News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Seagull, Chichester Festival Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Hare's adaptation, the best of the three in the Season, is crisp, charming and comical, thereby magnifying the effect of the more tragic aspects. It's a mark…

REVIEW: Encounter, Above The Stag ✭✭✭✭✭

Evocations of famous films can tip over into parody or unintended comedy very easily but thanks to the skill of the writing and the carefully graded, fully i…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Razzle Dazzle, Michael Riedel ✭✭✭✭✭

Michael Riedel is to be congratulated on this great history of Broadway. It’s a riveting read for any fan of musical theatre on the Great White Way. It bring…

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Hey Old Friends, Theatre Royal Drury Lane ✭✭✭✭

There was a charming mix of reverence and irreverence as well, making the audience feel specially entertained and complicit with the in-jokes. The warm up pr…

REVIEW: Platonov, Chichester Festival Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Another sumptuous production of a superb Hare adaptation of an unwieldy and slightly schizophrenic early Chekhov work, made just that much more glorious by a…

REVIEW: Titus Andronicus, New Wimbledon Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Titus Andronicus is not one of Shakespeare’s finest plays, but Arrow and Traps’ Theatre Company do a splendid job with their adrenaline fuelled, and often ni…

Matthew Lunn

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Clarion, Arcola Theatre ✭✭

Mark Jagasia not only fails to carry that stick, but it’s too heavy for him to pick up in the first place. “Clarion,” now playing at the Arcola, is the broad…

REVIEW: Ivanov, Chichester Festival Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Honesty, as David Hare points out, is the dominating theme of Ivanov. It is also the dominating principle adopted by Jonathan Kent as the guiding light for h…

REVIEW: Kathy Kirby Icon, White Bear Theatre ✭✭

Biopics are not easy to get right, however despite two sterling efforts at The White Bear, neither of them really hit the mark. Whilst it will no doubt be of…

Danny Coleman-Cooke

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Humans, Roundabout at Laura Pels Theatre ✭✭✭

There are two ways in which Karam's work steps up to the mark: the dialogue is believable and genuine, splendidly touching in places; the narrative is uncomp…

Theatre Talk - 2015 Fall Season Preview

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Behind The Scenes - Cast Recording Of Elf The Musical

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Private Lives 2016 UK Tour Tickets

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Tempest, Eel Brook Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Director Brandon Force and movement director Liam Steward-George deserve great credit for creating such a dynamic and detailed production with continual visu…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

Gareth Gates Plays Willard In Footloose Tour 2016

REVIEW: Dames At Sea, Helen Hayes Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Dames at Sea, the work of George Haimsohn and Robin Miller (Book and Lyrics) and Jim Wise (Score), is well known as the off-Broadway hit from 1968 which laun…

REVIEW: The Black Book, Sargent Theatre ✭✭✭✭

This is a dynamic, challenging and gripping piece of dramatic theatre. It's confronting in a number of ways, especially if you have known someone who took th…

REVIEW: The Full Monty, Churchill Theatre (On Tour) ✭✭✭✭

The Full Monty is a masterclass of British writing and its energy and sensitivity transfers smoothly to the stage. It’s raucous and crude but also a lot of f…

Danny Coleman-Cooke

News & Reviews

REVIEW: First Daughter Suite, Anspacher Theatre, The Public ✭✭✭✭✭

It would be unsurprising if First Daughter Suite constituted a significant hat-trick for the Public, following, as it does, in the footsteps of Fun Home (whi…

REVIEW: The Wars Of The Roses: Richard III, Rose Theatre ✭✭✭

Maybe we were all weary at the end of a full day of theatre; maybe, and with ample justification, the cast were flagging after appearances in different roles…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Sunny Afternoon, Harold Pinter Theatre ✭✭✭✭

The Kinks frontman Ray Davies joined many famous faces at the Harold Pinter Theatre to celebrate the first birthday of his co-creation. Based on this showing…

Danny Coleman-Cooke

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Wars Of The Roses: Edward IV, Rose Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Suffice to say that Barton and Hall attempt to clarify the bewildering blizzard of switched allegiances, broken promises and inconclusive battles that form t…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Plaques and Tangles, Jerwood Theatre Upstairs ✭✭✭

