Articles by Katerina Partolina Schwartz

BOUM! C'est Chantastique

Across the street from Moulin Rouge lies a slice of understated elegance that is Brasserie Zedel.

Gypsy

The stage at the Mill at Sonning is transformed into a cosy vaudeville theatre with Jospeph Pitcher’s Gypsy.

Lovefool

Written and directed by Gintare Parulyte, Lovefool is certainly unmissable.

Phil Wang: Wang in There, Baby!

Whatever you think Phil Wang’s Wang In There, Baby! Is going to be like, the reality of the show far surpasses it.

Once On This Island

Directed by Ola Ince, Once On This Island has all the hallmarks of a myth; the gods meddling in human life, a quest with high stakes, and a chosen one going on a journey.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Review
★★★
Katerina Partolina Schwartz
London Fringe
Southwark Playhouse Theatre Company Ltd.
18th May, 2023

Georgie Rankcom’s adaptation of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a colourful comedy that laughs at corporate culture and business stereotypes.

Schalk Bezuidenhout: I'll Make Laugh To You

In Schalk Bezuidenhout’s I’ll Make Laugh To You, the fun and games start before the show does, introducing us to his subtley pointed sarcasm before launching in a self-deprecat…

Nul Points

This show deserves as many points as its title says.

TONY! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera]

Whether you remember Tony Blair becuase of the international laws he broke or the fact that he made fox-hunting illegal, TONY! is a raucous, cartoonish musical.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

It’s not every day that you see your imagination augmented by the stage adaptation of a book.

Private Lives

In Michael Longhurst’s adaptation of Private Lives, you can really see why Noël Coward’s work receives such acclaim to the point of being replicated in TV shows like Frasier.

Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical

Two main questions flit through your mind as you watch SpitLip’s Operation Mincemeat - firstly ‘God it’s brilliant,’ followed quickly by, ‘how are they allowed to do that…

Galaxy Train

Galaxy Train is a new musical with music, lyrics and book by Eden Tredwell and direction by Yojiro Ichikawa.

Rosie Holt: The Woman’s Hour

Rosie Holt’s The Woman’s Hour is a satirical amalgamation of characters that provides a commentary on British politics.

Villain, Interrupted

The very best shows always leave you either unsettled or with an inexplicable high that lasts until you fully process what you saw onstage.

Hay Fever

Noël Coward’s Hay Fever is largely considered to be a masterpiece, the height of comedy.

Bonnie & Clyde

After a strong run at the Arts Theatre last year, the hellraisers are back in Nick Winston’s Bonnie and Clyde as it finally finds a home in the West End at the Garrick Theate.

Grace Campbell: A Show About Me(n)

Review
★★★★
Katerina Partolina Schwartz
West End
Alexandra Palace / Leicester Square Theatre
14th Mar, 2023

Grace Campbell has been called a multitude of things, but after her most recent comedy set A Show About Me(n) she can add electrifying, iconic and all around spectacular to the lis…

Pierre Novellie: Why Can’t I Just Enjoy Things?

Writing a positive review is quite difficult without using hyperbole, and in the spirit of Pierre Novellie’s Why Can’t I Just Enjoy Things, it is prudent to at least attempt to…

Notre Dame

Stuart Crowther’s adaptation of Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame is proof that streamed performances can bring the magic of theatre and then some into our homes, diffe…

Pick n Mix

Have you ever got that feeling of frustration when watching a TV show or a play, when the characters make bad decisions or could resolve their problems if they just talked to each …

We’ll Always Have Paris

The Mill at Sonning is a quaint venue that provides all the amenities for a great theatre trip.

And Then the Rodeo Burned Down

Russian Doll meets clowns in And Then the Rodeo Burned Down, a circular metaphysical piece that combines elements of dance, comedy and mystery to form a labyrinth equivalent of a s…

George Takei's Allegiance

There are many stories that are lost or hidden from view, and George Takei’s Allegiance takes one of the shameful moments in American history - the incarceration of Japanese-Amer…

Mother Goose - Duke of York's Theatre

Cal McCrystal’s Mother Goose is a self-described silly, fun show with an underlying commentary of failed economic policies that live up to that promise.

Erika Ehler: Femcel

In one word, Erika Ehler: Femcel is unexpected.

Lauren Pattison: It Is What It Is

Everybody loves a comeback story, and Lauren Pattison’s It Is What It Is, is an up-beat in-depth look at the ups and downs of life.

Fin Taylor: Daddy Self-Care

Fin Taylor is not afraid to speak his mind, and his recent set Daddy Self-Care is proof of that.

Newsies

Carrying the banner call of Strike!, Alan Menken and Jack Feldman’s Newsies becomes the call to action that we need to hear.

