Theatre News & Reviews: 2015

CRITICS CHOICE: Emily Hardy's Pick Of 2015

Phil Willmott Company To Present Double Bill At Union Theatre

Casting Announced For Gate Theatre's In The Night Time Before The Sun Rises

CRITIC'S CHOICE: Douglas Mayo's Pick Of 2015

Impossible UK Tour

CRITICS CHOICE: Danny Coleman-Cooke's Pick of 2015

CRITICS CHOICE: Tim Hochstrasser's Pick Of 2015

My best revival recommendation would go to Antic Disposition’s HENRY V played in the evocative setting of Temple Church. It is very hard to find something ne…

REVIEW: A Christmas Carol, Middle Temple Hall ✭✭✭✭

Once again this year, Antic Disposition have bought their formidable skills to staging this festive classic at Middle Temple Hall, a venue associated with Di…

REVIEW: The Lorax, Old Vic Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This family-friendly adaptation adapted for the stage by David Grieg and with songs by Charlie Fink is an enchanting evening in the theatre that had children…

Cast Announced For Pink Mist at the Bush Theatre

Harry Potter Lead Casting Announced

REVIEW: No Villain, Old Red Lion Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

The play itself would get four stars from me, but the outstanding production values and overall experience of the evening enable me to add a final star at th…

End Of The Rainbow UK Tour

Billy Elliott Announces West End Closure

REVIEW: You For Me For You, Royal Court Theatre ✭✭✭✭

You For Me For You is a well crafted and significant piece that gives its audiences an opportunity to connect briefly with a situation that needs to be exper…

First Look At Sheila Hancock and Jenna Russell in Grey Gardens

20 Years Of Cirque Du Soleil In London

First Look At The Lorax At The Old Vic

REVIEW: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, West Yorkshire Playhouse ✭✭✭✭✭

Get out and get a seat when Chitty comes to a theatre near you. Take your kids or just go and revel in the enormous joy that resonates off the stage in waves…

REVIEW: Clementine's Seasonal Spectacular, Rosemary Branch Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Clementine’s Seasonal Spectacular is certainly strange and unconventional. However, it also wonderfully original and made me laugh and smile more than any ot…

REVIEW: Nutcracker The Musical, Pleasance Theatre ✭✭✭

Nutcracker! The Musical is a valiant effort that never quite sets out what it wanted to achieve. It’s not funny enough to be a panto or gripping enough to be…

Confessions Of A (Struggling) Actress Part 1

REVIEW: Musicals - The Definitive Illustrated Story ✭✭✭✭

A lot of effort has been put into compiling this glorious book, giving one of the most comprehensive overviews of musicals (both on stage and on film), that …

REVIEW: Around The World in 80 Days, St James Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Around the World in 80 Days is one of the classic tales by Jules Verne, who in the 19th century wrote epic stories of adventure and futuristic scenarios that…

REVIEW: Through The Mill, London Theatre Workshop ✭✭✭✭

Ray Rackham’s play is infused with enormous passion for its subject, a woman who touched the lives of millions with her extraordinary singing and irrepressib…

New Theatre Company Tiny Fires Launches at St James Theatre

School Of Rock Opens On Broadway

Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty UK Tour 2016

Jenna Russell Sings Another Winter In A Summer Town From Grey Gardens

REVIEW: Loserville, Union Theatre ✭✭✭

Loserville is a production full of E numbers; bright and sweet but likely to overload you. It’s a derivative script and score made as good as it can get by s…

REVIEW: Blues Brothers Xmas Special, Arts Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This is a Xmas Special that doesn’t hammer home the same old Christmas songs ad nauseam. Instead it gives Blues Brothers enthusiasts plenty of the music they…

REVIEW: Cinderella And The Beanstalk, Theatre 503 ✭✭✭✭✭

Pantomimes have the potential to be uniquely excruciating. Children are merciless critics, and decades of expectation weigh heavily on poor productions. Such…

REVIEW: Beauty And The Beast, Polka Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Loyal Disney viewers may feel they’ve seen it all before, but this version of Beauty and the Beast is charming and well performed. It’s running until Februar…

REVIEW: Desperate Measures, Jermyn St Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Desperate Measures is exactly what fringe theatre should be - inventive, energetic and ambitious. It really is a must-see, especially if you want a non-panto…

REVIEW: Kings Of Broadway, Palace Theatre ✭✭✭

This was a delightful evening, bursting with talent at all points, and consistently enjoyable. It is good to be able to stand back sometimes and reflect on t…

Jackie The Musical UK Tour

The Winter's Tale Tops UK Cinema Box Office

Romeo And Juliet - First Image Released

REVIEW: SpinCycle, Theatre N16 ✭✭✭✭

Regardless of the format, theatre of telly, SpinCycle is a great piece of writing performed superbly by The Canting Crew. If only it were around for a longer…

Aladdin London - Full Casting Announced

REVIEW: Faustaff, Cockpit Theatre ✭✭

Despite these stark issues, the Cockpit Theatre is a wonderful space and the lighting was well deployed to create some tense moments. Bizarrely, someone in t…

Russell Howard Announces World Tour

Casting Announced For European Premiere Of Grey Gardens

Maureen Nolan and Gareth Gates Headline Footloose UK Tour

Funny Girl - Rehearsal Images Released

Andrew Scott and David Dawson to Star In The Dazzle

REVIEW: Living Between Lies, Kings Head Theatre ✭✭✭

The action interweaves the stories and mounting crises of four women whose lives are in different ways based on a series of lies. It is billed as a comedy dr…

Hand To God Comes To Vaudeville Theatre - Tickets Now On Sale

REVIEW: Echoes, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Echoes is a success for many reasons but fundamentally it’s because there is such strength in the story telling. In fact there are 2 stories running concurre…

INTERVIEW: Drew McOnie on making musicals dance

3 Guys Naked From The Waist Down Comes To Finborough Theatre

The Nutcracker On Ice Comes To The Royal Albert Hall

Hapgoood at Hampstead Theatre - Rehearsal Images Released

REVIEW: The Miniaturists, Arcola Theatre ✭✭

With the death of provincial repertory theatre, the connections between the theatre world of London and ‘the provinces’ have atrophied, and where The Miniatu…

Chicago 2016 Tour Tickets

REVIEW: Four Minutes Twelve Seconds, Trafalgar Studios 2 ✭✭✭✭

By the end of the play there is a horrifying awareness that a variation of this story is currently being enacted for real somewhere in the near vicinity: in …

Funny Girl At The Savoy Theatre - Tickets On Sale Now

REVIEW: Julie Madly Deeply, The Crazy Coqs ✭✭✭✭✭

This is an immensely polished, professional and stylish evening which marks another example of how contemporary cabaret is still exploring and pushing at the…

Jeff Wayne's The War Of The Worlds Comes To The Dominion Theatre

REVIEW: The Station Master, Tristan Bates Theatre ✭✭✭

Connor's score owes a considerable debt to Sondheim, but, that said, it treads in very interesting paths. Complex and intricate, the melodies and harmonies r…

REVIEW: The Killing Of Sister George, London Theatre Workshop ✭✭✭✭

The Killing of Sister George is a play that feels ripe for a revival; the cast and crew have certainly done it justice. It’s high quality theatre that will c…

Laila The Musical UK Tour 2016

REVIEW: By The End Of Us, Southwark Playhouse ✭✭✭✭

It’s not often that you see something that feels genuinely different, executed in a modern and innovative way. The End of Us makes for an unusual yet enterta…

REVIEW: A Touch Of Mrs Robinson, The Pheasantry ✭✭✭

I don’t know if A Touch of Mrs Robinson was trying to seduce me, but if it was, it didn’t quite work. Whilst being amusing in parts, it was musically rather …

REVIEW: Dry Land, Jermyn Street Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This was one of the most demanding nights I have had in the theatre as reviewer or audience member in a long while, and that was wholly justified by the chal…

REVIEW: Waste, National Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Barker's play is extraordinary, especially given that it was written over a century ago and revised by him in the late 20’s, the original having been banned …

REVIEW: Vampire Hospital Waiting Room, Arts Theatre ✭✭✭

It is easy to see why Vampire Hospital Waiting Room was such a hit at the Fringe; it has a quirky cultish charm that makes it stand out from the crowd. It’s …

