Marianka Swain - Page 30

The UK tour of Gershwin musical Crazy for You has reached its London leg, and is still in fine, energetic form. Originally a Depression-era work, it joins retro pleasures like 42nd Street in providing much-needed Brexit escapism: a world in which all our problems can be solved with tap and jazz hands.

We begin and end with a grisly decapitation. And that's rather the problem with this intermittently engaging Macbeth, which starts in the throes of some unspecified dystopian hellscape, and thus has nowhere to go. 

London is never short of temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams to a new epic and a lush romance, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld reviews, interviews and features!

No, it's not that Frozen - although the immortal words 'Let it go' do appear in the second half. Otherwise this is a far cry from the Disney juggernaut. Bryony Lavery's 1998 play deals with the abduction of a child, and asks whether evil can be easily defined - or forgiven.

'It just seems to be a thing that we do, this incomprehensible violence thing.' So says the narrator of Dennis Kelly's new one-woman play, performed in a staggering tour-de-force by Carey Mulligan. She's been reflecting on an American mass shooting (and the fact that yet another has taken place just this week is sickening) and wondering whether violence is innate, and if so, whether it's a particularly male impulse.

London is never short of temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From O'Neill and flamenco to punk and Pippin, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld reviews, interviews and features!

Though a long journey indeed, Richard Eyre's is a vital revival, giving vigour to Eugene O'Neill's mighty, semi-autobiographical work and making all the more poignant this tormented but fast-talking family's gradual dwindling into a despairing silence.

Inequality is a hot topic for dramatists, but Sarah Burgess's deliciously dark comedy comes at it from a surprising perspective: allowing those high-finance gorgons to have their say. Of course, part of the strategy is giving them enough rope to hang themselves with, but this cynical satire argues that no one is clean here; we all have our price.

'Heads.' One word, and one coin toss, decides which roles Juliet Stevenson and Lia Williams will play on the night: the titular Mary, or her rival Elizabeth I. Last night Williams took the latter - the company immediately bowing to her. It was a comic moment that underlined a key theme: fortune is fickle, and power is a mirage.

Pulitzer-winning American playwright Annie Baker returns to the National where The Flick was a quiet triumph in 2016 with another work that is epic in form (three hours and change), but similarly spellbinding in its ability to draw an audience close. Though Baker flirts with horror tropes here, it's not in service of big spooks or jump scares; instead, the smallest of interactions and realisations are writ large.

It's 60 years since Harold Pinter's play premiered - and flopped - at Lyric Hammersmith, baffling critics (with one exception) and audiences alike. Now, we expect the sinister subversion of both the seemingly mundane setting and the dramatic form that Pinter the jobbing actor knew from rep: that of the sub-Christie mystery thriller. But played well, as it is here by a starry cast, the play still has the power to unsettle.

Actor Peter Wight's career varies from Robert Icke's recent Hamlet to a range of classical and contemporary work with the National Theatre, Royal Court and RSC, plus multiple Mike Leigh films. His current project is the 60th-anniversary revival of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party, now in previews at the Harold Pinter Theatre.

London is never short of temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From a major Pinter revival to Wilde, Schiller and some exciting transfers, here are this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld's reviews!

Does Hamilton live up the hype - and will it appeal to British audiences? Yes, and yes again. It's not like America has a monopoly on national identity crisis, leadership, immigration, parenthood, grief, sex scandals and political rivalries. But beyond that, it's just a blisteringly great night out: universally thrilling entertainment.

The puppet who wants to be a real boy is all grown up in this new musical version - very much the darker side of Disney. Book writer Dennis Kelly went back to the original 19th-century Italian tale, by Collodi, and tonally, John Tiffany's production leans more towards that incarnation: a Pinocchio recognisably in the tradition of grim Grimms' Fairy Tales.

Offstage drama infamously hijacked the 1995 premiere of Simon Gray's play, with star Stephen Fry walking out mid-run - hastening the production's early closing. Here, then, is a chance to put the focus back on the work itself in Edward Hall's revival.

The Menier has a superb track record with breathing new life into classic musicals, but falls short with their latest revival: Cy Coleman's 1980 portrait of P.T. Barnum, creator of The Greatest Show on Earth . In stripping back some of the spectacle for this smaller space, Gordon Greenberg's production reveals the work's weaknesses as well as those of its leading man.

Hamilton finally makes its UK debut at the Victoria Palace Theatre tomorrow night. Need a quick primer on the musical phenomenon? Here's the lowdown

Actress Lucie Shorthouse stars in new musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie, which transferred from Sheffield to the West End's Apollo Theatre - garnering rave reviews, including plenty of praise for Shorthouse's breakout turn as Pritti.

Hackney Empire's 2017 Christmas pantomime Cinderella runs at the East London venue until 31 December. Writer and director Susie McKenna gives us a sneak peek at its creation - watch the video below!