British Theatre

Theatre News & Reviews: 2014

British Theatre articles from 2014 — news, reviews, interviews, and guides from the London theatre scene.

Browse 409 articles published in 2014.

REVIEW: Treasure Island, Olivier Theatre ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Treasure Island, Olivier Theatre ✭✭✭

Jim is not the only character whose gender is changed, but his change is the most significant. It's not that it is a bad or fatal choice - it is, however, a …

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: City Of Angels, Donmar Warehouse ✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: City Of Angels, Donmar Warehouse ✭✭✭✭

City of Angels has an impeccable pedigree - a book by Larry Gelbart, lyrics by David Zippel and a rich, brassy score from Cy Coleman. It provides great scope…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Golem, Young Vic Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Golem, Young Vic Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

You could be forgiven for thinking this was a fairytale, so delicate, amusing, but full of truths, is Golem. If Tim Burton did a live-action adult pantomime,…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Les Miserables, Queens Theatre ✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Les Miserables, Queens Theatre ✭✭✭✭

If you have never seen Les Miserables, this is a good year to see it; if you have seen it, this cast provides fresh approaches and interesting nuance to scen…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

Cats: Thoughts From A Long Time Fan

News

Cats: Thoughts From A Long Time Fan

This production of Cats, certainly inspired some heated conversations over the weekend, but what it also revived in me was my love of the show itself and it’…

Douglas Mayo

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Cats, London Palladium ✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Cats, London Palladium ✭✭✭✭

The very best aspect of this production is the power, energy and sheer musicality Graham Hurman brings to the score. The orchestra is sizzling, sparking musi…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: 3 Winters, Lyttleton Theatre ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: 3 Winters, Lyttleton Theatre ✭✭✭

There is a marvellous scene towards the end of Act One where Walker and Gulliford share the couch, both wanting to be there but both not knowing how to negot…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Hope, Jerwood Theatre Downstairs ✭✭

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REVIEW: Hope, Jerwood Theatre Downstairs ✭✭

This is a play more polemic than personal. None of the lead characters have any warmth, at least as played here, so there is real difficulty in engaging with…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Times Square Angel, Union Theatre ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Times Square Angel, Union Theatre ✭✭✭

It's a simple enough formula, but with Times Square Angel is doesn't quite work. Described as a "hard-boiled Christmas fantasy" you can't help but get the fe…

Douglas Mayo

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Twelfth Night, Richmond Theatre ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Twelfth Night, Richmond Theatre ✭✭✭

The alternative title to Twelfth Night is What You Will, and, more than anything else, that seems Munby's inspiration here. He has, with real determination, …

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Accolade, St James Theatre ✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Accolade, St James Theatre ✭✭✭✭

McIntyre directs with careful, thorough assuredness, avoiding the easy trap of treating the material like the melodrama it could so easily become, preferring…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Cans, Theatre 503 ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Cans, Theatre 503 ✭✭✭

In five snapshots, we see Jen, as masterfully portrayed by Jennifer Clement, slowly come of age through this discovery and Uncle Len, perfectly embodied by G…

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Editorial Staff

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Rivals, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: The Rivals, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Constant eruptions of anger, sexual frustration, discrimination of town against country and English against Irish, and hostilities of son against father, ser…

Tim Hochstrasser

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Girlfriends, Union Theatre ✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Girlfriends, Union Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This is the strongest of the three Goodall offerings the Union has produced this year. Tapner's musical direction, an excellent cast led by Catherine Mort, a…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: 2071, Jerwood Theatre Downstairs ✭

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REVIEW: 2071, Jerwood Theatre Downstairs ✭

Billed and promoted as "a play exploring the future of life on earth and climate change", 2071 may be many things, but a play it is not. Nothing theatrical h…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Wildefire, Hampstead Theatre ✭✭

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REVIEW: Wildefire, Hampstead Theatre ✭✭

Director Maria Aberg certainly confronts the challenges Wildefire offers head on. There is some starkly realistic violence - the murder of Spence and it's af…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Side Show, St James Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Side Show, St James Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

On any rational view of it, this is not a revival but a complete re-imagining of the original work. It is not an attempt to recapture the magic of a first ru…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: John, Lyttleton Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: John, Lyttleton Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

