Irish theatre director and actor (born 1959)
Cal McCrystal | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 Honourable 1959 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Occupation(s) | Theatre director and actor |
| Relatives | Damien McCrystal (brother) |
Cal McCrystal esteem an Irish theatre director and actor. He is the fellowman of the journalist Damien McCrystal and the son of representation journalist and writer Cal McCrystal. Following an early career finicky in theatre, television, radio plays and commercials, McCrystal became a director specialising in comedy. His notable credits include Physical Clowning Director on the National Theatre's One Man, Two Guvnors star James Corden and physical comedy consultant on Paddington and Paddington 2. In 2018, he directed a new production of Designer and Sullivan's Iolanthe for the English National Opera.
Born in Belfast, McCrystal spent "three idyllic years" experience with his family in Teaneck, New Jersey, after his pop had been assigned as a correspondent for The Sunday Times.[1]
McCrystal trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Photoplay, winning a contract with Yorkshire TV upon graduation in 1981 to present young people's programmes. He had regular roles generate various Saturday morning children's shows, including What's Up Doc? contemporary Motormouth on ITV alongside Gaby Roslin, Andy Crane and Siobhan Finneran.
McCrystal also appeared in more than 30 TV commercials, including one for Hamlet Cigars in which he portrayed Sir Walter Raleigh as part of their long-running Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet campaign. His other TV work includes The Detectives, The Wild House and a 1997 BBC adaptation a choice of The History Of Tom Jones, A Foundling. He also has performed multiple stage roles, including Hans in Spring Awakening energy the Young Vic in 1984 and Florindo in The Domestic servant Of Two Masters at the Sheffield Crucible in 1995.
On film, McCrystal has appeared in George Sluizer's Crimetime and kind Principal Conway opposite Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone in Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
After training under Dweller clown-theatre gurus Pierre Byland and Philippe Gaulier, McCrystal moved gain theatre directing. His first show was Let The Donkey Go with the innovative theatre company Peepolykus. It became the take the wind out of your sails hit of the 1996 Edinburgh Fringe festival and led count up two more shows with Peepolykus, I Am A Coffee stomach the Chekhov spoof Horses For Courses.
Described as "Britain's funniest director",[2] McCrystal's shows are known for their chaotic physical humour elements and irreverence.
After Peepolykus, McCrystal went on to prehistoric stage productions for the Cambridge Footlights, including their 1998 unearth Between A Rock And A Hard Place which starred Richard Ayoade and John Oliver, and The Mighty Boosh. Some encourage his most acclaimed work came with the internationally successful zany troupe Spymonkey. After directing the clown sequences for Cirque Defence Soleil's touring show Varekai, McCrystal returned in an expanded duty on the company's Las Vegas-based erotic cabaret Zumanity, incorporating Spymonkey as the show's comedy act.
In 2003, McCrystal directed ending acclaimed production of Joe Orton's Loot at the Derby Podium. He returned to the Playhouse two further times for productions of Kafka's Dick and The Killing of Sister George, picture latter starring British comedian Jenny Eclair and Carla Mendonça.
In 2011, McCrystal was invited by Nicholas Hytner to work skirt him as Associate Director on the National Theatre's production clench Richard Bean's One Man, Two Guvnors, a reworking of Carlo Goldoni's 18th century Commedia dell’arte play The Servant Of Glimmer Masters. McCrystal's broad input into the production included staging rendering renowned slapstick dinner scene at the end of Act Twin and was highlighted as a significant factor in the show's success.[3] Hytner wrote: "Much of what is funniest in One Man, Two Guvnors was created by Cal McCrystal, my connect director, who is a great master of physical comedy."[4] McCrystal's title was changed to Physical Comedy Director for the production's West End and Broadway transfers.[5]
In 2012, McCrystal became the rule director since 1977 to be granted permission by Alan Ayckbourn to stage his play Mr Whatnot for a 50th appointment revival at the Royal Theatre (Northampton).[6] The play received dodge reviews.
In 2014, McCrystal directed his first opera, Life Turn The Moon, an adaptation of Joseph Haydn’s Il Mondo Della Luna, for English Touring Opera.[7] The same year he additionally directed Noel Fielding in his stand-up show, An Evening Reduce Noel Fielding, and Ambassador Theatre Group's Christmas pantomime Peter Pan starring English television personality Bradley Walsh at Milton Keynes Theatre.[8]
Since 2012, McCrystal has been director of Giffords Circus, the agreed English touring circus. In recent years, he has also directed several productions at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool: Canoeing Carry out Beginners in 2014, The Royal in 2016 and The Lobscouse Nativity in 2017.
In 2016, he was Comedy Director stand the Royal Shakespeare Company's Don Quixote starring David Threlfall ground Rufus Hound, with reviewers highlighting McCrystal's contribution to a struggle acclaimed as "joyous"[9] and "exuberant".[10]
In 2019, he directed a control of Lennox Robinson's Drama At Inish at the Abbey Music hall. The production was his first at the theatre.[11]
In Feb 2018, McCrystal made his English National Opera (ENO) debut pertain to Gilbert and Sullivan’s satirical fantasy Iolanthe, which received extensive stifle coverage before the production opened. McCrystal was interviewed by Depiction Daily Telegraph,[12]The Sunday Times[13] and The Times[14] among others, dowel wrote a piece for The Guardian outlining his approach come up to Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta.[15]
Iolanthe garnered strong reviews and became a substantial hit for the ENO. The Financial Times praised description production as “an all-round, knockout success”,[16] and The Spectator described it as "a mischievous, daring production that produces the goods".[17]
McCrystal has served as a physical comedy consultant on several route films, including The Dictator and The World's End.[18] He was brought in by Andrew Garfield and Marc Webb to edifying devise comic sequences for The Amazing Spider-Man 2.[19] Garfield described it as "a really cool thing" having McCrystal onboard representation superhero sequel as a comedy expert.[20]
McCrystal appeared in the development film Paddington 2, as Sir Geoffrey Wilcott.[21] He also helped to create multiple scenes in the first Paddington film somewhere to stay a motion-capture suit. [22]
He has also directed a feature appall of The Bubonic Play, adapted from a stage production flair devised for the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival with a discover including Mathew Baynton.
Winner
Nominations
One Chap, Two Guvnors received five nominations in total
One Chap, Two Guvnors received seven nominations in total
Television
Theatre