mon 18/08/2025

Theatre Reviews

Only Fools and Horses, Theatre Royal Haymarket review - rollicking remake of much-loved TV sitcom

Adam Sweeting

It was TV gold-dust. The original seven series of Only Fools and Horses were broadcast on BBC One from 1981-1991, and a string of Christmas specials kept the show running until 2003. It was showered with awards and critical acclaim, and in 1996 the episode "Time on Our Hands" drew a record-breaking 24.3 million viewers.

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All in a Row, Southwark Playhouse, review - soapy and shrill pity party

Saskia Baron

Time once again to roll out that line about the road to hell being paved with good intentions.

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Cyprus Avenue, Royal Court Theatre review - Stephen Rea is utterly compelling

Veronica Lee

David Ireland is a playwright who likes to jolt his audience and Cyprus Avenue, a dark absurdist comedy about an Ulster unionist afraid of losing his identity, does just that.

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Gently Down the Stream, Park Theatre review - gay history sifted for compact drama

David Nice

Ripeness is sometimes all.

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Come From Away, Phoenix Theatre review - a necessary corrective to our traumatic times

Matt Wolf

Against the grimmest of backdrops, generosity and even grace can be possible.

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Agnes Colander, Jermyn Street Theatre review - Naomi Frederick shines in 'new' Granville Barker

Heather Neill

Remembering meeting Harley Granville Barker when casting him as Marchbanks in Candida, Shaw described the 23-year-old as, "altogether the most distinguished and incomparably the most cultivated person whom circumstances had driven into the theatre at that time." He judged his performance as the romantic poet "perfect".

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9 to 5 the Musical review - Dolly Parton's film returns as retooled version of a Broadway flop

Matt Wolf

A musicals-intensive season gets off to a wan start with 9 to 5, a retooled West End version of a 2009 Broadway flop based on the beloved 1980 film that proffered a sisterhood for the ages in the combo of Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin.

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The Lady from the Sea, Print Room at the Coronet review - freedom to choose?

Katherine Waters

Ellida (Pia Tjelta) has a choice to make, the outcome of which will bind her future to her past or her present, each represented by a man. On the one hand, there is the tempestuous seafaring Stranger (Øystein Røger) to whom, long ago and in a fit of delirium, she pledged herself; on the other, there is her devoted and rational doctor husband Wangel (Adrian Rawlins).

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Berberian Sound Studio, Donmar Warehouse review – improves the original

Rachel Halliburton

Two men called "Massimo" face the audience, one very tall, one very, well, minimo. The tall Massimo (Tom Espiner, pictured below) sports wavy shoulder length blond hair and an exuberant pearl rosary, the minimo Massimo (Hemi Yeroham) has dark hair, a beard and glasses, and intense stare.

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The American Clock, Old Vic review - Arthur Miller's musical history lesson drags

Marianka Swain

This year’s unofficial Arthur Miller season – following The Price and ahead of All My Sons at the Old Vic and Death of a Salesman at the Young Vic – now turns to his 1980 work, The American Clock, inspired in part by Miller’s own memories of the 1929 Wall Street Crash and subsequent Great Depression.

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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.


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