Stage Door Jonny

By Jonathan Cake

Hosted by actor Jonathan Cake, Stage Door Jonny is a podcast about theatre ... and life ... and life in the theatre. Jonathan has appeared in countless plays around the world - and made a fair few cel... more

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FAQs about Stage Door Jonny:

How many episodes does Stage Door Jonny have?

The podcast currently has 91 episodes available.

Stage Door Jonny episodes:

August 10, 2025 Denis O'Hare (Act II)
In the second half of Jonny’s chat with actor and writer Denis O’Hare, we hear the harrowing tale of a confrontation at a French airport, its relationship to his investigation of male violence in his play An Iliad, performing it for an audience of soldiers, not understanding what just happened after performing a show, how bad blocking once made him cry, why some plays can’t be left at the curtain call- and the experience of working on Sondheim’s last work.
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42min
August 08, 2025 Denis O'Hare (Act I)
Tony Award-winner, 2,800 year old vampire, bona fide American Horror and one of the most thrilling actors on the modern stage or screen, Denis O’Hare is Jonny’s guest this week. In his dressing room at the National Theatre in London, far too close to the time to go onstage, Denis and Jonny discuss what learning means to an actor, brutalist architecture, why he’s a bad director, saying “why?”, the influence of his friend and virtuoso writer John Logan, the indignity of his first role (a pig), music and poetry in his work, contradicting a legendary director of comedy and celebrating not working with the people he shouldn’t.
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37min
August 01, 2025 Matthew Warchus (Act II)
In the second half of their chat, the artistic director of the Old Vic, director of the internationally acclaimed hit musical Matilda and perhaps modern theatre’s pre-eminent master of comedy, Matthew Warchus, discusses laughter, audience noises, not having a plan, the illusion of fusion and the philosophy that it will all work out in the end; the obstacle of fear, the unknowability of an actor’s courage, loving Michael Gambon and not hassling him about his lines; how watching a good rehearsal spikes his blood sugars, being in an elevator with Harvey Weinstein, being trapped in a relentless loop of dissatisfaction, his legacy- and the nights sitting in that beautiful Old Vic auditorium that will stay with him forever.
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30min
July 31, 2025 Matthew Warchus (Act I)
One of the titans of the English-speaking theatre joins Jonny for a deliciously insightful chat this week. Sitting in the storied auditorium of the Old Vic, outgoing boss, Olivier and Tony award-winning theatre and film director, Matthew Warchus guides Jonny through a decade of coming into that space to think; why directors should be waiters, Tragedy and whether or not he sees the point of it, under-rehearsing and why vagueness is important, what not to say in America, his foundational relationship with Mark Rylance and the awkward eavesdropping that shaped his approach to being a director; turning mathematics into emotion, using distance onstage and why not all laughs are equal.
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53min
July 25, 2025 Indira Varma (Act II)
In the second part of their chat Indira reveals to Jonny that she didn’t know she is the Best Reviewed Actor on the British stage: they discuss sharing the boys dressing room, whether or not she thinks chemistry is bollocks, what she makes of her theatrical partnerships with Ralph Fiennes, Andrew Scott and Ramy Malek and whether as a woman she’s ever felt a lack of space onstage or in the rehearsal room. They discuss not playing the title role, learning to talk to the audience from Judi Dench, the thrill of playing non traditional spaces, her very particular butterfly effect, what she absolutely doesn’t need from a director, why she’d make a good acting teacher but a bad director, working with Harold Pinter, the great advice he gave her and the unstinting honesty he showed her in his famous shed. At the end of this gloriously comprehensive chat the discuss leaving a show before its even started, ticket prices, people of colour at the Oliviers and auteur directors.

CONTAINS VERY STRONG LANGUAGE!
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53min
July 24, 2025 Indira Varma (Act I)
In this week's episode Jonny shares grapes, birdsong and theatrical butterflies in the garden of “Britain’s best reviewed” theatre actor (J Cake)- Olivier award-winning star of Game of Thrones, Indira Varma. Indira talks about her calmness under pressure, what she thinks rehearsal should be, what daring to fail actually means, seminal experiences working with Katie Mitchell, the Maly theatre and Martin Crimp. How children teach us to be and not to perform, her desire to an actor of the body and not just the head, trying and failing to please her dad, embarking on Tim Crouch’s experiment in radical storytelling and the challenges of Jamie Lloyd’s production of The Seagull.
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49min
July 17, 2025 J. Smith-Cameron (Act II)
In Act 2 of their chat, J Smith Cameron talks Jonny through the rich stew of differing ideas that went into making the West End Juno and the Paycock and the difficulty of reconciling different opinions in the rehearsal room, especially when war is waging in the world outside. J ruminates on whether it’s harder for an artist to be soulful when they get successful. She talks about the part that made her feel like a race car driver, acting through grief and the parts that she and Jonny felt like they shouldn’t have attempted after the death of a parent; the weird assimilation that sometimes happens between actors and their characters, how female actors don’t get to take up the space of their male counterparts and Kenneth Lonergan’s genius advice for writers and actors- including how her husband helped her to play the scene in Succession where Roman wants Jerry to be mean to him so he can attain orgasm.
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39min
July 16, 2025 J. Smith-Cameron (Act I)
The star of Rectify and the unforgettable Gerri Kellman in Succession sits down with Jonny to talk about her storied life on the New York-and now West End- stage. From the tyranny of acting to the influence of her sister Joanne, what she owes her and the influence of sibling order on being an actor (John Hurt had strong feelings about it), to a life changing trip with her sister to New York, being winked at by Dudley Moore and the break that brought her her first leading role on Broadway, which also happened to be her first job in New York; what “preparing properly” for an audition really means; the hellish preparation J had for playing Juno in Juno and the Paycock opposite Mark Rylance; what was hard about revisiting a part she had played 10 years before; how Kieran Culkin changing blocking can make her forget lines- and the mysterious nature of memory.
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46min
July 07, 2025 Season 4 Highlights (Act II)
n Act 2 of the highlights of Season 4, Jonny kicks off (appropriately) by discussing the famous moment when James Corden stopped the show at the Old Vic to watch a penalty shoot out with the audience; he compares notes with Maxine Peake on audiences and their different levels of tolerance; he discusses Bobby Cannavale doing Glengarry Glen Ross with his hero, Al Pacino; he hears from Cynthia Nixon what it was like to be starring in two shows on Broadway at the same time; and he hears from the radically honest Alan Cumming about the actors best kept secret- an experience onstage where he felt something didn’t quite work.
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44min
June 30, 2025 Season 4 Highlights (Act I)
Stage Door Jonny is back! Bursting into Summer like a less Nigel Farage-friendly Rod Stewart at Glastonbury, your favourite habitué of the alley round the back of a theatre launches his new season of conversations with world-renowned theatre artists with a highlights package from Season 4. From the romance of the stage door with Matthew Broderick, to a wee-based confession from Rhea Norwood, Bobby Cannavale on what Al Pacino would do about a ringing telephone during the show, Bertie Carvel’s pre-interview preparation, Paapa Essiedu’s hair-raising dressing room ritual, a rock star’s dedication to not showing his junk, Sam Mendes on auditioning babies and the glorious Broadway moment of Helena Wilson, Leanne Best, Ophelia Lovebond and Laura Donnelly, the ladies of Jez Butterworth’s hit play The Hills of California.
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33min

FAQs about Stage Door Jonny:

How many episodes does Stage Door Jonny have?

The podcast currently has 91 episodes available.