Podcast · Arts & Books

Stage Door Jonny

by Jonathan Cake · English · Arts & Books

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 celebrated acquaintances along the way. So it is that he's assembled a formidable cast of actors, direc

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 41 min
Latest: 14 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

14 Oct 2026 · 52 minNew

Joe Mantello (Act II)

Part two of Jonny’s chat with actor/director Joe Mantello starts with a discussion of the response to their production of Death of a Salesman, the staging details that bothered some people, the director as dad, the award that was Joe’s professional pinnacle (and the closest he’s come to feeling like a parent), wrangling problem child like Glenda Jackson, his praising policy and how it’s changed over the course of his career, the early success that led to a reckoning with himself , how the production of a Balm in Gilead broke him open artistically, the pure experience of acting in Angels in…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

S7 · E1 · 12 Oct 2026 · 39 minNew
Joe Mantello (Act I)
Welcome back-or welcome to- a new season of SDJ. And who tastier to kick it off than the doyen of American theatre directors and Tony-nominated actor, Joe Mantello. Joe has won the Tony for best director three times, his latest coming shortly after this chat with Jonny, for directing Death of a Salesman starring Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf (and Jonny Cake). Jonny had a front row seat as Joe shaped Salesman into a show that won more Tonys than any revival of the play in its storied 77 year history. Joe is the great American director of new writing (Blackbird, Vagina Monologues, The Humans,…
S6 · E7 · 2 Mar 2026 · 32 min
Lesley Manville (Act II)
In the second half of Jonny’s chat with Lesley Manville, Jonny recalls seeing her onstage for the first time in The Cherry Orchard with Judi Dench, what she learned from Judi, the story about working with her that she won’t repeat (but you should hear it, so here it is ), why some great performers need to be on the verge of laughter, Tony Sher flashing in Tamburlaine the Great, her 13 projects with Mike Leigh, the man who influenced Lesley’s stage work maybe more than any other, playing a hamster at the Royal Court for a 10 year old, the pressure on young actors now, telling Caryl Churchill…
E7 · 27 Feb 2026 · 28 min
Lesley Manville (Act I)
This weeks guest is a gem: Oscar nominee and two time Olivier-award winner, the magnificent Lesley Manville. In her plushly upholstered dressing room at Studio 54, Lesley and Jonny discuss him hunting her like a fox, her upcoming appearance in Marianne Eliott’s Les Liasons Dangereuses, how theatre is a time machine, ending her triumphant run as Jocasta opposite Mark Strong in Robert Icke’s Oedipus on Broadway, her fabled 15 minute monologue, getting ill and wondering whether her lifelong feeling that she didn’t take her characters home with her was really true, wondering if great actors must…
S6 · E6 · 16 Feb 2026 · 45 min
Tom Morris (No Interval)
(CONTAINS VERY STRONG LANGUAGE) In the this week’s episode Jonny talks to celebrated theatrical disruptor Tom Morris. They talk about Tom’s most embarrassing moment in the theatre (it’s very embarrassing). His artistic directorship of Battersea Arts Centre and putting on shows without a script; how his work in alternative theatre was incorporated by Nick Hytner at the National; making Jerry Springer: The Opera; making Hytner experience Gay Shame; the genesis of the theatrical mega-hit War Horse; the two types of directors according to Simmo (spoiler: its blockers and wankers); when the floor…
S6 · E5 · 9 Feb 2026 · 50 min
Sir Greg Doran (Act II)
In the second act of their chat, Sir Greg Doran remembers some of his late husband and leading man, Anthony Sher’s most unforgettable moments; Greg’s theory of “crossroads” and examples of how to meet them; Shakespeare’s radical extremity; Greg’s theory of what plunged the Bard into his late great tragedies; why Ian Mckellen defaces bibles; the comfort to be found after bereavement in Shakespeare’s brutality; the death of Tom Stoppard and Greg’s memories of him- and Tony Sher’s Yahrzeit candle. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S6 · E5 · 5 Feb 2026 · 57 min
Sir Greg Doran (Act I)
Jonny’s guest for his 100th episode is class on a stick. Sir Gregory Doran is the former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, for 35 years and with the late Sir Anthony Sher one half of one of the most celebrated power couples in British theatre (and possibly the first pair of married Knights). In this episode Jonny and Greg reminisce about meeting on Derek Walcott’s Odyssey, Greg’s padded bra and a portrayal of Lady Anne that silenced his bullies, memories of Tony Sher’s groundbreaking Richard 3rd, being taught a painful lesson by his future husband (that Tony had learned by…
