After the Act at the Royal Court – review
Breach Theatre’s verbatim musical about Section 28 is dizzyingly, gleefully, furiously loud.
Reviews
Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree at the Young Vic – review
“Are you ok? Say ‘yes’”. It’s been 20 years since Tim Crouch’s experimental two-hander was first performed – his second play in a body of work that would rewrite the possibilities of theatre – and this question-cum-demand is still as uncomfortable and irresistible as ever.
It’s been uttered by Crouch to almost 400 actors over the years, each of whom have joined him for just one performance, having never seen or read the play. As they step on stage, Crouch tells them that he will play a stage hyp...
It’s been uttered by Crouch to almost 400 actors over the years, each of whom have joined him for just one performance, having never seen or read the play. As they step on stage, Crouch tells them that he will play a stage hyp...
(This is not a) Happy Room at King’s Head Theatre – review
It takes a special level of disgruntlement with your parents to start quoting Philip Larkin’s This Be The Verse to strangers. That poem that begins, “They f*** you up, your mum and dad,” and ends with the warning: “Get out as early as you can / And don’t have any kids yourself”. But Elle, attending her dad’s third wedding (or maybe fourth, who’s really counting anymore?) has reached Larkin levels. And so have her siblings, Simon and Laura.
As Rosie Day’s twisty family drama unfolds, we watch the...
As Rosie Day’s twisty family drama unfolds, we watch the...
The Score starring Brian Cox in the West End – review
“All murderers are punished. Unless they kill in large numbers to the sound of trumpets.” So quips Voltaire in Oliver Cotton’s play, which transfers from Theatre Royal Bath.
It’s 1747 and the philosopher is mediating a confrontation between King Frederick II of Prussia – a trumpet-accompanied murderer extraordinaire – and the composer Johann Sebastian Bach, who is appalled by the horrors that Frederick’s latest war has brought to his hometown. The men also stand at odds on faith – Bach is deeply...
It’s 1747 and the philosopher is mediating a confrontation between King Frederick II of Prussia – a trumpet-accompanied murderer extraordinaire – and the composer Johann Sebastian Bach, who is appalled by the horrors that Frederick’s latest war has brought to his hometown. The men also stand at odds on faith – Bach is deeply...
An intoxicating blast of fun from the Toxic Avenger - review
Lucinda Everett has a ball at this musical adaptation of the ultra-violent Eighties film though suggests the easily offended should look elsewhere
When it comes to stage musical adaptations of films, there are some – Mary Poppins, Sister Act – that seem like utterly natural choices. And there are some that seem nothing short of head-scratchingly bizarre. The Toxic Avenger, an ultra-violent, Eighties cult B-movie about a man who falls into a vat of toxic waste and becomes a heroic green monster,...
When it comes to stage musical adaptations of films, there are some – Mary Poppins, Sister Act – that seem like utterly natural choices. And there are some that seem nothing short of head-scratchingly bizarre. The Toxic Avenger, an ultra-violent, Eighties cult B-movie about a man who falls into a vat of toxic waste and becomes a heroic green monster,...
Another World's voices cut through the confusion behind the terror - review
Gillian Slovo’s new play isn’t the first in recent months to deal with the radicalisation of European Muslims. Last year, amid accusations of censorship, the National Youth Theatre cancelled Homegrown, a play about religious indoctrination in schools, over concerns of an ‘extremist agenda’. While there are understandably questions around why Slovo’s verbatim play hasn’t received the same treatment, its content seems a fitting, if not direct, response to Homegrown’s cancellation, dealing as it do...
Hetty Feather, Duke of York's, review: 'gives Matilda a run for its money'
“You can be whoever you want to be,” begins our heroine Hetty Feather, from an acrobat’s ring above the stage. It’s not so much the moral of her story as a message for the whole of this shape-shifting wonder of a show. With a cast of just six and a few humble props, it treats us to a character-crammed adventure that enthralls its young audience with ease for two hours.
Nominated for an Olivier Award last year and now back in the West End before embarking on its second nation...
Nominated for an Olivier Award last year and now back in the West End before embarking on its second nation...
