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Aliya Al-Hassan
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Caroline Cronin
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Cheryl Markosky
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Cindy Marcolina
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Debbie Gilpin
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Franco Milazzo
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Gary Naylor
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Kat Mokrynski
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Vikki Jane Vile
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Review: A GHOST IN YOUR EAR, Hampstead Theatre
Walking down an ominous red-lit corridor and being asked to put on over-ear headphones isn’t your typical start to a night at the theatre – but then A Ghost in Your Ear isn’t your typical play. Jamie Armitage’s second show as both writer and director (after last year’s An Interrogation) is...
Review: ORPHANS, Jermyn Street Theatre
Lyle Kessler’s Orphans was first performed in 1983, but you wouldn’t know that from this production. The tiny stage feels overcome by Sarah Beaton’s design, retro but not too retro, a space immune to the passing decades....
Review Roundup: WOMAN IN MIND Opens at the Duke of York's Theatre
Directed by Michael Longhurst and starring Sheridan Smith as Susan and Romesh Ranganathan as Dr Bill, the show is now open at the Duke of York's Theatre. What did the critics think?...
Film Review: HAMNET, In Cinemas
There are many times you catch yourself, as a parent, doing things you never thought you would do - worse, that you would scoff at if reported by others. I recall looking at one, probably both, of my sons in their crib and becoming aware that I couldn’t see or hear them breathing. You walk away (�...
Review: NT LIVE'S HAMLET, Starring Hiran Abeysekera
NT Live's filmed screening of Hamlet, featuring Hiran Abeysekera (Olivier award-winner for Life of Pi) in the title role, will be released in UK cinemas on January 22 and soon after around the world....
Review: CHLOE PETTS: BIG NATURALS, Soho Theatre
Chloe Petts: Big Naturals might take its name from one of the things comedian Chloe Petts loves the most (it is quite unfair how early a show has to have a title, isn’t it?), but it’s more about the life of Petts, less about one of her favourite things - but more on that later. For now, Petts is...
Review: WOMAN IN MIND, Starring Sheridan Smith
Alan Ayckbourn’s 1985 play Woman In Mind is a darkly comic look about mental disintegration and a mid-life ennui that would have rarely been spoken about forty years ago. In the first major West End revival since 2012, director Michael Longhurst presents a startling portrait of a woman who ret...
Review: THE RIVALS, Orange Tree Theatre
After staging a charming version of Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer two years ago, the Orange Tree's Tom Littler brings us Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 250-year-old comedy The Rivals. Like She Stoops to Conquer, Littler, along with associate Rosie Tricks, has almost rewritten the play, ...
Critics’ Choice: Franco Milazzo's Best Theatre Of 2025
Looking back over 2025, it appears I sat in a dark room and wrote barely legible thoughts into a notebook on about 150-odd occasions. By the grace of God and the BroadwayWorld UK editor, I saw a real smörgåsbord of delights, everything from highly anticipated West End theatre to opera, dance, circ...
Review: A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN WALES, Online
What did our critic think of A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN WALES at Vimeo?...
Review: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, New Wolsey Theatre
Belle and her feathered friend Pigeon, along with the fabulous dame, Mrs Ringer, the flamboyant Jacques Le Plop and many other hilarious characters must work together to save the Beast from the spell… can Belle see beyond the Beast’s fearsome face? And can Pigeon save the day without getting in ...
Review: OPERATION OUCH: QUEST FOR THE JURASSIC FART!, Southbank Centre
Operation Ouch: Quest for the Jurassic Fart! arrives at the Royal Festival Hall with all the confidence and chaos audiences have come to expect from television’s favourite medical mischief makers. Dr Chris and Dr Xand van Tulleken deliver a high energy family show that balance...
Review: PINOCCHIO, Globe Theatre
Pinocchio at the Globe Theatre is a radiant and heartfelt triumph which transforms a much loved story into a richly imaginative new musical. The atmosphere is electric, with the standing audience filling the lower space, with a striking set emblazoned with giant letters spelling PINOCCHIO framed by ...
Review: ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, Orange Tree Theatre
Following last year’s production of Treasure Island, the OT Young Company returns with Chinonyerem Odimba’s inventive and charming new version of Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Endless adaptations have been made of the story of the little girl falling down a r...
Review: CHRISTMAS DAY, Almeida Theatre
There is a particular kind of contemporary British play that believes proximity to the dinner table equals profundity. Or human connection. Or a direct line to our stomachs, if not our hearts. It’s never really clear. Sam Grabiner’s Christmas Day (his first play since his Olivier-winning Boys on...
Review Roundup: What Did the Critics Think of Cole Escola's OH, MARY!?
Oh, Mary! is an uproariously dark comedy about a miserable, suffocated Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Unrequited yearning, alcoholism, and suppressed desires abound in this 80-minute one-act play that finally examines the forgotten life and dreams of...
Critics' Choice: Gary Naylor's Best Theatre of 2025
Theatre is, of course, a window on another world, often glitzier and brighter than our own, sometimes a reflection that can comfort or discomfit us and sometimes a portal into what it is to be human at all. It is an escape - and who can deny that we need such refuges more than ever - but it can be s...
Review: WHEN WE ARE MARRIED, Donmar Warehouse
Perfect medicine for the winter blues...
Review: THE HIGHGATE VAMPIRE, Omnibus Theatre
London, 1970s. The media explode: a vampire roams the streets of Highgate. Bag of Beard Theatre bring their own brand of dark humour to one of London’s most baffling 20th-century frenzies. They reimagine the events, teaming up a bishop and a tobacconist – purity and sin – in a crusade against ...
Review: TOP HAT, Queen Elizabeth Hall
Twenty or so dancers parade before an oversized Art Deco clock, to the familiar strains of ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ from a brass band offstage. In other words, the stage is set for a reassuringly old-fashioned taste of the Golden Age of movie musicals....
Review: TURANDOT, Royal Ballet And Opera
The Royal Opera House’s Turandot has now been running so long it feels less like a revival and more like a listed structure. You don’t attend it so much as pass through it, like a familiar corridor or a particularly grand roundabout. With close to 300 performances under its belt and two runs in ...
Review: PHANTOM PEAK: WINTERMAS, London
And now, the end is near and Phantom Peak will soon face its final curtain at their Canada Water site. Wipe away the tears, though: a new location is apparently in the works for this hilarious slice of immersive theatre....
Review: OH, MARY!, Starring Mason Alexander Park
There has been much hype about Cole Escola's comedy play, Oh, Mary!, spoofing the lives of a former US President and his wife Mary in the days leading up to his assassination. Its Off-Broadway run was extended twice, moved to Broadway where it is still playing and now lands in the West End. So does ...
Review: INDIAN INK, Hampstead Theatre
Indian Ink is not among Tom Stoppard’s greatest plays. The tale of a literary darling moving to 1930s India is awkwardly structured and hamfisted in its messages about Indian identity. Yet this revival breathes new life into the lesser-known work....
Review: TWELFTH NIGHT, Barbican Theatre
“And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.” Following rave reviews, the RSC’s most recent production of Twelfth Night finally makes its way to London as part of the Barbican’s winter season. Directed by Prasanna Puwanarajah, it sees Samuel West, Freema Agyeman, Michael Grady-Hal...
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