mon 20/05/2024

Theatre Reviews

Modest, Kiln Theatre review - tale of Victorian would-be trailblazer fails and succeeds

Gary Naylor

Whether you believe that Ellen Brammar’s play, Modest, newly arrived in London from Hull Truck Theatre, succeeds or not, rather depends on your criteria for evaluating theatre.

Read more...

Crazy For You, Gillian Lynne Theatre review - high-kicking heaven

Matt Wolf

Who says you can't go home again? As proof that you can, and to giddy and gorgeous results, along comes the current West End revival of Crazy for You, which reunites Broadway name Susan Stroman with the Gershwin-inspired title that launched this singular talent on her career ascent more than 30 years ago. 

Read more...

When Winston Went to War with the Wireless, Donmar Warehouse review - lively, but messy

aleks Sierz

Can things change, or must they always stay the same? The latest history play by Jack Thorne, a man of the moment whose Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is still in the West End and whose National Theatre hit The Motive and the Cue will transfer in December, revisits the early history of the BBC to show how current tensions between public service impartiality and political expediency have a long backstory.

Read more...

A Playlist for the Revolution, Bush Theatre review - idealism meets reality head-on

Helen Hawkins

The revolution in the title of AJ Yi’s new play at the Bush is the one activists hoped to set in motion in Hong Kong in 2019, when China’s stewardship was increasingly restricting their civil liberties.

Read more...

The Swell, Orange Tree Theatre review - mind-bending romantic drama

aleks Sierz

There are some songs, and singers, that make your heart swell.

Read more...

Song from Far Away, Hampstead Theatre review - gentle monologue from a man grappling with grief

Helen Hawkins

Lucky Will Young: the production of the Simon Stephens monologue Song from Far Away that he is delivering at the Hampstead Theatre is directed by Kirk Jameson, not Ivo van Hove.

Read more...

A Strange Loop, Barbican review - Black queer musical with confusing concept but an excellent lead

Helen Hawkins

If you are going to see A Strange Loop, the new American musical trailing a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize that has arrived at the Barbican, here’s a checklist of topics to make sure you are on top of first: intersectionality, Harriet Tubman, Marcus Garvey, gospel plays, James Baldwin, the Chitlin’ Circuit, bell hooks, the back catalogue of Tyler Perry. Especially Tyler Perry.

Read more...

Theatre at Glastonbury Festival 2023 - so big and wild a hallucination, you're always left wanting more

Anya Ryan

And that’s it again for another year. Oh Glastonbury. A fever dream where the time of reality stops as you hop on a ride to a land of magic.

Read more...

Stumped, Hampstead Theatre review - Beckett and Pinter, waiting for Doggo

Gary Naylor

Much of cricket comprises waiting – you wait on the boundary to hear news of the toss, you wait your turn to bat, you heed the call of your batting partner to wait to see if a run is on, you wait for the rain to stop. A friend once told me that he played cricket in order to make the rest of his life seem more interesting. There is something in that observation that would appeal to both principals in this play for sure.

Read more...

Robin Hood. The Legend. Re-written, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - no bullseye for new take on familiar characters

Gary Naylor

After the pantos, the movies (epic, camp and animated) and the television series, is there anything new to be mined in the story of Robin Hood? Probably not, as this messy, misjudged show takes that hope and fires an arrow through its heart.

Read more...

Pages

Advertising feature

★★★★★

A compulsive, involving, emotionally stirring evening – theatre’s answer to a page-turner.
The Observer, Kate Kellaway

 

Direct from a sold-out season at Kiln Theatre the five star, hit play, The Son, is now playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre for a strictly limited season.

 

★★★★★

This final part of Florian Zeller’s trilogy is the most powerful of all.
The Times, Ann Treneman

 

Written by the internationally acclaimed Florian Zeller (The Father, The Mother), lauded by The Guardian as ‘the most exciting playwright of our time’, The Son is directed by the award-winning Michael Longhurst.

 

Book by 30 September and get tickets from £15*
with no booking fee.


latest in today

Rebus, BBC One review - revival of Ian Rankin's Scottis...

The previous incarnation of Ian Rankin’s Scottish detective on ITV starred, in their contrasting styles, John Hannah and Ken Stott. For this ...

Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Sousa, St Martin-in...

Better (much better, indeed) late than never. The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique should have given their cycle of Beethoven symphonies at...

Hough, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a...

It’s probably a bit early to be getting misty-eyed about the approaching end of Sir Mark Elder’s time as music director of the Hallé, but the...

Clinton Baptiste, Touring review - spoof clairvoyant on grea...

Clinton Baptiste – clairvoyant, medium and psychic – first appeared briefly as a character in Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights on Channel 4....

Music Reissues Weekly: Andwella - To Dream

Original pressings of Love And Poetry sell for up to £2,800. Copies of the August 1969 debut album by Andwellas Dream can sometimes also...

Bavouzet, Manchester Camerata, Takács-Nagy, Stoller Hall, Ma...

There’s a sense of cheerful abandon about Manchester Camerata’s ...

Album: Barry Adamson - Cut to Black

Always looking dapper and always sounding cool, Barry Adamson is a man who nevertheless seems to be perpetually of another time. Giving off the...

Carmen, Glyndebourne review - total musical fusion

It’s what you dream of in opera but don’t often get: singers feeling free and liberated to give their best after weeks of preparation with a...

The Great Escape Festival 2024, Brighton review - a dip into...

Before reviewing The Great Escape, we must first deal with the elephant in the room. Or, in this case, the room that’s crushing the elephant, like...

Fawlty Towers: The Play, Apollo Theatre review - lightning s...

There are many definitions of bravery, and taking on the challenge of embodying John Cleese as Basil Fawlty in Cleese’s own stage...