It's confronting from start to finish; challenging and disturbing in many ways. But, ultimately, as we hear John settle into a calm, perhaps contented sleep,…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: On The Town, Lyric Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: On The Town, Lyric Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

The dancing has a style, a language of its own and, certainly as choreographed by Bergasse, is more articulate than pages of dialogue. The steps are tricky, …

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Neville's Island, Duke Of York's Theatre ✭

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REVIEW: Neville's Island, Duke Of York's Theatre ✭

The prospect of discovering what the blood was about, where Angus' wife was, what Roy's secret was and how the four get along was not sufficiently compelling…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Cherry Orchard, Young Vic ✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: The Cherry Orchard, Young Vic ✭✭✭✭

Set firmly in the present, this version lacks languid notions about the past, does not spend too much time on the intricacies of character and prefers shock …

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Memphis, Shaftesbury Theatre ✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Memphis, Shaftesbury Theatre ✭✭✭✭

As Calhoun, Killian Donnelly is a revelation...His mania, energy and sheer talent explodes off the stage driven by some of the finest rock vocals that I have…

Douglas Mayo

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Speed-The-Plow, Playhouse Theatre ✭✭

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REVIEW: Speed-The-Plow, Playhouse Theatre ✭✭

It's a mystery why Lindsay Lohan chose this play as her world stage debut. Perhaps she knew she would be the best thing about it? That would seem the only ra…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Our Town, Almeida Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Our Town, Almeida Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

This is a phenomenally effective and ambitious revival of a masterpiece. It restores one’s faith in the power and magic of theatre and shows, in a very clear…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: This Is My Family, Lyceum Sheffield ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: This Is My Family, Lyceum Sheffield ✭✭✭

This Is My Family is unlikely to win a Tony award for Best New Musical, but it is an engaging and very happy musical theatre experience. It's new, British th…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: East Is East, Trafalgar Studios ✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: East Is East, Trafalgar Studios ✭✭✭✭

East is East isn’t the searing feast of theatricality you might expect from Lloyd, but the hallmarks and flourishes of his Trafalgar Transformed season are p…

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Emily Hardy

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Damn Yankees, Landor Theatre ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Damn Yankees, Landor Theatre ✭✭✭

Like the Union Theatre, the Landor continues to bring new or largely overlooked musicals to London as well as encouraging and developing the skills of freshl…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Love Story, Union Theatre ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Love Story, Union Theatre ✭✭✭

Victoria Sierra as Jenny Cavilleri and David Albury as Oliver Barratt IV, as the young student couple share the warmth and passion of youth, determined to ma…

Douglas Mayo

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Evita, Dominion Theatre ✭

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REVIEW: Evita, Dominion Theatre ✭

For my part, it is the worst production of a musical I have ever seen on a West End stage. It makes one pine for Too Close Too The Sun.

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Ballyturk, National Theatre ✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Ballyturk, National Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This is a wild, original and unexpected evening of theatrical extremism. You do not need to be able to work out what Walsh’s point is to have a wonderful tim…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: As You Like It, Southwark Playhouse ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: As You Like It, Southwark Playhouse ✭✭✭

So, it’s a review of two halves for 'As You Like It' - a play that pendulums from bland to bold and bleak to bright - but is absolutely worth seeing, for, if…

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Emily Hardy

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Breeders, St James Theatre ✭✭

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REVIEW: Breeders, St James Theatre ✭✭

It is blessed with four genuinely good performers who elevate the entire proceedings way above the level the writing achieves.

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Dreaming, Union Theatre ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: The Dreaming, Union Theatre ✭✭✭

It is a mystery why the National did not exploit it rather than pour millions into the waste of time that was The Light Princess. If this got the care and la…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Little Revolution, Almeida Theatre ✭✭

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REVIEW: Little Revolution, Almeida Theatre ✭✭

The trouble is that it has no really coherent purpose, no through line and very little heart. Snatches of conversations out of context build a general pictur…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Anything Goes, Cadogan Hall ✭✭

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REVIEW: Anything Goes, Cadogan Hall ✭✭

As a whole experience, this was the equivalent of the local school end-of-year concert. If you were friendly and forgiving, you could have a good time. If yo…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The White Devil, RSC, Swan Theatre ✭

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REVIEW: The White Devil, RSC, Swan Theatre ✭

It's like watching a censored propaganda film: you have a clear idea what to expect, but it is presented in a way which dumbfounds those expectations.

