News & Reviews

Wincester amateur theatre launches playwrighting competition

Amateur theatre group, Chesil Theatre is once again inviting playwrights to submit scripts for its 10x10 Playwriting Competition.

Interview: The Heritage Arts Company Directors - Tim and Mat

Over 200 talented performers and artists applied for VAULT, a festival running over six weeks. The interest in working for the company has enabled a strong p…

Feature: The Future Of Theatre Criticism

Arts desks across all major publications seem to be cutting back on their critics. In an information saturated world, who do you trust? What is the future of…

Hairspray now available for UK amateurs

Josef Weinberger has announced that rights for smash hit musical Hairspray are now available to amateur groups throughout the UK.

Interview: Made in China Company Directors Tim and Jessica

What makes theatre company Made in China so special? Their razor sharp comedy Gym Party is currently on tour.

REVIEW: Ciphers, Bush Theatre ✭✭

It is difficult to believe that anyone would programme this play and even more difficult to believe that there are not better plays which deserve productions…

REVIEW: Putting It Together, St James Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

This Putting It Together deserves to transfer into a central West End theatre and play to packed houses seeking pure, joyful entertainment.

REVIEW: Happy Days, Young Vic Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Happy Days is not a happy play. It is Beckett at his most confronting, most understandable, relentlessly surreal and disturbing. Essentially a monologue, it …

Critics Circle Theatre Awards turn 25 as Chimerica prevails.

The Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards 2013 took place on Tuesday 28 January 2014, at the Prince of Wales Theatre, celebrating the 25th anniversary of these uni…

Joseph to hit the silver screen

Jersey Boys to tour UK for the first time.

The Tony, Olivier and Grammy Award-winning Best Musical Jersey Boys, which has been delighting audiences in London for six years, will be touring the United …

REVIEW: The Pass, Royal Court Theatre ✭✭✭

Tovey gives a first rate performance. He attacks the part with every fibre of his being and gives the dialogue more joy and menace than it deserves. Even he,…

Sex and the City star Kristen Davis to make West End debut in Fatal Attraction

Cameron Mackintosh becomes first British producer inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame

Cameron Mackintosh was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in a ceremony at New York's Gerhswin Theatre on January 27, 2014

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Sneak Peek: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels heads to the West End

Rehearsals for the musical were recently opened up to the media and BritishTheatre.com were invited to take a look. Robert Lindsay said he wished that more s…

Cast announced for I Can't Sing - the X Factor musical

Bunny boiling is back in fashion as Fatal Attraction hits the stage.

Bunny boiling, psychotic lovers and thrills aplenty when the stage adaptation of the film Fatal Attraction arrives in the West End early next year for a limi…

Review: Happy Days, Churchill Theatre, Bromley ✭✭✭

A wave of nostalgia engulfed the Churchill Theatre Bromley last night, when the UK tour of Happy Days - a new musical kicked of its UK tour, some 40 years af…

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Review: Stephen Ward, Aldwych Theatre ✭✭

It’s a story that offered so much but as a show Stephen Ward returns so little.

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Duchess Of Malfi, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse ✭✭✭✭✭

This is the start of a whole new range of possibilities for the Globe complex - and a really entertaining and desirable one.

REVIEW: King Lear, National Theatre ✭✭✭✭

There has not, since 2007, been a National Theatre production of a Shakespearean play anything like as engaging, thrilling and involving as the Sam Mendes he…

REVIEW: The Bridges Of Madison County, Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

First and foremost though, it is a human tragedy - and the acting, staging, book, music and orchestrations all combine to produce an intensely affecting and …

REVIEW: The Glass Menagerie, Booth Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Sell limbs, organs, children, gold, whatever - but see this production if you value great dramatic theatrical work. It's a once in a lifetime reimagining of …

REVIEW: Machinal, American Airlines Theatre ✭✭✭

The audience was not fooled either; their tepid applause was a damning indictment of the alleged star turn. And the production company plants calling out "Br…

REVIEW: Pippin, Music Box Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Utterly completely glorious - funny and intensely sexual in style. This is a Pippin for all seasons. Miss it not!