As Young Megan, whom we first meet when she is recovering from the one-night-stand night before, is brought to complex, life-embracing realisation in a start…

REVIEW: Looking For Lansbury, St James Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Looking for Lansbury is a fitting tribute to one of the finest British actors of her generation. The show offers education and entertainment for everyone; wh…

Danny Coleman-Cooke

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Gin Game, Golden Theatre ✭✭✭

Both actors here are doing something quite different from a drawing room comedy. They are trying to make a point and, bravely, one that extends beyond the Ca…

REVIEW: She Called Me Mother, Stratford Circus Arts Theatre ✭✭✭✭

There is a great deal to admire about She Called Me Mother, a play which gives a voice to the homeless and victims of abuse. Funny, poignant, and often distr…

Matthew Lunn

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Ripcord, New York City Centre Stage 1 ✭✭✭

Holland Taylor is in exceptional form as the coiled, steely Abby. She manages to humanise a thoroughly inhuman creature, making her likeable despite Abby's m…

REVIEW: Master Of The Macabre, The Vaults Waterloo ✭✭

Master of the Macabre, now showing at The Vaults Theatre until 1 November, is a curious and entertaining evening. There are some fun thrills and tricks along…

REVIEW: What Am I Doing?, Union Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Whilst I don’t think What Am I Doing?: Tales From a Worrying Actor quite fulfilled its promise of exploring the essence of worrying, Gregory Hazel’s easy cha…

Matthew Lunn

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Bandstand, Papermill Playhouse ✭✭✭✭✭

Director Andy Blankenbuehler has achieved something remarkable and electrifying here. Together with David Korins (Scenic design), Jeff Croiter (Lighting desi…

REVIEW: In The Heights, King's Cross Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

In sum this is a show that deserves all the plaudits that have come its way and should receive a long run both at the King’s Cross Theatre and in even larger…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

Full Cast Announced For Funny Girl at Menier

Full casting has been announced for the sell-out season of Funny Girl being produced at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Adrian Lester Joins Kenneth Branagh Company In Red Velvet

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Kinky Boots Extends Until 28 May 2016

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Disney's Aladdin Heads To West End

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Wars Of The Roses- Henry VI, Rose Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Henry VI stands out as the play in this triptych that most benefits from Barton’s editing and clarifications. Characters and scenes are cut away in profusion…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 2016 Tour Tickets

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Close To You - New Trailer Released

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Coming Up, Watford Palace Theatre ✭✭✭

Coming Up is a play that tries to do many different things and scores more hits than misses. With some judicious editing, it could serve as one of the more i…

Danny Coleman-Cooke

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Close To You, Criterion Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Trying to highlight individual performances or individual songs is pointless, this is a show to be savoured as whole, not just once but many times.

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Club Gelbe Stern, Laurie Beechman Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Now playing at the Laurie Beecham Theatre is a remarkable piece of musical theatre, Club Gelbe Stern, written by Alexis Fishman and James Miller, and directe…

REVIEW: Leader Of The Pack, Waterloo East Theatre ✭✭✭

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse in Legends UK Tour

REVIEW: Metamorphoses, Earl Haig Hall ✭✭✭✭✭

Metamorphoses plays through the rest of October, every Thursday to Sunday, and though Earl Haig Hall is in deepest darkest Crouch End, do not let the journey…

REVIEW: Blackout, Drayton Arms Theatre ✭✭

Danny Coleman-Cooke

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Volpone, Brockley Jack ✭✭✭

Everyone involved in this production acted with commitment and a good sense of pace and projection within this intimate space, but the success of the whole r…

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

Let It Be UK Tour

The Let It Be UK Tour returns in 2018 bringing Beatlemania back to a theatre near you. Celebrate the music of The Beatles with a new updated version of the a…

Douglas Mayo

News & Reviews

REVIEW: The Merchant Of Venice, Ambassadors Theatre ✭✭✭

While the emotional wattage did not burn as brightly as it might, and while we were never really made to feel fully uncomfortable with either issues or text …

Tim Hochstrasser

News & Reviews

REVIEW: Amazing Grace, Nederlander Theatre ✭✭

While the tunes and harmonies for the new material might not be memorable, the orchestrations and playing is first rate. Kenny Seymour and Joseph Church, tog…