Theatre
Entertaining Mr Sloane, Young Vic review - funny, flawed but welcome nonethelessFriday, 26 September 2025
Playwright Joe Orton was a merry prankster. His main work – such as Loot (1965) and What the Butler Saw (1969) – was provocative, taboo-tickling and often wildly hilarious. Now the Young Vic is staging a revival of his debut... Read more... |
50 First Dates: The Musical, The Other Palace review - romcom turned musicalFriday, 26 September 2025
About halfway through this world premiere, I realised what was missing. Where is the sinister lift, where are the long corridors and, most of all, WHERE IS MR. MILCHICK? 50 First Dates: The Musical may indeed be the sunnier cousin of Severance, but... Read more... |
Bacchae, National Theatre review - cheeky, uneven version of Euripides' tragedyThursday, 25 September 2025
The word "after" can be elastic when a modern writer is inspired by a classic. Nima Taleghani here stretches it to breaking point, although, to be fair his piece is also described as a new play. It is not so much "after" Euripides as a celebration... Read more... |
The Harder They Come, Stratford East review - still packs a punch, half a century onWednesday, 24 September 2025
The impact of great art is physical as much as it is psychological. I recall the first time I saw Perry Henzell’s 1972 film, The Harder They Come. I’d been in the pub and, as we did then with just four channels, slumped in front of the television to... Read more... |
The Weir, Harold Pinter Theatre review - evasive fantasy, bleak truth and possible communityMonday, 22 September 2025
Why are the Irish such good storytellers? The historical perspective is that the oral tradition goes way, way back, allied to the gift of the gab. On the psychological level, is it partly an evasion, an escape from telling the truth about oneself?... Read more... |
Dracula, Lyric Hammersmith review - hit-and-miss recasting of the familiar story as feminist diatribeSaturday, 20 September 2025
If a classic story is going to be told for the umpteenth time, there is a good bet it will come with a novel spin on it. So it proves with a new Dracula by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, directed by Emma Baggott. Here, the Count makes just one heavily... Read more... |
The Code, Southwark Playhouse Elephant review - superbly cast, resonant play about the price of fame in HollywoodFriday, 19 September 2025
Hot on the heels of Goodnight, Oscar comes another fictional meeting of real entertainment giants in Los Angeles, this time over a decade earlier. Michael McKeever’s The Code is a period piece, but one with a resonating message for today’s... Read more... |
Reunion, Kiln Theatre review - a stormy night in every senseFriday, 19 September 2025
If you ever wanted to know what a mash up of Martin McDonagh and Conor McPherson, stirred (and there’s a lot of stirring in this play) with a soupçon of Chekhov, Ibsen and Williams looks like, The Kiln has your answer.Mark O’Rowe’s feuding family... Read more... |
The Lady from the Sea, Bridge Theatre review - flashes of brillianceFriday, 19 September 2025
Like the lighting that crackles now and again to indicate an abrupt change of scene or mood, Simon Stone's version of The Lady from the Sea is illuminated by the sense of adventure and excitement one has come to expect from this singular artist.... Read more... |
Romans: A Novel, Almeida Theatre review - a uniquely extraordinary workFriday, 19 September 2025
OMG! I mean OMG doubled!! This is amazing! Or is it? Can Alice Birch’s Romans: A Novel at the Almeida Theatre really be the best play on the London stage, or is it not? Can it be both brilliant and exasperating? At one and the same time?... Read more... |
The Producers, Garrick Theatre review - Ve haf vays of making you laughWednesday, 17 September 2025
Unexpectedly, there’s a sly reference to James Joyce’s Ulysses interpolated into Act One (in case we hadn’t caught the not so sly one, naming a leading character Leopold Bloom). While that’s a nice callback from brash commercial Hollywood... Read more... |
Not Your Superwoman, Bush Theatre review - powerful tribute to the plight and perseverance of Black womenMonday, 15 September 2025
The Bush is likely to continue its fine recent run of hit plays, with this funny, poignant, culturally authentic and beautifully acted two-hander, about an estranged mother and daughter struggling to heal old wounds. Bridgerton’s Golda... Read more... |
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