REVIEW: Buyer And Cellar, Barrow Street Theatre ✭✭✭✭

It's a delicious and satisfying theatrical experience in every way. Urie is nothing short of remarkable.

REVIEW: Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, RSC ✭✭✭✭✭

It is as near perfect a piece of dramatic theatre as one is ever likely to see. What Herrin and his team have achieved here is utterly, unquestionably remark…

REVIEW: Coriolanus, Donmar Warehouse ✭✭✭

As Act One trundles along, there is absolutely no sense that anyone on stage has any idea what they are doing or why.

INTERVIEW: Alexandra Spencer-Jones, Artistic Director

REVIEW: Stephen Ward, Aldwych Theatre ✭

The piece has no idea what it is doing: it does not tell any story well or with feeling. You know as much about Stephen Ward and his part in the Profumo scan…

Olivier Awards Promo 2014

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Henry V, Noel Coward Theatre ✭✭✭✭

it reflects the standards, achievements and sense of the entire season: A great play, a real star at the heart of the production, a set design redolent of th…

REVIEW: A Gentleman's Guide To Love And Murder, Walter Kerr Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Jefferson is quicksilver Broadway magic - effortlessly creating 9 very different members of the same clan. He is a joy to watch and he chews the scenery as h…

REVIEW: West Side Story, Currently On Tour ✭✭

It was impossible not to feel anything but sympathy for this cast and nothing but irritation bordering on contempt for the "creatives" who think this is the …

REVIEW: Richard II, RSC ✭✭✭✭

Rightly, the cast received a standing ovation at the RST - an unusual sight at Stratford Upon Avon. This is a startlingly clear and quite gorgeous production…

REVIEW: The Scottsboro Boys, Old Vic Theatre ✭✭✭✭

The nine boys are, in an unqualified way, magnificent: the line-up here is better than the Vineyard line-up. Each of the nine can sing, dance and act. They a…

REVIEW: Twelve Angry Men, Garrick Theatre ✭✭✭

It's a worthwhile night at the theatre, quite engrossing, but it does not reach the level of excitement it ought.

REVIEW: The Fastest Clock In The Universe, Old Red Lion Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Tom O’Brien’s production is a rare opportunity to see one of Ridley’s greatest works performed to such a high standard. Not for the faint of heart, and not t…

FROM THE DRESSING ROOM: Jenna Russell

2013 REVIEW: The Book Of Mormon, Prince Of Wales Theatre. ✭✭✭

For my part, it is as plain as a pike staff that the performers at hard work in this Parker, Lopez and Stone piece are, uniformly, at the top of their game a…

REVIEW: Jeeves and Wooster - Richmond Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This is one time a play lives up to its name. It's undeniable nonsense, but Perfect in every way.

REVIEW: Ghosts, Almeida Theatre at Trafalgar Studios ✭✭✭✭✭

Lesley Manville has never been better than she is here: brittle, desperate, trapped, her Helene Alving is a pulsing stream of artic lava, engulfing everyone …

REVIEW: From Here To Eternity, Shaftesbury Theatre ✭✭✭

Sir Tim describes the work as a grown-up musical: not sure what that means, but one cannot but think everyone would been better off if this piece was mature …

REVIEW: The Light Princess, Lyttleton Theatre at the National ✭✭

It has to be said that, taking into account the whole experience, The Light Princess is no better or worse a musical than Viva Forever! In both cases, the bo…

REVIEW: The Commitments, Palace Theatre. ✭✭✭

It is chock full of great musical classics and extremely well sung and performed. Indeed, the vocal work of Killian Donnelly as the lewd lout Deco is assured…

REVIEW: The Herd, Bush Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

This is a wonderful night at the theatre, exhilarating and rewarding, and a portentous debut for Kinnear. It is a play which could play anywhere - and should…

REVIEW: Roots, Donmar Warehouse ✭✭✭✭

This is difficult theatre to watch - but it is engaging and ultimately life affirming. And quite splendid.

INTERVIEW: Chris Urch, Playwright

REVIEW: Strange Interlude, National Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Godwin's sensational production will be long remembered - chiefly for being exactly what The National Theatre should be about all the time: first rate produc…