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Richard III, Trafalgar Studios ✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Richard III, Trafalgar Studios ✭✭✭✭

Shakespeare's vision and insight into the psychology of schizophrenic megalomania was never more potent than it is in Richard III. Jamie Lloyd's production d…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Medea, National Theatre ✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Medea, National Theatre ✭✭✭✭

McCrory achieves that almost impossible feat - she makes you understand, care for and empathise with Medea's situation. You feel her pain and fear and disgus…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Nether, Royal Court Theatre ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: The Nether, Royal Court Theatre ✭✭✭

At ninety minutes, it's worthwhile time in the theatre. But better casting would have resulted in an experience that might have matched Es Devlin's extraordi…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Great Britain, Lyttleton Theatre ✭✭

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REVIEW: Great Britain, Lyttleton Theatre ✭✭

Because there is no coherent overall style, the audience is left uncertain what it is watching and why. It's a pity, really, because there are so many good a…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Dessa Rose, Trafalgar Studios ✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Dessa Rose, Trafalgar Studios ✭✭✭✭

This is a terrifically mature presentation of a difficult, but eminently attractive, and entertaining, piece of musical theatre. It is Keates' best work to d…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Miss Julie, Minerva Theatre ✭✭

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REVIEW: Miss Julie, Minerva Theatre ✭✭

Somewhat incredulously, the companion piece in this double bill, Black Comedy, an entertainment written purely for pleasure, really tells us more about sexua…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Fathers and Sons, Donmar Warehouse ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Fathers and Sons, Donmar Warehouse ✭✭✭

There used to be a TV soap called Sons and Daughters and this production of Fathers and Sons felt more like some historical episodes of that series than a th…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Perserverance Drive, Bush Theatre ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Perserverance Drive, Bush Theatre ✭✭✭

Nothing much that happens is surprising or even that interesting, except that this is an entirely black Church family. And, in that one way, it sparkles with…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Julius Caesar, Globe Theatre ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Julius Caesar, Globe Theatre ✭✭✭

This is not a production where you sit and watch and the outcome is determined for you; no, it's a production where your mood and the mood of those around yo…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Intimate Apparel, Park Theatre ✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Intimate Apparel, Park Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This is a play that is both functional and delicate, necessary and yet slightly exotic, lovingly crafted and sumptuous to experience. And like all gorgeous i…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

Almeida announces casting for Little Revolution

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Almeida announces casting for Little Revolution

The Almeida Theatre has today announced casting for the world premiere of Alecky Blythe’s new play Little Revolution inspired by the 2011 London riots, direc…

Douglas Mayo

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Titus Andronicus, Globe Theatre ✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Titus Andronicus, Globe Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Its great stuff and easily the best production Bailey has helmed. No wonder it had a return season. It’s a great production of a Shakespeare text that is not…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Mr Burns, Almeida Theatre  ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Mr Burns, Almeida Theatre ✭✭✭

The performances are uniformly terrific. Especially excellent were the wonderful Wunmi Mosaku, Jenna Russell, Justine Mitchell and Michael Shaeffer – and Dem…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Carousel, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Carousel, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

I would see it again and again if I could. It's an amazing achievement on a tiny budget; with proper support it could run for ages. It's better than many Wes…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Colby Sisters, Tricycle Theatre ✭✭

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REVIEW: The Colby Sisters, Tricycle Theatre ✭✭

There is an abundance of shrill shouting, tiresome arguing and pedestrian staging. It's like watching Revenge but without the irony. Or the humour. Or the st…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Adler and Gibb, Royal Court

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REVIEW: Adler and Gibb, Royal Court

It was all that I could do to keep conscious for most of the First Act. The loud snoring of a fellow patron assisted more in that feat than the script, conce…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Wonderland, Hampstead Theatre ✭✭

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REVIEW: Wonderland, Hampstead Theatre ✭✭

This is a lacklustre effort in every way – about as far from the triumph that was his Chariots of Fire staging as can be imagined. It’s unceasingly uninventi…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

City Of Angels sells out first ticket release

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City Of Angels sells out first ticket release

The production of City Of Angels being staged by The Donmar Warehouse has posted SOLD OUT notices for the entire run on the day the show went on sale to the …

Douglas Mayo

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Incognito, Bush Theatre ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Incognito, Bush Theatre ✭✭✭

There is a great deal to like in this production. Payne's writing is intriguing and the pace never really flags. It is a good play, just not a brilliant one.