REVIEW: Annie, New Wimbledon Theatre (On Tour) ✭✭✭✭

Thanks to this energetic reimagining, Annie can finally escape the chorus of groans that once accompanied its name. It’s once again acceptable to hum Charles…

REVIEW: All On Her Own - Harlequinade, Garrick Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

The revival of Harlequinade, directed by Branagh and Ashford, now playing at the Garrick Theatre (in a 100 minute experience that includes All On Her Own and…

REVIEW: The Winter's Tale, Garrick Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭✭

Dench's verse speaking is unrivalled. She picks each word and gives it full, accurate weight, landing the sense, purpose and exact emotion of every glitterin…

REVIEW: United We Stand, CLF Art Café ✭✭✭✭

United We Stand is a powerful refutation of this view and a reassertion of the continuing value of political theatre. Its channelling of moral passion, a pow…

Glenn Close at the English National Opera

Goodnight Mister Tom UK Tour 2016

Don't Miss These Great Christmas Shows

REVIEW: Elf, Dominion Theatre ✭✭✭

Elf is set to be a Christmas hit with adults and children alike. Whilst it lacks the magic of a family classic like Matilda, Elf will put even the biggest Sc…

Jamie Lloyd to direct Uzo Aduba, Zawe Ashton and Laura Carmichael in The Maids

Tom - Tom Jones Musical UK Tour 2016

Elf! - New Show Trailer Released

REVIEW: Xanadu, Southwark Playhouse ✭✭✭✭

Xanadu is a perfect show for an intimate venue like the Playhouse; a cultish and cheesy production that won over the audience through its energy and sense of…

REVIEW: The Father, Wyndhams Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

In the early stages of the play, this approach is both confronting and disarming. I found myself consulting the programme to check who was who before catchin…

REVIEW: The Phantom Raspberry Blower, St James Theatre ✭✭✭

The Phantom Raspberry Blower will make you laugh and groan in equal measure. Whilst objectively the premise isn’t strong enough to sustain a two-hour product…

CRITICS CHOICE: Top 10 Plays November 2015

REVIEW: RoosevElvis, Royal Court ✭✭✭✭

Despite its visual confusion at the outset, this is an extremely watchable piece of theatre. It is a must see this Autumn.

REVIEW: Piaf, Bridewell Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Given its inherent flaws, the play cannot hope to succeed without a powerhouse performance from its star and here Laasko has struck gold. Leigh is outstandin…

REVIEW: Cats, London Palladium ✭✭✭

The audience on press night - with as many face-painted adults as children – loved it all. If you are looking for a reliable night out at the theatre with th…

CRITICS CHOICE: The Top 10 New Musicals in London - November 2015

REVIEW: The Moderate Soprano, Hampstead Theatre ✭✭

What pleasure the play offers comes in the characters Hare has carved from fragments of history. Roger Allam, almost unrecognisable as John Christie, does a …

CRITICS CHOICE: Top 10 Long Running Shows in London - November 2015

Funny Girl Announces Transfer To Savoy Theatre

REVIEW: The Hairy Ape, Old Vic Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

O’Neill’s play has lost none of its power or resonance. It still feels as shocking and new today as no doubt it did in 1922. Jones’ revelatory and evocative …

REVIEW : Thérèse Raquin, Studio 54 ✭✭✭✭

Cabnet's clear and perceptive direction is sound for the most part, and there is an emphasis on visual aspects of the production which make it something spec…

HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD TICKETS - TICKET UPDATE

Bend It Like Beckham - Save Over 75% On Great Seats

REVIEW: Sylvia, Cort Theatre ✭✭

There are many ways to read the play, but the most obvious is probably correct. Sylvia is a metaphor for a trophy girlfriend; she is someone Greg can use to …

REVIEW: Romeo And Juliet, Brockley Jack Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Despite some rough edges this was a continually thoughtful and engaging production that is targeted very deftly at those coming to the play for the first tim…

REVIEW: The Seagull, Chichester Festival Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Hare's adaptation, the best of the three in the Season, is crisp, charming and comical, thereby magnifying the effect of the more tragic aspects. It's a mark…

REVIEW: Encounter, Above The Stag ✭✭✭✭✭

Evocations of famous films can tip over into parody or unintended comedy very easily but thanks to the skill of the writing and the carefully graded, fully i…

REVIEW: Razzle Dazzle, Michael Riedel ✭✭✭✭✭

Michael Riedel is to be congratulated on this great history of Broadway. It’s a riveting read for any fan of musical theatre on the Great White Way. It bring…

REVIEW: Hey Old Friends, Theatre Royal Drury Lane ✭✭✭✭

There was a charming mix of reverence and irreverence as well, making the audience feel specially entertained and complicit with the in-jokes. The warm up pr…

REVIEW: Platonov, Chichester Festival Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Another sumptuous production of a superb Hare adaptation of an unwieldy and slightly schizophrenic early Chekhov work, made just that much more glorious by a…

REVIEW: Titus Andronicus, New Wimbledon Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Titus Andronicus is not one of Shakespeare’s finest plays, but Arrow and Traps’ Theatre Company do a splendid job with their adrenaline fuelled, and often ni…

REVIEW: Clarion, Arcola Theatre ✭✭

Mark Jagasia not only fails to carry that stick, but it’s too heavy for him to pick up in the first place. “Clarion,” now playing at the Arcola, is the broad…

REVIEW: Ivanov, Chichester Festival Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Honesty, as David Hare points out, is the dominating theme of Ivanov. It is also the dominating principle adopted by Jonathan Kent as the guiding light for h…

REVIEW: Kathy Kirby Icon, White Bear Theatre ✭✭

Biopics are not easy to get right, however despite two sterling efforts at The White Bear, neither of them really hit the mark. Whilst it will no doubt be of…

REVIEW: The Humans, Roundabout at Laura Pels Theatre ✭✭✭

There are two ways in which Karam's work steps up to the mark: the dialogue is believable and genuine, splendidly touching in places; the narrative is uncomp…

Theatre Talk - 2015 Fall Season Preview

Behind The Scenes - Cast Recording Of Elf The Musical

Private Lives 2016 UK Tour Tickets

REVIEW: The Tempest, Eel Brook Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Director Brandon Force and movement director Liam Steward-George deserve great credit for creating such a dynamic and detailed production with continual visu…

Gareth Gates Plays Willard In Footloose Tour 2016

REVIEW: Dames At Sea, Helen Hayes Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Dames at Sea, the work of George Haimsohn and Robin Miller (Book and Lyrics) and Jim Wise (Score), is well known as the off-Broadway hit from 1968 which laun…

REVIEW: The Black Book, Sargent Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This is a dynamic, challenging and gripping piece of dramatic theatre. It's confronting in a number of ways, especially if you have known someone who took th…

REVIEW: The Full Monty, Churchill Theatre (On Tour) ✭✭✭✭

The Full Monty is a masterclass of British writing and its energy and sensitivity transfers smoothly to the stage. It’s raucous and crude but also a lot of f…

REVIEW: First Daughter Suite, Anspacher Theatre, The Public ✭✭✭✭✭

It would be unsurprising if First Daughter Suite constituted a significant hat-trick for the Public, following, as it does, in the footsteps of Fun Home (whi…

REVIEW: The Wars Of The Roses: Richard III, Rose Theatre ✭✭✭

Maybe we were all weary at the end of a full day of theatre; maybe, and with ample justification, the cast were flagging after appearances in different roles…

REVIEW: Sunny Afternoon, Harold Pinter Theatre ✭✭✭✭

The Kinks frontman Ray Davies joined many famous faces at the Harold Pinter Theatre to celebrate the first birthday of his co-creation. Based on this showing…

REVIEW: The Wars Of The Roses: Edward IV, Rose Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Suffice to say that Barton and Hall attempt to clarify the bewildering blizzard of switched allegiances, broken promises and inconclusive battles that form t…

REVIEW: Plaques and Tangles, Jerwood Theatre Upstairs ✭✭✭

As Young Megan, whom we first meet when she is recovering from the one-night-stand night before, is brought to complex, life-embracing realisation in a start…

REVIEW: Looking For Lansbury, St James Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Looking for Lansbury is a fitting tribute to one of the finest British actors of her generation. The show offers education and entertainment for everyone; wh…

REVIEW: The Gin Game, Golden Theatre ✭✭✭

Both actors here are doing something quite different from a drawing room comedy. They are trying to make a point and, bravely, one that extends beyond the Ca…

