Description

Book Synopsis

Michael Coveney has been writing theatrical obituaries alongside reviews for several decades and makes a telling, sometimes surprising, selection of the best performers of our time, from Laurence Olivier to Alan Rickman, Peggy Ashcroft to Helen McCrory, Richard Briers to Ken Dodd. Most of these obits appeared in the Guardian, several in the Observer, the Financial Times and the Evening Standard.

The fifty articles are arranged in chronological order of each actor’s demise and constitute a vivid history of postwar theatre through the lives of the actors, ‘the abstract and brief chronicles of the time’ as Hamlet called them. There are happy/sad juxtapositions of shooting stars Robert Stephens and Alan Bates; tragic niece and aunt, Natasha Richardson and Lynn Redgrave; classical queens Diana Rigg and Barbara Jefford; and versatile showtime hoofers Una Stubbs and Lionel Blair.



Trade Review
'Great idea, great cover, great writing. The Final Curtain is a book we need.' Simon Callow

The Final Curtain: Obituaries of Fifty Great

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    A Hardback by Michael Coveney, Sam Mendes, Mia Breuer

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      Book details

      Publisher Unicorn Publishing Group
      Published 15 September 2023
      ISBN-13 9781911397625
      978-1911397625
      ISBN-10 1911397621
      Also in:
      Biography Biography: arts and entertainment Collected biographies Entertainment Individual actors

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Michael Coveney has been writing theatrical obituaries alongside reviews for several decades and makes a telling, sometimes surprising, selection of the best performers of our time, from Laurence Olivier to Alan Rickman, Peggy Ashcroft to Helen McCrory, Richard Briers to Ken Dodd. Most of these obits appeared in the Guardian, several in the Observer, the Financial Times and the Evening Standard.

      The fifty articles are arranged in chronological order of each actor’s demise and constitute a vivid history of postwar theatre through the lives of the actors, ‘the abstract and brief chronicles of the time’ as Hamlet called them. There are happy/sad juxtapositions of shooting stars Robert Stephens and Alan Bates; tragic niece and aunt, Natasha Richardson and Lynn Redgrave; classical queens Diana Rigg and Barbara Jefford; and versatile showtime hoofers Una Stubbs and Lionel Blair.



      Trade Review
      'Great idea, great cover, great writing. The Final Curtain is a book we need.' Simon Callow

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