Uplifting debut for Lenny

Black Country funnyman Lenny Henry won the acclaim of both the audience and critics as he swapped laughs for serious theatre in his stage debut as Othello.

The 50-year-old comic took to the stage as the Shakespearean hero-villain at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds last night.

In the production, Henry's first serious stage role, he ditches his Black Country accent to perform with a northern twang.

The Dudley star said he was inspired to take on the role after making the film True Identity in Los Angeles, in which his character played an understudy to James Earl Jones in the role of Othello.

He has overcome a dislike of the Bard's work from his schooldays to follow his wife Dawn French into serious theatre.

The Northern Broadsides' production of Othello runs for a month at West Yorkshire Playhouse before heading to the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, from April 7 to 11 and the New Victoria Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, from April 28 to May 2.

Check out the review below.

Comic holds his own as the bard's black hero

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past month, you probably already know that Dudley's most famous son is taking on the role of Shakespeare's Moor.

Lenny Henry is playing the Bard's black hero on the stage of the Playhouse with Northern Broadsides, the company that performs the Bard's classical texts with a northern accent. West Midland audiences will get a chance to see it when it goes on tour in the spring.

Ever since the casting was announced there have been a couple of media camps; "Give Len a chance", or "What is he thinking?".

It's easy to dismiss those that weren't ready to give the man a fair hearing as theatre snobs, but there are deeper reasons for their reservations.

The thing is, if Henry is a triumph, then surely that undermines the whole idea of acting as a profession. Almost all the actors who appear in a Broadsides production have spent several years honing their craft. Learning how to project on stage, deliver lines, breathe (it's harder than you think).

If Lenny, the nation's favourite funny man though he might be, rocks up one day and decides he wants to give Shakespeare a go, then what's the point of actors wasting their time training?

To put you out of your misery, I will reveal now that the happy coincidence is that Lenny manages to hold his own and the acting profession remains intact.

Before the comedian appears on stage Conrad Nelson, playing Iago, holds the audience in the grip of his slimy palm.

When Lenny appears, all eyes point one way and you can almost touch the tension. His deep, resonant voice fills the theatre with absolute ease. It feels like his frame could do the same.

He is a massive presence and you easily believe that he is a soldier that could run through 20 men with an arm and a dagger, as he later boasts. When Lenny starts acting it becomes clear that he hasn't had the training or experience those around him have.

He struggles with the rhythms of the lines, isn't always sure how to breathe properly to be able to deliver them – in short he makes the mistakes that a first-time actor on stage would make.

What's unsurprising is that his performance survives all this. Maybe it's the several decades of goodwill he's bought from his previous work, maybe it's that he has an elusive quality that just makes you like him, but no-one will walk away from this thinking "I've seen a great Othello". What they will most likely do is think "Lenny gave that a really good go".

In short, Lenny gives a very acceptable performance, given his experience, and those around him show where he could get to – if he keeps building on this experience.

* Northern Broadsides' production of Othello starring Lenny Henry runs for a month at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds. It is at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, from April 7-11 and at the New Victoria Theatre, Newcastle- under-Lyme from April 28-May 2.

By Dan Chalk.