UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

The Royal Albert Hall is notorious for bringing back to the screen beloved films and setting them to a live score often played by renowned orchestras, creating a magical vibe to surround classics as well as blockbusters. In occasion of this year's Festival of Film, they've dusted off a chef d'oeuvre...

Jacob Zuma, former President of South Africa, checks into a hospital only to find out that an old enemy, Ronnie Kasrils, who used to be in charge of the intelligence services, is staying in the opposite room. Gail Louw writes The Ice Cream Boys, detailing this chance meeting between the two. Directe...

It all started with Richard Gadd offering a lonely woman a cup of tea in a bar. Little did Gadd know that in the coming years that same woman would begin to stalk him relentlessly. In this brave monologue, Gadd walks audiences through this autobiographical story step by painful step....

Having never seen a Mischief Theatre show before, it's safe to say I was very excited to attend the premiere of their new piece last night. You might recognise their work from the highly acclaimed, critical hits The Play That Goes Wrong and The Comedy About A Bank Robbery. The pair have been playing...

House of Kittens takes over the Wellington Members Club and turns it into a sort of castle of pleasure. The dress code they installed sums up the evening perfectly: elegant, medical, fetish. Through theatrical movement-led vignettes, they examine sexual desire and attraction using erotic storytellin...

As part of the Southbank Centre's Classical Season, the Philharmonia Orchestra performed a fantastic Sunday matinee of Beethoven's Symphony No.7, along with Schumann's overture to Manfred and Mendlessohn's superb Violin Concerto....

1880 was something of a watershed moment in the history of the Deaf community. It was during a conference in Milan that it was decreed the oral method of instruction for the deaf was the way forward thereby setting in stone a method that would last for nearly 100 years and define what it was to be d...

The extraordinary success of Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman's Ghost Stories back at the Lyric Hammersmith in 2010 led to multiple runs in London, a film starring Martin Freeman, Paul Whitehouse, and Alex Lawter, and a number of tours and productions all over the world. It's easy to see how the piece ac...

Raves are often chaotic, messy, and inscrutable. Not so much in Gisèle Vienne's Crowd, which dissects the life cycle of a rave with transfixing precision and visceral clarity. Having premiered in Strasbourg in 2017, Crowd receives its first UK production at Sadler's Wells, where it opens this year'...

The tiny town of Balbek is falling prey of the far right. Their theatre, managed by the loving but politically weak Eva (Tamzin Griffin), is inhabited by an assortment of actors with different priorities as well as worldviews....

Hope Mill Theatre is known for its excellent musical theatre revivals, and the current production of MAME is no exception. In 1969, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's production graced the West End, starring Ginger Rogers; 50 years on, MAME has become one of the lesser-known musicals....

A 1950s Ealing comedy probably wouldn't be your first port of call when trying to think of a timely film to adapt for the stage, whilst also giving people an opportunity for a much-needed laugh. However, The Man in the White Suit has managed it in one perfect package. Sean Foley has adapted and dire...

Shelagh Delaney was known for putting working class women centre-stage. It is remarkable to think that she was only 19 when she penned A Taste Of Honey, a bleak depiction of working class life in post-war Britain where people did not live, but simply tried to exist. It is even more significant t...

Back in 1994, Stephan Elliott created a funny and powerful road-trip film that soon became a cult classic. Priscilla Queen Of The Desert was a pioneering LGBTQ+ comedy and found a successful home on the stage starring Jason Donovan. This newly-adapted musical tour sees Donovan take the reins as prod...

I go to the Bunker more than any other London theatre, but when stepping into the building this time I hardly recognised it. Still retaining it's open and welcoming atmosphere, the inside has been completely transformed into a traditional working boozer. If you arrive in the hour before the show you...

a?oeOrphans always make the best recruits.a?? Daniel Craig's third foray as the infamous spy sees Bond grappling with his past in order to secure his future, going head-to-head with a former agent (played by Javier Bardem) whose sole motivation is avenging what he saw as betrayal by M (Judi Dench). ...

In the heart of central London, a seven-building, 35-floor, 42,000 sq ft adventure awaits brave travellers. Putting you in the shoes of your favourite action character, participants must navigate rough terrain, darkened corridors and fog-filled chambers a?' all while trying to avoid meeting infected...

a?oeIt's crazy intense, that's what I'm likea?? Katie says. Now a washed-out singer who makes a living in pubs, she's struggled with her mind since she was very young, but never managed to give a name to what she was feeling. Afters years of battles with herself and others, she's learnt that she has...

Shuck 'n' Jive, Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong & Simone Ibbett-Brown's debut play, charts the journey through creating a piece of theatre that represents them as individuals, and not solely defined by the colour of their skin....

It's been 25 years since a certain coffee shop-loving troupe appeared on our TV screens. FRIENDSICAL: A Parody Musical About Friends, written and directed by Miranda Larson, is a love letter to that sitcom series so many know and love. After debuting at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival, it is m...

The Royal Ballet's 19/20 season is opened in confident style with Kenneth MacMillan's 1974 production of Manon. It features a cast who perform it with renewed vigour and attack, easing through the testing emotional and physical demands of the story with style and flair. ...

Sheer brilliance. Any lesser description wouldn't do justice to the new production of Noises Off that has come barreling into the West End on a wave of relentless belly laughs....

Currently performing as Tevye in the West End production of Fiddler on the Roof, Andy Nyman is an award-winning actor, director and writer. Seven years ago, he wrote a book entitled Golden Rules of Acting, which has received international acclaim within the acting community. His sequel, More Golden ...

Almost six years since its first outing at the Tabernacle, Letters Live last night put on its biggest show yet: in the grandiose and historic setting of the Royal Albert Hall. As well as celebrating the joy and emotion of the written word, with the help of a stunning array of talent, the shows also ...

Hailed by The New York Times as a?oebristlinga?? and a?oeprovocativea?? during its Off-Broadway run, Eleanor Burgess's abrasive The Niceties is exactly that. Janie Dee and Moronke Akinola take on the roles of history professor Janine and Zoe, her passionate student. During a meeting to review the la...