E4 · 27 Jan 2026 · 31 min
Elliot Levey (Act II)
In the second half of Jonny’s chat with Elliot Levey, Elliot makes the case for why good actors submit; how directors reveal themselves through notes and acting that isn’t “mirror-kissing”; the moment Elliot regretted in the theatre and the horrible play that prompted him to nearly leave it mid performance via a fire exit; spending a decade at the National Theatre, how plays stay fresh and why Saturday night shows often smell of farts; what pisses him off about the theatre, the joy of Simon Russell Beale in a tiny part, the many delights of Polonius and a sudden Proustian recall of Jonny at…
S6 · E4 · 26 Jan 2026 · 44 min
Elliot Levey (Act I) - Featuring Guest Stars Rachael Stirling & John Lithgow
Jonny’s guest is the two time Olivier award winner and Loveliest Man in British Equity, Elliot Levey. In his dressing room at the Harold Pinter theatre before his award-winning performance in Mark Rosenblatt’s Giant, Jonny and Elliot begin by lifting the lid on podcasting’s dirty secret and Elliot’s generous superfan. They break down Giant, a play about Roald Dahl’s antisemitism at the time of the real-world horror of the war in Gaza, how Elliot’s view of the play and his character shifts with each days headlines and the catharsis of drama in a moral maze; there’s a delightfully unexpected…
S6 · E3 · 15 Dec 2025 · 58 min
Mark Strong (Act II)
In the second half of Jonny’s chat with Mark Strong, his guest describes feeling hated during Ivo van Hove’s A View From the Bridge; the strong conviction he had about the playing of Eddie Carbone; becoming a movie actor (not star), what he learnt from the camera and taking it back to the stage; working with Ivo before he became the global theatrical influencer he is now, his mischief,and how he fought the great director over what turned out to be strokes of genius; his sheer terror before he started performing View and the joy of conquering fear; creating “the right to be looked at”;…
S6 · E3 · 12 Dec 2025 · 50 min
Mark Strong (Act I)
Jonny is joined this week by the actor who is the current toast of Broadway for his portrayal of Oedipus in Robert Icke’s updating of the great tragedy, Mark Strong. They start off by talking about Simon Russell Beale, original inspiration for SDJ and the way talent is sometimes undecodable. Being told what Mark’s “thing” was at drama school, the attraction of charm, his very unusual origin story, the importance of Steven Berkoff and fronting a punk band in making him a performer; the difference between being an artist and an artisan, working with the late Helen McCrory and Ian McKellen, a…
S6 · E2 · 8 Dec 2025 · 39 min
Paule Constable (Act II)
In a second half lightly underscored by the Wagner seeping in from Glyndebourne’s Parsifal, Jonny hears how the doyenne of modern lighting designers spent her formative years in the creative ferment of Theatre de Complicité, the tough love from another designer that propelled her, what makes an experience on a show great for her, the two types of directors, splitting up with Katie Mitchell, what makes light walk into a room, the change in the aesthetic she championed in the modern theatre, why she’s retiring, her relationship with fear, bothering Nathan Lane, missing her kid’s birthdays, why…
S6 · E2 · 6 Dec 2025 · 40 min
Paule Constable (Act I)
Stage Door Jonny gets well classy this week, with a double episode recorded in the gilded environs of Glyndebourne. One of the greatest influences in the modern theatre on how we see and experience a world onstage, Paule Constable is the nonpareil of modern lighting designers. The most nominated artist in Olivier Award history (17 nominations, 6 wins, 2 Tony awards) Paule has defined a visual aesthetic in modern theatre. War Horse, Curious Incident, Wolf Hall, His Dark Materials, the 25th anniversary production of Les Mis, Paule has her fingerprints all over modern theatre. But she’s…
S6 · E1 · 2 Dec 2025 · 43 min
Ewan McGregor (Act II)
The second half of Jonny’s conversation with Ewan McGregor kicks off with reminiscences of Oscar Isaac’s covid-era Oedipus. What Ewan needs from a director like Michael Grandage and their most recent partnership, Lila Raicek’s My Master Builder; scenes with Kate Fleetwood that felt like dancing and giggling together in the wings afterwards; Ewan’s battle with fear, drying onstage and being willed on by supernumeraries; drying in the middle of a song in Guys and Dolls; seeking the utopia of relaxation; being put in a chokehold on the set of Black Hawk Down and the insight it gave him into…
S6 · E1 · 28 Nov 2025 · 42 min
Ewan McGregor (Act I)