The Rocky Horror Show

In this science fiction double feature, Christopher Luscombe’s adaptation of Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show is a fun, mischievous celebration of the cult classic.

The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary!

Everything about John Nicholson’s adaptation of Gustave Flaubert’s The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary! at Jermyn Street Theatre has an element of irony to it, but whether tha…

Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story

The royal affair that is Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story, is the most unhinged piece of theatre in existence.

Grease the Musical

From hand-jiving to slicked hair, Nikolai Foster’s Grease at the Dominion Theatre is a sprint down memory lane with extra twists.

From Here To Eternity

Whilst the boys of G Company may be experiencing monotony in Hawaii, this word cannot be applied to the long-anticipated revival of Tim Rice’s and Stuart Brayson’s From Here to…

Elf Lyons; Raven

Mundane is not a word that could be used to describe Elf Lyons’ Raven.

Tammy Faye

With music and lyrics by Elton John and Jake Shears, Tammy Faye is as iconic as the woman it is about.

Mark Watson: This Can't Be It

Mark Watson is one of those people who you stop and listen to when they start speaking, whether it is from the middle of an audience, or from a stage.

Christian Brighty: Playboy

As far as shows set during the Regency era go, Christian Brighty’s Playboy is not only the most ambitious, but also the best representation of dramas set in this period.

The Canterville Ghost

Olivia Jacobs and Toby Mitchell’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost gives little away to begin with, making it difficult to know what to expect.

But I’m A Cheerleader

Whilst productions do as much as they can to immerse audiences in the aesthetic of shows from the start, nothing can compare to the auditory and visual sensation of pastel that kic…

Last Sales Conference Of The Apocalypse

Mixing survivalism with psychoanalysis, Dave Bain’s Last Sales Conference of the Apocalypse is a fractured and confused trip that leaves us with more questions than answers.

The Caucasian Chalk Circle

The proverb blood is thicker than water is often used to prioritise family bonds over all else.

Helen Bauer: Madam Good Tit

Helen Bauer’s Madam Good Tit is a not-so-wholesome coming-of-age set that provides a deep dive into everything from Bauer’s various high school personalities to deeply problema…

Rhys Nicholson - Rhys! Rhys! Rhys!

Rhys Nicholson must have been pushing down the material in Rhys! Rhys! Rhys! for a long time, for this show is certainly a diamond.

Everybody Wants To Rule The World

Like most dystopian stories, Simon Perrott’s Everybody Wants to Rule the World has a basis in reality which forces us to reflect on the issues of today.

Help! We Are Still Alive

There’s an upbeat charm that hangs over Grey Area Theatre’s Help! We Are Still Alive.

Antigone

It’s a classic David and Goliath, if by the end, rooting for Goliath seemed like a reasonable thing to do.

Rehab: The Musical

Grant Black and Murray Lachlan Young’s Rehab is an entertaining musical that is full of potential.

Javelin

Taking self-deprecating humour to another level, Tom Walker’s Javelin is a rather eclectic series of observations and character-based narratives, through which runs a relatively …

Ride

Few will perhaps have heard of Annie Londonderry, but after seeing Freya Catrin Smith and Jack Williams’ Ride, it will be practically impossible to forget the name.

Persephone

Wow, just wow.

Diva Live from Hell!

Damnation has never been so fun in Joe McNeice’s adaptation of Diva: Live from Hell.

Ghost Quartet by Dave Malloy

Smashing Cabinets Theatre’s adaptation of Dave Malloy’s Ghost Quartet is ghost-like and haunting, confusing at times, but generally falls somewhere between the mysteriousness o…

A Wilde Life

Chevron Theatre’s A Wilde Life is absolutely hypnotic, hinting at a time of debauchery and a glamour that has long since passed.

Beautiful Nothing

All that glitters is not gold, a message that is incredibly clear in Em Oliver’s Beautiful Nothing.

Artorigus

There is a distinctly medieval feel to Ross Stephenson’s Artorigus from the start, despite its modern trappings.

Sarah Sherman

Hailing all the way from the bright lights of New York, Sarah Sherman’s self-described horror comedy show - with the emphasis on the horror - is incredibly ghastly and overly gra…

Cruise

Electric, animated, compelling.

Splinters

Judy Seall’s Splinters is a strangely warm gothic Victorian tale, a warmth that emanates from the bonds between the members of the cast.

Starship Improvise

Combining the improvisation talents of Mischief Comedy, Austentatious, and Showstopper!, Starship Improvise is a blast out of this world, filled with moments of hilarity and creati…

Double Crossed

Whilst mildly fun, it is odd in this day and age to have any form of pro-police art.

Sylus 2024!

Jeff Ahern’s presidential campaign based on audience suggestions brings an insightful look at the current state of political affairs.

