UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Harold Pinter's 1960 two-hander seems to be near-ubiquitous of late, having been revived on the West End early in 2019 as part of an all-Pinter season and then again separately late last year at the Hampstead, in a run that was truncated by the pandemic. ...

Mr and Mrs Pooter have just moved from Peckham to their new home in Holloway, much to the Mrs P's dismay. She tries her best to be “a dutiful wife” and he is the model Victorian husband. But are they, really? English writer Evelyn Waugh once described George and Weedon Grossmith’s novel The Di...

By the pricking of my thumbs, something tipsy this way comes. Iambic pentameter? No, Sh!tfaced Shakespeare is all about inebriated pentameter. After all the various British lockdowns and subsequent theatre closures, the company are back at Leicester Square Theatre to bring the Bard to masses in gall...

Shakespeare is such a constant in the theatrical cannon that there is often a desire to do something innovative with his work. Reinventing the Bard can provoke an eye-roll or two and Director Ola Ince’s new version of Romeo & Juliet at the Globe will certainly divide audiences. Ince choses to show...

A wonderful revival of a show, marrying beautiful music and singing with poignancy and wit...

“Making money can get intoxicating”, especially the kind of money American banker Nick Bright starts making his capturers from a drab cell in rural Pakistan. Ayad Akhtar’s The Invisible Hand comes back to Kiln Theatre directed by its artistic director Indhu Rubasingham....

A show that surprises and delights, packed with wit and wisdom, delivered by a brilliant cast...

Inspired by a trip to Lourdes and the illness and death of a member of her cabaret group, Bryony Lavery’s play Last Easter is a funny and engaging exploration of life, death and friendship. After June, a theatrical lighting designer, is diagnosed with cancer, her three friends decide that an Easte...

The United States of America: Land of the free, home of the brave. But also home of filthy rich lottery winners and their subsequent tragic squanderings. It’s summer 1997 in Texas. Billie-Bob Harrell Jr. breaks his back on the daily working at Home Depot and plays the lottery at least twice a week...

Three singers, one stage and a selection smart songs, all on a summer's evening....

Nina Raine's new play Bach & Sons has opened at the Bridge Theatre to socially distanced audiences. The lavish production is directed by Nicholas Hytner with an experienced cast of actors led by Simon Russell Beale, a frequent collaborator of Hytner, as Johann Sebastian Bach, who fathered 20 childre...

A play featuring string theory, beekeeping and the same scenes repeated numerous times might not be the easiest sell. However, this revival of Nick Payne’s contemplative and ingenious Constellations is smart, funny and exceptionally moving. The 70-minute drama explores love, life and death throug...

Returning to London after more than a decade, and a few false starts, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s musical is, to quote the closing number of act one, “big, blonde, and beautiful”. ...

When Phoebe Waller-Bridge is galvanised by a new voice, expectations are likely to be high. The actor / writer enjoyed great success with her own one woman show Fleabag, which ran at Soho Theatre. As a judge for the 2020 Verity Bargate Award, Waller-Bridge and others, including Russell T Davies, dee...

Four short plays from a long time ago yield much to reflect upon in this mini-anthology of Caryl Churchill's work....

“Two households, both alike in dignity”, and so begins arguably Shakespeare’s most popular tragedy. In 424 years since its premiere it’s safe to say not all productions have been alike in status - unlike the famous Capulet and Montague houses of Verona. Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet mig...

Not seen in London for over half a century, Staircase has been lovingly revived by Two’s Company, which aims to uncover forgotten plays that reveal their own time yet shed light on how we live today. With such a rich fabric of LGBTQ+ theatre on offer, particularly in fringe venues, one might quest...

Last night the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre reopened with the world premiere of Out West. This play is comprised of three new one-person-shows written by UK playwrights: Tanika Gupta, Simon Stephens and Roy Williams. The production is co-directed by Rachel O'Riordan & Diane Page....

We have been to space; now it’s party time. Following Amy Berryman’s Walden, Sonia Friedman Productions’ RE:EMERGE season continues at the Harold Pinter Theatre with Yasmin Joseph’s J’Ouvert. Set in the annual Notting Hill Carnival in 2017, Joseph’s spirited debut play was first produced...

“To begin at the beginning”, Welsh poet Dylan Thomas never got to fulfil his true dream for his troubled radio play Under Milk Wood. It took 20 years of laborious work to put the final touches on the personalities of fictional Llareggub. Alcohol poisoning might have taken Thomas’s life before ...

Hop on the Express G&S and see a detective solve a mystery with the help of some of Gilbert and Sullivan's greatest hits....

It all begins, of course, with a tweet. When the news of Kylie Jenner’s status as the “youngest self-made billionaire ever” starts to make the rounds on Twitter, 21-year-old Cleo, despite the warnings of her close friend Kara, launches an online rampage with the hashtag #kyliejennerfidead. As ...

30 years after former flames Jason and Alex last saw one another, the pair reunite at Jason’s old student house – each bringing different past life experiences to the encounter. Played by Bo Paraj and Claire Price, the duo flirt, somewhat reigniting their passion and they both attempt to redisco...

Harry and Denise find each other in a village hall every Thursday evening and (almost) 'find each other' too....

2021 marks the 60th anniversary of Samuel Beckett’s challenging play Happy Days. Written in 1961, a fantastic new revival now comes to Riverside Studios. Deftly directed by Trevor Nunn, the play resonates more than ever and features a truly stunning performance from Lisa Dwan....