News & Reviews

Horniman's Choice at The Finborough Theatre

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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…

Danny Coleman-Cooke

News & Reviews

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…

Danny Coleman-Cooke

News & Reviews

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…

Matthew Lunn

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The Sweethearts Casting Announced

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

David Hasselhoff Visits Jersey Boys

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

In The Heights Casting Announced

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

Jim Broadbent Stars in A Christmas Carol

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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 …

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

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…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

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…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

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

ATG Acquires Five USA Venues

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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…

Mark Ludmon

News & Reviews

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…

Mark Ludmon

News & Reviews

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…

Mark Ludmon

News & Reviews

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…

Mark Ludmon

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Tomorrow, Traverse Theatre ✭✭✭✭

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

Mark Ludmon

News & Reviews

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 …

Mark Ludmon

News & Reviews

What's On In Manchester - September to October 2015

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

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 …

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

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. …

Danny Coleman-Cooke

News & Reviews

First Look at McQueen at the Haymarket

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Flare Path UK Tour Tickets

Douglas Mayo

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