UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Following their hyper-successful Sunday Favourites at The Other Palace, the venue are launching another series of one-off concerts that will see performers get up close and personal in an acoustic setting. With their main stage being dark on a Monday, the theatre are taking the chance to bring more ...

A stage adaptation of Pretty Woman makes a lot of sense. It's possibly one of the most beloved movies of its time, with its iconic costumes and quotable one-liners...and it propelled the ever-popular Julia Roberts into superstardom. ...

On reflection, we should have been more suspicious. But when the curtain rose on a solid, period Fidelio complete with lowering prison walls and lank-haired French revolutionaries, a basket of freshly guillotined heads adding some grisly colour, it was easy to settle in for a breeches and muskets ro...

Vivid imaginations, beware! Immersive company Darkfield have taken over Lewis Cubitt Square in King's Cross with a collection of torment-inducing shows. After taking theatre festivals around the UK by storm with Séance and Flight, they are bringing their disturbing creations back to London along wi...

When the Voyager spacecrafts were launched in 1977, they contained two golden records that were meant to reproduce sounds and noises coming from Earth so that alien life could learn about us....

Ben is a working class chef whose life spirals out of control when he attempts to rekindle his relationship with his mother. His friendships, career and love life are all tested as his week goes from bad to worse. Written by Tom Stocks and with the support of the Mental Health Foundation, Netflix & ...

The second production at the recently reopened Riverside Studios in Hammersmith marks Robert Bathurst's highly anticipated return to the stage. Joined by Rebecca Johnson, Love, Loss & Chianti is a double bill of poet Christopher Reid's A Scattering and The Song of Lunch....

Following their collaboration with My Dad's Gap Year, Tom Wright reunites with actor Alex Britt for this magical coming of age fantasy, only this time the writer is in the director's chair.  Potter fanatic Jack is hopelessly in love with his best friend Ollie. Navigating his way through the daily s...

A debut play is always tricky business and This Queer House is no exception, with poet Oakley Flanagan penning a piece that's all over the place stylistically and thematically. A young queer couple inherit a house and start renovating it. Their projects, however, are met with resistance by the house...

Following the lacklustre reception of The Taming of the Shrew, Thomas Middleton's Women Beware Women opens in the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse as part of the Globe's continuing 'She Wolves and Shrews' season. Where Shakespeare's play showed a woman tamed, however, Middleton explores the unbridl...

Morecambe and Wise have been a part of my life since childhood. I've spent countless hours sat watching their shows, looking up their sketches on YouTube and always making sure to watch any documentaries. I've always felt disappointed that I never got to see my favourite comedians live on stage....

Laura (Lucy Roslyn) has just returned from Hong Kong after reporting from the protests. When Vicky (Melissa Woodbridge) offers her a job at an independent newspaper with the promise of letting her tell the story of how her friend died, her personal and professional lives are put on the line. The pap...

Angel Theatre Company bring Beckett to Brockley and leave this first time viewer looking forward to more....

Actor and writer Emily Renée pens a story about family love, coincidences, immigration, and all the elements that, combined, build an identity. Alice is directed by Tamar Saphra, whose contribution is slightly mercurial throughout but turns out to be effective in the long run....

The Rose Youth Theatre has great form in developing new theatrical talent. With excellent performances by members in every Christmas production at the Rose, The Creature: Frankenstein Retold is an exciting opportunity to witness the professional debut for nine alumni of the group....

Erinn Dhesi invites her audience to an educated analysis of social media usage, its effects on perception and lifestyle, and how cultivating an identity has become a feasible female-centric career. She mainly focuses on Instagram and tackles the subject with flair and specificity, creating an anti-b...

The Whip packs so much into its near three hour running time that its issues, anger and need to educate drowns its dramatic potential and we're left with something that fails to reach its considerable potential....

The bond between father and son can be incredibly strong but also incredibly fraught. Fathers might expect their sons to follow suit in terms of interests and ideas and sons perhaps feel pressured into living up to certain expectations that are thrust upon them. Lack of communication and male pride ...

The premise of Fire Hazard Games' latest feat is simple: a series of horrendous crimes are being discovered by the police and there are reasons to believe you are involved. But you have no memory of anything that happened the previous night. Following their gut, the participants need to hit the stre...

When you think of theatre, what shows come to mind? An obvious answer may well be Wicked. The writer of songs such as 'Defying Gravity' and 'Popular', Stephen Schwartz is for many the epitome of musical theatre. But cast your mind back to before Wicked and remember The Prince of Egypt, a 1998 anima...

Covent Garden's Royal Opera House continues its successful series of live screenings to over 1000 cinemas across the world. Dances at a Gathering / The Cellist is a chance to see two incredibly different ballets in one evening; both beautifully moving in their own ways....

At a platform at the National Theatre on a blustery February evening, Michael Billington spoke with artistic director Rufus Norris about his career and processes. Billington stepped down from his role as chief theatre critic of the Guardian, a position he held for 48 years, at the end of 2019. ...

Some might consider The Pirate Queen an odd choice for a producing debut, but Tom Gribby clearly has an affection for the material and no-one can question the credentials of the great Boublil and Schonberg - most notable for writing the book and score to Les Misérables and Miss Saigon....

The legend of Zorro has proved to be a well-loved and enduring story - providing the basis for a novel by Isabel Allende, several popular movies, and a West End musical which toured internationally....

With 22 Grammys and hundreds of millions in worldwide sales, the potentially fascinating story of Gloria Estefan, her husband Emilio and their journey to success with the Miami Sound Machine has the potential to be a fantastic jukebox musical. On Your Feet has plenty of material to draw upon; with a...