Latest Reviews

London Tide

Review
★★
Simon Ximenez
West End
Lyttelton Theatre
19th Apr, 2024

Standing ovations, once reserved to acknowledge only the highest calibre of performance, are now part of the theatre routine.

Community Service

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
UK Regional & Tours
Multiple Venues
16th Apr, 2024

Stan’s Cafe Theatre, Birmingham, is rooted in the community, so it’s no surprise that they have taken the local story of Trevor Prince, a gospel guitarist and one of the first bl…

Iain Stirling - Relevant

Iain Stirling's Relevant is undeniable proof of not only of his talent as a comedian and ability to entertain across generations, but also the level of his comedic reflexes, in…

Besa

What an extraordinary and charming play this is, courtesy of De Insomniis Theatre.

James V: Katherine

A brilliant gem, witty, gallus (cheeky) James V: KATHERINE by Rona Munro (a Raw Material and Capital Theatres Production) pulls no punches.

Underdog: The Other Other Brontë

In the same way that, for many, Destiny’s Child is Beyonce, the Brontë Sisters is (are?) Charlotte (Jane Eyre).

My Beautifull Laundrette

Hanif Kureishi’s adaptation of his screenplay for My Beautiful Laundrette was at the Liverpool Playhouse as part of its UK tour, courtesy of the Theatre Nation Partnerships conve…

Horne's Descent

It all starts off so nicely, but it’s not long before Nina Atesh’s drawing-room drama turns into a battleground of conflicts that resurrect the past, fight for the present and …

The Dream of A Ridiculous Man

An one-man adaptation of the Fyodor Dostoevsky short story of the same name, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man comes to the Marylebone Theatre stage with all the pertinent of its day: …

Les Misérables (School Edition)

To stage Les Misérables is a massive undertaking for any theatre company, but Director Ben Jeffreys has consummately risen to the challenge with a production of the School’s Edi…

Foam

Harry McDonald’s Foam, at the Finborough Theatre, is a chronological series of snapshots that capture events in the life of Nicky Crane (1958-1993).

Duke Bluebeard's Castle

Duke Bluebeard’s Castle is a one-act Hungarian opera saturated in symbolism.

Hide and Seek

It’s refreshing to see a much-visited subject of bullying and homophobia in a world dominated by social media, given a fresh treatment that is both innovative and extraordinary, …

Guys & Dolls

Celebrating the show’s first anniversary, Nicholas Hytner’s sensational, immersive production of Guys & Dolls continues at the Bridge Theatre with a new lineup of stars, th…

Cold, Dark Matters

Cold Dark Matters is the story of a writer.

Uncle Vanya

The Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, has scored a major triumph in securing the services of Sir Trevor Nunn to direct his faithful adaptation of Uncle Vanya in a production that has …

The Duchess of Malfi

Director Rachel Bagshaw has created a vibrant and vivid production of John Webster’s tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi, at the Sam Wanamaker Theatre that revels in the candlelight se…

Blue Beard

Emma Rice is a genius - we know this from her stage adaptations of classic texts - but when it comes to a wholly original play written by Rice herself, how does she fare?The play i…

Starter For Ten

In a landscape often cluttered with musicals trying to emulate other modern successes, it is delightful to see a new musical carving its own visual and musical aesthetic in this 80…

For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy

Ryan Calais Cameron’s For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy, is now in its fourth run and second West End transfer with a brand new cast, and it …

Rika’s Rooms

Rika’s Rooms is the second in the series of four works that form the Playground Theatre’s season of plays by Gail Louw and features Emma Wilkinson Wright in the eponymous solo …

Blonde Poison

Gail Louw's best-known work, Blonde Poison, forms part of a four-play season devoted to her work at the Playground Theatre.

Marry Me a Little

London’s newest Pub Theatre has opened with a sublime production of Stephen Sondheim’s rarely-staged Marry Me A Little.

Standing at the Sky's Edge

It’s rare to see an original musical open in the West End.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Review
★★★★★
Rebecca Vines
UK Regional & Tours
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Southern Lane
28th Feb, 2024

Eleanor Rhode’s new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the RSC is a child’s-eye Shakespeare; a tale told in either the boring black and white of adult discourse or a …

Marx in London

Unlike Marx's great work Capital, the one thing you cannot describe this boisterous comic Opera as, is boring.

King Lear

Danny Sapani (Misfits, Killing Eve, Black Panther, the National Theatre’s Medea) is King Lear in this intricate, striking production directed by Yaël Farber.

Hadestown

It’s taken a hell of a time to get here, but finally, Hell has arrived in London’s West End.

Two Sisters

We live in turbulent and deranged times.

