{"id":611376,"date":"2025-12-04T09:45:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T09:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/611376\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T09:45:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T09:45:36","slug":"billy-crudup-denise-gough-on-creating-high-noon-for-london-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/611376\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Crudup & Denise Gough On Creating \u2018High Noon\u2019 For London Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE:<\/strong>\u00a0The clock is ticking as Billy Crudup<\/a> (The Morning Show) and Denise Gough<\/a> (Andor) run a scene from Oscar-winning writer Eric Roth<\/a>\u2019s stage adaptation of High Noon<\/a>, director Fred Zinnemann\u2019s classic movie Western released at the height of McCarthyism and the Red Scare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMood boards adorn the walls of the rehearsal hall in Clerkenwell, London, with images of Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly \u2014 who played the key roles of just-retired Marshal Will Kane and his newlywed bride Amy Fowler in the 1952 film scripted by Carl Foreman \u2014 plus faded portraits of real-life 1870s frontier folk and blueprints of Tim Hatley\u2019s design\u2019s for the play\u2019s fictional New Mexico Territory town of Hadleyville, where bad men are headed on the noon train out for vengeance and Kane is their target.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s a makeshift clapboard buggy in the center of the room as Thea Sharrock, the play\u2019s director, and a phalanx of creatives consider various design options for the thrilling theatrical event that begins performances at the Harold Pinter Theatre on December 17.<\/p>\n

\n\tIndustry titans Paula Wagner<\/a> (Mission Impossible, Marshall) and Tom Werner<\/a> (The Cosby Show, Roseanne) are producing, and they\u2019ve stopped by for a visit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018High Noon\u2019 mood board<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBaz Bamigboye\/Deadline<\/p>\n

\n\tWagner pauses to tell us that\u00a0High Noon\u00a0is being performed in real time. Like, whoosh! \u201cNinety minutes, no intermission, edge of your seat,\u201d the onetime Tom Cruise agent says succinctly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film, she points out, \u201cwas an allegory for the \u201950s. Now it\u2019s an allegory for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCrudup and Gough are creatures who have prowled many stages. Crudup made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard\u2019s\u00a0Arcadia\u00a0in 1995, and 16 years later he returned to perform in a revival. I also caught him in Jack O\u2019Brien\u2019s magnificent 2006 Lincoln Center Theater production of Stoppard\u2019s epic\u00a0The Coast of Utopia\u00a0which won Crudup a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor.<\/p>\n

\n\tGough won an Olivier and a collection of other silverware\u00a0for Best Actress for her leading role in\u00a0People, Places and Things, Duncan Macmillan\u2019s play directed by Jeremy Herrin that originated at the National Theatre and later transferred into the West End<\/a> and then to St. Ann\u2019s Warehouse in Brooklyn. She also won a Best Supporting Actress Olivier for the National\u2019s sublime revival of Tony Kushner\u2019s\u00a0Angels in America,\u00a0which moved to Broadway where Gough was nominated for a Best Featured Actress Tony.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, it\u2019s fair to say that both are better known in the wider world for their screen work. Crudup starred with Kate Hudson in\u00a0Cameron Crowe\u2019s\u00a0Almost Famous, one of my favorite movies,\u00a0and he\u2019s currently to be seen delivering an angry\u00a0monologue to George Clooney in Noah Baumbach\u2019s Netflix film\u00a0Jay Kelly.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd the thespian has won acclaim \u2014 and two Supporting Actor Emmy Awards \u2014\u00a0for playing the unscrupulous, high-wired TV and film executive Cory Ellison in\u00a0The Morning Show, although we both agree that he behaves with uncommon magnanimity in Season 4\u2019s final episode.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe had to do the right thing, finally \u2026\u201d he retorts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI greet Gough and start to say,\u00a0\u201cSo you play\u2026,\u201d a sentence she merrily completes by joking, \u201cGrace Kelly, obviously.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAre we supposed to think about the movie in this iteration, I ask?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI would say, yes,\u201d Crudup responds. \u201dInsofar as the iconography\u201d is concerned, he adds.<\/p>\n

