by Theatreland is always excited when a new Sheridan Smith show is in the works. The 42-year-old British actress has spent a remarkable 25-year career starring in musicals, plays, TV shows and films, winning two Oliviers, two International Emmys, a BAFTA and a National Television Award along the way. . She has also released two music albums – both top 20 in the UK album charts.
Now she’s returning to the stage in Opening Night, a new musical based on John Cassavetes’ 1977 film, which opens at the Gielgud Theater tomorrow. The new show has book and direction by Tony and Olivier award-winning Belgian director Ivo van Hove, and music and lyrics by Rufus Wainwright.
It’s Myrtle, an actress whose life is upended by the death of a fan just days before the opening of a new play starring Smith. “I knew I had to do the play as a way to take control of what I went through,” Smith told one paper, referring to her own 2016 breakdown. “I felt so ashamed at that time. I have to prove that I am not that person. It was very cathartic.”
On the eve of what promises to be another extraordinary performance, we have to look at the best roles the actor has played over the years.
Into the Woods (1998-1999)
In her first major stage role, 17-year-old Smith starred as Little Red Riding Hood in The Donmar’s production of Into the Woods in 1998. Stephen Sondheim’s musical weaves together various Grimm tales. book by James Lapine, and has been revived on stage many times since its 1987 Broadway premiere. The production was directed by John Crowley and was nominated for an Olivier award. In an interview in 2021, Smith said that when she met Sondheim she greeted him, “Hiya, Steve!”. He apparently replied, “I take it you’re playing Little Red Riding Hood?”
Little Shop of Horrors (2006-2007)
This horror rock musical was performed on Broadway in 1982 and in the West End the following year. When he returned to the West End in 2007 Smith played shop worker Audrey, who works in a defunct flower shop with her co-worker Seymour (Paul Keating). Alistair McGowan played Audrey’s sadistic dentist boyfriend, Orin. The performance put 25-year-old Smith on the map: she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
Legally Blonde (2009-2011)
It was a role that seemed made for Smith. She played Elle Woods, who was the lead in the original London cast when the Broadway musical adapted from the hit film was transferred to the West End.
When her boyfriend breaks up with her saying she’s not serious enough to be wife material, Elle applies to Harvard Law School to prove him wrong.
“Sheridan Smith is very much the star of the show,” said the Standard. “Elle says her favorite drink is Red Bull, and everything Smith does has a caffeine kick. It is a performance of great warmth and enthusiasm.”
She was nominated for the Evening Standard Theater Award for the first time and won the Olivier for Best Actress in a Musical.
Flare Path (2011)
This 2011 revival of Terence Rattigan’s World War II play marked Trevon Nunn’s artistic directorial debut at Theater Royal Haymarket, and was chosen to mark the British writer’s 100th birthday. It also starred Sienna Miller, James Purefoy and Harry Hadden-Paton, and was so popular that it extended its run to meet demand.
Smith starred in the love triangle between a movie star, a pilot and his wife: “The best performance comes from Sheridan Smith as Count Doris’s wife,” said the Standard. “Always a hot spot, Smith evokes a troubled charm, but in her moments of doubt and sadness she is most striking.” Smith won Best Actor at the Evening Standard Theater Awards for the role and also another Olivier, two in two years.
Hedda Gabler (2012)
Ibsen’s 1890 play follows Hedda, a woman who feels trapped within a loveless marriage. This staging at The Old Vic (Anna Mackmin directed and adapted Brian Friel’s 2008 script) was well reviewed, and once again it was Smith who gave the highest praise: “It’s hardly a new face Sheridan Smith, but here, in her most ambitious role to date, confirms that she is one of the stage stars of her generation. She is very playful in Ibsen’s portrait of a woman who rebels against a numb and rigid world,” said the Standard.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2013)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream was the fourth show of acclaimed director Michael Grandage’s season at the Noël Coward Theatre. Smith starred alongside David Walliams as Bottom, and with sixties music and a hippie aesthetic (spliffs included) it was undoubtedly a novel interpretation of Shakespeare’s classic comedy.
But while some critics loved it, describing the play as a “sexy dream” and a “constant delight for the eye”, others, like the Standard, felt it lacked magic. What was agreed upon was Smith’s success playing Titania (as is traditional she also played Hippolyta): “As Hippolyta, ruler of the Amazones, Smith is like an extra from Mad Men,” said the Standard. “But when the action moves to the chaotic forest it’s a different story, bringing bohemian energy and effortless magic to Titania, queen of the fairies.”
Funny Girl (2015-2017)
This 1964 musical reimagines the life of Broadway star Fanny Brice, unpacking her turbulent relationship with gambler Nicky Arnstein. It was a big hit: Barbara Streisand starred in the original production, which received eight Tony Award nominations. In the UK, Smith played Brice for several years, as the production moved from the Menier Chocolate Factory to the Savoy Theater and then went on a UK tour.
“Sheridan Smith is one of the true golden performers of the British Theater – a versatile star whose ability to be sensitive, touching and funny all at once. Here she is in glorious form,” said the Standard in its four-star review.
Shirley Valentine (2023)
The Standard’s Nick Curtis may have found fault with the way the story of a working-class Liverpool housewife on holiday in Greece came of age, but he was effusive in his praise of Smith’s performance.
In last year’s revival of Willy Russell’s 1986 play, at the Duke of York’s Theatre, she held the audience in the palm of her hand, with critics praising her for her wit and determination: “With almost any other actress I doubt it would be. invisible patronizing and old-fashioned,” said Curtis.
Opening Night, Gielgud TheatreMarch 27 to July 27; buy tickets here
