News & Reviews

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…

REVIEW: Fatal Attraction, Theatre Royal Haymarket (0 Stars)

No one sitting around us seemed to be having a good time and there was much disgruntlement at interval.

Review: The One, Soho Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

REVIEW: The Act, Trafalgar Studios ✭✭✭✭✭

This is a powerful piece of theatre, a meditation on the state of the homosexual in the UK in the last 50 or so years. But it is wrapped up and delivered lik…

REVIEW: Being Shakespeare, Harold Pinter Theatre ✭✭✭✭

REVIEW: Knight Of The Burning Pestle, Sam Wannamaker Playhouse ✭✭✭✭

It is startling to realise this play was written seven years after Hamlet. It feels as fresh as a daisy. If you value the warmth that humour and truth provid…

REVIEW: Urinetown, St James Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Really, this production cements Lloyd's reputation as a dynamic and thrilling young director. His vision here is glorious and he sees to it that it is proper…

REVIEW: Ellen Terry with Eileen Atkins, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse ✭✭✭✭✭

An unmissable night with one of the world's greatest living stage actresses.

REVIEW: Candide, Menier Chocolate Factory, ✭✭✭✭✭

This genius production ought not be missed. Sell body parts to see it and to revel in its ecstasy

REVIEW: Blurred Lines, The Shed Theatre at The National ✭✭✭✭✭

Blurred Lines is one of the best things to play at the National Theatre in the last six years. It is a significant and provocative work of great sweep and sc…

REVIEW: Before the Night is Through, The Landor Theatre ✭✭✭

Despite the first Act moving somewhat slowly, Act Two is when the musical really takes off with added cheekiness, inuendo and ridiculously outrageous farce, …

REVIEW: Donkeys Years, Rose Theatre Kingston ✭✭✭

Frayn is a genius and a clever wordsmith to boot. He orchestrates the silliness here with a precision that is formidable and even now, almost forty years on,…

REVIEW: The Only Way Is Downton, Trafalgar Studios ✭✭✭✭✭

Kempner is the real deal in every way - his timing is impeccable, his sense of comedy immaculate, his ability to impersonate or portray the essence of the wo…

REVIEW: Strangers On A Train, Gielgud Theatre ✭✭✭

It is incredibly well worth seeing. It's not a play for everyone, but if you get on Goodchild's train, and ride with it, there is plenty to enjoy and savour.

REVIEW: Fortune's Fool, Old Vic Theatre ✭✭

The trouble is that none of it is co-ordinated or controlled or channelled in a particular direction, with the result that nothing comes of anything.

REVIEW: The World Goes Round, Union Theatre ✭✭

In a week when the "other" (Sondheim) revue, Putting It Together, closed at the St James' Theatre after a terrific run, this childish and facile production p…

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance hits the stage.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance explodes on to the stage at the Park Theatre this year.

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

The City Stops at Islington - With Iris

Joseph to be an animated film thanks to Elton John's Rocket Pictures

It was announced today that Elton John's Rocket Pictures has acquired the rights to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dr…

Images - Andrew Lloyd Webber's Stephen Ward

Production images from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Stephen Ward currently playing at the Aldwych Theatre.

Robert Webb to play Wooster

Following a successful initial season, hit comedy Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense has now extended it's run at the Duke Of York's Theatre until 20 Sep…

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Back To The Future Musical Announced

Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale are working with Universal Stage Productions (Wicked and Billy Elliot), London-based producer Colin Ingram (Ghost – The Musical)…

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Mayhem Musical Theatre Company premiere The Addams Family in the UK

Following the rights release late last year by Theatrical Rights Worldwide, it was announced today that Mayhem Musical Theatre Company will present the UK pr…

Wincester amateur theatre launches playwrighting competition

Amateur theatre group, Chesil Theatre is once again inviting playwrights to submit scripts for its 10x10 Playwriting Competition.

Interview: The Heritage Arts Company Directors - Tim and Mat

Over 200 talented performers and artists applied for VAULT, a festival running over six weeks. The interest in working for the company has enabled a strong p…

Feature: The Future Of Theatre Criticism

Arts desks across all major publications seem to be cutting back on their critics. In an information saturated world, who do you trust? What is the future of…