Their discussion mirrors the argument between Graham Norton and Kevin Spacey. Spacey has attacked the BBC for airing long-running talent shows (How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, Any Dream Will Do, and I’d Do Anything) which seem to be serial adverts for Andrew Lloyd Webber and various musicals. Norton has defended the BBC as follows:

Maybe [Spacey] should put a musical on and people will go to see that. … I think it would be very bad to do a reality show casting the lead of The Iceman Cometh, called ‘We’d Bore Everyone’.

It is true that it’s harder to whip up interest for “straight” plays. Does this tell us more about “boring” plays, or about the image of straight theatre, or about audience culture? Television is increasingly filmed in quicker and quicker scenes, with the camera always moving. Can modern audiences simply not cope with more involved drama, if it is stripped of attention-stirring frequent scene changes and without the added glitz of familiar music?

Well… at least The Blue Room has a jazz trio accompanying the action!

For an old-skool night out at a “proper” play, The Blue Room is showing from 29th April until the 3rd May. Worcester Live box office: 01905 611 427.

McKellen has become something of a poster boy for British theatre. He perhaps entered the true mainstream with a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his role in the acclaimed Gods and Monsters, and has since starred as Gandalf in the global success Lord of the Rings trilogy, before triumphantly returning to the theatre.

The text of the Independent article follows below.

McKellen attacks Singapore for laws against homosexuals
By Cahal Milmo

Sir Ian McKellen may have agreed to keep on his underpants to avoid upsetting Singaporeans when he performs as King Lear today. But when it comes to the Asian city state’s ban on homosexuality, he is naked in his displeasure.

The celebrated actor, who appears in the nude in his critically acclaimed role but was forced to cover up for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s visit to Singapore this week, launched a withering attack yesterday on the enclave’s continuing criminalisation of gay men.

In comments that will cause discomfort for Singaporean legislators who have sought to modify its image as a strict patrician society, the Academy Award nominee, 68, said he found the law - introduced under British colonial rule - “personally offensive”. He added: “As a gay man invited here with the full cognisance of the government, how can they not notice that my right to have sex is inhibited by the country?”

The legislators said they would not advocate changes to the law, which classifies gay sex as “gross indecency” and is punishable with up to 10 years’ imprisonment.

“McKellan attacks Singapore for laws against homosexuals”

Also see Reuters, which reports Q&As from a press conference.

Q: You seemed to have stepped into a local debate about decriminalising homosexuality. Why did you do it?

A: “It would be impertinent of me to comment on Singapore society but this happens to be a law that I find personally offensive and I don’t think it should be on the statute books because it inhibits my free behaviour as an openly gay man.

“I feel free to comment on behalf of people who do have to suffer laws which the British empire invented and left behind.

“It’s easier for a foreigner to come in and speak to truth as he sees it.”

Q: Were you aware that Singapore senior statesman Lee Kuan Yew has said it would be difficult to repeal the law on sexual acts between men because of popular opposition from the country’s conservative majority.

A: “Yes. Then he must expect gay people not to come here, he must expect gay people to emigrate, he must expect no company to have their gay employees work here. Under that pressure he will change the law, I guarantee you. I’ll take a bet.”

Q: Do you think the public pays too much attention to what celebrities think?

A: “The press like to talk to actors. They mustn’t be surprised when actors talk back to them. We are privileged that we have access to the media and our opinions sometimes are reported and I appreciate that. But I only speak on things that I am an expert on…You won’t hear me talk about my politics, you won’t hear me talk about my vegetarianism, you won’t hear me comment on the Iraq war. You’ll only hear me talk about being gay and being an actor. I am just public on those two issues.”

And there’s some more good news for McKellen or Tolkien fans:

Q: A film version of Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” has been stalled because of a dispute between “The Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson and film company New Line Cinema which holds the film rights to the book. Has there been any movement on the film development?

A: “I detect that there is movement and it’s movement in the right direction. I’ll be seeing Peter (Jackson) when we tour (New Zealand) next month. I hope it will happen.”

Orlando Bloom is interviewed by cultural guru Mark Lawson in the Guardian today.

Deciding that he “really needed to do some theatre because I was feeling a bit thin”, [Bloom] was offered the part of Steven, the quietest of the three brothers in In Celebration, but initially said no. “I was, like, ‘You want me to play Steven? Why? He doesn’t say much, does he?’ I just didn’t get it.” He asked for the showier role, Andrew, but realised the character was too old, and was persuaded that Steven was a good entry into theatre. He believes now that the modesty of the role is an advantage. “I saw the potential for a great ensemble play. I was very conscious of not wanting a star vehicle. I wanted to crack this perception of, ‘Oh, it’s Orl …’” His own name trips him up, as if he’s wary of becoming one of those performers who refer to themselves with ease in the third person. “You know, that it’s ‘Orlando Bloom.’” He completes the name, but with exaggerated distance, as if it were a fictional character “doing some theatre”.

The Telegraph also covered In Celebration earlier this week, but focusing on Storey.

Storey fell into theatre in 1967 when the Court finally staged a play he’d submitted eight years earlier. The Restoration of Arnold Middleton earned him a share of the Evening Standard’s award for most promising playwright. It took his co-winner, Tom Stoppard, four years to come up with a full-length follow-up to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. In four months, Storey wrote several of the plays on which his reputation still rests.

“I don’t think I’d been to the theatre more than a dozen times in my life,” he says.

The text of the article follows below.

Elton’s tale of serial murder

Ben Elton’s provocative drama Popcorn is brought to the stage at the Swan Theatre next week.

The Swan Theatre Amateur Company is tackling his story of serial killers and hostages from Tuesday, June 26 to Saturday, June 30.

Central character Bruce Delamitri gets home after winning an Oscar for his latest ultra-violent film to find two real-life serial killers waiting for him.

Their indiscriminate slaughter has earned them the nickname of the Mail Murderers [sic -- this should read "Mall Murderers"] from the popular Press and their plan is to make the film director accept responsibility for the killings they have carried out.

The hostage situation will only be resolved if he confesses to the killers being influenced through his films. Meanwhile, the SWAT team gathers outside ready to go in — but will they do it before too many people die on national TV?

It contains scenes of violence and strong language.

Call the box office on 01905 611427. Tickets £7-£9.50.

Today I am to appear in something called the Big Debate, organised by the University of Central England as part of the New Generation Arts Festival. I am to speak to the (hopefully rhetorical) question whether or not “there is life in regional arts”. Some people seem to think that arts in regional England have been on life support for too long. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport would probably be delighted to hear that the brain stem of regional arts is dead, and funds can now be safely diverted to the Olympics. Region is a baggy word, chosen by the Londonocentric in preference to the word “provinces”. North-western Europe is a region too, a region that we are supposed to belong to, but when it comes to the arts, we couldn’t be more different.