Southwark Playhouse is a two-minute walk from my flat and it has become one of my favourite theatres, especially for new musicals in its 240-seat thrust-stage main space. I saw Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heightshere in June and found it thrilling to be surrounded, indeed engulfed by, the pulsating action. The Donmar title always brings you in! I’ve been there as a fan watching pieces for years, so to get a chance to play in the space is brilliant. I hadn’t actually heard of the play and then I read it and loved it. When I meant Rob [Hastie] the director and Kevin Elyot the writer, I realised what a special piece it was and what a great part Eric was as well. He goes from a boy to a man on stage and finds his own little area in the world and who he is. It was such a great arch to have as a character, so that was exciting.

Well he had this great presence. I think he was very ill at that time, but he just had a great, regal posture about him and he studied everything I did. I think he only said hello to me and at the end, as I was leaving, he leaned slightly over the table and said ‘And are you actually from Birmingham?’ I tend to talk a lot in these slightly stressful situations, and I really wanted the job, so I said ‘No, I’m from Yorkshire originally, I’m from Doncaster, but my mum moved up and down with the pub trade so I’ve moved around the country, I’ve got a really good ear for accents’, really trying to sell myself. And you could sort of almost see a smirk behind the stern glare. And that was that. I shook his hand. But I think Kevin loved it. I spoke to my agent and he said ‘They really want you’ which is what makes it feel very special, for me, that Kevin did want us. There are things that happen in the dark between a man and a woman that sort of make everything else seem unimportant. This modern classic, which captures the fragility of friendship, happiness and life itself, won both the 1995 Olivier and Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy, after its premiere at the Royal Court and subsequent transfer to the West End. Meatiest of them all is Julian Ovenden as John, the charismatic enigma of the group, a hyperconfident and fantastically wealthy former rugby player who appears to lives his life unattached and carefree. Ovenden's suave, energetic performance is the engine of the production. But its beating heart is Jonathan Broadbent as John’s old uni chum Guy. Fastidious, nerdy, shit-scared of Aids and a great cook, he’s been in love with John for 20 years, dying inside a little every time his friend shags somebody else. Which he does, a lot.Tragically, playwright Kevin Elyot passed away on the first day of rehearsals for this first major London revival of his 1994 play. He was involved in auditions, though, and I am certain he would be very proud and pleased with the resulting performances from this cast and with Robert Hastie’s sensitive production overall.

A heartfelt soul’ … playwright and screenwriter Kevin Elyot, who died last June. Photograph: public domain When I got [the script] through from my agent, Ben said ‘Okay, there are two things…’ You generally get, you know, ‘There’s stunts involved’ or ‘Are you okay to do this…’ sort of thing, and [with this] it was ‘Birmingham accent’ and ‘the character has full frontal nudity’. For some reason, the thing that fazed me more was the Birmingham accent! Going on stage naked, even though that’s a classic nightmare, wasn’t too hard. My Night with Reg is a play by British playwright Kevin Elyot which was produced in 1994 by the Royal Court Theatre, London, directed by Roger Michell. The production later transferred to the West End. A storm is brewing, and it threatens to spoil Guy’s plans to gather outside. This foul weather lingers, an oncoming storm, a note of pathetic fallacy for what is to come. It forces the group indoors, into close proximity, and the set never deviates from Guy’s living room, creating a sense of claustrophobia. Something dark and inevitable is coming,When it comes to the acting, I don’t think it can be faulted, and I’m really going to single out Paul Keating here. Of all the characters in the show, Guy is the one I most identify with. Getting on in years, single but in love with someone that doesn’t love them, being the one people talk to, a bit socially awkward, and the person everyone calls ‘nice’, Guy and I have so much in common and Keating brings all that to the stage perfectly. He is helped in this by Lee Newby’s set design which is not only realistic but is pure Guy.

Also like Invincible, Muswell Hill – as its title makes even more obvious – centres on middle-class Londoners, asks questions about creativity and assessing talent (here, it’s a would-be novelist rather than a would-be painter) and employs an excruciating dinner party as a jumping-off point. A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. My Night With Reg is a nice show with a beautiful set design but I felt the themes of the show were glazed over somewhat and it was a missed opportunity to highlight an important story.In The Lion, Benjamin performs 15 songs on six guitars to tell a 30-year story in 70 minutes. It’s his story, about his troubled relationship with his late father, who gave him his love for music, in the form of a cookie-tin banjo. What a remarkable testament to family and fortitude, with heart-achingly beautiful music and guitar-playing fireworks. And the St James’ downstairs cabaret space is the perfect venue for it. An absolute must-see! Kevin Elyot’s writing is gorgeous – it’s witty, and it’s really human. This play explores how a group of close friends cope with loss and use their humour, warmth and their friendship to deal with that. That’s something anyone can relate to. An evening of laughter, heartbreak and celebration, Elyot’s razor-sharp wit will be brought to life in a stunning, visual feast that captures the decadence, celebration and uncertainty of 1980s London. The fresh production of Kevin Elyot’s modern classic, from Manchester-based Green Carnation Company, will tour to selected venues across the North and Midlands this Spring, opening at the Lowry at Salford from January 23-25. All three scenes are set in the sitting room of Guy's London apartment: during Guy's flatwarming party (Scene 1); after Reg's funeral, some years later (Scene 2); and after Guy's funeral (Scene 3).

Dogfight – book by Peter Duchan, music and lyrics by Ben J Pasek and Justin Paul – is another UK premiere of another contemporary American musical, produced by dynamo Danielle Tarento, who had such a hit with the UK premiere of another contemporary musical, Titanic, in the same space last year. He went on to write some wonderful plays. Mouth to Mouth, which he did at the Royal Court, had that same theme of yearning. Forty Winks starred Carey Mulligan in 2004. He is remembered for My Night With Reg mostly because it was his breakthrough play. It was such a surprise to everybody – this relatively unknown playwright bursting on to the scene. I read an interesting interview with Simon Callow recently about the effect of Aids on the gay community. Despite the horrendous human losses, he said, the disease had positive outcomes in terms of forcing people out of the closet and mobilising the community – with the eventual result being the de-stigmatisation of homosexuality. Reviving Elyot’s play, 20 years on and just after the legalisation of gay marriage, feels very fitting. Co-artistic director Dan Jarvis says: “This is the first time we’ve toured to mid-scale theatres, which is really exciting for us and part of our ethos as a theatre company. We want to be nationally-recognised for creating LGBT theatre and for taking our work across the regions so that we make sure the best gay theatre isn’t always in London. The next play was always tugging at him’ … Michael Maloney and Lindsay Duncan in Kevin Elyot’s Mouth to Mouth at the Royal Court. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/Guardian

Streetcar Named Desire

Gillian Anderson as Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Young Vic Streetcar Named Desire