OVERVIEW
PEOPLE
MEDIA

One Night Only

Stage Door Jonny

BY JONATHAN CAKE.
IN CONVERSATION WITH SAM MENDES AND ALISON BALSOM.
17 March 2024

Overview

“Theatre is fast and enjoyable, and truly rewarding. I believe in great live performance.” – Sam Mendes

Hosted by renowned 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 celebrated acquaintances along the way.

For one night only, Jonathan Cake welcomes Sam Mendes, one of Britain’s best-known directors across stage and screen, and Alison Balsom, award-winning classical trumpeter, to the JST stage. Following the announcement that Sam will be making four separate films about The Beatles, this is an unmissable chance to hear about the couple’s esteemed careers as they share memories, disasters, triumphs, and disasters with Jonny in their first ever interview together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People

Sam Mendes
Guest
Sir Sam Mendes founded and ran the Donmar Warehouse for ten years between 1992 and 2002. He was also the first Artistic Director of the Minerva Theatre in Chichester, the founding director of The Bridge Project and the founding director of Neal Street Productions. His films include American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road, Away We Go, Skyfall, Spectre, 1917, and Empire of Light. He was knighted in the 2020 New Year Honours List for services to drama.
Alison Balsom
Guest
Alison Balsom has performed with some of the greatest conductors and orchestras of our time including Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, New York and London Philharmonic orchestras, Britten Sinfonia, the Academy of Ancient Music, Scottish Ensemble, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, The English Concert and The Balsom Ensemble, a handpicked group of leading Baroque soloists. Alison will give the UK premiere of Wynton Marsalis’ Trumpet Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Antonio Pappano at the Barbican in London (11 April) and Bristol Beacon (12 April). Alison has recorded exclusively with EMI Classics (now Warner Classics) since 2001. Her next album (her sixteenth with the label) will be the hotly anticipated Baroque Concertos album with Trevor Pinnock, and will be released in Autumn 2024. Alison was awarded an OBE for Services to Music in the Queens 90th Birthday honours in 2016.

Jonathan Cake
Interviewer

Media

“A leading director. He’s always been prepared to take a chance.”
The Observer on Sam Mendes

 
“The trumpet soloist Alison Balsom is a blast of fresh air”
The Times