This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Roy Smiles | |
---|---|
Born | 1966 (age 57–58) London, England |
Occupation(s) | Dramatist, playwright, songwriter |
Years active | 1987–present |
Website | https://roysmiles.bandcamp.com |
Roy Smiles (born 1966) is a singer-songwriter & playwright from Ealing, London. He is also an occasional actor.
Smiles has written 27 theatre plays, the best known of which is Kurt and Sid , a 2009 London West End production about the fictional meeting of Sid Vicious and Kurt Cobain, starring Danny Dyer & Shaun Evans. [1]
He has released ten albums of songs: [2] Drunks & Dreamers, [3] Time's Moving On, [4] Seize The Day, [5] Autumn Song, [6] Bremen, [7] The Trains & The Rain, [8] Northern Angels, [9] Lost Souls, [10] [11] November's Child, [12] [13] and Tales Of The Oceans. [14] [15]
He has also released ten compilations of his songs: London Hymns, [16] Winter's Child, [17] Clancy's Song, [18] If Summer Comes, [19] Ballads Of The Thames, [20] Child Of Two Rivers, [21] Go Gently (Best Of), [22] A Land Called Home (Best Of II), [23] Forty Big Hits [24] and 40 More Big Hits. [25]
His first play staged in 1992 at the Battersea Arts Centre, Schmucks [26] was about a fictitious meeting between Groucho Marx and Lenny Bruce.
The Promised Land, a play commissioned to commemorate the 40th anniversary of V.E Night and set on the same night, was staged at the Kings Head Theatre in 1995. [27]
Smiles' stage plays focus largely on biographical subjects such as Albert Camus (The Weight Of Days), Evelyn Waugh (Waugh In Winter), Marilyn Monroe/Arthur Miller (Reno), [28] George Orwell (Year of the Rat), [29] Tony Hancock (The Lad Himself) [30] & Robert F. Kennedy (The Last Pilgrim). [31]
A number of his plays have debuted or transferred to theatres around the world, such as Pythonesque, [32] the story of the Monty Python team, which opened in South Africa in 2008 before moving to Edinburgh as part of the Fringe Festival in 2009. [33]
The Boys Of Summer - his play set in a HIV ward was staged at the Old Red Lion in 1995, with Ian Bartholomew. [34]
Stand Up - his play about the London stand-up comedy scene was staged at the Old Red Lion in 1999, with Lucy Davies. It was revived at The Kings Head Theatre in 2006 under the title The Ho-Ho Club directed by Karl Howman and starring Sally Lindsay. [35] [36]
Bombing People - a farce about the Enola Gay, was staged at the Jermyn Street Theatre in 2000, with Michael Fitzgerald. [37]
Sick Dictators - a farce about Chilean dictator General Pinochet, was staged at the Jermyn Street Theatre in 2001, directed by James Bolam. [38]
In 2002 he played the role of Itzak Heller, a Jewish collaborator, in Roman Polanski's Oscar winning Best Picture The Pianist. [39]
Ying Tong - A Walk with the Goons, the story of Spike Milligan's nervous breakdown whilst writing The Goon Show, was staged at West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2004, transferring the following year to the New Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End before touring the US, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. [40] [41]
Year Of The Rat - his play about George Orwell's attempt to woo wife-to-be Sonia Brownell whilst writing 1984 was staged at West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2007, with Hugo Speer as Orwell. [42]
Good Evening - about the Beyond The Fringe team was broadcast on Radio 4 in 2008, with Benedict Cumberbatch as Dudley Moore. [43]
The Last Pilgrim - about Senator Robert F. Kennedy's doomed campaign for the American Presidency was staged in London in 2010. [44]
The Lad Himself - his play about self loathing radio & TV comedian Tony Hancock was staged at the Edinburgh Festival in 2013. [45]
Memories Of A Cad - his radio play about actor Terry-Thomas dealing with Parkinson's Disease was broadcast on Radio 4 in 2014, with Martin Jarvis as Terry-Thomas & Alistair McGowen as Richard Briers. [46]
Reno - his play about Marilyn Monroe & Arthur Miller's marriage imploding during the making of The Misfits had its world premiere at the Brighton Festival in 2014. [47]
Plum - his play about writer PG Wodehouse's infamous broadcasts from Berlin in WW2 was staged at The Court Theatre in Christchurch in 2014. [48]
Year of the Rat, [49] Ying Tong , Pythonesque and Kurt & Sid are published by Oberon Books. [50]
Funny People, his book on his comedy heroes, was published by Oberon Books in 2016. [51]
Ten Plays by Roy Smiles was published by Oberon Books in 2018. Containing his plays on Albert Camus, Richard Burton, Oscar Wilde/George Bernard Shaw, Evelyn Waugh, Tony Hancock, Lenny Bruce, the Enola Gay, the Iraq War, Marilyn Monroe/Arthur Miller & the 2011 London Riots. [52]
Ying Tong, Pythonesque and Good Evening were broadcast on BBC Radio 4. As were his plays: Dear Arthur Love John, [53] Goodnight From Him [54] and Memories Of A Cad. [55]
The Funny Girls - his play about Barbra Streisand & Joan Rivers rivalry/friendship, was first staged at The Wimbledon Theatre in September 2021. [56] [57]
A Sober October - his biographical memoir on surviving bowel cancer, was published on Amazon Books in 2022. [58]
The Lad Himself - his play about Tony Hancock, had its London premiere at Upstairs At The Gate in Highgate in April 2022. [59]
Forty three of his plays are self-published on Amazon Books. [60]
Lyrics - his book of the lyrics of his one hundred & forty songs, was published on Amazon Books in November 2023. [61]
|
|
Sir Lenworth George Henry is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer.
