UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that if you produce Jane Austen, especially in the South-West, then it is to be as authentic, as earnest and as close to traditional BBC magnificence as possible. Then along came Tron Theatre Company and Blood of the Young and shredded that truth until it was...

Billed as the 'definitive 30th anniversary tour', Nick Winston's production of Fame - now playing at the Peacock Theatre - is celebrating the stage adaptation of the 1980 film. It's had seven West End productions in that time, and Winston wants to appeal to three decades' worth of fans who have en...

Following its most recent run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Cora Bissett's autobiographical musical What Girls Are Made Of has transferred to London. It's a cool and bold piece with a unique style, so feels at home at the Soho Theatre....

It's been a week of new Artistic Director's kicking off their debut seasons. Lynette Linton smashed it out of the park with her gig-theatre epic revival of Chiaroscuro, Rachel O'Riordan's direction of Tanika Gupta's A Doll's House has gone down a treat, and now it's the turn of Hampstead Theatre bos...

Gary Naylor reflects on ten years as a BroadwayWorld reviewer....

It is always exciting to witness a ballet company unseen in the UK. Astana Ballet is Kazakhstan's leading ballet company and since its 2013 debut, the company has performed all over the world. So far, this has not included the UK, but last night, Astana Ballet made its sold-out UK debut with an intr...

Dolly Parton's iconic song, 9 to 5, is so recognisable from the first few notes so what better way to open her musical comedy stage adaptation. Based on the 1980 film of the same name, 9 to 5 enjoyed a successful - whilst short-lived a?' run on Broadway in 2009, following its try-out season in Los A...

Lit is an astonishing debut play from Sophie Ellerby telling the tale of Bex, a teen adrift in a world full of threats with wit, wisdom and overwhelming humanity. Eve Austin is in award-winning form as the girl on the edge....

The simple act of deception that opens Ibsen's A Doll's House never ceases to amaze me. A housewife enters, laden with boxes or bags from a recent shopping trip, and pops a sweetie secretly in her mouth. Her husband calls, playfully asking if she visited the confectioners whilst in town. Of course n...

After a sparkling debut last year with an adaptation of Angela Carter's Wise Children, Emma Rice's company of the same name returns for its second outing with another literary classic - Malory Towers....

Rust takes us into the lives - the other lives - of Daniel and Nadia, having an affair, but not quite able to leave their real homes at home....

In our turbulent modern times, the issue of intolerance for foreigners, immigrants and being 'the other' is a much-debated and controversial topic. In this way, Amsterdam, Maya Arad Yasur's thought-provoking, yet disjointed new play, could not be more prescient....

Hedda Tesman transports one of theatre's great roles into the present day, but Cordelia Lynn's script never quite lands....

Using the 2014 shooting of 18-year-old African American Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson as its starting point but not its only focus, Dael Orlandersmith's Until The Flood bring into sharp relief the racial history and tensions in a divided America....

In an explosive blend of live music, spoken word and theatre, Jackie Kay's 1986 provocation is breathed a new life under Lynette Linton's hand. It is the director's first show since taking the AD job at the Bush Theatre, and is one that highly entertains, whilst also shines a light on queer women of...

It's an exciting time for London theatre at the moment, and never more so than when a brand new theatre opens, leaving us brimming with anticipation at the potential to come. Torch Song is the inaugural production at The Turbine Theatre a?' a trendy and intimate space at Battersea Power Station a?' ...

Somerset Maugham's For Services Rendered opens Jermyn Street Theatre's new season, which celebrates the establishment's 25th anniversary since its opening and is aptly called the Memories Season. The First World War has left behind an England scarred by its own hegemony; a place where its own heroes...

Thriving dance troupe Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre return to Sadler's Wells for the first time in three years with a varied set of programmes, contrasting challenging themes of new work with joyful signature piece Revelations....

A slice-of-African-American-life in 1960s Pittsburgh comes to life at Royal and Derngate...

In an inventive blend of text, illustration, live performance and audience awareness, Tim Crouch's new offering - that arrives straight from Edinburgh International Fringe a?" takes its followers to the end of the world, whilst also preparing them for the start of a new one....

So many of us flock to London in search of life, love and adventure and these are the motivations of Peta (Larner Wallace-Taylor), who is new in town and ready for whatever the big smoke has to throw at her, or is she? Set in 2004, How Love Is Spelt also premiered in the same year at the Bush Theatr...

According to their website, 'Bitter Pill believes the only way to tackle any subject is to first entertain in order to engage. Our work with never seek to lecture unless it has first made people laugh.' They've certainly achieved their objective with their latest effort, Stripped. Written by Hew Rou...

How theatre should, or should not, be addressing Brexit is a constant topic of conversation. But while Lucy Prebble's phenomenal new work - a combination of horror, espionage thriller, love story and satire, with dazzlingly theatrical framing - doesn't centre around the B world, it is, unquestionabl...

This take on the familiar tale brings out many of the subtleties of its source material and has much to say about today's world. It is a little too long though....

Harry Hunter is missing. Hi parents are being supported by the newly graduated Maori social worker Anahera, who's been left there by herself for the first time. When some unusual parenting practices resurface, she decides to take a stand. Emma Kinane's play comes to Finborough Theatre directed by Al...