Gossip

Does Michael Make the Grade as Theatre’s Most Influential???

The Evening Standard has announced its annual list of the 1,000 ‘most influential people in London’, and this year’s theatre section contains a few surprises. Among those making the list are actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Sheridan Smith and the National’s current Hamlet Rory Kinnear, while Ben Whishaw has jumped from the film to theatre section following his “much vaunted performances in Cock at the Royal Court and The Pride on Broadway”.

Other notable newcomers include former BBC and ITV chairman Michael Grade, who heads the consortium that has purchased four central London theatres from Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s Really Useful Group, and directors Edward Hall, Thea Sharrock, Sean Holmes and the “geekily cool” Timothy Sheader. View the full list – which puts David Cameron and Boris Johnson jointly at the top – on the Evening Standard website.