52 Souls

Chronic Insanity’s 52 Souls is a series of monologues that correspond to each indiviudal playing card (plus one Joker) along the subject of death and mortality, all in an hour.

Living with Sin

Turning what we know about morality on its head, Gabrielle James and Joshua Newman’s Living With Sin is an interesting twist on the traditionally 'evil' seven deadly sins…

Don't Say Macbeth

GOYA Theatre Company’s Don’t Say Macbeth is a fast-paced show filled with well-balanced satire that pokes fun at and spoofs the theatre and musical industry.

The Single Lady

Lauren Brewer and Will Geraint Drake’s The Single Lady is a musical extravaganza, giving Elizabeth I the same treatment that Hamilton did to the Founding Fathers.

Cherub Spring: A Political Satire

Children, especially toddlers are known to be tyrants.

A Eulogy for Roman

Death is sad enough, but growing up seems worse.

Flesh

Whilst it may be apt to stage John Montgomery and Derek Batchelor’s Flesh - a musical about Burke and Hare - at Surgeon’s Hall, the novelty stops there.

A Highly Suspect Murder Mystery

A Highly Suspect Murder Mystery is an interactive Shakespeare-based whodunnit where the audience (with help from the cast) is tasked with solving the murder.

Yellow Bird Chase

Jason Slavick’s Yellow Bird Chase shows us that the best children’s shows have something for everyone, whether it is the gibberish of the language, the compelling storyline or …

Garry Starr: Greece Lightning

Despite the hyper atmosphere and start of Garry Starr’s Greece Lightning, there is something vaguely unsettling about the manic nature of the way that Starr approaches this show.

Catherine Bohart: This Isn't For You

Despite what Catherine Bohart tells us in This Isn’t For You, she is more emotionally articulate than she gives herself credit for.

Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World

Chris Bush, Miranda Cooper and Jennifer Decilveo’s Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World is in one word, a celebration.

Milo Edwards: Voicemail

Filled with classically and subtly nihilistic British humour, Milo Edwards’ Voicemail is full of intelligent and thought provoking commentary that turns Mash House into a safe sp…

Hannah Fairweather: Just a Normal Girl Who Enjoys Revenge

Review
★★★★
Katerina Partolina Schwartz
Edinburgh Fringe
Just The Tonic at the Caves / The Pleasance Theatre Trust
9th Nov, 2022

From exes to golf coaches, Just a Normal Girl Who Enjoys Revenge is an eloquent, biting and well-structured analysis of situations when Hannah Fairweather was right and when she wa…

Foundations

Unassuming at the start, A V Brodrenkova and Aimee Dickinson’s Foundations quickly breaks all boundaries and assumptions.

Ted Hill: All the Presidents Man

Ted Hill is incredibly brave for putting on his show, All The Presidents Man, which in itself is a very clever title.

Crizards: Cowboys

Don’t be fooled by the singing cowboys, this is an incredibly serious play, if only for the fact that the pair of Will Rowland and Eddy Hare have clearly done their research for …

Ivo Graham: My Future, My Clutter

Too young to be yelling at clouds, Ivo Graham decides to talk loudly at us over the course of an hour instead.

Project Dictator

Rhum and Clay's Project Dictator is a commentary on democracy and dictatorships, utilising different theatre genres to do so.

Mischief Movie Night

"What happens when you combine holy water and squash? Capers," Jonathan Sayer promises us during Mischief Comedy's Mischief Movie Night.

Boris the Third

‘They all knew the person I was when they gave me the part,’ Harry Kershaw complains, words that ring hollow and true, in a prophetic sort of manner, a common feeling that we …

Angela Barnes: Hot Mess

There is something comforting about Angela Barnes’ Hot Mess.

Maisie Adam: Buzzed

Maisie Adam is Buzzed about a lot of things, and it is a nice change of pace to hear how things are going well for a comedian.

Bloody Mary: Live!

Forget everything you may know about Bloody Mary; the cocktail, the game, the queen who burned Protestants at the stake.

Anything Goes

It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s de-lovely - it’s the Great Depression as you don’t know it, full of the glitz, glamour and luxury of old Broadway.

Sarah Keyworth: Lost Boy

Sarah Keyworth’s Lost Boy is very difficult to fully describe.

RuneSical

From Gigglemug comedy duo Sam Cochrane and Alex Prescot, Runesical is an amusing, action packed quest based on the role-palying game Runescape.

The Song of Fergus and Kate

Filled with the charm of a children’s cartoon, The Song of Fergus and Kate is a quaint story about friendship and embracing differences that any child would find fascinating.

Americana: A Murder Ballad

We are told from the start that America’s history is one of violence, and of wars.

Charlie Russell Aims to Please

As the title Charlie Russell Aims to Please suggests, the entire show is an amalgamation of various theatre techniques from musical to slapstick to the dramatic in Russell’s atte…

Spoons

Brenda (Jacqueline King), a marriage counsellor, is faced with multiple challenges.