Quiet Songs at the Barbican Centre – review
If you’ve spotted “music theatre” on this show’s billing, be warned: frothy West End musical it is not. Written, composed and directed by Finn Beames (and his first work with the newly minted Finn Beames and Company), it won the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award, which supports experimental new work. And it is indeed experimental, in a way that is both taxing and intoxicating.
It tells the semi-autobiographical story of “Boy”, a young gay person enduring homophobic classroom bullying, on...
It tells the semi-autobiographical story of “Boy”, a young gay person enduring homophobic classroom bullying, on...
Antony and Cleopatra at Shakespeare’s Globe – review
Antony and Cleopatra is a play of coming togethers and clashings – not just between its lovers but between their cultures, too. Marc Antony’s macho, head-first Rome meets Cleopatra’s sensual, matriarchal Egypt, and so begins the tangle of infatuation, distrust and miscommunication that blows the couple’s lives (and countries) apart.
The Fabulist musical at Charing Cross Theatre – review
Can you believe in both science and magic? Embrace both reason and romance? Can you escape the clutches of Mussolini by dressing as a film extra and pulling your skirt over your head to hide your beard? These are just some of the questions posed by James P Farwell’s brand-new musical.
Hello, Dolly! review – Imelda Staunton leads London Palladium revival
Dominic Cooke’s revival is running until 14 September
Portraying Pregnancy at Foundling Museum
A moving portrait of women's bravery
The Children’s Inquiry at Southwark Playhouse Elephant
LUNG's exceptional verbatim musical exposes 160 years of failings in the children's social-care system
Closer to Heaven musical at the Turbine Theatre
There’s no getting around it. The book for Closer to Heaven, Jonathan Harvey’s 2001 musical with original songs by Pet Shop Boys, is a bit of a dud. Stuffed with underdeveloped plots, tiresome exposition, clicheś and sentimentality, it contributed to the premiere’s tepid reception. And any revivals that have fared well since have done so in spite of it.
Simon Hardwick’s new production fights this bear trap of a book with heart. And while it sometimes seems that no amount of talent will wrench th...
Simon Hardwick’s new production fights this bear trap of a book with heart. And while it sometimes seems that no amount of talent will wrench th...
The Government Inspector at Marylebone Theatre
Who’d have thought it? 188 years after its premiere, a play about privileged buffoons hustling their way into power is still drawing audiences. What a difference a couple of centuries doesn’t make, hey?
Nikolai Gogol’s satire originally skewered Tsarism and contemporary Russian society. It follows a foppish civil servant who is mistaken for a government inspector by a corrupt small-town mayor and his councillors. He takes their misunderstanding and sprints with it, accepting bribes, moving in wi...
Nikolai Gogol’s satire originally skewered Tsarism and contemporary Russian society. It follows a foppish civil servant who is mistaken for a government inspector by a corrupt small-town mayor and his councillors. He takes their misunderstanding and sprints with it, accepting bribes, moving in wi...
The Ballad of Hattie and James at the Kiln Theatre – review
Samuel Adamson’s new play, were it a musical ballad, would challenge even the most competent conductor with its ambition.
There’s the epic scale, which spans a lifelong tumultuous friendship between its eponymous heroes (played by Sophie Thompson and Charles Edwards). Changes in tempo and focus as we yo-yo across decades between crucial moments in their relationship. Crescendos to time and multiple themes to explore – jealousy, addiction, misogyny, grief, the power of music and the cost of music...
There’s the epic scale, which spans a lifelong tumultuous friendship between its eponymous heroes (played by Sophie Thompson and Charles Edwards). Changes in tempo and focus as we yo-yo across decades between crucial moments in their relationship. Crescendos to time and multiple themes to explore – jealousy, addiction, misogyny, grief, the power of music and the cost of music...
Dear Octopus at the National Theatre – review
Unless you’re in one of those rare Scrabble-playing, round-the-piano-singing, suspiciously harmonious families, you’ll be all too familiar with the truth that makes Dodie Smith’s 1938 play so joyously and painfully relatable. Families are simmering pots of emotion, constantly on the brink of boiling over. And family gatherings? Well, they’ll crank the heat right up.
The Randolph family pot is a hefty one – four generations gathering at their ancestral home on the cusp of the Second World War for...