REVIEW: She Called Me Mother, Stratford Circus Arts Theatre ✭✭✭✭

There is a great deal to admire about She Called Me Mother, a play which gives a voice to the homeless and victims of abuse. Funny, poignant, and often distr…

REVIEW: Ripcord, New York City Centre Stage 1 ✭✭✭

Holland Taylor is in exceptional form as the coiled, steely Abby. She manages to humanise a thoroughly inhuman creature, making her likeable despite Abby's m…

REVIEW: Master Of The Macabre, The Vaults Waterloo ✭✭

Master of the Macabre, now showing at The Vaults Theatre until 1 November, is a curious and entertaining evening. There are some fun thrills and tricks along…

REVIEW: What Am I Doing?, Union Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Whilst I don’t think What Am I Doing?: Tales From a Worrying Actor quite fulfilled its promise of exploring the essence of worrying, Gregory Hazel’s easy cha…

REVIEW: The Bandstand, Papermill Playhouse ✭✭✭✭✭

Director Andy Blankenbuehler has achieved something remarkable and electrifying here. Together with David Korins (Scenic design), Jeff Croiter (Lighting desi…

REVIEW: In The Heights, King's Cross Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

In sum this is a show that deserves all the plaudits that have come its way and should receive a long run both at the King’s Cross Theatre and in even larger…

Full Cast Announced For Funny Girl at Menier

Full casting has been announced for the sell-out season of Funny Girl being produced at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

Adrian Lester Joins Kenneth Branagh Company In Red Velvet

Kinky Boots Extends Until 28 May 2016

Disney's Aladdin Heads To West End

REVIEW: The Wars Of The Roses- Henry VI, Rose Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Henry VI stands out as the play in this triptych that most benefits from Barton’s editing and clarifications. Characters and scenes are cut away in profusion…

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 2016 Tour Tickets

Close To You - New Trailer Released

REVIEW: Coming Up, Watford Palace Theatre ✭✭✭

Coming Up is a play that tries to do many different things and scores more hits than misses. With some judicious editing, it could serve as one of the more i…

REVIEW: Close To You, Criterion Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Trying to highlight individual performances or individual songs is pointless, this is a show to be savoured as whole, not just once but many times.

REVIEW: Club Gelbe Stern, Laurie Beechman Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Now playing at the Laurie Beecham Theatre is a remarkable piece of musical theatre, Club Gelbe Stern, written by Alexis Fishman and James Miller, and directe…

REVIEW: Leader Of The Pack, Waterloo East Theatre ✭✭✭

Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse in Legends UK Tour

REVIEW: Metamorphoses, Earl Haig Hall ✭✭✭✭✭

Metamorphoses plays through the rest of October, every Thursday to Sunday, and though Earl Haig Hall is in deepest darkest Crouch End, do not let the journey…

REVIEW: Blackout, Drayton Arms Theatre ✭✭

REVIEW: Volpone, Brockley Jack ✭✭✭

Everyone involved in this production acted with commitment and a good sense of pace and projection within this intimate space, but the success of the whole r…

Let It Be UK Tour

The Let It Be UK Tour returns in 2018 bringing Beatlemania back to a theatre near you. Celebrate the music of The Beatles with a new updated version of the a…

REVIEW: The Merchant Of Venice, Ambassadors Theatre ✭✭✭

While the emotional wattage did not burn as brightly as it might, and while we were never really made to feel fully uncomfortable with either issues or text …

REVIEW: Amazing Grace, Nederlander Theatre ✭✭

While the tunes and harmonies for the new material might not be memorable, the orchestrations and playing is first rate. Kenny Seymour and Joseph Church, tog…

REVIEW: Romance Romance, Landor Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This is an intriguing and valuable revival with some very solid performances at its heart. I am not fully persuaded that this double-bill has earned a lastin…

REVIEW: Old Times, American Airlines Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Where Hodge does elect for difference is in the manner of playing. No low-key, slow boil quiet broiling here. No, the parts are played with vigour, brasher t…

REVIEW: Spring Awakening, Brooks Atkinson Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Quite simply, it is one of the most perfectly conceived, cast and executed productions of a musical on any stage anywhere in the world. It's shocking, brutal…

REVIEW: Roaring Trade, Park Theatre ✭✭✭

So for all the efforts of the actors to make their characters more rounded and sympathetic this play tells us more about the anger in the air after the event…

In The Heights - First Look Gallery

REVIEW: Thriller Live, Lyric Theatre ✭✭✭✭

The choreography is by far the strongest aspect of Thriller; it is inventive, exhilarating and almost exhausting to watch. It incorporates the traditional Ja…

Simon Lipkin To Play The Lorax At Old Vic

Les Miserables 30th Birthday Celebrations

Sheffield Showboat Extends By Popular Demand

Eddie Izzard Brings Force Majeure To Palace Theatre

Finding Neverland - Lunt Fontanne Theatre

Mrs Henderson Presents Transfers To Noel Coward Theatre

Dames At Sea - Helen Hayes Theatre

REVIEW: Fool For Love, Samuel J Friedman Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Central to the power of the the production is the exquisite casting of the two doomed lovers, Eddie and May. Nina Arianda, a fan of this play since her very …

On Your Feet - Marquis Theatre

The Lion King - Minskoff Theatre Broadway

Broadway sensation, The Lion King is an epic tale beloved by young and old. It is now Broadways 4th Longest running show with over 80 million people having s…

School Of Rock - Winter Garden Theatre

Kinky Boots - Al Hirscfeld Theatre

Matilda - Shubert Theatre

Les Miserables - Imperial Theatre

Jersey Boys - August Wilson Theatre

Chicago - Ambassadors Theatre

Kander and Ebb's Chicago is the longest-running American musical in Broadway history now playing at the Ambassador Theatre.

The Book Of Mormon - Eugene O'Neill Theatre Broadway

The Book Of Mormon Broadway remains a hot ticket eight years after the show first opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.

Peter Pan - Adelphi Theatre - One Day Only!

REVIEW: 46 Beacon, Hope Theatre ✭✭✭✭

It is clear from the start that this play – which runs straight through for eighty minutes – is potentially a drama about coming-out and sexual initiation, a…

Beautiful - The Stephen Sondheim Theatre

Beautiful now playing at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre is the story of legendary singer/songwriter Carole King, a girl from Brooklyn with a dream.

An American In Paris - The Palace Theatre

Aladdin - New Amsterdam Theatre

Disney's Aladdin noiw playing at the New Amsterdam Theatre is one of Broadway's most successful productions

Mr Foote's Other Leg Transfers to Theatre Royal Haymarket

World Premiere Of Arthur Miller Play At Old Red Lion

Hangmen Transfers to Wyndhams Theatre

First Look At Pixie Lott as Holly Golightly

REVIEW: The Great Gatsby, Greenwich Theatre ✭✭✭

This reimagining of The Great Gatsby has to be commended for trying something very new and different. However, the musical innovations generally distracted f…

INTERVIEW: Kyle Riabko on Close To You

Russell And Hancock Cast in Grey Gardens Musical

Casting Announced For Around The World In 80 Days

REVIEW: Pure Imagination: A Sorta-Biography by Leslie Bricusse ✭✭✭✭✭

The book is laid out like a sorta-score. There is an Overture, large chapters which form 'the key changes of (Bricusse's) life' - from A Minor to G Undiminis…

REVIEW: Crushed Shells and Mud, Southwark Playhouse ✭✭✭

Crushed Shells and Mud starts well and features some wonderful performances. However, somewhere in the second half it unfortunately gets well and truly stuck.

Thriller Live UK Tour

The Thriller Live UK Tour continues whilst the Thriller West End production continues to shatter records. Book Now!

