UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

In the second of the new monologues and the last in the series, two women grieve for the same person (who happened to be two different men)....

Technically excellent and engaging, the penultimate episode in this splendid reboot is let down by stakes that seem too slight to warrant our full emotional investment....

When Lungs opened at the Old Vic back in October last year, it gained positive reviews for its take on relationships in a complicated world and the strong performances from both Matt Smith and Claire Foy. With a a stripped-back design and only two performers required, it was a clear (and good) choic...

Joe Allen, lovingly referred to as 'the West End's canteena??, streamed a virtual, live evening of star-studded entertainment. The beloved theatre haunt, running since 1977, has been severely affected by the pandemic and so created this show to raise funds for itself and all those in crisis in a?oet...

Songwriter Cat has a commercial hit record under her belt and should be on top of the world. Instead, she's embroiled in a heated conflict with her music producer Bernard over who should have the songwriting credit....

Next up in the National Theatre at Home series of broadcasts we find a gem of a play coming straight from their archives, Lorraine Hansberry's staggeringly topical Les Blancs. Originally staged in 2016 by director Yaël Farber, it was posthumously completed by Hansberry's former husband Robert Nemir...

It took until 2018 for Glyndebourne to stage Puccini's Madama Butterfly after touring with it in 2016. Puccini's luscious score transports the audience to a world full of Japanese cherry blossom where a beautiful young girl pines for the man who has left her. However, it remains deeply problematic....

A cautionary tale of what goes around, comes around, The Hand of God continues the series of Alan Bennett's wonderful Talking Heads with a story of comeuppance, karma and justice....

On July 3, 2020, Disney+ will start streaming the smash hit HAMILTON, filmed on Broadway, and it is truly a gift to the world. It's truly too good to miss, so don't throw away your shot....

We will return to theatres very different from those we left - and we are different too. So what should we see? Here are five, very varied, suggestions....

Charlie hates his job and loathes his life even more. Suicide is never far from his thoughts. His car, like his life, is idling outside the Hollywood home of Kathi Kannon, star of stage and screen and People magazine's worst dressed list. The award winning actress, known for her role as Priestess Ta...

Chronic Insanity's lockdown content continues with Conduit, a riveting, touching, and fully immersive online experience. Connor has reached out to ask for some feedback on the recorded messages he wants to send his partner, whom he's currently separated from. Email after email, our correspondence wi...

Tamsin Greig delivers the standout performance of the series as the woman who finds friendship with a murderer....

The third installment of Live from Covent Garden is the first to feature two ballet performances instead of one, and all the stronger for it. The result is a more rounded experience for arts fans and the choice of pas de deux more satisfying than those seen before. ...

The Original Theatre Company commemorate the 104th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme by bringing their adaptation of Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong to the screen. Building on the techniques used to stream during the early stages of lockdown, Birdsong loses none of its power, relevance, or sense of...

Lesley Manville gives us a vicar's wife finding solace in the bottle when she wants and deserves more - fleetingly, she gets it....

Rochenda Sandell gives a fine performance with a script that falls below the high standard set in other episodes....

Martin Freeman takes on the writer's old role in the tale of a man trapped with his mother who finds that, for all the frustrations that entails, anything else is probably worse....

Playing Sandwiches is certainly one of the darker stories within Alan Bennett's superb Talking Heads series. Written in 1998, this uncomfortable and disturbing piece originally featured David Haig. This update showcases a mesmerising performance by Lucian Msamati as park worker Wilfred Paterson; a s...

Continuing the BBC's revival of Alan Bennett's iconic Talking Heads, Her Big Chance features Jodie Comer as an aspiring actress. Best known for her role in the BBC's Killing Eve, Comer bravely takes on the role originally played by the brilliant Julie Walters, bringing warmth, sympathy and wide-eyed...

The latest installment from English National Ballet's series of a?oewatch partiesa?? is Kenneth MacMillan's emotionally demanding Manon. This filming shows a recent performance from late 2018 in Manchester with a stellar cast, most notably Alina Cojocaru in the title role with excellent and memorabl...

a?oeAnd so we find ourselves gathered once again at the altar of sweet distractiona?? purrs Julian Bleach's Barkilphedro, an ambitious court clown, at the beginning of The Grinning Man, a new musical with book and lyrics by Carl Grose and music by Tim Philips. If only, you might think: being in a th...

work_from_home is New Diorama Theatre's online theatrical experience. This production is a digital adaptation of Nathan Ellis's work.txt which should have been performed at the 'missing' 2020 Incoming Festival, and was nominated for an Innovation Award at VAULT Festival 2020....

For Pride Month, Razed and Confuzed has moved from its live stages to a new digital platform run by Something to Aim For. Bringing together early career artists across cabaret and theatre, Raze Collective continue their series nurturing queer artists in a special livestream....

Commissioned as part of the events marking the centenary of the First World War, Sound&Fury's Charlie Ward is now available as a standalone online experience. Originally created as an immersive installation for ten people at a time in a makeshift hospital tent, the production places the public in th...