatre opened with a production of *Blue Eyes*, but then the theatre was turned into a cinema by Warner Brothers and was the house of the very first talking picture to be shown in England – Al Jolson in *The Singing Fool*. 

Suffering considerable damage during World War II, the venue had to be partially rebuilt and reopened again in April 1945 with a production of Agatha Christie’s *Appointment with Death*.

The Piccadilly Theatre is also known for the ITV variety show *Live From the Piccadilly* which began in 1986, playing on Sunday evenings and hosted by Jimmy Tarbuck. [Ian McKellen](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/actor-profile/ian-mckellen), [Judi Dench](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/actor-profile/judi-dench), Barbara Dickson, Lynn Redgrave, Julia McKenzie and Dame Edna all appearing in productions over the years. 

## Piccadilly Theatre Seating Information

The auditorium has three levels - Stalls, Royal Circle and Grand Circle.

The Stalls offers very good views of the stage, with a noticeable rake in the seating.

The overhang of the Royal Circle affects the view from Row F onwards, but the seating at this level is very well raked which allows for excellent views.

The Grand Circle is well-raked, allowing good views of the stage, but the legroom is rather slim at this level.

## Where is *Moulin Rouge! The Musical* in London?

*Moulin Rouge! The Musical* is at the Piccadilly Theatre in London. The Piccadilly Theatre is located on Denman Street. It's close to West End theatres including the Criterion Theatre.

Piccadilly Theatre - LON

Piccadilly Theatre

The power of music meets the power of theatre in this new play about Johann Sebastian

Bach & Sons [23136] - LON

Bach & Sons

Bach & Sons [23136] - LON Product Media

When the family business is music, and your father happens to be a genius, are you destined for glittering achievement - or a life underscored by inadequacy? That's a recurring motif in this new play by Nina Raine, who, as the daughter of poet Craig Raine, knows a thing or two about living with a celebrated patriarch. It's a piece about creativity and commerce, about the difficulty of balancing artistic integrity with economic survival. It's also about the eternal emotional haggling in a household where talent is regarded not only as gift from God, but where it also, more mundanely, pays the bills. What is sacrificed, when art is all - and at what cost?In her drama about Johann Sebastian Bach, his two wives and two of his sons, Raine lays out her ideas with the mathematical precision of one of the composer's fugues. Nicholas Hytner's production responds with elegance, and with a lead performance, from <a href="https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/actor-profile/simon-russell-beale">Simon Russell Beale</a>, that is both nimble and finely gauged. It is intelligent, graceful, and rather too neat: as "well-tempered,"&nbsp;you might say, as the clavier that takes centre stage.That tinkling instrument, on Vicki Mortimer's gliding set, perches on a geometrically patterned floor. Above, more harpsichords are arranged, at chromatic angles, in a spiky canopy; Jon Clark's lighting imparts a tenebrous, painterly, candlelit glow. We are, for much of the action, at home with the Bachs, where JS's painstaking, repetitive reworking of melodic figures keeps his children awake at night, and where by day he insists on giving his entire family a rigorous musical education.Wilhelm (Douggie McMeekin), the elder son, shows most promise, but stubbornly refuses to apply himself - partly because he's stymied by his father's formidable brilliance. His younger sibling, Carl (Samuel Blenkin) tries hard, but Bach is cruelly dismissive of his efforts. His wife, Barbara (Pandora Colin), manages the domestic side of the Bach family enterprise and tries to mitigate the effects of her husband's irascibility, which has the potential to sabotage him personally and professionally.Harmony and discord, major and minor: the play's shifting moods and themes are presented in counterpoint, complemented by George Fenton's selection of interludes from Bach's music. The manipulation of metaphor is adroit: there's discussion of how, in a fugue, each musical line must have its individual, unique voice, an echo of the struggle of Bach's sons to find their own niche in life, their own melody. And there are repeated mirrorings and variations: just as Carl and Wilhelm make a not-quite-matching pair, so too do Barbara and her melancholy sister, Katharina (Ruth Lass); while Anna (Racheal Ofori), a soprano with whom Bach is having an insultingly indiscreet affair, adds an uneasy, dissonant note to their domesticity, before becoming absorbed into it after Barbara's death.The execution has refinement, but the musical lectures can be dry, and there are sequences, too, that rely on over-deliberate exposition to fill in biographical or historical detail. Moments when the production's smooth surface is broken help maintain our interest - Pravessh Rana as a sadistic Frederick the Great, humiliating Bach at Court; or the anguish of Lass's Katharina, drained by successive pregnancies and the deaths of her babies. Only 10 of Bach's fabled 20 children survived into adulthood, and loss and grief are a continuous background hum, as is Bach's own legacy, both as scion of a family that had already produced noted musical talents, and as an orphan with an ambivalent attitude to intimacy and tenderness.Beale handles the writing's intricacy with dexterity, casually inflicting pain, balancing the character's wit and warmth, prickly pride and vulnerability. Yet the explosive emotional pay-off we're waiting for never quite arrives. This is an interesting play, and a clever one. But it's a little too measured to quicken the pulse.<a href="https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/bach-and-sons">Bach and Sons is running at the Bridge Theatre through 11 September. Book Bach and Sons tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.</a>Photo credit: Bach &amp; Sons (Photo by Manuel Harlan)

Simon Russell Beale shines in 'Bach & Sons' at the Bridge Theatre

Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr spearhead the Bridge Theatre. Having worked together at the [National Theatre](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/theatres/national-theatre) for over a decade as artistic and executive directors, Hytner and Starr formed the London Theatre Company as part of their efforts to open the largest Off-West End commercial theatre. The 900-seater auditorium is very adaptable and allows shows to be presented in end-on, thrust and promenade formats. 

Production aside, the theatre was praised for its abundance of ladies toilets and its on-site kitchen which, among other things, provides treats freshly baked on site during the interval. 

In 2017, the theatre's inaugural season included a new Richard Bean play *Young Marx*, starring [Rory Kinnear](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/actor-profile/rory-kinnear) and Oliver Chris, *Julius Caesar* starring Ben [Whishaw](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/actor-profile/ben-whishaw) and David Calder, and a new play by Nina Raine about the life of JS Bach starring [Simon Russell Beale](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/actor-profile/simon-russell-beale).

Notable plays at the Bridge Theatre include *The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,* as well as *My Name is Lucy Barton* and *Straight Line Crazy* — the latter two both transferring to New York.

Bridge Theatre - LON

Bridge Theatre

A Christmas Carol - The Bridge - LON [26405]

A Christmas Carol - The Bridge

A Christmas Carol - The Bridge - LON [26405] Product Media

Simon Russell Beale was born in Penang, British Malaya in 1961. After graduating with a first in English at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, he later studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Simon Russell Beale - Stars on Stage | London Theatre

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