REVIEW: Nell Gwynn, Globe Theatre ✭✭✭

While there are more serious moments to be found in this play, especially focused on the opportunities for women in the new theatre of the 1660s, there is no…

REVIEW: Horniman's Choice, Finborough Theatre ✭✭✭✭

All in all this is a revival very much deserving of support. You reward will be some genuinely fine ensemble acting and some neglected writing that you can e…

REVIEW: West End Heroes, Dominion Theatre ✭✭✭✭

West End Heroes wisely avoided making the concert a remembrance festival; instead it was a celebration of the brilliant talent within both the military and t…

REVIEW: The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, Westside Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Lecesne has a winning charm and a cast-iron technique, so his spinning wheel presentation of a myriad of small town character types is absolutely engaging an…

REVIEW: Eventide, Arcola Theatre Studio 2 ✭✭✭

This is a genial, quietly satisfying set of reflections on how hard rural life can be and how mostly distant it has always been from any kind of Arcadian idy…

REVIEW: Stitching, White Bear Theatre ✭✭✭

Stitching is an interesting and challenging play, undermined by a late twist, but still engaging. There are a number of moments which will take some people a…

REVIEW: Nobody's Business, Kings 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 t…

REVIEW: Valhalla, Theatre 503 ✭✭✭✭

Valhalla is an intense and gripping production, which showed its class in very difficult circumstances. Whilst the ending could do with some work, it is clev…

REVIEW: 5 Guys Chillin', 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 par…

REVIEW: The Sweethearts, Finborough Theatre ✭✭✭✭

The Sweethearts is a truly fascinating play, and I am certain that Sarah Page has a very bright future as a playwright. The theme of heroism is particularly …

CRITICS CHOICE: Top 10 Plays October 2015

Derren Brown's Miracle 2016 UK Tour

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

The Wind In The Willows Announced Pre-West End Dates

Something Rotten – St James Theatre

REVIEW: Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, 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…

Madam Butterfly Returns Comes To Landor Theatre

CRITICS CHOICE: Top 10 New Musicals October 2015

Four Minutes Twelve Seconds Transfers To Trafalgar Studios

INTERVIEW: Dean Chisnall On Playing Shrek

REVIEW: Pure Imagination, St James Theatre ✭✭✭

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 somet…

Harry Potter Play To Be Presented In Two Parts

Mack and Mabel UK Tour 2015

Puppetry Of The Penis UK Tour 2016

Casting Announced for Closer To Heaven Return Season

In The Heights - Rehearsal Images Released

REVIEW: Hamilton Broadway Cast Recording ✭✭✭✭✭

Glenn Close In Sunset Boulevard – Tickets Now On Sale

REVIEW: Martyr, Unicorn Theatre ✭✭✭

This is an unsettling rather than disturbing night at the theatre that raises more questions than it can readily answer, and part of trouble lies in the way …

REVIEW: Jane Eyre, National Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This is a fully compelling night at the theatre. You do not feel the time dragging and can only be impressed at the way the cast finds new meanings in materi…

Lucy O’Byrne Joins Sound Of Music UK Tour

REVIEW: Pomona, National Theatre ✭✭

I willing to concede that I have may have missed a great deal, and certainly the mainly youngish audience loved it on press night; but to me this was ultimat…

Strictly Come Dancing Arena Tour 2016

Billy Elliot UK Tour

The Last Tango UK Tour 2015-16

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

The Book of Mormon begins long before you step into the theatre. London is adorned with its posters, our offices echo with remembered jokes and songs. As you…

Peppa Pigs Surprise UK Tour 2015-16

REVIEW: Bette Midler And Me, Upstairs At The Gatehouse ✭✭✭

This is certainly a must-see show for Midler fans and thanks to an energetic cast and some sparkling tunes there’s plenty to keep everyone else entertained a…

Closer To Heaven Returns To Union Theatre

Full Casting Announced For Guys And Dolls

REVIEW: The Cocktail Party, Print Room At The Coronet ✭✭✭✭

There are many more layers both to this play and to this production that deserve further comment, but which lie beyond the reach of a relatively brief review…

REVIEW: Dinner With Saddam, 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 finall…

Jamie Lloyd Directs 50th Anniversary Production of The Homecoming

REVIEW: The White Feather, The Union Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

The White Feather is everything musical theatre should be – it will make you think deeply about bravery, war and the nature of humanity all the way home. If …

REVIEW: Mr Foote's Other Leg, Hampstead Theatre ✭✭✭✭

The Hampstead season has all but sold out, if not actually sold out. Make every effort to grab a return. The production really ought to transfer to the West …

REVIEW: Kinky Boots, Adelphi Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Lennox is sensational as Lauren, the whacky factory girl who flirts with and eventually wins the heart of the Boss. It is a comic tour-de-force from Lennox w…

REVIEW: The Ward Of The Manor, St James Theatre ✭✭✭✭

There is a long tradition of performance of classic Russian-language theatre in Ukraine that dates back to Stanislavski, and one of the great rewards of this…

REVIEW: Casa Valentina, Southwark Playhouse ✭✭✭✭✭

As directed by Luke Sheppard, Casa Valentino is a play about a marriage. Everything turns on the central relationship between George (Edward Wolstenholme) an…

TICKET ALERT: More tickets for Judi Dench in The Winter's Tale On Sale Now

REVIEW: Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, Minerva Theatre Chichester ✭✭✭✭

There are many extraordinary moments from Keenan. Highlights include his improvisation of horse-racing victories; the powerful sequence which opens the secon…

REVIEW: F*ck The Polar Bears, Bush Theatre ✭✭

It feels like a farce as it plays out. Yet, it is described as "a raucous family drama about the cost of living the life of our dreams". Bizarre and incompre…

Close To You - New Trailer Released

Hapgood By Tom Stoppard Comes To Hampstead Theatre

Crush - A New Musical on Tour

REVIEW: And Then Come The Nightjars, Theatre 503 ✭✭✭✭

We encounter rural Britain more frequently through soaps – Emmerdale and The Archers – than on the stage. This is a missed opportunity for writers and for th…

Happy Birthday Agatha Christie

REVIEW: Ushers, Arts Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This inventiveness, as well as some first-class performances, helped make Ushers a very enjoyable night. However, its frequent theatrical references and in-j…

Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company Release Sexy Season Trailer

REVIEW: Side By Side By Sondheim, Brockley Jack Theatre ✭✭✭

Side by Side by Sondheim benefits from some superb material and a rock solid cast. It’s a warm and friendly production, perfect for a gloomy September night.

New Mary Poppins Movie Sequel Announced

REVIEW: Photograph 51, Noel Coward Theatre ✭✭

It is important to be clear about Kidman's failures because the character she plays, Rosalind Franklin, at least in the version of history which Ziegler endo…

REVIEW: The Man Who Had All The Luck, Kings Head Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Arthur Miller was born a hundred years ago. A centenary is about discovering work afresh if it is about anything and the King’s Head deserve great credit for…

Dogfight in Concert at St James Theatre

REVIEW: The Sum Of Us, Above The Stag Theatre ✭✭✭✭

One part of the mission of Above the Stag is to remind us of notable plays on gay themes that have not always received the attention they deserved, or whose …

Danny Boyle Presents Star Studded Dramatic Fund-Raiser

REVIEW: See What I Wanna See, Jermyn Street Theatre ✭✭✭

Marc Elliott is the one cast member who seems to understand this and he completely subsumed himself in his dual roles of Thief and Reporter. Sinewy, handsome…

First Look At New Cast Of Sunny Afternoon

Oompa Loompas Set Loose at Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Goodnight Mister Tom at the Duke Of York's Theatre

REVIEW: Future Conditional, Old Vic ✭✭✭✭

There is a joy to this piece that is impossible to truly describe in words—it has the boisterous nature of Spring Awakening (the musical) but without sung th…

Buy Tickets To Matilda and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

American Idiot Cast Release 9/11 Tribute

Valhalla Comes To Theatre 503

Casting Announced for Roaring Trade at Park Theatre

5 Guys Chillin' At The Kings Head This October

Casting Announced for Crushed Shells and Mud at Southwark Playhouse.

