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Review Roundup: What Did The Critics Think Of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY at the Ambassadors Theatre?
James and Lou move from Chicago to London to escape their past, but they soon discover that places aren’t haunted, people are… Inspired by the iconic, terrifying film series, Paranormal Activity is a new story live on stage. What did the critics think?...
Review: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, Ambassadors Theatre
London is a city built on ghosts. Romans, plague pits, abandoned Tube stations and the collective memory of audiences who still shudder about The Woman in Black. There’s even a theatre supposedly inhabited by a ghost dolphin called Flipper....
Review: BREAKING BACH, Marquee TV
It's an unlikely alliance – JS Bach, hip-hop, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and kids from Acland Burghley School in North London. But Olivier award-winning choreographer Kim Brandstrup deftly unites these disparate elements in invigorating and heart-warming Breaking Bach....
Review: LITTLE BULB'S THE NUTCRACKER, Saint Martin’s Theatre
Little Bulb’s The Nutcracker arrives in the West End as a celebration of imagination, music and collective joy. This Olivier Award nominated production proves why the company is so beloved by family audiences, offering a festive adventure that is both wildly silly and deeply thoughtful. With its h...
Review: HOW DOES SANTA GO DOWN THE CHIMNEY? Unicorn Theatre
Unicorn Theatre’s festive offering this season is a wonderfully eccentric Santa-based delight. How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? transforms Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen’s much loved picture book into a piece of bold physical theatre , which celebrates curiosity, imagination and joyful nonsense....
Review: THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP - A PENNY DREADFUL, Jack Studio Theatre
Part-panto, part-pastiche, an affectionate and funny homage to genres past and present...
Review: CHRISTMAS CAROL GOES WRONG, Apollo Theatre
Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, Christmas Carol Goes Wrong sees the return of Mischief’s beloved Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, which was first seen by audiences in The Play That Goes Wrong over ten years ago. The show actually picks up where the last “Goes Wrong”...
Review: EVITA TOO, Southbank Centre
Rollerskates, Elaine Page, ducks, puppets, corpses, puppet corpses, and a DJing Andrew Lloyd Webber. Evita Too is worlds away from the Jamie Lloyd hit that swept London this summer, but it has just as much to say, if not more....
Review: THE BFG, Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Co-Artistic Director of the RSC Daniel Evans brings to life one of Roald Dahl’s most darkly beloved children’s books in an utterly thrilling adaptation by Tom Wells. ...
Review: MUSEUM OF AUSTERITY, Young Vic
There are many museums dedicated to disaster, but only Britain could create one in which the exhibits are victims of its own fiscal policies. Museum of Austerity, revived at the Young Vic, is a cool, technologically-slick indictment, a moral subpoena served directly to your eyeballs through augmente...
Review: ENB NUTCRACKER, London Coliseum
If your festive wish-list includes being whisked away to a land of shimmering magic and charming story-telling, ENB have the ideal antidote to the winter drizzle outside with the first revival of their version of Nutcracker that debuted last year. Aaron S. Watkin and Arielle Smit bring a welcome ch...
Review Roundup: What Did The Critics Think of Jordan Fein's INTO THE WOODS?
What happens after Happily Ever After, after all? In Sondheim and Lapine’s beloved musical retelling of the Grimm classics, a parade of familiar folktale figures find their way “Into the Woods” and try to get home before dark—under the guidance of Mark Lamos, who dazzled us with A Little Nig...
Review: PHIL ELLIS: BATH MAT, Soho Theatre
For those unfamiliar with Phil Ellis and his style of comedy, they might be more than just a bit confused by the start of Bath Mat. Instead of Ellis himself taking the stage, it’s fellow comedian Tom Short dressed up as a DJ, getting the audience warmed up. Finally, the man of the hour arrives, cr...
Review: ALISON SPITTLE: BIG, Soho Theatre
Alison Spittle: BIG begins with Spittle entering the stage wearing a costume made out of colourful loofahs, before pulling it off to reveal a sequined outfit underneath. But this isn’t just a costume reveal - Spittle confesses to the audience that, while she is still fat (and has been since she wa...
Review: THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD, starring Nicola Coughlan and Siobhán McSweeney
Considered the first Irish “state of the nation” play, it’s now turned into a historical vignette imbued with hoarse black comedy. Its long placid rests are interrupted regularly by blazes of humorous energy: it entertains, but the pacing is slightly too slow for it to be full-on engaging. It�...
Review: INTO THE WOODS, Bridge Theatre
Having brought their extraordinary theatrical concepts to the all-conquering Fiddler on The Roof, director Jordan Fein and designer Tom Scutt reunite to bring lucky London audiences a gorgeously dark and heartfelt version of James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods. ...
Review: THE RED SHOES, Sadler's Wells Theatre
I couldn't help but get swept away by The Red Shoes. A rich blend of romantic storytelling and cinema, this production showcases the best Matthew Bourne has to offer as a love letter to ballet in its purest (and most haunting) form. If you're unable to find a production of The Nutcracker this holida...
Review: KENREX, The Other Palace
An ominous small town tension, the lingering fear that something rotten lies beneath the wholesome community spirit, pervades KENREX, which transfers to London after an acclaimed Sheffield Theatres run....
Review: BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO, Young Vic
Bengal Tiger At The Baghdad Zoo, arriving now at the Young Vic for its long-overdue European premiere, is ostensibly about the American occupation of Iraq. Really, though, Rajiv Joseph’s Pulitzer-nominated work is about two things: a gold-plated toilet seat stolen from Uday Hussein (son of Saddam ...
Review: ARIODANTE, Royal Ballet and Opera
Musically impressive with real high points, the drama does not quite hold together...
Review: DANIEL'S HUSBAND, Marylebone Theatre
We’re in a room straight out of the pages of Architectural Digest, two couples sipping Scotch on mid-century chaise longues. Like most plays set entirely in someone’s living room, though, fault lines amidst the middle-class domestic bliss soon emerge....
Review: FIRESIDE TALES, Punchdrunk Enrichment Stores
Punchdrunk Enrichment has created a thoughtful world designed to captivate young audiences and invite their grown ups to rediscover the shared joy of storytelling. Fireside Tales offers a rich and atmospheric experience for children aged seven to eleven, that blends imagination and collective reflec...
Review: DRACAPELLA, Park Theatre
Bram Stoker’s Dracula can actually be quite funny. There’s the cowboy who’s inexplicably present in 19th-century Yorkshire, and how Jonathan Harker sees nothing wrong with doing routine real estate transactions at a remote Transylvanian castle. Unfortunately, Dracapella has channelled precisel...
Review: POTTED PANTO, Wilton’s Music Hall
Potted Panto returns to Wilton’s Music Hall for a triumphant third season and once again confirms why it remains a beloved fixture of the festive calendar. Presented by James Seabright in association with Wilton’s Music Hall, this Olivier Award nominated whirlwind offers seven pantomimes in a br...
Review: LAST DAYS, Royal Ballet And Opera
We still don’t know what Kurt Cobain did in the days before his suicide in 1994. Gus Van Sant offered one hallucinatory guess in Last Days, refashioned into opera by Oliver Leith and now revived at the Royal Ballet And Opera....
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