Dylan William Moran is an Irish comedian, writer, actor and artist. He is best known for his observational comedy, the comedy series Black Books, and his work with Simon Pegg in films such as Shaun of the Dead and Run Fatboy Run. He was also one of two lead characters in the Irish black comedy film A Film with Me in It.
James Christopher Bolam is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Terry Collier in The Likely Lads and its sequel Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Jack Ford in When the Boat Comes In, Roy Figgis in Only When I Laugh, Trevor Chaplin in The Beiderbecke Trilogy, Arthur Gilder in Born and Bred, Jack Halford in New Tricks and the title character of Grandpa in the CBeebies programme Grandpa in My Pocket.
West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London. Along with New York City's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London. Famous screen actors, British and international alike, frequently appear on the London stage.
Sutton Lenore Foster is an American actress. She is known for her work on the Broadway stage, for which she has won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical twice, in 2002 for her role as Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and in 2011 for her performance as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, a role which she reprised in 2021 for a production in London and for which she received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Her other Broadway credits include Grease, Little Women, The Drowsy Chaperone, Young Frankenstein, Shrek the Musical, Violet, The Music Man, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. On television, Foster played the lead role in the short-lived ABC Family comedy-drama Bunheads from 2012 to 2013. From 2015 to 2021, she starred in the TV Land comedy-drama Younger.
Tanya Christine Franks is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Rainie Cross in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders.
James Frederick Grenville Lance is an English actor, best known for his appearances in a number of British comedy series and the British-American comedy series Ted Lasso for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2022.
Douglas William Hodge is an English actor, director, and musician who has had an extensive career in theatre, as well as television and film where he has appeared in Robin Hood (2010), Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return and Diana (2013), Penny Dreadful (2016), Catastrophe (2018), Joker and Lost in Space (2019), and The Great (2020–2023).
Sean Foley is a British director, writer, comedian and actor. Following early success as part of the comedy double act The Right Size and their long-running stage show The Play What I Wrote, Foley has more recently become a director, including of several West End comedy productions. In 2019, he was appointed as Artistic Director of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
Matt Roper is a British comedian, writer and musician.
Hannah Waddingham is a British actress, singer and television presenter. She is known for playing businessperson Rebecca Welton in the comedy series Ted Lasso (2020–2023), for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2021 and the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2021 and 2022. She has also appeared in a number of West End shows, including Spamalot, the 2010 Regent's Park revival of Into the Woods, and The Wizard of Oz as the Wicked Witch of the West, and has received three Olivier Award nominations for her work.
Sara Patricia Pascoe is an English actress, comedian, presenter and writer. She has appeared on television programmes including 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown for Channel 4, QI for BBC and Taskmaster for the digital channel Dave.
David Hawthorne was a British stage and film actor. He played the leading man in a number of films during the silent era, but later switched to character roles. One of his more notable roles was that of Rob Roy MacGregor in the 1922 film Rob Roy.
Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge is an English actress, screenwriter and producer. As the creator, head writer, and star of the comedy series Fleabag (2016–2019), she won three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes and a British Academy Television Award. She received further Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for writing and producing the spy thriller series Killing Eve (2018–2022).
Barking in Essex is a black comedy directed by Harry Burton. It is based on the 2005 script by Clive Exton, and made its world premiere at the Wyndham's Theatre in September 2013.
Susan Indiaba Wokoma is a British actress, writer and director. She is best known for her roles as Edith in the Enola Holmes films, Cynthia in Chewing Gum, Raquel in the E4/Netflix show Crazyhead and Fola in Cheaters. Wokoma was listed as one of Europe's Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2017 and named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit by an international jury the same year.
Anuvab Pal is an Indian stand up comedian, screenwriter, playwright and novelist. He is occasionally featured as a rotating co-host on Season 4 of the podcast The Bugle.
Samantha Louise Baines is an English actress, author and comedian. She is best known for her appearances in Magic Mike Live London, The Crown (Netflix), Lee Nelson's Well Funny People, Hank Zipzer (CBBC) and A Royal Night Out.
The Play That Goes Wrong is a 2012 play by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields of Mischief Theatre Company. It won Best New Comedy at the 2015 Laurence Olivier Awards. The show has been running since 2012 in London; since 2014, the play has undertaken five tours of the UK.
Robin Hawdon is an English playwright and novelist, with previous additional careers as actor and theatre director. He is best known for his stage comedies and novels.