Olga Koch: Just Friends

Olga Koch is winning at life and she wants us to know it.

Alex Kealy: Winner Takes All

Braving the smells and humidity of the Niddry Street Hive, Alex Kealy’s The Winner Takes All explains the inner workings and purpose of Silicon Valley and tech monopolies better …

Yeast Nation

Some of our most recent experiences of yeast will most likely come from our own fervent lockdown breadmaking.

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Whether it was the book or movie, C.

The Woman Who Amuses Herself

There is an unspoken cardinal rule that life tends to imitate art.

Millenials

Don’t be fooled by the pink, as the aesthetic over comfort of Elliot Clay’s Millennials is the celebration that this generation not only deserves but needs.

Sh!t-faced Shakespeare®: Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare has been kind enough to leave behind a plethora of quotes about drinking.

A-Typical Rainbow

‘Who had a better ending, Peter or Wendy?’ This is a question JJ Green invites us to ponder in A-Typical Rainbow, a powerful story about a boy growing up with autism and how it…

The Seagull

Review
★★★
Katerina Partolina Schwartz
West End
Harold Pinter Theatre / The Harold Pinter Theatre
13th Jul, 2022

Stripping back any recognisable aspect of Russian culture, Jamie Lloyd’s adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull presents the bare minimum of what theatre can be: a group of …

Private Peaceful

Michael Morpugo’s stories about the world wars have for a long time been the gold-standard for children’s books.

Red Pill

If schools want a ‘Keeping Yourself Safe’ presentation on incel culture, then they won’t have to look further than Sam Went’s Red Pill.

Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch

Provocative, crude and iconic, Fat Rascal Theatre’s production of Unfortunate is nothing short of a showstopper.

The Glass Menagerie

‘The play is memory’.

Much Ado About Nothing

William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, tucked away under the arches of Waterloo at the Network Theatre, is an incredibly feminist play.

Lift

A quintessentially London musical by Craig Adams and Ian Watson, with new arrangements by Sam Young, Dean Johnson’s Lift at the Southwark Playhouse is a complex musical experien…

Ordinary Days

Julie Atherton’s production of Ordinary Days at the Cockpit is a work of art.

For You I'd Wait

One of the best things about theatre, and art in general, is the space it creates for difficult conversations and analysis.

American Idiot

An odd combination of nostalgia and existentialism, American Idiot continues to remain incredibly current.

Abigail

Most of us will be familiar with Arthur Miller’s character Abigail; the seductress who caught John Proctor’s eye and led a group of girls that sent innocent women to their demi…

Shake the City

If we ever needed more proof as to why second wave or white feminism should no longer be considered relevant, here it is.

Sidney Fox's Crime

There are a few infinite things in the universe: greed, love and the elite’s ability and desire to protect the status quo.

Bonnie and Clyde

Having a gun - albeit a fake one - pointed at my face has never been at the top of my list of fears.

The Handmaid’s Tale

Modern opera is difficult to execute well, because no matter how good it is it will always be judged against the classics.

Anyone Can Whistle

Considering how much Anyone Can Whistle flopped in 1964, it is a bold, brave (and some may say hubristic) move on the part of Grey Area Theatre Company to revive the show at the So…

The Bean Spillers: The Improvised Musical

High energy, fun and witty, The Bean Spillers’ Improvised Musical showcases a wide range of talent, musical knowledge and general mischief.

Back to the Future

After years of turmoil caused by politics and pandemic, nostalgia is exactly what Doc ordered.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Based on Baz Luhrmann’s epic love story, Moulin Rouge is a larger-than-life electrifying musical.

Heathers The Musical

Homecoming is the word that comes to mind when watching this musical.

The Quartet Behind Operation Mincemeat

Feature
Katerina Partolina Schwartz
West End
8th May, 2023

The four composers and writers of SpitLip, Natasha Hodgson, Zoë Roberts, David Cumming and Felix Hagan chat to Katerina Partolina Schwartz about their musical Operation Mincemeat,...

License To Be Funny - Interview with Rhys Nicholson

Before taking a stand-up hour that is specifically not about the pandemic on a tour of the UK, I had a light-hearted interview with Rhys Nicholson about the role of comedians in so...

Pushing Boundaries and Breaking Taboos: Interview with Lily Phillips

Feature
Katerina Partolina Schwartz
West End
17th Feb, 2023

After a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe, Lily Phillips brings her debut show Smut to the Soho Theatre.

The Ones Who Load the Dice - Q&A with Alex Kealy

Embarking on a national tour with his Fringe hour ‘Winner Takes All’, Alex Kealy takes on Silicon tech monopolies asking important questions about what it is like to wake up at...

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