On Before Carlos Acosta

For charisma, no other male dancer can beat Carlos Acosta, one of the greatest classical dancers of our times, still spell-binding at fifty.

Dear Octopus

Review
★★
Simon Ximenez
West End
Lyttelton Theatre
17th Feb, 2024

As a title, there’s something intriguing about Dear Octopus, now playing the National Theatre’s Lyttelton stage.

When You Pass Over My Tomb

You know you’re in for a wild night at the Arcola Theatre when one of the content warnings is ‘Mentions of necrophilia’.

The Gentleman of Shalott

Set in a secluded tower, this play is a queer adaptation of Alfred Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott, a poem detailing the life of said Lady, who is locked away, spending her days w…

The Hills of California

Review
★★★★★
Tom Shortland
West End
Harold Pinter Theatre / The Harold Pinter Theatre
12th Feb, 2024

Set in the summer of 1976, in the driest heatwave of the century, four sisters come back to their home in Blackpool as their mother teeters on the precipice between life and death.

Till the Stars Come Down

Review
★★
Simon Ximenez
West End
Dorfman Theatre
9th Feb, 2024

Before digital TV made it a thing, “watching on catch-up” used to mean spending your Sunday afternoon in front of the EastEnders omnibus.

Ingoldsby Legends

There is something gorgeously comforting about a show that within five minutes of beginning you know you can relax and enjoy, because even the things that are ad libbed and unscrip…

Ķīn

Has the National Theatre put the Lyttelton on Airbnb? In October, we had the city-break-length two-week run of Alexander Zeldin’s The Confessions (quite long enough, in my opinio…

Jekyll and Hyde

Is there anyone who hasn’t seen at least one version of this story, a version filled with gore, elaborate story lines and ostentatious special effects? This production of Jekyll …

9 to 5 The Musical

Before the titular, double-Grammy-awarded opening number begins, we are exposed to a soundscape of cheesy 80s commercials for domestic products that serve to highlight some of the …

Metamorphosis

How does one adapt Franz Kafka’s bizarre novel onto the stage? With distinctive style and relative simplicity, answers Frantic Assembly.

Cinders!

Is Cinders a male or a female? Audiences won’t know until the curtain rises on a particular night.

The House with the Chicken Legs

There’s a famous quote by Winston Churchill that says that Russia “is a riddle wrapped in a mystery wrapped in an enigma”.

MIDWYNTAR

Many of us have experienced the horror of meeting our significant other’s parents for the first time.

Hansel & Gretel

Engelbert Humperdink’s biggest hit, packed with stuff that should not fit.

Peter Pan Goes Wrong

Mischief Theatre is back again with Peter Pan Goes Wrong, an effortlessly hilarious show where magic and mayhem coexist.

The House of Bernarda Alba

Looking out at you from the poster for the National Theatre’s latest version of Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba, Harriet Walter cuts an imperious figure.

The Homecoming

Review
★★
Isabella Thompson
West End
Young Vic
12th Dec, 2023

The Homecoming, as with much of Harold Pinter’s work, is a timeless play, charged with machismo, pride and tension.

Iliza Shlesinger - Hard Feelngs Tour

Hard Feelings is no ordinary stand-up hour, but then Iliza Shlesinger is no ordinary comedian.

The Time Machine

Time travel as a sci-fi trope is fascinating and presents us with endless possibilities and frontiers.

SPY MOVIE: The Play!

The protagonist of Matthew Howell and Jack Michael Stacey’s new comedy farce almost says,“The name’s Blonde, Jane Blonde”.

Infinite Life

The human brain doesn’t allow us to remember pain.

Ghosts

The traditional blacked-out auditorium that marks the start of a play at the Sam Wanamaker theatre is illuminated one candle at a time, until the six candelabra and four sconces br…

Sunshine on Leith

At first blush, it may seem a strange choice for a festive show but this latest incarnation is bang on the money.

She Stoops to Conquer

Artistic Director Tom Littler, with Francesca Ellis, scores another inspired triumph with his production of Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer.

The Snow Queen

Review
★★★
Joy Watters
Edinburgh
Lyceum Theatre
28th Nov, 2023

This new version sees Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale transported to Scotland with a race against time covering the length of the land to vanquish the evil Snow Quee…

Passing

Thought provoking, touching and incredibly true-to-life, Dan Sareen’s Passing provides thoughtful insight into the cultural conflicts that can come with the biracial experience.

Treasure Island

Pitched as “Pirates of the Caribbean meets Fishermen’s Friends”, this highly enjoyable production of Treasure Island at the Barn Theatre, Cirencester, turns out to be a swash…

This Isn't Working

Mayor, Cabinet Minister and stooge; not the CV of Boris Johnson, but just some of the jobs attempted by Sandy Surname, the protagonist of the uneven, but entertaining narrative ske…

The Witches

A fatal car crash, generational genocide, and child mortality.