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Testament Of Mary ✭

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REVIEW: The Testament Of Mary ✭

This time, once again, Deborah Warner missed the point and all but destroyed everything of value about the theatrical experience.

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Birdland, Royal Court Theatre ✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Birdland, Royal Court Theatre ✭✭✭✭

There is a simply amazing moment when the set literally starts to crack up or, depending on how you look at it, begins to drown – just as the central charact…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Henry IV Part One, RSC ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Henry IV Part One, RSC ✭✭✭

Perhaps it was just that Richard II promised so much, but this Henry IV Part One did not make one long for Part Two.

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Les Miserables, Imperial Theatre ✭✭

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REVIEW: Les Miserables, Imperial Theatre ✭✭

Reimagining great productions is de rigour on the great musical stages of the world. Sometimes, the reimagining can surpass the original vision. This is not …

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Rocky, Wintergarden Theatre ✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Rocky, Wintergarden Theatre ✭✭✭

This is more spectacle than musical theatre; more play with music than musical; more staged film than musical theatre. But it has a lot of heart and some ver…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: 1984, Almeida Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: 1984, Almeida Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

This really is first-rate modern theatre: challenging, entertaining and questioning. Rupert Goold's vision for the Almeida is electrifying.

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Visitors, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Visitors, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

This is an extraordinary play performed and directed with consummate skill and incredible insight. It should transfer to the West End and be seen by anyone w…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Do I Hear A Waltz?, Park Theatre ✭

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REVIEW: Do I Hear A Waltz?, Park Theatre ✭

This revival is notable for one thing: it does raise, but not answer, this question - is Do I Hear A Waltz? capable of successful revival?

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Other Desert Cities, Old Vic Theatre ✭✭

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REVIEW: Other Desert Cities, Old Vic Theatre ✭✭

The Old Vic is back in In-The-Round mode and so there is a greater intimacy with the playing. This proves fatal with this cast; the distance of a proscenium …

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Act, Trafalgar Studios ✭✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: The Act, Trafalgar Studios ✭✭✭✭✭

This is a powerful piece of theatre, a meditation on the state of the homosexual in the UK in the last 50 or so years. But it is wrapped up and delivered lik…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Urinetown, St James Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

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REVIEW: Urinetown, St James Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Really, this production cements Lloyd's reputation as a dynamic and thrilling young director. His vision here is glorious and he sees to it that it is proper…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Fortune's Fool, Old Vic Theatre ✭✭

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REVIEW: Fortune's Fool, Old Vic Theatre ✭✭

The trouble is that none of it is co-ordinated or controlled or channelled in a particular direction, with the result that nothing comes of anything.

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The World Goes Round, Union Theatre ✭✭

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REVIEW: The World Goes Round, Union Theatre ✭✭

In a week when the "other" (Sondheim) revue, Putting It Together, closed at the St James' Theatre after a terrific run, this childish and facile production p…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

Robert Webb to play Wooster

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Robert Webb to play Wooster

Following a successful initial season, hit comedy Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense has now extended it's run at the Duke Of York's Theatre until 20 Sep…

Douglas Mayo

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Back To The Future Musical Announced

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Back To The Future Musical Announced

Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale are working with Universal Stage Productions (Wicked and Billy Elliot), London-based producer Colin Ingram (Ghost – The Musical)…

Douglas Mayo

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Feature: The Future Of Theatre Criticism

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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…

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Editorial Staff

News & Reviews

Hairspray now available for UK amateurs

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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.

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Editorial Staff

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Ciphers, Bush Theatre ✭✭

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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…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

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

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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 …

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

Jersey Boys to tour UK for the first time.

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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 …

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Editorial Staff

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Pass, Royal Court Theatre ✭✭✭

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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,…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: King Lear, National Theatre ✭✭✭✭

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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…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Machinal, American Airlines Theatre ✭✭✭

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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…

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Stephen Collins

News & Reviews

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