Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes CBE (born 1 August 1965) is an English film and stage director, producer and screenwriter. In theatre, he is known for his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1994), Oliver! (1994), Company (1995), and Gypsy (2003). He directed an original West End stage musical for the first time with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013).
For directing the play The Ferryman, Mendes was awarded the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play in 2019.
Sam Mendes And Jack Thorne Team For Hot New Play On Making Of Legendary Richard Burton And John Gielgud Broadway Production Of ‘Hamlet’
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes (1917) has linked up with acclaimed His Dark Materials writer Jack Thorne on a new project for the stage that will explore how legendary acting figures Richard Burton and John Gielgud put Hamlet on Broadway in 1964, with a little help from Elizabeth Taylor.The result of two years of writing and workshops is a Thorne-penned drama called The Motive and the Cue, which Mendes will direct on the UK National Theatre’s Lyttelton stage in Spring 2023.
With such heavyweights attached, it already has the weight and feel of a landmark production.The high profile show is a joint production between the National Theatre and Neal Street Productions, the All3Media-owned indie founded nearly 20 years ago by Mendes with TV and film producer Pippa Harris and Caro Newling, who runs its theater division.
The Motive and the Cue follows on from highly successful NT and Neal Street Productions collaboration The Lehman Trilogy, also directed by Mendes, which won top accolades at the Tony awards this year.The NT and Newling confirmed news of the production following approaches from Deadline.Rehearsals for The Motive and the Cue will begin in late January or early February and tickets will go on sale before the end of the year via the NT website, we hear.Newling said that casting is underway for actors to portray Gielgud, Burton and Taylor, who at the time was regarded as the biggest movie star in the world.Set design is by Es Devlin, costumes by Katrina Lindsay and lighting design by Jon Clark.
The trio all worked on The Lehman Trilogy. Sound design is by Paul Arditti, and Benjamin Kwasi Burrell has signed on as composer.Lockdown discoveryThorne told Deadline the project began during lockdown when
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