News & Reviews

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. …

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

Cynthia Erivo and Jennifer Hudson Perform The Colour Purple

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

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

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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 (…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

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…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

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

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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 …

Matthew Lunn

News & Reviews

Casting Announced For Pure Imagination

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Casa Valentina Cast Announced

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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 …

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

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…

Danny Coleman-Cooke

News & Reviews

F*cking Men Extends Run At Kings Head

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

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 …

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

VIDEO: Look Out London Kinky Boots Is Almost Here

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

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…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

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…

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Top Selling Tours August 2015

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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…

Matthew Lunn

News & Reviews

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…

Danny Coleman-Cooke

News & Reviews

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…

Danny Coleman-Cooke

News & Reviews

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…

Danny Coleman-Cooke

News & Reviews

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…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

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

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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…

Matthew Lunn

News & Reviews

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.

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Casting Announced For New Barney Norris Play Eventide

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

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…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

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 …

Danny Coleman-Cooke

News & Reviews

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…

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

VALE: Cilla Black 1943 - 2015

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Sheridan Smith To Star in Funny Girl At Menier

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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…

Danny Coleman-Cooke

News & Reviews