Potter Spotter

Time to update my list of Harry Potter film actors seen on stage again, something I'd planned to do last year when I was hoping to catch John Hurt in The Entertainer; sadly he had to drop out due to illness, which turned out to be fatal, and of course Alan Rickman has also sadly become unavailable to collect since I last updated this list.

I've only added four new names in the last two years, but with Shirley Henderson and Evanna Lynch within a couple of weeks of each other it seemed as good a time as any. Harry Melling has increased his lead as the Potter actor I've seen on stage most times - which just goes to show how much theatre he does, considering I collected my first two cast members (Sophie Thompson and Mark Williams in the same production of As You Like It) in the year he was born.

I'm using the Wikipedia cast list, which also includes actors whose entire performance ended up on the cutting room floor. I've linked to my reviews of the shows where possible; any title that isn't a link means it's from before I started reviewing online.

Alumni day

I kept waking up in the night so remembering bits of dreams; I dreamt that I'd gone back to Exeter to visit my old university drama department. The current students included a middle-aged Italian woman who was accompanied everywhere by several elderly nuns; she also spoke no English so took a male interpreter with her everywhere, including to the toilet. There were also two Quidditch teams, one of which all had dyed purple hair and carried broomsticks, the other were all blind. I turned to whoever I was there with* and said "the current students aren't as good as our year, our eccentricities were nowhere near as contrived."

*I always seem to have someone to talk to in dreams but no idea who it is, so it might just be me doing a Miranda turn to camera.

Potter Spotter

It's been far too hot lately to try and do anything sensible, so I'm doing this instead: I last made a list of all the Harry Potter actors I'd seen on stage two years ago, and now seems a good time to update it, what with the news of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child coming to London next year. That'll properly bring the worlds of Potter and theatre together, but in the meantime this is my version. Weez, revstan and trpw all have their own lists.

We're using the Wikipedia cast list, which also includes actors whose entire performance ended up on the cutting room floor, which means Jamie Campbell Bower's young Grindewald has now joined Toby Regbo's young Dumbledore; sadly the similarly-deleted Peeves will not be joining them as Rik Mayall has died.

I've added 12 more names to the list since 2013, and I've highlighted them in blue. There's bound to be performances I've missed but from the ones I've found or remembered, Harry Melling seems to be the Potter actor I've seen in the most different shows. Given that some of the actors on this list I first saw more than twenty years ago, it shows you just how much stage work Melling, whom I only first "collected" in 2009, has done. Kathryn Hunter is close behind him, and although her stage career has been a lot longer I've only been following it for a similar period of time, and have Potter to thank for introducing me to one of my all-time favourite actors.

I've linked to my reviews of the shows where possible; any title that isn't a link means it's from before I started reviewing online.

Twitaceous Era 53: 21st century urchin

This week on my Twitter feed, that accent is apparently called "Multicultural London."

You know the accent Harry Melling does in peddling? What do you reckon actors call that on their Spotlight page?
10:46 AM - 11 Mar 2015

@Weez I'm basically asking what the Charmian Hoare-approved, non-offensive term for "chavvy accent" is.

11:03 AM - 11 Mar 2015

 

@Weez "21st century urchin."

11:06 AM - 11 Mar 2015

Twitaceous Era 40: I embrace change!

This week on my Twitter feed: The answer to a question Charles Dickens never thought to ask.

These carollers are singing entirely the wrong lyrics to "Get Dressed You Merry Gentlemen."
6:59 PM - 10 Dec 2014

I think @emsler must have taken up lighting design - walked into the Menier to see Parker's forearms the main focus.
FAVORITE 1
7:58 PM - 10 Dec 2014

Aaron Tveit spat on me, so we're technically married now #straightthroughnointervaltweets
FAVORITES 2
10:26 PM - 10 Dec 2014

Twitaceous Era 18: Not being ghastly to women

This week on my Twitter feed, some production photos suggest a play I'm seeing tomorrow isn't as dry as expected.

Continuing my trend of seeing Curious Incident in every theatre it plays in. Might have to draw the line at Broadway though.
 7:19 PM - 9 Jul 2014

I heard the Prime seats hadn't made it to the Gielgud but looks like they're here now.
7:20 PM - 9 Jul 2014



For a moment there I was worried the little train wasn't going to make it round the corner #intervaltweets
8:46 PM - 9 Jul 2014

Dick Twittington 46: Moderately funny

This week on my Twitter feed, my internal calendar is all confused at going to Shakespeare's Globe in the winter.

Ray Cooney's still working? RAY COONEY'S STILL ALIVE?
12:14 PM - 22 Jan 2014

"81-year-old directs farce he wrote decades ago" suggests just the kind of radical theatre I expect from the Menier http://shar.es/UYGjd
12:17 PM - 22 Jan 2014

There is NO earthly reason I should have Madonna's "Dear Jessie" stuck in my head. And yet...
1 FAVORITE
2:55 PM - 22 Jan 2014

Dick Twittington 26: Whatever gets you through the day

This week on my Twitter feed, a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon finally yields a photo of an unfortunately-named rowboat, and I fret over how much of a theatrical secret to reveal online before one of the professional critics cheerfully spoilers it for everyone.

You know, I'm sure we'll all get used to those blue conversation lines once they've been on Twitter for a few months or years... Oh.
11:09 AM - 4 Sep 13

Ugh. When you get hired specifically  to make judgement calls in boss' absence, then get bollocked for doing it #fuckyouWednesday
5:27 PM - 4 Sep 13

Just realised I started University TWENTY YEARS AGO. I'm so old, I'm legally dead.
7:26 AM - 5 Sep 13

Dick Twittington 17: Friday means lots of things

This week on my Twitter feed, my current job gets in the way of my tweeting. The nerve!

FITE! FITE! http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/07-2013/nicholas-hytner-submits-formal-objection-to-southb_31186.html
12:38 PM - 3 Jul 13

In all this Snowden business everyone seems to be ignoring the key issue, which is that I Would.
1 RETWEET 1 FAVORITE
7:42 PM - 3 Jul 13

Finally in the new Southwark Playhouse main house. Is it really bigger than the old one? I guess appearances are deceptive.
7:57 PM - 3 Jul 13

Potter Spotter

As I have an unofficial list of Harry Potter actors seen on stage in my head, I thought I'd follow the example of Weez, revstan and trpw and try to make it an official one online. Like them I'll use this as my definitive cast list, it seems to include people who ended up on the cutting room floor, so I guess Toby Regbo counts.

I'll probably come back to this over time as I add more or realise there's someone I'd missed. If I've seen someone on stage loads of times I may well forget the odd production I've seen, but after all it only takes one show for it to count. Unfortunately this isn't a list that's physically possible to complete, what with Richard Harris not waiting for me to see him on stage before dying.

I've linked to my reviews of the shows where possible; any title that isn't a link means it's from before I started reviewing online.