\n\tCrudup notes that Roth\u2019s adaptation of High Noon isn\u2019t a Western about a Marshal. Rather he says, \u201cIt\u2019s about people trying to get along in a civilized way in an absolutely lawless community,\u201d like now, I suggest.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cExactly,\u201d Gough agrees.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBilly Crudup and Denise Gough at rehearsal for \u2018High Noon\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBaz Bamigboye\/Deadline<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOr before there were laws, or at every stage where somebody has disrupted the system of order that keeps us all civilized,\u201d Crudup argues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd so how do you start to police an uncivilized community? Where do you start by saying what the truth is? Where do you start by saying what\u2019s right and wrong? So those themes that the movie explores so well, I think,\u00a0harkening back to those as well, it\u2019s useful for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGough nods and adds that she believes\u00a0High Noon is \u201cabout what a community does when faced with standing behind somebody with a moral conscience. So we\u2019re seeing somebody trying to keep this community together and the community itself is fracturing off. And so what do you do when you\u2019re called upon to be on the side of something true and just? And I do think that with the world the way that it is now, it\u2019s very relevant to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt seems to me that\u00a0honor and justice aren\u2019t words that come to mind much nowadays judging by what emanates from the corridors of power in the White House and Westminster, I point out.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWell, but just not in the context we\u2019re familiar with,\u201d Crudup reasons. \u201cThey\u2019re calling what we would call unjust things, just.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201dThey\u2019re calling things that we would call lies, facts. So they\u2019re using a lot of the same verbiage, but they\u2019re referring to things that feel like bullsh*t,\u201d he adds with a Cory Ellison level roar of indignation.<\/p>\n

\n\tTheater is not just a big part of Crudup\u2019s life; it\u2019s a necessity. To him, theater is \u201cbeing with my friends, talking about doing plays \u2026To me, it\u2019s like attending any kind of community forum, whether it\u2019s church, whether it\u2019s city council meetings, whatever, provokes a response in you about your civic obligation. Unless you live in the woods somewhere by yourself, you have some civic obligation. And it could just be paying taxes, but it could also be ingenuity. Something that you bring specifically to a group of people through your communication. And to me, it happens in the theater,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Gough, the stage taught her about the world. \u201cI left school really young, like 15. I had no education,\u201d reveals the Wexford, County Clare native. \u201cSo my education came through plays. So Se\u00e1n O\u2019Casey taught me all about the history of my country and activated that part of me. But all the great American writers, I learned so much going to the theater, but not just going to the theater, reading the pieces of work,\u201d she says, citing contemporary British playwright Ryan Calais-Cameron\u2019s play\u00a0Retrograde, about how a young Sidney Poitier grappled with race and McCarthyism early on in his career. The Kiln Theatre production transferred into London\u2019s West End for a limited run earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\n\tGough was gripped, as was I, by Calais-Cameron\u2019s \u201creimagining of Sidney Poitier in a room being asked to sign to betray all his colleagues and he doesn\u2019t sign,\u201d she says, recalling the drama\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd so you learn about periods of history through going to the theater. And then at times when the world is in turmoil as we are now completely, to go and see something that hearkens to that I think is really powerful\u2026,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t(L-R) Gary Cooper, Lon Chaney Jr, Grace Kelly and Eve McVeagh in \u2018High Noon\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEverett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth Crudup and Gough speak with warmth and appreciation for the \u201cgrace,\u201d \u201cspirit\u201d\u00a0and \u201cauthority\u201d of Roth\u2019s adaptation of this seminal Western movie, his first work for the stage.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is a man who has had this enormous career,\u201d Gough states as she ticks off his films \u2014\u00a0Forrest Gump,\u00a0The Horse Whisperer,\u00a0The Insider,\u00a0Ali,\u00a0Black Hawk Down,\u00a0Munich,\u00a0Dune: Part One, to name but a few of the titles he\u2019s penned. \u201cBut what I loved about working with Eric so far is that his sort of, \u2018this is not my world\u2019 and letting us help to create the play so that it can be the best play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe beauty of the piece, it seems to me, is that it\u2019s in no way just the film plonked on the stage of the Harold Pinter Theatre.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt would be impossible to do the movie,\u201d says Crudup, leaping out of his chair to make his point.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou think about those cuts in the movie as the clock is ticking \u2026 How do you do that? I mean, put a lazy Susan out there and just have it rotate around really quick?\u00a0So you have to reimagine the entire enterprise and leave it to Thea to bring in Tim Hatley and say, \u2018Okay, we\u2019ve got some ideas.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGough makes the case that the part of Amy \u201cwasn\u2019t really anything in the film because back then those parts weren\u2019t thought and considered in the same way. I mean, she\u00a0[Grace Kelly] was wonderful and it was wonderful to watch, but doing the play we\u2019ve been allowed to create this woman that is actually a much more fleshed out character.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOr to borrow a Jane Fonda comment [in relation to\u00a0Coming Home], the character of Amy is a \u201csun and moon in her own right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s been a privilege to see Gough\u2019s career soar following\u00a0her breakthrough\u00a0in\u00a0People, Places and Things. She\u2019d been working towards that level of recognition, she says, for 15 years. One of her first interviews back then was with this writer, and she remembers telling me how she hadn\u2019t had an acting job for 15 months and had been working as a cleaner.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m still really good at cleaning,\u201d she declares.<\/p>\n

