Stephen Collins

With years of experience on both sides of the curtain, Stephen Collins has worked as an actor, singer, director, producer and casting consultant, indulging his passion for live theatre. For balance, he is also a media lawyer who has worked in-house for the likes of Channel 4 and The Sunday Times. In his ‘spare’ time, he can usually be found in an audience. He thinks the West End and London is the centre of the theatrical universe (sorry Broadway!), but fears it's not possible to see absolutely everything that’s on there. He doesn’t stop trying though. Cocktails help when it all gets too much.

REVIEW: Nobody’s Business, Kings Head Theatre ✭✭✭

Off West End, Reviews
Nobody's Business at the King's Head Theatre

Part Felicity Kendall, part Carol Channing, with just a soupçon of Jo Grant (The Doctor Who companion she first played about forty five years ago) and legs that most 30 year olds would kill for, Manning is a revelation. Watching her in this fatuous nonsense makes you pine to see her Judith Bliss, Miss Prism or Mistress Quickly: the potential that Manning has available to be mined is vast. There is something both astoundingly individual and comfortingly familiar about her: she soothes, inspires and captivates.

REVIEW: 5 Guys Chillin’, King’s Head Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Off West End, Reviews
5 Guys Chillin' at King's Head Theatre

It both shines a light on a corner of society which is misunderstood and unfairly vilified and, examines the rules, conventions, habits and language of a particular form of sexual expression. When you realise, as I did at some point in the latter part of the play, that the kinds of experiences the characters were discussing were the sorts of experiences that might be discussed in a football locker room or a banker’s pub on a Friday night or a Hen’s do in Malaga – not the specifics, obviously, but the spectrum of experiences, desires and passions – you appreciate the real value of works like this.

CRITICS CHOICE: Top 10 Plays October 2015

Off West End, Reviews, West End
Casa Valentina by Harvey Fierstein at Southwark Playhouse

What play should you see first in London? We have compiled this list to save you the trouble of working it out! It’s just our view – and everyone has one – based on our Reviewers’ thoughts. We will update the list regularly so new productions get on your radar and when original casts change that is factored in. Plays which have been running for more than three years are not included – this is a list for new or relatively new productions running in London. So go see them! Join our mailing list to receive information on this and other great productions. 1. Briefs This gender, race and sexual politics canvas stretches across the entire platform of the performances, from the sharp opening patter of Fez Fa’anana which happily offends everyone equally, through the “pretty doesn’t mean dumb” antics of the cheeky Louis Briggs and the vignettes with an … Read more

CRITICS CHOICE: Top 10 Long Running Shows in London – October 2015

News, Reviews, West End
Phantom Of The Opera at Her Majestys Theatre

What long running show should you see first in London? We have compiled this list to save you the trouble of working it out! It’s just our view – and everyone has one – based on our Reviewers’ thoughts. We will update the list regularly so that cast changes can factor into the mix. Only Plays and Musicals which have been running for more than three years are included in this is list. These are our Top 10 Long Running Shows in London. So go see them! Join our mailing list to get special offers on this and many other great shows. 1. Wicked Wicked is tremendous shape and the current cast gives it full value. If you have never seen it or if you have seen it, now is the time to go again – you too could be changed for the better. We went back to Wicked this … Read more

CRITICS CHOICE: Top 10 New Musicals October 2015

News, Reviews, West End
Showstopper at the Apollo Theatre

What Musical should you see first in London? We have compiled this list to save you the trouble of working it out! It’s just our view – and everyone has one – based on our Reviewers’ thoughts. We will update the list regularly so new productions get on your radar and when original casts change that is factored in. Musicals which have been running for more than three years are not included – this is a list for new or relatively new productions running in London. So go see them! Join our mailing list to be kept up to date with offers for these and other great shows 1. Gypsy You don’t have much longer to see this extraordinary piece of theatre! Everyone in this company is superb in their part, everyone can really sing, really dance and really deliver the goods in terms of dramatic and comic acting. This … Read more

REVIEW: Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, Apollo Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Reviews, West End
Showstopper at the Apollo Theatre

If you attend the theatre regularly, you will undoubtedly have encountered that rare, awful, but entirely exquisite, moment when an actor dries, a prop fails, a door doesn’t open or a dress falls apart. You will recognise the peculiar, particular moment of fused horror and wonder that flickers across the features of the cast as some battle to keep going and others try, usually hopelessly, to stifle laughter. Showstopper! thrives on such moments; indeed, in a way, the adrenalin from the uncertainty about the choice another actor will make fuels the comedy and creativity.

REVIEW: Pure Imagination, St James Theatre ✭✭✭

Off West End, Reviews
Giles Terera Interview

Bricusse’s output is so prodigious and so tuneful that only the tone deaf would not find lots of numbers here satisfying and delicious. Many will find something to enjoy in every song, and certainly Musical Director, Michael England, does a terrific job accompanying the singers with a six piece band (including England on piano) that does real justice to England’s arrangements. As ever, there could have been more strings to swell the underscoring, but that is a small quibble.

REVIEW: Dinner With Saddam, Menier Chocolate Factory ✭

Off West End, Reviews
Dinner with Saddam at Menier Chocolate Factory

When the climax to Act One involves a slapstick shovel-on-head knockout blow, a suit splitting across the central character’s back, and Steven Berkoff finally making his entrance, heavily made up as Saddam Hussein, you know that there is no point staying for the second Act. Nothing can make up for the time which you have lost while enduring Act One. Death is far too close, whatever your age, to fritter time away on profitless theatrical misjudgment. Fleeing is wise.