Ryan Gosling plays a stunt double searching for a missing Hollywood star, while Britain’s biggest pop star offers some Glastonbury-ready bangers

The Fall Guy
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It’s nearly two months since Ryan Gosling gave us that iconic slice of Ken at the Oscars, and if you’re jonesing for another hit, that’s understandable. Here the former Mousketeer plays an ageing action choreographer on the trail of a missing A-lister for whom he once acted as stunt double.

Donmar Warehouse, London
Nina Hoss stars in a kookily immersive production but the devastating hammer blow of the Russian tragicomedy is not lost in translation

It is initially hard to fathom where Benedict Andrews’ conspicuously kooky take on Anton Chekhov’s final drama is going. Actors come on looking like modern-day eccentrics and festivalgoers rather than Russian aristocrats of an ancient regime giving way to the new.

They swear, vape and address us directly as they play out the fate of a bored, profligate landed family led by a glamorous matriarch, Ranevskaya (Nina Hoss), who returns home from her Parisian misadventures to continue the party, despite growing debt and the prospective sale of her centuries-old estate.

The pair, whose final season of the hit horror-comedy will air on the BBC this month, say the West End production will feature familiar characters and fresh surprises

As the ninth and final series of their BBC hit Inside No 9 begins this month, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith have announced a new stage version of the show for the West End next year.

The pair will star in Inside No 9 Stage/Fright which will feature familiar characters and fresh surprises or, in their words, “something old, something new, something butchered and something … boo!”. They added: “We want to deliver the perfect West End night at the theatre … we might even crack out a song if you’re lucky.”

Yard theatre, London
Even in times of peace, the medical staff training to go into a war zone can’t avoid conflict in Sami Ibrahim’s engaging play

Questions of crisis spiral in Sami Ibrahim ’s thoughtful but strangely paced play. There is the personal strife of mediator Nicki ( Mariah Louca ); the political disasters that joker Dan (Peter Corboy) can’t tear his eyes from in the news; and the crisis of care that threatens to ruin the reputation of the organisation for which the four characters work. In a bland meeting room, this group of medical staff is training to offer humanitarian aid in war zones. But how can they expect to manage around active conflict if they can barely survive a few weeks together in peace?

Jaz Woodcock-Stewart’s production has short, fragmentary scenes, headache-inducing beats and snippets of hypothetical situations in which the participants are pushed closer to admitting they can’t handle what they have signed up for. These conversations get deep quickly, but it’s the lighter, incidental chats during the breaks that reveal most about their characters, as grieving Khaled (Luca Kamleh Chapman) and fixer-upper Sarah (Rosa Robson) grow closer, and Dan – unfairly picked on by the others – accidentally learns about Nicki’s troubles. These soft moments of connection are gracefully done; tiny glances of awkwardness, little seeds of growing trust.

Lowry, Salford
Jack Godfrey’s witty show is about a lovable dreamer who took flight in a garden chair attached to helium balloons

‘What makes a man try to fly in a lawn chair?” sing the ensemble of Jack Godfrey’s new musical. Why would someone attach 42 (or maybe 43) helium-filled weather balloons to a chair and float high above Los Angeles? And why would anyone want to write a musical about it?

42 Balloons, directed by Ellie Coote, offers a convincing answer to that last question. Larry Walters, or Lawnchair Larry as he became known after taking flight in 1982, is an odd true-life subject. But Godfrey approaches this quirky story with empathy, wit and self-awareness, telling a charming tale of implausible dreams – and what happens when you finally achieve them.

At the Lowry, Salford , until 19 May

Speaking at launch for West End adaptation, Cleese complains about literal-minded viewers ‘not playing with a full deck’

John Cleese said that he decided to cut the N-word from a scene in his West End Fawlty Towers revival because in contemporary Britain there are too many “literal minded people” who “don’t understand irony”.

Cleese was speaking at the media launch for the West End theatrical adaptation of the classic comedy, which follows a repressed hotelier trying to control his chaotic staff. The TV show finished in 1979 after two series that are widely regarded to contain some of the best-ever British sitcom writing.

Kim Tatum, Mariah Louca and Reece Lyons combine to call for trans women to be put on an equal footing for cis roles

Kim Tatum dreams of playing Norma Desmond, Sunset Boulevard’s exquisite former star of silent films. Mariah Louca longs to perform as Dangerous Liaisons’ evil schemer Marquise de Merteuil. And for Reece Lyons, it’s the monstrous ambition of Lady Macbeth that makes her the ideal role. But, until attitudes within British theatre shift, it’s unlikely these talented performers will get to play their dream characters. Despite their skill, training and accolades, trans women just don’t seem to get cast in cisgender roles.

“I have never seen a trans woman on stage play a mother or a love interest,” Offie-award-winning Lyons says. “Why don’t we come to mind for that?” Lyons is sitting on a low couch in a light-streamed room across from Tatum and Louca. Frustrated with the constant obstacles they face in the industry, the three actors are calling for trans women to be put on an equal footing for cis roles.

David Byrne calls for urgent state support for young playwrights, particularly those from minority or working-class backgrounds

David Byrne, the artistic director of the Royal Court theatre in London, has called for the next government to create a “rescue package” to keep young people in the arts or risk losing a generation of playwrights who cannot afford to stay in the sector.

In his first major interview since taking over in January, Byrne called for an urgent intervention to support younger artists, particularly those from black, disabled, working-class or LGBTQ+ backgrounds.

As the 1975 musical about Broadway hoofers sets off on tour, professionals reveal how much has – and hasn’t – changed since its debut

‘I want it strong! Make it sharp! Take it on the downbeat and 5, 6, 7, 8!” A mass of laser-focused, high-kicking dancers move as if their lives depended on it – an epic battle royale, defeating their rivals round by round. Or an audition for a Broadway show, in other words. This one’s from A Chorus Line. It’s a musical with enduring appeal – Nikolai Foster’s acclaimed 2021 production goes on UK tour this summer.

A Chorus Line’s stories of performers struggling with troubled childhoods, sexuality, ageism, injury, breakdowns, poverty and thwarted ambition all came from real-life testimonies of Broadway dancers that director Michael Bennett recorded in late-night confessionals. The picture is one of an unforgiving career, but how true to life does the 1975 musical feel for dancers today?