First Look At The Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company

Tooting Arts Club Presents Barbarians

Graham Norton Hosts West End Bares

REVIEW: Song From Far Away, Young Vic ✭✭

Stephens shares writing credits for Song From Far Away with Mark Eitzel who provides the lyrics and music for a haunting, quite beautiful song, pieces of whi…

REVIEW: Dusty The Musical, Charing Cross Theatre ✭

Whilst there are a few moments of quality, Dusty’s hackneyed script and awkward staging means not even the son of a preacher man could save it. The show is n…

REVIEW: Hatched 'N' Dispatched, Park 90 ✭✭✭✭

This play can be seen as a saucy romp or as something rather more unexpectedly melancholy than that; but either way it is a thoroughly absorbing evening, an…

Rattigan's French Without Tears At Orange Tree

Show Boat Comes To Sheffield Theatres

Close To You Bacharach Reimagined Transfers To West End

Wicked Extends Booking Period To November 2016

Horniman's Choice at The Finborough Theatre

REVIEW: Absent, Shoreditch Town Hall ✭✭✭

Absent is a bit like a night in a Travelodge – it does the job and gives you an interesting night but you leave feeling like you could have had something a b…

REVIEW: The Jewish Legends, Gatehouse Upstairs ✭✭✭

In the bout of the two Jewish musicals revues, I’d have to give it to Never Succeed on points, due to its more inventive staging and varied songlist. The Jew…

REVIEW: Flare Path, Richmond Theatre (UK Tour) ✭✭✭

Flare Path centres on the fears and frustrations that derive from an interminable war, seen through the eyes of three married couples. Although its central l…

The Sweethearts Casting Announced

David Hasselhoff Visits Jersey Boys

In The Heights Casting Announced

REVIEW: McQueen, Theatre Royal Haymarket ✭✭✭✭

The play triumphantly uncovers and re-asserts McQueen’s credo that design is at its best an act of love of the person – a summing up of who that man or woman…

Jim Broadbent Stars in A Christmas Carol

REVIEW: The Medium and The Wanton Sublime, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭✭

And so to the culmination of the contemporary opera section of the Grimeborn Festival, a double-bill in the form of Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Medium and The …

REVIEW: Our House, Union Theatre ✭✭✭

While this is a deserved revival of an intriguing show, the core material remains in some respects unsatisfactory, and the scale of the show is not a great f…

CRITICS CHOICE: Top 10 New London Plays - September 1, 2015

REVIEW: Henry V, Temple Church ✭✭✭✭

It is very rare that a company integrates a new concept so thoroughly into a Shakespeare play – too often it is merely gestural – but here the level of atten…

CRITICS CHOICE: Top 10 West End Musicals - September 1, 2015

ATG Acquires Five USA Venues

Theater Talk Interview - Kinky Boots - Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper

REVIEW: Raz, Assembly George Square Studios ✭✭✭✭

Social commentary aside, RAZ takes us on an entertaining rollercoaster of a ride through the joys, frustrations and heartache of the kind of night-out that h…

REVIEW: Hendrick's Emporium of Sensorial Submersion, Edinburgh ✭✭✭

Hendrick’s Gin is a familiar name on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but this year it returned with a theatrical experience called the Emporium of Sensorial S…

REVIEW: Love Birds, Pleasance Courtyard ✭✭✭✭

Love Birds is a real hoot but, at 60 minutes, it is clearly a work in progress, squeezing in well over a dozen different songs while giving us just the skele…

REVIEW: Swallow, Traverse Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This powerful production, sharply directed by Orla O'Loughlin, is a highlight of this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe and another demonstration of Smith’s s…

REVIEW: Tomorrow, Traverse Theatre ✭✭✭✭

It is a powerful show that leaves you with unforgettable images and an uncompromising vision of old age and dementia.

REVIEW: Marriage, Assembly George Square Studios ✭✭✭

Solidly directed by Russell Bolam, the production has less of the anarchy and exuberance of some of Comedians Theatre Company’s previous shows but it offers …

What's On In Manchester - September to October 2015

REVIEW: A Midsummer Night's Dream In New Orleans, Above The Arts ✭✭✭

If this performance did not clear all of the hurdles set by Shakespeare and the play’s daunting production history, it cannot be faulted on ambition and dari…

REVIEW: Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, Manchester Opera House ✭✭✭✭

Take two drag queens, a transvestite, a big bus and enough sequins and glitter to sink the titanic, put them together with a talented cast and a plethora of …

REVIEW: You Won't Succeed On Broadway If You Don't Have Any Jews, St James Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This revue is great fun and well-produced, combining superb music and performances with an insightful journey through the history of Jewish musical theatre. …

First Look at McQueen at the Haymarket

Flare Path UK Tour Tickets

REVIEW: Thoroughly Modern Millie, Landor Theatre ✭✭✭

The dancing is really the one area here where there is a consistent, utterly stylish, utterly camp, utterly "too much" approach. The cast are all accomplishe…

REVIEW: Our Country's Good, National Theatre ✭✭✭

Nadia Fall has misunderstood the play and, by seeking to make her mark on it, has come dangerously close to obliterating its impact. Bad casting and bad dire…

REVIEW: Daphne, Arcola Theatre ✭✭

Not everything in Grimeborn can work and while the commitment of all concerned deserves recognition, this adaptation cannot be considered wholly successful. …

Cynthia Erivo and Jennifer Hudson Perform The Colour Purple

REVIEW: Falstaff, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

After Monty Python and Blackadder it is not really possible to present this type of opera in full cross-gartered fustian without an ironic angle; so much bet…

REVIEW: Mrs Henderson Presents, Theatre Royal Bath ✭✭✭✭✭

There is no doubt that Mrs Henderson Presents should transfer to the West End. The material is first-rate and superior to many new musicals that have played …

West End Rocky Horror Show Extends Extra Week

REVIEW: Willemijn Verkaik in Concert, Ambassadors Theatre ✭✭✭✭

It was a brilliant and energetic concert that clearly showed that Verkaik is having the time of her life and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

REVIEW: Hamlet, Barbican Theatre ✭✭

The play's the thing - wherein to catch the conscience of a King. And the hearts of an audience. Turner needs to pay more attention to the play and the actor…

REVIEW: Day Of the Dog, Etcetera Theatre ✭✭✭✭

There is an open-minded integrity about these conversations and characterisations that is highly impressive and which deserves a wider audience in a larger (…

REVIEW: The Clown Of Clowns, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

The evening as a whole provided a superbly invigorating beginning to the Grimeborn Festival at the Arcola. We were given new insights into an old work that m…

REVIEW: For Services Rendered, Minerva Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

I doubt anyone could hope for a finer, more delicate production of this great play. It is genuinely funny in parts, full of melodramatic touches which are no…

First look at Nicole Kidman in Photograph 51

REVIEW: Bruises, The Tabard Theatre ✭✭✭

Bruises is an ambitious piece, seeking to cast a non-judgmental eye on the highly divisive topic of sex work. There is so much to admire in this play, which …

Casting Announced For Pure Imagination

Casa Valentina Cast Announced

REVIEW: La Boheme, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭✭

So in sum, the production did achieve exactly what Grimeborn sets out to do each year. It knocked old layers of varnish off an old favourite and found a new …

REVIEW: Bye Bye Birdie, Ye Old Rose and Crown Theatre ✭✭✭✭

In the wrong hands this show could be become exactly what it is trying to send up; a clap-along, preppy, saccharine affair. However the blistering choreograp…

F*cking Men Extends Run At Kings Head

REVIEW: Dear Lupin, Apollo Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Inevitably there are many priceless anecdotes that had to be left out of this play, and its dramatic transformation is not perfect. But it captures the spiri…

REVIEW: A Naughty Night With Noel Coward, Old Red Lion ✭✭✭

In sum, this is a thoroughly absorbing evening in the theatre with high professional values across the board, but where the real rewards and revelation come …

VIDEO: Look Out London Kinky Boots Is Almost Here

REVIEW: Marsha - A Girl Who Does Bad Things, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭

So while this is a challenging night in the theatre in the best sense, it remains incomplete and unfinished and invites further revision and reflection on th…

REVIEW: Garine, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭✭

The evening was notable for reviving a work of genuine tuneful elegance and comic potential. The commitment and skill of the production overall makes you wan…

REVIEW: F*cking Men, King's Head ✭✭✭✭

DiPietro’s character studies vere dangerously close to stereotypes at times but ultimately the truth of the characters and their circumstances win out. There…

Top Selling Tours August 2015

REVIEW: The Backward Fall, Hen And Chickens Theatre ✭✭✭

The Backward Fall is a thoughtful and touching play. It handles the effects of early-onset Alzheimer’s with great sensitivity, and I feel enriched for having…

REVIEW: The Wind In The Willows, Waterloo East Theatre ✭✭✭

Overall, The Wind in the Willows is an enjoyable evening, with some inventive moments and excellent performances from a talented young cast. Forget Wolf Hall…

REVIEW: My Children! My Africa, Trafalgar Studios 2 ✭✭✭✭

It is difficult to remember a recent production of a drama where the design elements played so profoundly important a role in the understanding of the produc…

REVIEW: Tiddler and Other Terrific Tales, Leicester Square Theatre ✭✭✭

Whilst I am clearly not the target audience for this production, the kids around me loved it and it is easy to see how it would be a great day out for any fa…