I’m Sorry Prime Minister I Can’t Quite Remember.

There are four strong performances in I’m Sorry Prime Minister I Can’t Quite Remember at the Cambridge Arts Theatre, written and directed by Jonathan Lynn, following the passin…

And Then There Were None

Agatha Christie called And Then There Were None the most difficult to write book of her career, but staging her play comes with challenges of its own.

Treason - the Musical

The brief descriptor of Treason the Musical as “a historic tale of division, religious persecution, and brutality” reads like a modern-day newspaper headline.

To Have And To Hold

The final days of a sixty-year marriage are turned into a domestic comedy in the latest offering from playwright Richard Bean, of One Man, Two Guvnors fame, in To Have and To Hold,…

Aladdin

After great success in London’s West End, Aladdin heads on a UK tour, enthralling all that come with tale of the street rat-turned-prince as charms the princess.

The Barber of Seville

As comedy vehicles go, this is a Rolls Royce.

The Little Big Things

Review
★★★
Simon Ximenez
West End
Soho Place
4th Nov, 2023

In October 2022, theatre impresario Nica Burns opened @sohoplace, the first new theatre to be built in London's West End for 50 years.

Trueman and the Arsonists

Review
★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
Roundhouse
1st Nov, 2023

Writer Simon Stephens has taken Max Frisch’s 1953 Biedermann und die Brandstifter, variously translated as The Fireraisers or The Arsonists and given it a heightened absurdist in…

The Gods Are All Here

Review
★★★★
Tom Shortland
UK Regional & Tours
Multiple Venues
1st Nov, 2023

Touring the UK in Black History Month and into November is Philip Okwedy’s The Gods Are All Here, a one-man show about the performer's distant relationship with his parents a…

Now Entering Ely, Nevada

Memory is a strange thing.

1984

Playwright Adam Taub says, “In the era of Google, Amazon and Meta, when our every move is monitored and recorded, there is no more relevant story than 1984”.

Wicked

Nearly two decades after its West End debut, Wicked continues to provide a spectacular night out at the Apollo Victoria.

The Confessions

Review
★★
Simon Ximenez
West End
Lyttelton Theatre
27th Oct, 2023

Written and directed by “l’auteur du naturalisme”, Alexander Zeldin, The Confessions feels like a too-small show on a too-big stage.

Manic Street Creature

Making its London premier Maimuna Memon’s multi-award-winning Manic Street Creature is now showing at the Southwark Playhouse, Borough, following its barnstorming, sell-out world…

Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends

The contribution of Stephen Sondheim to musical theatre was commemorated in a one-off tribute show last year, following his death in 2021.

The Kaspar Hauser Experiment

Winston Churchill’s famous expression, “It’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma…” could accurately be applied to the subject of The Kaspar Hauser Experiment a…

Casting the Runes

Following their hugely successful run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year Box Tale Soup are now performing Casting the Runes, based on stories by M R James, at the Pleasance…

The Nag's Head

If you are partial to rather extraordinary pieces of theatre, that contain elements of many genres but cannot be pigeon-holed into any of them, then The Nag’s Head at the Park Th…

Owners

Carly Churchill looks upon Owners, now revived at Jermyn Street Theatre, as a watershed in her life.

The Loaf

Head to the Bridge House Theatre, Penge for an evening of delightful storytelling and charming performances in Alan Booty's two-hander, The Loaf.

The Brief Life & Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria

The play’s excessively long title has a folktale ring to it and with only limited knowledge of Balkan history sounds like a work of comic fantasy.

Iolanthe

Review
★★★
Richard Beck
West End
London Coliseum
16th Oct, 2023

There is nothing subtle about Gilbert and Sullivan’s satirical attack on the House of Lords in Iolanthe, which premiered in both London and New York on 25th November 1882; the fi…

Sunset Boulevard

Review
★★
Pete Shaw
West End
Savoy Theatre
14th Oct, 2023

Thirty years ago I stood on The Strand in a queue for eight hours intent on getting my hands on early tickets for the first production of Sunset Boulevard.

Dracula: Mina's Reckoning

What would you do if you were offered god-like powers? That's the final dilemma faced by Mina in this adaptation of the Dracula story by Morna Pearson.

The White Factory

With horrific events occurring around the world, The White Factory at The Marylebone Theatre, written by Dmitry Glukhovsky’s and directed by Maxim Didenko comes as a poignant rem…

The Threepenny Opera

Review
★★
Richard Beck
London Fringe
The Cockpit
13th Oct, 2023

Taking on The Threepenny Opera can be a precarious business, as OVO demonstrate, without flinching from the challenge.

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