UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

The year is 2050. Brexit has happened (but it's now an obsolete word and people would rather use a?oeThe Break-upa??) and the economy has crashed, leading the United States to buy the island. Trump did what Trump does, and Great Britain has been turned into the Great British Golf Course - or GBCG. W...

Based on a true story, Evan Placey's debut play Mother of Him tells the story of a Canadian teenager under house arrest while he waits for his hearing. We eventually discover that Matthew (Scott Folan) has raped several girls at a sorority house along with a friend. Although we don't see the world o...

Our national obsession with property prices has a long history. Back in 1989, Stephen Jeffreys targeted the seismic social and financial changes of the decade with his play Valued Friends. A caustic commentary on Thatcher's Britain and the explosion of property prices, it was a hit when it premiered...

There are possibly no four words more chilling to the avid theatre-goer than The Woman in Black. Having taken the West End by storm, Stephen Mallatratt's adaptation of Susan Hill's classic ghost story is now haunting theatres around the UK on its tour, after celebrating its thirtieth birthday this y...

Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington becomes the Devonshire moor in 09 Lives' production of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Lil Warren directs the promenade show in the creepy setting, with only minimal lighting accompanying Holmes (Giorgio Galassi) and Watson (Gary Cain) as they try to solve perha...

ABBA mania shows no signs of abating. Following the Mamma Mia! stage musical and two movies, here we go again with Mamma Mia! The Party a?' a hybrid musical theatre/dinner/nightclub experience. London is the first place outside of Sweden to host it, with plans to expand to other territories soon (La...

Despite a distracting set, the music and singing triumph on an evening that reminds us that you can be too clever by half when you seek to be kingmaker....

Accurately reviewing Bianca del Rio's It's Jester Joke tour is perhaps one of the most challenging reports I've ever had to write. That's because so much of what I witnessed was quite frankly, and delightfully, unrepeatable. ...

Aled Jones and Russell Watson's UK tour stopped in at the London Palladium, where the duo played to a packed house in an evening of song and story that delighted their eager fans....

Akram Khan's Giselle is only three years old, but it already has a weighty reputation, as a powerful contemporary reworking of a classic, done with the choreographer's impressive sense of intensity and drama. ...

As the nights draw in, taking us closer to December and the final instalment of the Skywalker story arc, it's time once again for the Empire and the Rebel Alliance to come face-to-face at the Royal Albert Hall for another of the Film in Concert series. Following on from A New Hope back in November 2...

David Hare's play may look like it's set in an increasingly distant past, concerning itself with old arguments, but its brutal message is as important today as ever....

Within the first 20 minutes of Lesley Storm's Black Ciffon, Alicia asks a?oeIs there enough gin?a?? Finally, I thought, a character I could get behind. But as Alicia's Freudian feelings for her son were diagnosed, I found that my initial assessments weren't quite apt. A smile broke on my face, offer...

Starkly beautiful scenery and strong performances drive this Sheffield Theatres and English Touring Theatre adaptation of Matt Haig's popular memoir....

Miles Jupp thrives in this thoughtful and funny look at the life, times and career of British actor David Tomlinson, who died in 2000 aged 83 and was most famous for playing Mr Banks in the 1964 classic Mary Poppins....

Conspiracy sees our three intrepid investigators set off to prove that one photograph holds the key to just about every conspiracy theory you ever heard!...

It's Pittsburg, 1969, and the city's Hill District is far from the vibrant, bustling, jazz-soaked African-American neighbourhood it was in its prime. August Wilson's Two Trains Running brings a shabby diner in this threatened community to life, offering a window onto the lives of seven irregular reg...

Faith, Hope and Charity is a 21st century Boys from the Blackstuff, a searing indictment of austerity as seen through the eyes of decent people who want to be kind and need to be loved....

Fashions in love (and lovers) swing as wildly as hemlines between the centuries. Massenet's Werther a?' brooding, poetic, Romantic to a fault a?' is pure 19th century, his heart beating to the fluttering pulse of lyric couplets. He translates poorly into today's more pragmatic world, but thanks to C...

BIG the Musical first premiered on Broadway in 1996 and closed after just six months. It had its UK & Ireland premiere in Plymouth in 2016, shortly followed by a stint in Dublin - both starring Jay McGuiness as Josh, who reprises the role for this West End production....

Caissie Levy made her triumphant return across the Atlantic on Sunday night, marking her first UK performance since 2013. Club 11 London has delivered some brilliant Broadway belters to us over the past year, but the inclusion of Levy in this repertoire has elevated its offering to the next level....

The BBC Proms closed another year with literal bangs, as the Last Night of the Proms played out at Proms in the Park in a blaze of fireworks, alongside the more traditional classical performances over at the Royal Albert Hall....

After the broad success of his year-long Oscar Wilde Season, Classic Spring's Dominic Dromgoole has brought the first play in that series, A Woman Of No Importance, on a national tour that kicks off Richmond Theatre's new season this week....

The Last Night of the Proms is the culmination of the world's biggest musical festival. It's less a concert, more a cultural experience. The Royal Albert Hall is transformed with flags, banners, balloons and a tangible party atmosphere. The occasional glimpse of an inflatable flamingo or helium parr...

Directed by Lawrence O'Connor, Remember takes us on two very different journeys through grief. Karen's son Thomas has been killed in a cycling accident and we follow her as she undergoes psychotherapy. At the same time, Thomas's wife Elizabeth is also struggling to come to terms with her loss, embar...