News & Reviews

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.

REVIEW: Birdland, Royal Court Theatre ✭✭✭✭

There is a simply amazing moment when the set literally starts to crack up or, depending on how you look at it, begins to drown – just as the central charact…

REVIEW: Handbagged, Vaudeville Theatre ✭✭

Handbagged promises much and delivers very little. It's vaguely interesting and occasionally genuinely involving

REVIEW: Henry IV Part One, RSC ✭✭✭

Perhaps it was just that Richard II promised so much, but this Henry IV Part One did not make one long for Part Two.

REVIEW: A View From The Bridge, Young Vic Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

It really is shatteringly good in every way. And the final blood-soaked vignette is both poetic and horrific

REVIEW: Once We Lived Here, Kings Head Theatre ✭✭✭✭

It's a joy to see and hear creative Australian voices, onstage and off, in London. This show is worth a full scale production, properly funded and promoted. …

REVIEW: Mothers and Sons, Golden Theatre ✭✭✭

Mothers and Sons is worth seeing, because it will provoke questions and discussion; not because it is a great play.

REVIEW: Hedwig And The Angry Inch, Belasco Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

This is spellbinding, miraculous work. Broadway really is on fire this season - and Neil Patrick Harris is in a Firestarter league all of his own. Completely…

REVIEW: Act One, Vivian Beaumont Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Tears flow as easily as laughs are generated. This is truly wonderful theatre. Everyone should see it.

REVIEW: If/Then, Richard Rodgers Theatre ✭✭✭✭

It may be that I spent almost two-thirds of the piece in tears: because it was true, honest and full of real conundrums, real passions, real tensions and ach…

REVIEW: Cabaret, Studio 54 ✭✭✭✭✭

This is, by far, the best version of Cabaret I have ever seen. Do anything to see it.

REVIEW: Lady Day At Emerson Bar and Grill, Circle In The Square ✭✭✭✭✭

At its centre, at the height of her considerable powers, Audra McDonald is blazing with talent and genius. Totally unmissable.

REVIEW: Les Miserables, Imperial Theatre ✭✭

Reimagining great productions is de rigour on the great musical stages of the world. Sometimes, the reimagining can surpass the original vision. This is not …

REVIEW: Disney's Aladdin, New Amsterdam Theatre ✭✭✭

Reading this back, it seems all over the place. Fitting perhaps, because that is precisely now the show itself feels. Not quite one thing (a knowing self-par…

REVIEW: Casa Valentina, Samuel J Friedman Theatre ✭✭✭✭

The play is beautifully written for the most part, although it does seem a trifle long. There are many excellent one-liners, but there is also a sense of bon…

REVIEW: The Realistic Joneses, Lyceum Theatre ✭✭✭✭

As ensemble playing goes, it is hard to fault. Four crisp, clean and focused portrayals of perfectly ordinary life turned sour, relationships riven with pain…

REVIEW: Bullets Over Broadway, St James Theatre ✭✭✭

Bullets Over Broadway provides a visual feast, some delicious light comedy and terrific turns from the main stars. It's a joyous, bubbly, refreshing night of…

REVIEW: Of Mice And Men, Longacre Theatre ✭✭✭✭

The tragic ending of the play was as ghastly and overwhelming as Steinbeck intended, while at the same time being the ultimate expression of love and accepta…

REVIEW: Violet, American Airlines Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

A perfect gem of a musical, hewn from truth and pain and polished by creatives and artists with magnificent skill. Unforgettable. Do anything to see it.

REVIEW: Rocky, Wintergarden Theatre ✭✭✭

This is more spectacle than musical theatre; more play with music than musical; more staged film than musical theatre. But it has a lot of heart and some ver…

REVIEW: Dinner With Friends, Laura Pels Theatre ✭✭

This may be one of those plays that really works when stupendous actors perform it. But where, as here, the cast are skilled actors but not more than that, i…

REVIEW: Raisin In The Sun, Ethel Barrymore Theatre ✭✭✭✭

A gifted cast makes a tremendously important play vibrate and shudder with joy, horror and the brutality of everyday life. It's terrific stuff.

REVIEW: The Most Happy Fella, New York City Centre ✭✭✭✭✭

Perfectly cast, directed, performed, sung and danced, this production will go down in history. It is now the new bench-mark for concert performances of great…

REVIEW: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Savoy Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This is a musical farce. No question. And a very funny one. But it has a conceptual twist: the fourth wall is broken allowing asides to or with the audience …

REVIEW: Let The Right One In, Apollo Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

It is difficult to see how this production could be better. Scary, imaginative and practically perfect in every way. A modern fable not to be missed.

REVIEW: Thérèse Raquin, Finborough Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Nona Shepphard’s achievement here is really quite astonishing: this is a sensational premiere of a new work. Why it is not playing at the National is one of …

REVIEW: 1984, Almeida Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

This really is first-rate modern theatre: challenging, entertaining and questioning. Rupert Goold's vision for the Almeida is electrifying.

REVIEW: Visitors, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

This is an extraordinary play performed and directed with consummate skill and incredible insight. It should transfer to the West End and be seen by anyone w…

REVIEW: Another Country, Trafalgar Studios ✭✭✭✭✭

Herrin completely understands that and his production is in terrific synchronicity with Mitchell's vision. A glorious revival of an under-rated masterpiece.

REVIEW: Two Into One, Menier Chocolate Factory ✭✭✭✭

This is funnier than anything that has played in the West End since One Man Two Guvnors first transferred. Old fashioned English farce done with style and c…

REVIEW: We Are Proud To Present, Bush Theatre ✭✭✭

As you enter the auditorium through the rehearsal room, you can almost smell the unwashed theatre students who have earnestly, yet slightly rabidly, put toge…

REVIEW: Do I Hear A Waltz?, Park Theatre ✭

This revival is notable for one thing: it does raise, but not answer, this question - is Do I Hear A Waltz? capable of successful revival?

REVIEW: Other Desert Cities, Old Vic Theatre ✭✭

The Old Vic is back in In-The-Round mode and so there is a greater intimacy with the playing. This proves fatal with this cast; the distance of a proscenium …

REVIEW: Good People, Hampstead Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

A great play, well directed and perfectly played. Unmissable.

REVIEW: The Two Worlds Of Charlie F, Richmond Theatre ✭✭✭✭

People often ask me why I go to see so much theatre, as if it were a sign of madness. Perhaps it is, but the answer is simple: because every now and then you…