UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Nikolai Foster's production of White Christmas is the second in five years to run at the Dominion Theatre. The last a?" directed by Morgan Young a?" was a solid affair, but pales in comparison to this version which sparkles from top to toe....

Hunger, adapted from controversial Norwegian, Knut Hamsun's, early career novel, brings us a man alienated from an uncaring world - as much a fixture on the fringes of our city some 130 years since the book was published....

Copies of C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe have decorated children's bookshelves since its publication in 1950, and the image of a solitary gas lamppost amidst a blanket of white snow has become iconic. Following a successful run at the Leeds Playhouse in 2017, Sally Cookson's ada...

The Snowman has been performed at the Peacock Theatre for Christmas for over 20 years and continues to charm audiences of all ages. For many families, it seems to mark the beginning of the Christmas season. It's also clearly a lot of children's first experience of theatre, with a significant number ...

Tess' Christmas day has always been a bit different from other people's. Her mum is a doctor and her dad is a paramedic, so her family rarely manage to gather on the 25th of December to celebrate. This year - like every other - she's helping her grandmother and her uncle set up their big dinner whil...

Michael Jackson's music is perpetual; there is no denying the fact. Despite all of the controversy surrounding his life, even since his untimely passing in 2009, his songs have remained the constant. Thriller Live! is a stage concert celebration of Jackson's back catalogue, which has been performed ...

What you might not expect when sitting down in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, a replica Elizabethan indoor theatre, is to see the titular character of Richard III enter on stage wearing football clothes. Granted, it's an unusual twist. Representing a companion to a condensed Henry VI (which squishes t...

When Anthony Neilson's Penetrator debuted in Edinburgh in 1993, it offered a grim reflection on the male psyche at the end of Thatcher's mandate. The Gulf War and the violence it brought for the boys who fought it made its way into the flat of two young men in their early 20s as their damaged old fr...

David McVicar's compelling new production of Benjamin Britten's last opera is an extraordinary tour-de-force that takes you inside a troubled mind and leaves you as ill-at-ease as you might expect, but strangely uplifted too, the beauty present in even a dying world underlined and celebrated....

Vivian has just received her first Academy Award nomination. When an actress comes forward to accuse her 82-year-old actor father who's suffering from degenerative dementia of sexual assault, her career and personal life threaten to crumble. Her half-sister Margo, an influencer who's quite involved ...

In their second visit to London's dance house, Acosta Danza return with a varied bill, following a successful debut in 2017. It culminates in a guest appearance from the man himself as he approaches his second Artistic Director role with Birmingham Royal Ballet in the new year. ...

Bed Seven transports us back to 1953. We're in King's College Hospital, London, where Gerald (Jesse Rutherford) is a patient. Looked after by Nurse Patricia (Chloe Wigmore), the two have completely contrasting backgrounds and seem poles apart. It isn't long, however, before any niggling doubts they ...

We live in an increasingly fast paced 24-7 society. At the click of a button we can have almost anything imaginable arrive on our doorstep just hours later. We can take in a 3D movie, challenge ourselves in an Escape Room and choose from literally hundreds of TV shows at home or on the move. Theatre...

New musical & Juliet officially opened at London's Shaftesbury Theatre last night. Let's see what the critics had to say!...

Sam (Pedro Leandro) arrives at Nick's (Edward Stone) for their date after they met online. Their rendez-vous is unlike many others: if all goes well, Nick is going to eat Sam. Stone and Leandro write a dark, twisted, and delicious play inspired by the Rotenburg Cannibal. Fiji accompanies their two c...

Once in a while, a musical comes along that truly reminds you why so many of us adore the art form. The show on this occasion is The Season, which officially opened at the Royal & Derngate in Northampton last night....

Anxiety. Isolation. Depression. One would be forgiven for thinking that a musical addressing such weighty topics would be downbeat and maudlin - yet Dear Evan Hansen is anything but....

Have you ever dreamed of seeing Juliet wrest control of her destiny from William Shakespeare, aided by a liberated Anne Hathaway, all while belting out stone-cold Nineties and Noughties pop bangers? Well, you're in luck! This jukebox musical take on the Bard is pure sugar rush a?' and with enough gr...

All it takes are some happy thoughts and fairy dusta??that's how the boy who never grows up is able to fly, at least. In Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Mischief Theatre's take on the JM Barrie classic certainly lifts your spirits, but mainly because not everything quite goes to plan for the young performers...

We all know that you should never judge a book by its cover a?' but should you ever judge a person by their name? This is the question posed to us in What's In A Name?, which has landed at Nuffield Southampton Theatres at the end of its first-ever UK tour....

Sometimes theatre can go very wrong for a lot of reasons. The audience are required to take a leap of faith, suspend their belief, and put their trust in the performers on stage. Some shows require a lot from the people who watch them, some don't. Land Without Dreams demands a level of openness that...

Back in May 2015, news broke that the Turkish State Intelligence were shipping weapons to Syria. Can Dündar was the editor-in-chief who decided to take a risk and publish the story, he was arrested in November on the grounds of espionage and being members of a terror organisation. His unlawful impr...

Mary Shelley's literary masterpiece, Frankenstein, is a cautionary tale of the consequences when a man decides to play God. Victor Frankenstein, a gifted young scientist, aims to create the perfect human specimen. When his creation goes wrong, Frankenstein bitterly rejects the monster he has created...

Katzpace, the basement theatre of Katzenjammers near Borough Market, seems an ideal venue for a play about the dark underbelly of Hollywood. Sex, power and the sacrifices we make to achieve success are key themes in this dark comedy written by and starring Holly McFarlane....

Diana Son's play Stop Kiss debuted Off-Broadway in 1998. The jarring tale of a horrific homophobic crime feels as relevant as ever, as it was only this past July that a lesbian couple was violently attacked on a night bus in London. Callie and Sarah meet and unexpectedly fall in love. Instead of bei...