UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Reviewing the Curve Theatre’s gorgeous concert revival of The Color Purple feels timely in more ways than one: not only is it an apt choice of programming during Black History Month, but tonight’s press night is the same day as the conclusion of a long and drawn-out employment tribunal linked to...

Isolation and loneliness are certainly aspects of the human experience that more of us have felt of late. Terence Rattigan’s one-woman play, All On Her Own, has been revived in a new digital production by Jack Maple & Brian Zeilinger-Goode for MZG Theatre Productions, starring Janie Dee as Rosemar...

As a very different Valentines Day looms for people in the UK, Metcalfe Gordon Productions have created a unique digital version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, directed by Nick Evans. The online production has been stitched together in such a way that the viewer is fooled into thinking that th...

Lorien Haynes’s Good Grief is hard to pin down. Half comedy, half drama, a bit of theatre with a dash of film. Short enough that it doesn’t become stale, but suitably long to paint an impeccable blueprint of loss. Natalie Abrahami directs the snappy 49-minute one-act play, while Sian Clifford (o...

West End and Broadway star, Marisha Wallace, (Dreamgirls, Waitress and The Book of Mormon) recently released her debut album “Tomorrow” through Universal's Decca Records. Offering a combination of dynamic covers and original tracks, the album reminds the theater lover of the brightness, hope, an...

Staged is back on our screens, and this time David Tennant and Michael Sheen are bickering over an American remake of their own series....

Public Domain is a rapid whistle-stop tour through the world of Facebook, Instagram and the like. The verbatim show uses snippets from real social media posts and news broadcasts to curate scenes that highlight the lighter and darker shades of sharing our lives online....

Rehearsed via Zoom and recorded remotely, Shaun McKenna’s new adaptation of JM Barrie’s ephemeral story Peter Pan: The Audio Adventure shows that something truly wonderful can come out of lockdown. The story of the boy who never grew up and his adventures with the Darling children in Neverland ...

In the second part of 45North’s series of The You Play, The Haunted Woman is the latest intriguing audio offering by Rafaella Marcus. The ‘you’ in the title invites the audience to participate, to become involved and immersed in the eerie story as it develops. The result is an atmospheric and ...

With London and the UK’s plans for a nostalgic annual revival of Nutcracker scuppered, fortunately Marquee TV is supplying audiences with access to New York City Ballet’s production, choreographed by George Balanchine, until January 3. This particular performance is from the 2019 run. ...

Like many UK venues, Leicester’s Curve Theatre has had to quickly adapt to the everchanging COVID-19 situation. Having just transformed their two theatres into one enormous “in-the-round” space, the Curve’s concert revival of their hit 2017 production of Sunset Boulevard was transformed into...

The fourth Theatre Channel episode features West End stars including Matt Croke, Zizi Strallen and Cassidy Janson singing festive musical numbers....

One Night Only presents Come From Away is the fourth event in the virtual series, which reunites cast and creatives from hit musicals. The one-off exclusive events enable fans to experience said shows on a deeper level and even allow them to interact with other audience members and meet the specia...

Broadcasted mere hours after the change in Christmas COVID restrictions in the UK, the RSC’s Festive Tales brings some much-needed escapism. We are met with an empty theatre dotted with candles in lanterns and a lone voice singing a carol. It really magnifies the emptiness of our performance spac...

With Christmas plans suddenly disrupted for many people in the UK, We Need A Little Christmas available from Stream.Theatre is the perfect way to spend an hour or so. If you have a favourite Christmas song, it’s almost definitely on the setlist...

In a season of numerous versions of A Christmas Carol, modern or traditional, musical or dramatic, streamed or live, with puppets or people, this production from the Guildford Shakespeare Company and Jermyn Street Theatre is a welcome addition to festivities....

Christmas is often about tradition and Jack Thorne’s beautiful version of A Christmas Carol at London’s Old Vic has quickly established itself as a must-see theatrical tradition after only a few years. As part of the Old Vic’s In Camera series, established to bring socially distanced theatre t...

For those lucky enough to be living under restrictions where you can still visit your local cinema, you can still catch one of the most festive theatrical events of the season; the Bolshoi Ballet’s The Nutcracker, which is screening in selected cinemas on December 20. Of all the many versions of t...

This isn’t the first time that an opening night review has been written when the following day is closing night, but it is hopefully the last. When Tier 3 restrictions were announced at 3.30pm on Monday, the theatre industry heaved a collective sigh of desperation as once again, the rug was pulled...

The Comeback centres on two comedic double acts - both played by Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen - who are trying to revive their careers. Full of farce, emotion and a surprise celebrity guest each night, you never know what to expect next!...

Celebrating the very best of pantomime, with comedy in abundance and big show-stopping numbers, this star-filled extravaganza will play to a socially distanced audience for three weeks only. ...

Sasha Regan's award-winning all-male take on Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance returned to the West End this weekend at The Palace Theatre....

It’s December and Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker is back on stage, it’s almost like 2020 didn’t happen, and for two magical hours, that's how it will feel. Peter Wright’s beloved production has, of course, has the COVID treatment; choreography is amended to keep distance, some of the divertisse...

Perth Theatre sadly can’t have audiences along to its annual pantomime this year but they have come up with a fun alternative show via Zoom. Audiences can watch and join in with Oh Yes We Are!...

J.M. Barrie’s 1911 novel about the boy who never grew up is often staged around this time of year. However, a show about a rabble of “lost boys” would prove challenging to produce in the current circumstances. The Barn Theatre has found a way around this....