UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

A dystopian past and dystopian future form the backdrop to two plays that never quite escape their specificities and, consequently, remain a little distant...

2022 got off to a shaky start. The shadow of Omicron loomed threatening another year of cancellations and a return to the online realm. But as soon as Covid worries dissipated and theatres reopened their doors with confidence, a gentle tide of scandals and uproars ebbed and flowed across the theatre...

While only one hour long, Teglia’s script has a lot of surplus material that’s solely used to bring the topics up. Tia and Kai regale Sienna with the crazy tales of their wild childhood on the estate, painting a clichéd picture of contemporary disadvantaged youth versus their luckier pals. They...

A forensic psychodrama that turns Othello's inner turmoil inside out....

It is fast approaching Christmas, and we are well into panto season - so what better time to settle down at home to watch one of children's television's greats in full creative mode? The latest digital festive treat from Panto Online and Peter Duncan is named Pantoland, with stories, characters, an...

James Graham's Best Of Enemies is now open at the Noel Coward Theatre, having transferred from the Young Vic. The play is set in 1968 and follows the fight for the American Presidency between the cunningly conservative William F. Buckley Jr., and the iconoclastic liberal Gore Vidal, played by David ...

It's an exceptional addition to a Theatreland that's generally lacking in political engagement, especially during the Christmas period. It's intense, brainy, and absolutely delectable. The latest West End must-see....

Musician and lyricist Robert Hyman dedicated this adaptation of the classic tale, Cinderella, to the late and much-admired performer, Jo Melville. She once said, 'there's nothing like this, that sheer euphoria that theatre, that panto can give' and yes, hats off to that....

A festive family farce has children squealing with laughter at Polka Theatre....

With winter nights growing ever darker and Christmas just around the corner, now is the perfect time to treat yourself to everyone’s favourite festive entertainment. Who doesn’t love a pantomime? This year, the Lyric Hammersmith’s offering is a re-imagining of Jack and the Beanstalk. Nostalgia...

Opera based on much loved 1946 film offers a vision of a town without music, without joy, without love and, in doing so, compels us to value what we have - a moral shared by everyone in the house, but not outside it....

Super fun for 7 year-olds to 77 year-olds with all that stage magic up there on the screen...

When Elf The Musical last set foot in London, the critics noted its family appeal, the syrupy content and the extortionate ticket prices. Has much changed this time around?...

There is an interesting theme emerging in the Royal Court's new season. Each play so far has been part of a paradigm shift towards exploring intensely personal stories and questions. It doesn't feel like a knee jerk reaction to a post Covid world. It feels like there is something more fundamental go...

Winter has come to the Globe and it brought Henry V to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse for the first time in its history. Holly Race Roughan directs William Shakespeare’s patriotic tale of pride, King, and country in a seductively lit evening that desperately wants to be a fresh anti-imperialist take ...

Since it was released in 2009, the warm-hearted movie comedy Nativity! has been on many families' essential Christmas viewing lists. This festive season, the stage version of the film returns to Birmingham Rep, where it received its world premiere in 2017. Written, directed and composed by Debbie Is...

Super fun for Christmas with two of the world's most loved Victorian characters together at last...

A biting satire on Victorian romanticism propped up by knockout performances...

There are surely few less festive places to be than The Old Vic Theatre while Jack Thorne's A Christmas Carol is being staged. From mince pies and satsumas for the audience, Victorian bell ringing, snow falling and turkeys flying from the rafters, is it joyfully reassuring and supremely comforting....

Oliver Reese, artistic director of the Berliner Ensemble, translates the tale for the stage transforming it into a one-man-show led by Jonathan Slinger. But do we need another white man’s poor-me point of view in 2022? The book has its merits, as does the play, but what is this show trying to say?...

The Unicorn Theatre’s Xmas pantomime has been dazzling audiences for years. Bright colours, holiday cheer and a well-known tale turned on their head are regular features here; and this time it’s the turn of the famous wooden chap, Pinocchio, to get their moment in the spotlight. They’ve had th...

Nicholson writes a deliciously entertaining adaptation of the novel, while Marieke Audsley has it jump off the page of a storybook....

The Snowman and Christmas go together like bad weather and TfL apologies so it's unsurprising that this adaption by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre of Raymond Brigg's seminal 1978 graphic novel is returning to Sadler's Wells' Peacock Theatre. ...

Frank McGuinness's new play puts two giants of 20th century culture together but fails to ignite a spark between them...

Peering through a queer lens with cabaret stylings, Linus Karp brings Diana’s herstory to life through puppets, video and some very spot-on outfits....