REVIEW: Briefs, London Wonderground ✭✭✭✭✭

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 ha…

REVIEW: Hetty Feather, Duke Of York Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Hetty Feather is a triumph - although it’s ostensibly for children, it’s a touching and absorbing tale for all ages. It combines multiple artistic elements t…

REVIEW: Tommy, Greenwich Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Regardless of how it is characterised, Michael Strassen's production of Tommy is a genuine triumph, practically perfect in every way. From the first note, it…

REVIEW: The Adventures Of Pinocchio, Greenwich Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Christian James is a wonderful Pinocchio. He completely captures the sense of the character's otherness and separation (being living wood) as well as a newco…

REVIEW: Grand Hotel, Southwark Playhouse ✭✭✭

Proud’s choreography is redolent with an acute understanding of all this and everything he does aims to help involvement in and understanding of the work’s i…

REVIEW: L'Amore Dei Tre Re, Opera Holland Park ✭✭✭✭✭

Montemezzi may have been something of a one-work composer, but this performance made the best case possible for his masterpiece, and we can only hope that th…

REVIEW: The Heresy Of Love, Shakespeare's Globe ✭✭✭

The Globe is not really a space for claustrophobic intense drama and this production really brings that home. This production would look and feel very differ…

Harvey Fierstein's Casa Valentina Comes To Southwark Playhouse

REVIEW: Personals, Landor Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Personals, a comedy musical about finding love through lonely hearts columns, was first performed in 1985, and technology has rendered it an unintentional pe…

REVIEW: Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre ✭✭✭

The utterly reliable Laura Pitt-Pulford brings strength, warmth and thoughtfulness to Milly - frankly, she outdoes Jane Powell by some distance. Her Milly is…

REVIEW: The Three Little Pigs, Palace Theatre ✭✭✭✭

The children sitting around me were having a ball. Engaged, entertained and thoroughly enjoying themselves and that’s brilliant.

Casting Announced For New Barney Norris Play Eventide

REVIEW: Lakmé, Opera Holland Park ✭✭✭✭✭

Yet, Holland Park Opera, here working under director Aylin Bozok, show that these problems are by no means insuperable where the company have confidence in t…

REVIEW: Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Opera Holland Park ✭✭✭✭✭

If you have missed this charming opera this time around then do book now for one of the performances at the Linbury Studio Theatre in early November. You won…

REVIEW: Annie Jnr, Arts Theatre ✭✭✭

It must be every stage school kid’s dream to perform in the West End and the cast of Annie has certainly not passed up the opportunity. It’s an infectiously …

REVIEW: The Woman In Black, Fortune Theatre ✭✭✭✭

There’s nothing like a good ghost story to get the heart racing and give you a good scare. The Woman In Black has now been doing just that for twenty-eight y…

VALE: Cilla Black 1943 - 2015

Sheridan Smith To Star in Funny Girl At Menier

REVIEW: Impossible, Noel Coward Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Some doubted whether a magic show could thrive in the modern day West End but Impossible truly provides a first-class spectacle. It is intelligently staged a…

REVIEW: Operation Crucible, Finborough Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This is a noisy and shouty play and in many ways that is necessarily so – industrial processes, bombs, football matches, drinking in the pub – these provide …

REVIEW: Bakkhai, Almeida Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

This is Whishaw's show - no question. He is a force of nature, fiercely unearthing every moment of nuance, humour and purpose from the text and giving a tota…

REVIEW: Of Thee I Sing, Royal Festival Hall ✭✭

The comic performance of the night, and the source of most consistent pleasure, came from the very talented Tom Edden who made an acting masterclass out of t…

Critic's Choice: London's 10 Best New Plays 31 July 2015

Rocky Horror Show Returns To West End With O'Brien And Bedella

Critic's Choice: Top 10 Long Running Shows 31 July 2015

Critic's Choice: London's 10 Best New Musicals 31 July 2015

REVIEW: Jekyll & Hyde, Platform Theatre ✭✭✭

Jekyll & Hyde never feels like a gimmick and avoids the traps of so many reworkings. Instead it’s an intelligent and creative production which is well st…

REVIEW: Aida, Opera Holland Park ✭✭✭

This is a very great opera that can take many different interpretations. However, there is no room for compromise. Ultimately, it either has to be done strai…

Bend It Like Beckham Trailer Released

Willemijn Verkaik in Concert

Dreamboats and Miniskirts 2015 UK Tour Tickets

Cats 2016 UK Tour Tickets

REVIEW: Three Days In The Country, National Theatre (Lyttleton) ✭✭✭✭

So often the press night comes too early in a run to fully assess a production’s potential. This welcome and ambitious new version has not yet attained great…

The Glenn Miller Story Video Teaser Released

REVIEW: Oklahoma! Lyceum Theatre Sheffield ✭✭✭✭✭

Rachel Kavanaugh presents us with a wily, almost feral Aunt Eller, a metrosexual Curly, a tomboy Laurey, an arch but staunchly feminine Ado Annie, a profound…

REVIEW: Oh! Carol, Crazy Coqs ✭✭✭✭

Happily, Oh! Carol provides a thoroughly entertaining and exuberant cross-section of Sedaka's work. There are the hits but also lesser remembered works, and …

REVIEW: The Spitfire Grill, Union Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

The Spitfire Grill is a musical treat. James Valco's score is richly rewarding and creates a genuinely engaging musical atmosphere which helps shape and driv…

REVIEW: Hecuba, White Bear Theatre ✭✭✭

For all these reasons, a new production of Hecuba is very welcome and cannot fail to be thought provoking and moving, even when allied to a parallel re-telli…

REVIEW: Songs For A New World, St James Theatre ✭✭✭✭

In Jenna Russell, Damian Humbley and Cynthia Erivo, Lenson has assembled three of the best, most exciting performers of musical theatre in London. Each perfo…

REVIEW: Twelfth Night, Space Theatre ✭✭✭

When it comes to a tried and tested classic like Twelfth Night, it’s sometimes quite rare to come away feeling you’ve seen something new and different. For b…

Two New Phantoms Announced

REVIEW: American Idiot, Arts Theatre ✭✭✭

American Idiot is a bit of a frustrating production; whilst the music of Green Day has plenty to offer a musical, it doesn’t seem right for a sung-through st…

The Perfect Murder UK Tour

REVIEW: Richard II, Shakespeare's Globe ✭✭✭✭

The result here is that this is more the Comedy of Richard II than the Tragedy of Richard II. There is an unseemly pursuit of laughter – characterisations ar…

Shawshank Redemption Casting Announced

REVIEW: Mack And Mabel, Chichester Festival Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Ball is an exceptional, utterly convincing Mack. He completely gets under the skin of the character, finding precisely the right level to pitch every moment …

Best Selling Tours - July 2015

REVIEW: Sinatra - The Man And His Music, London Palladium ✭✭✭✭

Sinatra - The Man And His Music at the London Palladium is not your normal West End musical. It is a very different beast indeed. Perhaps best described as a…

Summer Sale - Save £££ On Great West End Shows

Review: The Invisible, Bush Theatre ✭✭✭

The Invisible is a soap opera featuring some beautifully written female characters. It might skirt around the issue of legal aid cuts and the invisibility of…

Further Venues on Sale for Hairspray UK Tour

REVIEW: Lovett + Todd, King's Head ✭✭

Lovett + Todd is a valiant effort at breathing new life into the tale of Sweeney Todd. Unfortunately, it feels like a missed opportunity – some intelligent s…

REVIEW: Lesere, Jermyn Street Theatre ✭✭

In terms of lighting, set, costumes, sound and design the creative team led by director Donnacadh O’Briain do a very solid job, alongside the cast. But the p…

REVIEW: What's It All About?, Menier Chocolate Factory ✭✭✭✭

There are shreds and patches of key songs, which, like Wagnerian leitmotifs, bind the whole experience, make it less a concert and more a pop/rock/r&b op…

REVIEW: Othello, Royal Shakespeare Theatre ✭✭✭

This is a curious production of Othello. You get the bones of the story, clearly, but the flesh, the marrow, the heart - all of which depends upon the rich c…

Hughes, Head and Cusack Star in New Play Ticking

REVIEW: Volpone, Swan Theatre ✭✭

Henry Goodman is assured and magnetic as the titular Volpone. He gives a larger than life performance which suits - entirely - Johnson's larger than life cha…

REVIEW: Constellations, Trafalgar Studios ✭✭✭✭✭

Constellations is a 75 minute jewel of a play. It is a play about things that happen, might happen and could happen – just like life.

