UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Unfortunately, it all ends up looking like a fake play seen in a movie where the characters go to the theatre to advance the plot or reflect on life. “I cling only to now” George says at the end, but this iteration clings too much to the established reputation of the material to offer anything o...

Heartfelt condemnation of treatment of undocumented immigrants let down by structural issues and predictable plotting...

A new West End theatre launches with a show that is heartwarming but unnecessarily irritating in its structure and style...

It's a double first at Theatre Royal Bath with Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. Regarded as England's first opera when initially performed around 1688, it's also the first opera to be performed in the intimate Ustinov Studio....

Choose Trainspotting Live for an unforgettable experience. The good kind....

The global premiere of Studio Ghibli's My Neighbour Totoro has now arrived on London's Barbican stage, but what did the critics think?...

Triumphant re-imagining of the film that, incredibly, manages to add edge and poignancy to its extraordinary source material...

There are times when a theatre production hits you with such raw, uncomfortable truth that it stays with you....

It is a refreshing change to see a romantic story being told from the perspective of two elderly gay men. The world premiere of Peter Gill’s new play Something In The Air is a quiet and gently touching play about remembering people and places as life draws to a close....

Philip Ridley writes an atomic bomb of a play and keeps his finger on the release button until Sasha explodes in an earth-shaking climax. Social niceties and typically British politeness masquerade a coarse, brash internal monologue whose quick quips are absolutely annihilating and, frankly, indecen...

Tremendous fun from a comedy that is set in the world of theatre but will find echoes in most workplaces...

Focusing on uncontroversial flamboyance, Richard Jones’s revival of his 2017 production of La bohème is a visual spectacle with plenty to please the eye....

If Irvine Welsh had been born in England and written Trainspotting while sat in an old school boozer high on molly, this show may very well have been the result....

If the show lacks a little in power having been pared back, many more people will have a chance to enjoy a super show...

Landmark show that has something for everyone...

Phil Bartlett presents the British première with a sinister wink and eerie humour, but the text is a mismatch of gothic tropes and too unsure of its identity for the production to come together well. It's astonishing how the narrative lack of focus is as prominent as the precision of the direction ...

The Canterville Ghost is Oscar Wilde's short novella of an American family moving into a British mansion, to the annoyance of its resident ghost. Tall Stories, as part of their 25th anniversary celebrations, have adapted the narrative and given the tale a quirky treatment by intertwining the narrat...

Nina Segal's new play is hamstrung by an old set up....

Those searching for proof of George Bernard Shaw's view that dancing is “a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire” need look no further than this show....

It is third time lucky for Dominic Cooke's revival of C.P Taylor's GOOD, having been delayed twice by the pandemic. The first production from Cooke and Kate Horton's company, Fictionhouse, it stars David Tennant, Sharon Small and Elliot Levey. So what did the critics think?...

A cargo ship sinks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, causing misery and pain to all involved. Amongst the survivors is a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi; accompanying him is a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a Royal Bengal tiger – all of whom are attempting to co-inhabit a small lifeboat. It sou...

Ivy Tiller is a good kid, but life has dealt her a rough hand and, when it gets rougher still, what will she do?...

From Dennis Nielsen to DJ in Don Juan In Soho, to the murderous vicar in the BBC’s Inside Man, David Tennant seems drawn to playing the antihero. As Professor John Halder, in CP Taylor’s 1982 play GOOD, he captures the moral downfall of an ordinary man who gradually embraces the Third Reich....

At its core, Trio’s biggest wound is a self-inflicted one. It undercuts its own capacity for dramatic impact due to its structure, with each character taking turns to discuss the events of their tumultuous shared history in the past tense, emotionally removed from each historic detail and inherent...

Tom Ratcliffe writes and directs a bleak drag comedy on the trappings of modern fame, exploring online relevance, performative activism, and authenticity. He introduces a contemporary anti-hero who quickly learns that audience is currency and who's ready to do what it takes to become viral. Fame Who...