The Randolph family pot is a hefty one – four generations gathering at their ancestral home on the cusp of the Second World War for...
Othello at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe – review
An Othello for our times. It’s the promise of many a production, and understandably so. Enduringly, depressingly topical, Othello feels like a challenge to theatre makers to explore why. And there are myriad broken institutions and disillusioned sections of society to choose as their lens.
Director Ola Ince’s production takes place within the Met Police, swapping the battlefields of Cyprus for London’s docklands, where Chief Inspector Othello investigates a drug cartel. It’s an inspired premise,...
Director Ola Ince’s production takes place within the Met Police, swapping the battlefields of Cyprus for London’s docklands, where Chief Inspector Othello investigates a drug cartel. It’s an inspired premise,...
Review: The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel (Wilton's Music Hall)
"We make no attempt to put reality on stage," declare Told by an Idiot, the company behind this anarchic gem.
It's a promise that has defined their back catalogue – pieces concocted collaboratively from a single, often unlikely, idea and performed seemingly spontaneously. Inventive, highly physical, carefully crafted chaos.
And things are no different here. Based on one truth – that in 1910, an unknown Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel sailed to New York together as part of Fred Karno's famous m...
It's a promise that has defined their back catalogue – pieces concocted collaboratively from a single, often unlikely, idea and performed seemingly spontaneously. Inventive, highly physical, carefully crafted chaos.
And things are no different here. Based on one truth – that in 1910, an unknown Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel sailed to New York together as part of Fred Karno's famous m...
Review: The Night of the Iguana (Noël Coward Theatre)
In the summer of 1940, a tormented Tennessee Williams was holed up in a Tahiti hotel, doubting his abilities, despairing of his future, and drinking rum-cocos on credit. Salvation eventually came in the form of a fellow guest – a young writer feeling equally desolate. Williams wrote of that summer: "all which is most valuable in life is escaping from the narrow cubicle of one's self… to a hammock beside another beleaguered being."
His experiences inspired this intensely human play, and its heart...
His experiences inspired this intensely human play, and its heart...
The Two Noble Kinsmen at Shakespeare's Globe
Barrie Rutter's production is delightfully inventive and blissfully clear
Review: Chicago (Phoenix Theatre)
There's no getting around it; Chicago is an institution. The world's longest running American musical (it just celebrated 21 years on Broadway) and the West End's longest running revival, it's been seen by an estimated 31 million people and won six Tonys, two Oliviers and a Grammy.
So how do you tackle its return to London after a five-and-a-half-year absence? You don't mess with the formula. You stick to the show's central tenets: sex, slick comedy, big vocals and high kicks; you recreate the...
So how do you tackle its return to London after a five-and-a-half-year absence? You don't mess with the formula. You stick to the show's central tenets: sex, slick comedy, big vocals and high kicks; you recreate the...
The A Word, series 2, episode 6: a refreshing account of the complexities of family life - review
The A Word’s second series started optimistically. Joe’s (Max Vento) family had accepted his autism, and the focus was squarely on his happiness. First up, a move to a new school in Manchester. But there the unravelling began, with Alison and Paul’s (Morven Christie and Lee Ingleby) marriage wobbling under the strain of the 100-mile school run.
Peter Bowker’s deft writing, though, is all about the complexities of family life – the shared jokes and the sacrifices, the deep love, deep breaths and...
Peter Bowker’s deft writing, though, is all about the complexities of family life – the shared jokes and the sacrifices, the deep love, deep breaths and...
Review: Dear Brutus (Southwark Playhouse)
"It isn’t good for me not to get the thing I want," is the tearful wail a few scenes into Dear Brutus, the play often described as JM Barrie’s Peter Pan for adults.
The wail belongs to Lob, an aged Puck who has invited a disparate group of characters to his country house. His aim is to send them into the magical wood that appears every midsummer’s eve – an alternative Neverland whose promise isn’t eternal childhood but second chances. The opportunity to walk the paths we wish we’d taken. To get...
The wail belongs to Lob, an aged Puck who has invited a disparate group of characters to his country house. His aim is to send them into the magical wood that appears every midsummer’s eve – an alternative Neverland whose promise isn’t eternal childhood but second chances. The opportunity to walk the paths we wish we’d taken. To get...
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