UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

“These jokes are 400 years old, help me out here!” Dromio of Syracuse begs the audience at the Barbican. In truth, he doesn't need help. The whole company don't need any help. Director Phillip Breen succeeds in summoning such a direct and resolute style of comedy in his staging of The Comedy of ...

The teachings, poems and philosophy of Rumi have been celebrated across the world for centuries. As such, it's hardly surprising that his story has found its way onto the stage in Rumi: The Musical. ...

A beautiful production that does not intend to break new ground - and is all the better for it....

If you’re looking for a brilliant night out, full of thrill, danger and humour, then this show is for you. The celebrated, Olivier award-winning circus troupe arrive in the West End, to delight audiences of all ages. Featuring your favourite type of acts and some things you may have next seen befo...

Some curious directorial choices fail to blunt the force of Wagner's musical donner und blitzen as the gods bicker and bully and the mortals bleed ...

The March sisters seem to spike in popularity every decade or so, due to films, series or feminist movements. Most recently Greta Gerwig turned Louisa May  Alcott’s novel into a high grossing blockbuster featuring a stellar cast. Now the Park Theatre have resurrected Little Women in the form of a...

Shakespeare in Italy's debut production clarifies and amplifies the wonderful, if problematic, play...

“All were worthy men in their degree.” The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1392, all linked by the central narrative of a pilgrimage from the Tabard Inn in Southwark to Thomas A Beckett's shrine in Canterbury Cathedral; it features characters such as th...

It’s diminutive to say that a lot has changed in the past nine years. What are we even saying, a lot has changed in the last two alone! After Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike premiered in New Jersey in 2012, it went on to open on Broadway the following year and won a coveted Tony Award for Best...

The team behind Death of England and its spin-off-slash-standalone-sequel Death of England: Delroy have been busy since their last involvement with the material, with Delroy dramatically closing on press night due to the measure of the second lockdown. Now, Clint Dyer and Roy Williams’s latest col...

Tunde’s 30th birthday is on its way. But he isn’t in the mood for celebrating like he usually does, much to the dismay of his friends and family. He’s also not attending the gym, his mood his low, he’s broken up with his girlfriend of 5+ years and now, every time he has sex with someone new,...

Lin-Manuel Miranda brings Jonathan Larson (winningly played by Andrew Garfield) to the screen as he tries to get his first musical produced against the backdrop of New York's AIDS pandemic...

Gentle rom-com that breaks no new ground but is easy on the eye and ear and has its fair share of laughs and 'ahhsss'....

The classic play has all the set-pieces and much imitated dialogue in a revival that also underlines the persistence of the anxieties and neuroses it exposes....

A town in the middle of nowhere, a violent relationship, a heinous crime, a tell-all letter. Wyoming, 1888. The gold rush came and went in the American state, leaving marks only in the popularity of Belle, the star of the Mermaid brothel. It’s “A story about tyrants and those who survive them”...

There aren’t that many plays that deal with grooming and David Mamet’s Oleanna is the one piece that always springs to mind. Even then, we have an older professor accused of sexual harassment by one of his students. What happens when we shift the light and it’s a young boy who reports his spor...

Bold ideas, impressive sets, and innovative technology transport audiences into an entirely new realm in this immersive production from Factory 42, in collaboration with the Almeida and Sky....

What happens when Christmas Day becomes a playing ground to expose the tangible relationship between privilege and identity? Written by Young Jean Lee, Straight White Men is an ambitious study of those who gain the most from the world and their awareness of the power they possess....

There’s a huge amount going on in a short time in Colin Teevan’s The Seven Pomegranate Seeds, now showing at the Rose Theatre. Seven stories about maternal pain and loss from the women in the plays of Euripides are transported from classic mythology to modern-day scenarios. Despite this intrigui...

Bringing together the best gender-benders and cis-them offenders that the UK has to offer, The Enby Show is an electric, unique and vibrant all-star comedy night - that was performed at the Vaudeville Theatre, in London’s West End. The aim is to bin the binary by showcasing queer talent from all w...

If you were to read the copy and watch the trailer assigned for this show, you’d probably assume that it was just a bunch of macho, metrosexual men singing hit songs in a fictional local pub, and to be honest, you’d be absolutely right in that assumption. Full of raucous cheer, dancing and beer-...

Celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, Black Black return to the Linbury Theatre with a double bill of new work, and in signature style you’ll be hard pressed to leave without your heart feeling a little fuller than before. Cassa Pancho’s company has always been small, at present featurin...

Private Lives is often considered Noel Coward’s masterpiece: an elegantly acerbic commentary on the relationships and morality of society’s upper classes. Both scathing and witty, its warmth is cut through with an icy centre of cruelty. Nigel Havers has chosen the show as the inaugural productio...

There’s a particular anticipation for this new triple bill from Birmingham Royal Ballet. In a programme that feels like the start of a new chapter, after being first trailed in Autumn of 2019, Artistic Director Carlos Acosta finally has the opportunity to share his Curated ... works to a London au...

Sir Peter Wright's Giselle is one of the Royal Ballet's most recognisable productions and offers the most coveted of roles for any ballerina. But it is Natalia Osipova who treats opening night audiences to her take on the role - and what a captivating and very complete experience it is....