LaChiusa Musical Hits Jermyn Street

First Look At The Who's Tommy

REVIEW: I Sing!, Drayton Arms ✭✭✭✭

The original creators can be proud; I Sing! is a wonderful show with a wonderful cast and deserves to find a home for longer than the scheduled week.

REVIEW: Noonday Demons, Kings Head Theatre ✭

This evening, I was sent to see Noonday Demons at the Kings' Head Theatre. But, that is not exactly what happened...

Miss Saigon Announces West End Closing Date

Rehearsal Images For Benedict Cumberbatch In Hamlet

Listen to Victoria Serra Sing Girl In the Mirror From Grand Hotel

Win Tickets To Bette Midler at The O2

REVIEW: The Mentalists, Wyndhams Theatre ✭✭✭

The Mentalists is a fun and lively Pinteresque farce from a very talented playwright. Whilst there are a few thematic flaws, an amusing script guarantees an …

REVIEW: The Rhythm Of Life, St James Theatre ✭✭✭

Coleman worked in an era where Broadway was consistently part of the Top 10. Not every number presented as part of Rhythm Of Life deserved placement in the s…

In The Heights Transfers to Kings Cross Theatre

Zoë Wanamaker Joins The Cast Of Harlequinade

REVIEW: The House Of Mirrors And Hearts, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭✭

The future of British musicals seems assured. It’s wonderful to see a musical that eschews a jukebox or movie mentality and goes instead for an original stor…

REVIEW: Orson's Shadow, Southwark Playhouse ✭✭✭✭✭

The play is staged in the round with a pleasing and teasing contrast between the artifice stage convention and informality. The gestures towards setting are …

REVIEW: The Four Fridas, Royal Artillery Barracks ✭✭✭

Memories still linger of the impressive Opening Ceremonies to the Olympic and Paralympic Games held in London in 2012, and The Four Fridas is best viewed as …

REVIEW: Sibling Revelry, Hippodrome Casino ✭✭✭

Sibling Revelry is nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking and nor does it claim to be. However, if you’re looking for some top class performances from some …

REVIEW: East Is East, Churchill Theatre (On Tour) ✭✭✭✭

East is East is set in the early 70s, was written in the 80s and released as a film in the mid 90s. And yet it’s remarkable how little it has dated. Since th…

Open Auditions Held For Motown The Musical

REVIEW: I Love You You're Perfect Now Change, Above The Arts ✭✭✭

Watching Julie Atherton, Simon Lipkin, Gina Best and Samuel Holmes work their magic, individually, in couples, and as a quartet, it was difficult not to wond…

REVIEW: The Gruffalo, Lyric Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Matilda this show is not – the original and the adaptation are thin fare in comparison with the disturbing and multi-layered creations of Dahl and his later …

REVIEW: As Is, Trafalgar Studios ✭✭✭✭

Viewed one way, Hoffman's play is not a play about AIDS and its repercussions; it is a play about ignorance, discrimination and fear. Viewed that way, it is …

REVIEW: Black Cat Cabaret - Nocturne, London Wonderground ✭✭✭

One of the most exciting features of the current fairground-cluster that is London Wonderground on the South Bank is the focus on late night cabaret. In the …

The Diver Comes To the Rag Factory

The Play That Goes Wrong - New Cast Announced

Love Me Tender Trailer Released

REVIEW: The Importance Of Being Earnest, Vaudeville Theatre ✭✭✭

Director AdrianNoble strikes gold in the quartet of lovers: Gwendolyn, Jack, Cicely and Algernon. Without any question, Emily Barber and Imogen Doel are utte…

REVIEW: The Dreamers, St James Theatre ✭✭

The Dreamers is a real mixed bag. Musically it is often very strong; the musical direction and band are both terrific. However, lyrically and dramatically it…

REVIEW: To Kill A Mockingbird, Barbican Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Timothy Sheader's utterly astonishing, profoundly beautiful, and intensely gripping production of To Kill A Mockngbird, is now playing at the Barbican Theatr…

REVIEW: Measure For Measure, Shakespeares Globe ✭✭✭

This is a feel-good production of a difficult play. The very best thing about it is Dominic Rowan’s exceptionally charismatic Duke. In the second half, parti…

CRITIC'S CHOICE: Top 10 New West End Plays 30 June 2015

REVIEW: Rent Boy The Musical, Above The Stag ✭✭✭

The star of the show, in truth, is Carole Todd's spirited, cheeky, and knowing choreography, which brings out the very best in the cast and masterfully estab…

CRITIC'S CHOICE: Top 10 New West End Musicals 30 June 2015

REVIEW: Amour, Royal Academy Of Music ✭✭✭✭

If tonight’s performance represents the future of British theatre then we are in very safe hands indeed. OK, so the story is about as substantial as the wall…

REVIEW: An Oak Tree, National Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Crouch delights in theatre which unsettles and pushes boundaries and An Oak Tree is no exception. In parts, it is brilliant and it is never less than compell…

Rocky Horror Show Tour Cast Announced

Charlie And The Chocolate Factory Celebrate Start of 3rd Year.

Harry Potter And The Cursed Child To Open Summer 2016

REVIEW: Asking Rembrandt, Old Red Lion Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

There is not much room for manoeuvre upstairs at the Old Red Lion, but the creative team, led by director Jonathan Kemp, have put together a flexible and wel…

REVIEW: The Motherf**ker With The Hat, Lyttleton Theatre ✭✭✭

It's not that this is a bad play; it's more that it is not really a play at all. It's a series of separate scenes, mostly two-handers, which chiefly concern …

REVIEW: Joking Apart, Theatre Royal Windsor ✭✭✭✭

As with so many theatres of a certain age, the bar at the Theatre Royal is proudly lined with photos of bygone productions from the golden age of repertory t…

REVIEW: Bend It Like Beckham, Phoenix Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Act Two is practically perfect. It starts with a fabulous number for the girls, Glorious, and it never looks back. It's full of great music from Goodall and …

REVIEW: The Seagull, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Betts' adaptation (re-imagining is perhaps more accurate) certainly tries to evoke the same effect Chekhov must have had on his original audiences. There is …

REVIEW: Alpha Beta, Finborough Theatre ✭✭

It’s exactly as bleak as it sounds; the entire play is one long, petty, extended, circular argument, stretched over nine miserable years. There’s very little…

Sinatra - Cast and Creative Team Announced

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time New Cast

The Mentalists - Rehearsal Images Released

REVIEW: I Went To A Fabulous Party, Kings Head ✭✭

The King’s Head has a notable tradition in supporting contemporary drama on gay themes, but sadly as things stand this new 65-minute play by And Davies does …

The Who's Tommy - Cast Announced

REVIEW: The Jew Of Malta, Swan Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This is a play where the inhabitants of a Nunnery are slain by poisoned porridge; where the daughter of a Jew becomes a Christian Nun, twice; where, having p…

REVIEW: Second Soprano, King's Head ✭✭✭✭✭

In this theatre season where commemoration and remembrance of the outbreak of the First World War are much to the fore, many of the most successful dramatic …

REVIEW: The Italian Girl in Algiers, Brunel Tunnel ✭✭✭✭✭

Please do chase down this wonderful, life-affirming production at one of the several intriguing venues that lie ahead on its current tour – you will not regr…

REVIEW: The Picture Of Dorian Gray, St James Studio ✭✭✭✭✭

Sadly this fine adaptation has a very brief run – I do hope another theatre can be persuaded to allow us to experience this play with this cast once more - a…

REVIEW: 1984, Playhouse Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This adaptation of 1984 is a modern masterpiece. Get your tickets now, before they take you to Room 101.

REVIEW: The Merchant Of Venice, Royal Shakespeare Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Findlay's production of The Merchant Of Venice, like all great productions of Shakespeare, is brimming with ideas, spoken with assurance and intelligence, an…

I Sing Comes To Drayton Arms

REVIEW: I And The Village, Theatre 503, ✭✭✭✭

I and the Village may be the best piece of new writing you’ll see at a pub theatre this year.

