Theatre Legacy Quotes

The magic word 'Shakespeare' always freezes you in your chair.

The Old Vic has always been first and foremost an actors' theatre, a home for great talent and memorable performances.

You cannot underestimate the influence of Shakespeare.

While Shakespeare wasn't the first voice in the room, in North America and Europe, he's one of the loudest voices.

I would have started the National Actors Theatre 30 years earlier.

'Angels in America' - which is composed of two three-hour plays, 'Millennium Approaches' and 'Perestroika' - proved to be a watershed drama, the most lyrical and ambitious augury of an era since Tennessee Williams's 'The Glass Menagerie.'

Atlanta was a welcoming presence for a lot of artists; they called it 'the Mecca of the South.' I got to see the Negro Ensemble Company, Cicely Tyson, Geraldine Page, Ruby Dee, all onstage.

If you look at the muscularity of something like 'Wicked' and the way it has just spawned sort of generations of young people wanting to get involved in the theatre - it's brilliant.

I got the O.B.E because I represent England outside of England more...but thinking of me as an actor, I haven't done all the classical theatre, all the great roles. Think of Helen Mirren and me. Helen, who I adore, is a friend - should be Dame. I am the rebel, the revolutionary on the side.

The creation of the UCB Theatre is by far my proudest professional accomplishment.

You have to understand, that's all I've ever wanted: for London to have a credible musical voice. I will honestly, honestly die happy knowing that I saw it happen.

Particularly with the plays I choose, they're good parts, and they're parts that have been around long before a bad actor played them, and will be around long after I play them. Part of what I enjoy about the theatre and acting is that sense of history.