News & Reviews

REVIEW: Pacific Overtures, Union Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This is as good a production of Pacific Overtures as anyone is likely to see. It's well cast, mostly well sung, beautifully, almost hypnotically, staged, ful…

REVIEW: The Importance Of Being Earnest, Harold Pinter Theatre (0 Stars)

Lucy Bailey has presided over a fraud - this is not Wilde's play and it doesn't pretend to be when you are in your expensive seat. But to lure you to pay for…

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…

First look production footage from Shakespeare In Love

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Annie Get Your Gun, Churchill Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This is first-rate family entertainment. This Annie is a great night in the theatre and comes highly recommended.

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Ghost stories extends to Jan 2015

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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

News & Reviews

Skylight Recoups Investment in Five Weeks

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Elaine Stritch passes away at 89

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

New Miss Saigon Trailer Released

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Fathers and Sons, Donmar Warehouse ✭✭✭✭

With a striking wood-plank set by Rob Howell and brooding music by Alex Baranowski, this is a sharp and compelling production about families and the need for…

Jersey Boys - UK and Irish Tour Cast Announced

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Kristin Chenoweth, Royal Albert Hall ✭✭✭✭✭

From the cries of "We love you" from the audience, the feeling was clearly reciprocated.

Jenna Russell and Jonathan Slinger headline Apollo transfer for Urinetown

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…

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…

REVIEW: Shakespeare In Love, Noel Coward Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

It is difficult to recall, at least over the course of the last seven years, a commercial production of a new play which has opened directly in the West End …

Shakespeare in Love - First Look Photos

Cats comes to the London Palladium for Christmas

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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…

Phone hacking play gets West End transfer

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

Farber makes no mistakes in casting, design, pace, tone or intensity, with the result that the play throbs with vitality, is both visceral and sensuous and, …

Urinetown Transfers to West End in September

The Book Of Mormon meets South Park in this witty animation.

Review: Valley Of Astonishment, Young Vic ✭✭✭✭

A truly delightful, engaging and joyous piece, chock full of important subjects and thoughts.

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…

REVIEW: Bakersfield Mist, Duchess Theatre ✭✭✭

There is, perhaps, 40 minutes of good material here, material which ungarnished with irrelevancy may have made for an interesting theatrical experience.

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…

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…

Further Casting of Electra Announced

The Print Room Moves To Notting Hill

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Pajama Game, Shaftesbury Theatre ✭✭✭✭

It's a great night out; pure entertainment. And with this cast, works far better than the same production did in Chichester last season.

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

News & Reviews

Sweeney Todd Launches New Twickenham Venue

REVIEW: Skylight, Wyndhams Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

This is the kind of first class work for which the West End is famous. Luminous, enthralling and unforgettable.

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.

Made In Dagenham - Further Casting Announced

REVIEW: The Life Of The Party, Menier Chocolate Factory ✭✭✭✭

It is difficult to imagine that patrons of this show would not want to see and hear more of Lippa's work, especially the works showcased here.

If/Then Cast Album Has Show Stopping Chart Debut

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Tony Awards 2014 - Nominees and Winners

REVIEW: Clarence Darrow, Old Vic Theatre ✭✭✭

Spacey does not play one character; he is Darrow and he observes Darrow. He works within the confines of the stage and smashes the fourth wall.

Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel: From 1945 to 2014 in a single hit

REVIEW: Miss Saigon, Prince Edward Theatre ✭✭✭✭

If anything, this production of Miss Saigon re-establishes Cameron Mackintosh as the greatest producer of musicals ever. He understands his audience, and as …

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Fings Aint What They Used T'Be, Theatre Royal Straford East ✭✭✭✭

Hands has produced a wonderful, joyful and quite triumphant revival of a piece that is often overlooked and discarded as “old-fashioned”. The life, beauty an…

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.

REVIEW: The Silver Tassie, National Theatre ✭✭✭✭

There is not a person to fault in the cast or ensemble. Davies whips the material into as good a shape as it is ever likely to have. The sense of it, the gli…

REVIEW: King Charles III, Almeida Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

This is theatrical alchemy of the rarest kind. It will affect each person who sees it differently, for it is everything and nothing all at once.

REVIEW: Blithe Spirit, Gielgud Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Michael Blakemore is a genius. His cast is perfect. This is likely to be the smooth, delicious comedy revival of the year, if not the decade.

REVIEW: Sunny Afternoon, Hampstead Theatre ✭✭✭

There is a lot to like in Sunny Afternoon and overall the experience is more than satisfactory. It is great fun. Well worth seeing and hard not to enjoy.