\n\tTick-tock, my time is up with them and I swiftly scoot over to Sharrock before anyone can tackle me.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter directing a string of stage shows including\u00a0After the Dance,\u00a0The Bodyguard, The Sunshine Boys, Equus\u00a0[Daniel Radcliffe\u2019s stage debut] and\u00a0Clarence Darrow\u00a0with Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic, Sharrock turned to directing for the screen (Me Before You\u00a0and\u00a0Wicked Little Letters are but two of her pictures) before the Oxford University graduate has returned to her theatrical roots.<\/p>\n

\n\tSharrock cuts to the chase. \u201cIt\u2019s a brand new play, there\u2019s no two ways about it,\u201d and even though there\u2019s much reverence for the\u00a0High Noon\u00a0movie, she\u2019s emphatic in stating that \u201cwe are on the journey of making it as theatrical as not only as it needs to be, but as it warrants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s also a fierce fealty to Roth\u2019s script, which Sharrock expounds on. \u201cWhat\u2019s amazing is how it lends itself to theater and to being a theatrical piece because it is so humane in what it\u2019s tackling. Morality, states of conscience, and it\u2019s a love story. It\u2019s kind of Greek and epic in its depth \u2026 Then you roll into that Eric, who is the most beautifully poetic wordsmith, and it\u2019s his first play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThea Sharrack watches \u2018High Noon\u2019 rehearsal <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBaz Bamigboye\/Deadline<\/p>\n

\n\tThe director marvels at Roth\u2019s ability \u201cto be poetic with his use of language \u2014 he just goes straight to the heart. So if you layer that into a kind of Greek classic structure of a story, which is really straightforward, you have something deeply theatrical that is ready to absolutely speak to a live audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSharrock is another who believes that\u00a0High Noon\u00a0\u201cwill resonate very profoundly,\u201d as it did in its day.<\/p>\n

\n\tI quickly ask Sharrock how they\u2019ve built up the Amy Fowler role for Gough?<\/p>\n

