UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Endurance tickling (yes, it's a real thing!) might not seem the most obvious subject matter for a play, however Tickle is actually based, albeit loosely, on fact. Inspired by the documentary Tickled, this new musical comedy is playing at the King's Head Theatre....

Pub quiz time, and it's the music round. Question one: who composed the scores of Rogue One, The Incredibles 2 and Doctor Strange? Question two: who composed the scores of Godzilla, Good Omens and Independence Day?...

How would one go about stealing a work of art from a gallery? Written and directed by Jack Bradfield, the Poltergeist Theatre's new play Art Heist a?" now in London after a sold-out run at Edinburgh Fringe a?" begins by contemplating this very question. And the answers seem obvious and ready to h...

When Queer Eye premiered on Netflix in 2018, Jonathan Van Ness was a successful hairdresser and star of the web series Gay of Thrones and never would have thought that his journey was going to take the turn it did....

Toast is the adaptation of a poignant childhood memoir, where the early death of a parent leads to a strained relationship with an awful stepmother and an increasingly violent father. So far, so familiar. What makes the story of Nigel Slater, one of the country's best-loved food writers, so diff...

Following the tragic death of 15-year-old Sam, four people who know attempt to navigate through their grief, as their lives continue to roll along. Trapped in memories and regret, they struggle with their loss, each of them crumbling in a different way. Ethics are questioned, past decisions are inte...

Change can be tricky - not least when you're a teenage girl going through puberty, loss, and friendship trouble. Written by Tamsin Daisy Rees, directed by Emily Collins, and produced by Holly Mitchell, Fledglings is a touching tale of birds, best friendships and blossoming young women....

Zawe Ashton's incredible 2019 brings to the plate the second piece she's written in her career. It took a long, winding road that spanned 11 years and more than a few attempts, but for all the women who thought they were Mad finally made it. Now, it's receiving his world premiere in London before ...

Alice Birch's [BLANK] comprises 100 scenes, any number of which can be selected and performed in any order a?" it's all in the hands of the creative team. For Maria Aberg's production at the Donmar Warehouse, an all-female company has been cast and 22 of the scenes have been pulled together. The com...

As part of the ongoing Festival of Film, the Royal Albert Hall last night played host to Classic Album Sundays. Presenter Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy hosted Damon Gough (a.k.a. Badly Drawn Boy), as he picked out some of his favourite pieces of film music and talked about how he approached his own soundtr...

It's the beginning of the 20th Century in the Pacific Northwest and Linda Hazzard's sanitarium is under fire for her unusual practices. She founded Wilderness Heights with the aim of a?oecuringa?? her patients through fasting, which, in her opinion, would rid the body of toxins....

In a programme note, Meet Me At Dawn's writer Zinnie Harris explains that the work engages with the life-defining moment in the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice when the former looks back and seals his lover's fate to remain in the underworld. This look, rightly pointed out as difficult to stage because...

Fans of Paul Simon, and in particular his groundbreaking album Graceland, are in for a touring treat this autumn. New York-based musician Josh Turner, his band and the South African Cultural Choir, are taking a show on the road that recreates the entire album, in all its glory......

Danusia Samal's award-winning play packs plenty of issues, perhaps too many, into its drama but says important things about the way young Muslim women are expected to behave, as they navigate the first generation immigrant experience....

Eric (Steve Cooper) and Kylie (Sophie Osborne), a musical duo called The Doodlebugs, are embarking on their very first tour. However, the engagement is not exactly what Kylie expected....

Just over 49 years ago, a little-known student band named Queen gave their very first public performance under that name at Imperial College Union, settling on their final line-up a few months later and bracing themselves for world domination. Following on from the phenomenal success of the biopic B...

Assassins is never less than engaging and interesting, for all its structural flaws. Worth the ticket price just to see the virtuosity of this super-talented cast....

Sabrina Mahfouz has created a lecture/music gig about the history of water in the Middle East....

Shake It Up Theatre's concept for their Improvised Shakespeare Show is very simple and follows the basic rules of improv - with an Elizabethan twist added to the mix. The audience are in charge of setting the scene, choosing the genre first and then moving to setting and protagonist, the weirder, th...

Improper behaviour from privileged, privately-educated white men with an overwhelming sense of entitlement. No, not a current opinion piece, but a description of Laura Wade's blistering and brutal play Posh. It is nearly a decade since Wade's devastating commentary of a section of the upper classes,...

On an isolated space station, far away from human life, three scientists sit and observe Solaris a?" a newly discovered place made solely of water, which orbits around two suns without ever going off course. Originally a place of unsurety, the planet slowly reveals itself to be a place full of life;...

William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream doesn't really need an introduction. It's a magical, mystical, mirthful favourite....

'Mission creep' is defined as a gradual shift in objectives, often resulting in an unplanned long-term commitment. Premiering just ahead of Asexual Awareness Week, writer Bee Scott, who is herself asexual, cleverly morphs comedy and science fiction with undertones of horror in this original and enga...

Unless you are a seasoned movie buff, it is unlikely you will have heard of Jack Cardiff. However, this great British cinematographer had a seismic effect on the way in which we view films, having been the first person to shoot a Technicolor film in Europe. He worked on films such as Black Narcissus...

It's safe to say that John Mayer's been keeping busy. After starting 2019 with Dead & Company (which features former members from Grateful Dead) and touring North America for the fourth consecutive year, he's finally filled The O2 with a new light. His Summer Tour comes to London after a two-year a...