Welcome back! A slightly lengthy hiatus comes to a close with this, the first episode of Jonny’s Festive Season. And what more festive guest to kick off with than Ewan McGregor? There’s a distinct frisson with the Stage Manager, the question of whether actors should just shut the fuck up, being frustrated by some theatre interviews, Ewan’s three plays with Michael Grandage, learning his lines before rehearsals begin (and crying over Iago), how acting has changed for him over time, starting his career working backstage, sticking pornography in a senior actors folder, the huge influence of his…
S5 · E4 · 10 Aug 2025 · 41 min
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S5 · E4 · 8 Aug 2025 · 36 min
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…
S5 · E3 · 1 Aug 2025 · 30 min
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…
S5 · E3 · 31 Jul 2025 · 53 min
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;…
S5 · E2 · 25 Jul 2025 · 53 min
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…
S5 · E2 · 24 Jul 2025 · 49 min
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…
S5 · E1 · 17 Jul 2025 · 39 min
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…
S5 · E1 · 16 Jul 2025 · 45 min
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…
7 Jul 2025 · 44 min
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…
30 Jun 2025 · 33 min
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…
S4 · E9 · 10 Dec 2024 · 32 min
Daniel Aukin (Act II)
In the second half of Jonny’s al fresco chat with Daniel Aukin, we hear about Sam Shepard and The Pocket, the ten year journey, the challenges and the “electrified horror” of making the triumphant, Tony record-breaking Stereophonic, David Byrne’s opinion of the band, the struggle to make a living wage in the theatre- and a plan to change that. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
6 Dec 2024 · 39 min
Daniel Aukin (Act I)
Jonny’s guest this week is one of the most exciting directors in the English-speaking theatre, Daniel Aukin. Fresh from his Tony award for Broadway’s hit play of 2024, Stereophonic, Jonny and Daniel settle onto a grassy knoll on a beautiful Autumn day in Prospect Park, New York, and discuss celebrity lotus positions, the complications and benefits of the family business, acting epiphanies, the influence of Richard Foreman, what a director is actually for and Sam Shepard’s love of a tightrope. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S4 · E8 · 28 Nov 2024 · 35 min
Rhea Norwood (Act II)
In the second half of his conversation with a hyper-talented young performer already making waves in the acting world, Jonny and Rhea discuss the differences between acting for tv and the theatre, never taking a phone to set, the beautiful words to “Maybe This Time” and not going under playing Sally Bowles. On struggling sometimes with contemporary writing, Rhea’s interest in female rage, why she’s drawn to Hedda Gabler, what pisses her off about the theatre- and plans for her “flip a coin” show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S4 · E8 · 27 Nov 2024 · 34 min
Rhea Norwood (Act I)
Two weeks after she finished her West End run as Sally Bowles in Rebecca Frecknall’s triumphant staging of Cabaret, Jonny sat down with Heartstopper star, Rhea Norwood. They discussed her illustrious predecessors in Cabaret, Alan Cumming’s dressing room being sponsored by a booze company, her Sally Bowles feeling like a car crash (in a good way), wild wee-ing, coping with repetition and the sad story of Jonny being ordered to get stoned by a director. They share memories of the same drama school, being pigeon-holed and wanting her training to be more traumatic; the complications of going off…
S4 · E7 · 21 Nov 2024 · 37 min
Sir Christopher Hampton (Act II)
In the second half of Jonny’s chat with the great Christopher Hampton, Sir Chris continues the story of the race to turn his play into the Oscar winning movie, Dangerous Liaisons- and get it out before Milos Foreman‘s rival film; doorstepping a startled John Malkovich; the Queen being sent to sleep by the inaugural play at the National Theatre; the difference between translation and adaptation; his relationship with Paul Scofield, seeing his Uncle Vanya 30 times, why he thinks Scofield was incomparable and the moment when an accident with a gun in Christopher’s play Savages prompted an…

About Stage Door Jonny

Stage Door Jonny is a English arts & books podcast from Jonathan Cake. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Jonathan Cake
Language: English
Category: Arts & Books
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 41 min
Latest episode: 14 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1653538001
Rights: Jonathan Cake

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