\n\tSharrock praises what she terms \u201dthe gift of Denise,\u201d noting that the actress \u201clends her [Amy Fowler] immediately such a weight and a level of human understanding\u201d and that the chemistry between Gough and Crudup\u00a0\u201cis completely natural and so respectful.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI mention the heartbreaking production of Terence Rattigan\u2019s\u00a0After the Dance\u00a0that she directed at the National Theatre in 2010 featuring unforgettable\u00a0performances from Benedict Cumberbatch and Nancy Carroll; it\u2019s become one of my handful of theatrical touchstones. Sharrock feels that\u00a0High Noon\u00a0might have a touch of\u00a0After the Dance about it in terms of \u201cthe human soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI exit the rehearsal hall and make my way to a makeshift green room next door to hang out with Wagner and Werner.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey tell me that it all started with Roth. \u201cHe\u2019s wanted to do this for a long time,\u201d Wagner explains.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEric Roth at rehearsal for \u2018High Noon\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJustine Matthew<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBut Eric has never written a play,\u201d Werner adds. \u201cAnd so for him, this was really a labor of love that has turned into an exciting experience for Eric \u2026 He says to me, it\u2019s the most spectacular experience of his life and he\u2019s trusted us to get this to a point that it is at.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWerner, reflecting similar comments from the show\u2019s leads, says that \u201cwe\u2019re living in a time right now where there\u2019s really a lack of courage. And what\u2019s exciting about it is that live theater is so important right now because the movie business, it\u2019s a challenging business right now. And in theater you can experience something, and with great theater, it becomes an important part of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWagner jumps in to note that more than ever the live experience has become \u201ccritical because it fulfills needs that are not readily available socially, culturally, even for young people, theater is more vital than ever because it brings people together. Communication, socialization, experience, shared experience,\u201d says Wagner, who produced\u00a0The Heiress\u00a0on Broadway with Jessica Chastain and\u00a0Pretty Woman: The Musical\u00a0in New York City, London and elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSmiling broadly, Wagner pointedly observes that \u201ctheater is the one place where you\u2019re not going to be able to replace actors with AI on stage. You\u2019re not going to be able to do that. Somebody will say, \u2018Yes you can,\u2019 but you won\u2019t. And I think that the film business, which we\u2019re part of, is finding its new identity\u2026Film hasn\u2019t gone away, it\u2019s evolving into what it\u2019s going to become. It\u2019s not going away. It\u2019s vital. It will happen. But the structures that made the film business are changing. There\u2019s a consolidation and verticalization of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThese are wise words from two titans of the entertainment business and we agree that we could discuss what ails the industry ad infinitum, but alas, they have more pressing matters, like: They have a show to put on, and the move into the Harold Pinter for tech run-throughs is just days away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWe chew the fat a tad about how\u00a0High Noon\u00a0was an allegory of the \u201950s, but its scope resonates much further in the world today.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTom Werner and Paula Wagner in London<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBaz Bamigboye\/Deadline<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Werner says that he doesn\u2019t want to get too earnest about it \u201cbecause it has to be entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe adds, \u201cBut the fact is that we live in a world right now where people are not standing up for the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWagner cautions that the play isn\u2019t medicine. \u201cIt\u2019s entertainment,\u201c she insists, and that we can be entertained by things that make us think.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNow, we\u2019re not having horses and shoot \u2019em ups and riding across the stage \u2026 but it is a Western, it is set in the West, which is very symbolic to the world, the spirit of the Western, the settling of the West. Law and order in the West, all of these issues that came out of the West. So it\u2019s not like medicine, it\u2019s entertainment\u2026, \u201c Wagner reasons.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe ensemble also includes Billy Howle (The Serpent, The Perfect Couple), Rosa Salazar (Play Dirty), Simon Chandler (The Crown, The Diplomat), James Doherty (The Gold, Say Nothing), Misha Handley (The Stranger), Joshua Hill (The Game, Pride), Jonah Russell (Kill List, Lady Chatterley\u2019s Lover), Rebecca Lee (Miss Austen, Beyond Paradise) and\u00a0<\/strong>Tim Steed (Breeders, The Crown).<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFull \u2018High Noon\u2019 cast at first day of rehearsal<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJustine Matthew<\/p>\n

\n\tSet and costume design is by Tony and Olivier winner Tim Hatley\u00a0<\/strong>(Life of Pi, Back to the Future The Musical), lighting design by Tony and Olivier winner Neil Austin\u00a0<\/strong>(Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Paddington The Musical, Born with Teeth), music by Chris Egan and sound design by\u00a0<\/strong>Nick Lidster. The choreographer and movement director is Lizzi Gee, the fight director is Kate Waters, and the casting director is Jina Jay.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE:\u00a0The clock is ticking as Billy Crudup (The Morning Show) and Denise Gough (Andor) run a scene from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[126453,45327,748,177453,393,177454,4884,177455,257,190919,47319,58591,16,15,27923],"class_list":["post-611376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-billy-crudup","tag-breaking-baz","tag-britain","tag-denise-gough","tag-england","tag-eric-roth","tag-great-britain","tag-high-noon","tag-london","tag-london-west-end","tag-paula-wagner","tag-tom-werner","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-west-end"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115660662424933053","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}