Stephen Daldry

Dame Helen Mirren returns as Queen Elizabeth II as she brings her hit West End political play 'The Audience' over the pond to Broadway; and, without exaggeration, once again proves to be the most convincing queen ever seen on either stage or screen.

Helen Mirren at 'The Audience' opening after party (Credit: Jemal Countess at Getty Images Entertainment)

Helen Mirren has that kind of noble demeanour that commands respect on entering a room, never mind a stage or film set. So it's no wonder that she was selected to reprise her role as the current Queen of England in speculative political theatre drama 'The Audience' - a show which explores the monarchs varying relationships with different Prime Ministers, including the only female PM Margaret Thatcher, Harold Wilson, Winston Churchill and current PM David Cameron.

Continue reading: Helen Mirren Brings The Queen To Broadway In Speculative Drama 'The Audience' [Photos]

Helen Mirren will reprise her critically-acclaimed role as Queen Elizabeth II on New York City's Broadway, it has been announced. Mirren won an Oscar for Stephen Frears'2006 movie and performed the same role in Peter Morgan's stage adaptation, The Audience - which is now moving across the Atlantic.

Helen Mirren [L] will play The Queen [R] on Broadway [Getty/WPA Pool]

The play won critical acclaim and sold out for its six-month stint in London last year. It is a composition of Morgan's imagined conversations between The Queen and her various advisors and ministers. Morgan had previously penned the hugely successful movie Frost/Nixon, outlining the aftermath of the Watergate Scandal.

Continue reading: Helen Mirren Will Play The Queen On Broadway, Daldry Directing

Helen Mirren is set to reprise her career-defining role as ‘The Queen’ for a new stage-play directed by Stephen Daldry. The British star – who scooped an Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in Stephen Frear’s 2006 movie – will team up with Peter Morgan for ‘The Audience’, a production exploring six decades of the monarch’s weekly meetings with British prime ministers.

Her portrayal of The Queen in a meeting with Tony Blair – played by Martin Sheen – was considered one of the more memorable scenes of the award-winning movie and Daldry is set to build on that in the stage-play. Playing the monarch from her twenties to her eighties will be no mean feat, though Mirren holds the necessary credentials to take on such a role. According to the Guardian, she said, “Her voice has changed, and I can use that –she had a terribly posh voice when she was young…But now even the Queen, while she isn't quite dropping the ends of her lines –though her grandsons do! – there's a tiny bit of estuary creeping in there. I can use all that to signify the age range, and we'll come up with other things.” The drama will be staged at the Gielgud Theatre in London from March 2013.

‘The Audience’ is certainly in good hands; playwright Peter Morgan’s last play ‘Frost/Nixon’ gained universal critical acclaim and featured a standout performance from Michael Sheen.

Dame Helen Mirren is to reprise the role that won her a much-coveted Oscar award by playing Elizabeth II in a new play by Peter Morgan called The Audience. Morgan wrote the script for The Queen that, in 2006, catapulted Mirren to that rarest of acting highs as she scooped the Acadamy's best actress award as she portrayed the head of the UK monarchy.

Morgan's credits on the stage also include the excellently received Frost/Nixon which went on to be made into a feature length film, whilst on the big screen his screenplay credits include The Last King Of Scotland and The Damned United. Following on from The Queen which took place during the days immediately after Princess Diana's death, this new play will convey a series of conversations that the monarch has had with the 12 Prime Ministers to have passed through 10 Downing Street during Elizabeth's time on the throne.

"From Churchill to Cameron, each Prime Minister has used these private conversations as a sounding board and a confessional - sometimes intimate, sometimes explosive," reads a press release re-published by the BBC. The play will be directed by Billy Elliott director Stephen Daldry. The play is due to open in London in February of next year and will run until June.