Shakespeare With A Jazzy Heart

Alice Comes To Opera Holland Park

REVIEW: Chef, Soho Theatre ✭✭✭

If the Chef was a type of food it would be a selection of pre-dinner canapés – small but perfectly formed. However, ultimately you are left wanting a little …

The 39 Steps to Close on September 5

Jewish Composers Score Their Own Revue.

The Importance Of Being Earnest UK Tour Tickets

201 Dance Company Launch Kickstarter Campaign

Guys and Dolls UK Tour Tickets 2015

REVIEW: Oresteia, Almeida Theatre ✭✭✭

This is Oresteia, not The Oresteia, the trilogy of plays (Agamennon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides) which won Aeschylus a prize in 458BC and which is c…

REVIEW: Reality, Ovalhouse ✭✭✭

Reality follows a group of fame-hungry youngsters who get a final recall for The Hostage, a new reality TV show which they hope will get them closer to fame …

REVIEW: Not A Game For Boys, King's Head Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Not A Game for Boys was a fantastic night out, with some stellar performances and a brilliant script – certainly worth making a racket about!

REVIEW: King John, Globe Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

James Dacre takes full advantage of the play's many moods and shifts of emphasis and style, with the result that the evening is rambunctious and thoroughly e…

REVIEW: Violence and Son, Jerwood Theatre Upstairs ✭✭✭✭

The Royal Court has not had the best of runs recently, so it is heartening to report that in this new play by Gary Owen they have a really fine piece of writ…

REVIEW: Now This Is Not The End, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭

This then is a play about memory and a sense of homeland, and the inter-generational consequences of the Holocaust and Jewish Diaspora. Clearly this is well-…

REVIEW: Turn Back The Clock, St James Theatre ✭✭✭✭

It leaves us with a slight regret that, as with so many English comedians of her generation, Joyce Grenfell did not emerge more often from the comfort zone i…

Trevor Nunn To Direct War Of The Roses

Ron Moody Dies Aged 91

REVIEW: Love Me Tender, Manchester Opera Hour ✭✭✭✭✭

It’s almost impossible not be on your feet by the end of the show cheering on this cast of talented performers. Love Me Tender must be West End bound. I’d ta…

As Is comes to Trafalgar Studios

REVIEW: The Red Lion, Dorfman Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Marber is not writing just about football. The play is fundamentally about notions of masculinity as well as about modern society. The trio represents a kind…

Seven Brides For Seven Brothers Cast Announced

Derren Brown Returns To The West End

REVIEW: City Stories, St James Studio ✭✭✭✭✭

This therefore is work at a sophisticated creative level, where everything depends in a very pure, basic sense on the players themselves. There is no scenery…

REVIEW: Stony Broke In No Man's Land, Finborough Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

With a plethora of films and plays about the tragedy and waste of the Great War I wondered initially whether there would be scope for the themes addressed he…

REVIEW: The Taming Of The Shrew, New Wimbledon Studio ✭✭✭✭✭

REVIEW: A Damsel In Distress, Chichester Festival Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

The cast, like a fine soufflé, is full of first rate choices and rises to the occasion in exactly the right way. The singing here is glorious. The Gershwins …

Kenneth Branagh Company Further Casting Announced

Breakfast At Tiffany's UK Tour 2016

Farinelli And The King- More Tickets Available

Beverley Knight To Star In Cats

REVIEW: The Clockmaker's Daughter, Landor Theatre ✭✭✭✭

It's a great story, but the show's most glittering treasure is its music. There are folk tunes, love songs, impassioned ballads, comedy numbers, patter songs…

REVIEW: The Flannelettes, King's Head Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Theatre 503 Autumn Season Announced

Asking Rembrandt at The Old Red Lion Theatre

Duncan James Photoshoot For Priscilla

Cast Announced For Gate's The Christians

New Miss Saigon Documentary Released on July 6

Jonathan Church Sets Up New Production Company

Lord Of The Dance - Dangerous Games Breaks Box Office Records

Autumn Donmar Warehouse Season Announced

Xanadu The Musical Comes To Southwark Playhouse

Clwyd Theatr Cymru Appoints Tamara Harvey as Artistic Director

Jules Verne's Classic Tales Comes To The St James Theatre

Curious Incident and Hamilton Major Drama Desk Winners

REVIEW: Duncton Wood, Union Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Michael Strassen's richly detailed, splendidly cast, and lovingly staged premiere production of Duncton Wood (music and lyrics from Mark Carroll, book by Jam…

REVIEW: James Freedman - Man Of Steal, Trafalgar Studios 1 ✭✭✭✭

It is always fantastic to see original theatre in London and Man of Steal certainly breaks new ground in putting on a public safety lecture with a difference…

Critics Choice: Top 10 New Plays in London May 29

Critics Choice: 10 Best West End Musicals 29 May

Mary Poppins - Further Tour Dates Announced

LGBT Musical Facing East Gets Charity Staging

REVIEW: Jason Robert Brown In Concert, Royal Festival Hall ✭✭✭✭

The unstoppable, extraordinary Cynthia Erivo proved, twice, what a potent combination Brown's music and lyrics can be in the hands of a singer whose voice ca…

REVIEW: Just Jim Dale, Vaudeville Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

It is genuinely delightful to be able to report that anyone, child, adult, theatre sceptic or theatre lover, should have no hesitation in snaffling a ticket …

Alison Jiear Joins Cast of 3 Little Pigs

London Road Trailer Released

REVIEW: As You Like It, Shakespeare's Globe ✭✭✭

Blanche McIntyre, whose revival of As You Like It now at the Globe, uses every trick in the book to make Shakespeare's play clear (it is, very), risqué (it i…

REVIEW: Mess, Albany Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Caroline Horton’s Mess is probably the most honest portrayal of an eating disorder that one can find on stage.

REVIEW: The Beaux' Stratagem, Olivier Theatre ✭✭✭

Of all the cast, it is the gifted Susannah Fielding who comes closest to the right style of acting. She really is a tremendous performer, winning in her wins…

Stiles and Drewe's The 3 Little Pigs Gets West End Premiere

Teaser Trailer For Clockmaker's Daughter Released

BOOK NOW FOR TONY NOMINATED PRODUCTIONS

REVIEW: Sense Of An Ending, Theatre 503 ✭✭✭✭

As this fine play moved towards its nuanced ending I could not help making a comparison with an earlier work that placed nuns in a setting of impossible choi…

Tony, Tony, Tony - A Look At This Year's Tony Awards Race

REVIEW: Show Off, The Pheasantry ✭✭✭✭

Nikki Aitken, with pianist Simona Budd, performed Show Off. Aitken is a widely recognized artist in Australia where she has won awards for her cabaret progra…

REVIEW: Skin In Flames, Park Theatre ✭✭✭✭

It would be wrong to reveal more of the detail but the writer deserves great credit for the way in which he remorselessly brings the stories together in the …

REVIEW: The One Day Of The Year, Finborough Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Despite its trappings and narrative, this is not a play about Anzac Day, the public holiday in Australia where attention is paid to those who fought for thei…

REVIEW: Beyond Bollywood, London Palladium ✭✭

All these positives on the creative side only sharpen the regret that this reviewer and clearly many of the audience felt that we were not seeing more of the…

REVIEW: How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, RFH ✭✭✭✭

On the strength of this first, tentative outing, concerts like this could come to rival those staged in the Encores! series in New York or by the Production …

The success of Headlong's 1984 and its contribution to the future of theatre

REVIEW: Fanny and Stella, Above The Stag ✭✭✭✭

Gay themed theatre can be hit and miss at the best of times but Chandler, Miller, Dexter and Todd have fashioned an evening that could well break free of its…

REVIEW: Flames, Waterloo East Theatre ✭✭✭

However, there is an uncertainty of tone about the piece as a whole that does not entirely convince. The evening starts as a straight-forward thriller but th…

REVIEW: Avenue Q, Greenwich Theatre (UK Tour) ✭✭✭✭✭

Now undertaking its 4th UK Tour, Avenue Q continues to be one of the funniest musicals onstage at the present time. Whether you are an Avenue Q newbie or if …

REVIEW: The Lonely Soldier Monologues, Cockpit Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

This is a harrowing but necessary evening in which the transcripts of seven interviews with American women veterans of Afghanistan and the second Iraq War ar…

Beautiful Thing Tour Cancelled

REVIEW: Jerry's Girls, Jermyn Street Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

This is a genuinely terrific night in the musical theatre. Gypsy aside, there is nothing to touch it currently playing in London in terms of value for money …