UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

After a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe and a sold-out run at the Arcola at the end of last year, Gbolahan Obisesan's adaptation of Chigozie Obioma's novel The Fishermen is now at the Trafalgar Studios....

In many ways, when William Finn and James Lapine's musical Falsettos premiered on Broadway in the early 90s it was ahead of its time. The show centres around what is still often described as an a?oeunconventionala?? or a?oemoderna?? family....

'There can be miracles, when you believe'a?? This is the overarching message in the Kimpton Fitzroy Hotel in London a?' the location of the launch of the new Dreamworks musical, The Prince of Egypt. Together, members of the press and industry sit and experience the epic emotional and thrilling mu...

In a nondescript but not-too-distant future, hotels are starting to use anthropomorphic robots to enhance the stay of their guests. Each one of them has a predictive software that tracks their patron from their booking onward, creating a digital model to cater to all their needs - even those they're...

Hello Again is lovely to look at and a wonder to hear, let down only by a slightly half-hearted approach to the messy business of sex....

Could any fictional political tale top the latest dramatic entry in the Brexit Chronicles? Actor Simon Woods has a good crack at it with his debut play, featuring the powerhouse pairing of Alex Jennings and Lindsay Duncan and sure directorial hand of Simon Godwin. And if a few sharp lines have extra...

Gary Naylor sees his last show at this season's Grimeborn, an Italian opera based on the original sources of Romeo and Juliet sung with tremendous panache....

After an astonishing success at the Kiln Theatre earlier in the year, Florian Zeller's The Son (in a translation by Christopher Hampton) transfers to the West End. Director Michael Longhurst has the entire cast reprising their roles, with John Light and Amanda Abbington playing the parents of Laurie...

Boris Pasternak's 1957 novel Doctor Zhivago won its author a Nobel Prize for Literature and later spawned a lengthy (and fairly sluggish) film directed by David Lean in 1965. It took 41 years for the original material to be turned into a musical. Written by Lucy Simon (score), Michael Weller (book),...

FormidAbility's unique approach to integrating those with disabilities on either side of the fourth wall enhances two pieces that prove tricky for the uninitiated to appreciate fully....

It's the late 1990s and Ben (Tom Milligan) and his mother's Viv (Patricia Potter) have just moved to the World's End Estate in Chelsea from Norfolk. Their neighbours are Ylli (Nikolaos Brahimllari) and his son Besnik (Mirlind Bega), who have escaped the Kosovo War years before. When the two teenager...

'Drink to the cause, and pure vapours.' We've reached the end of August, which for us means the summer bank holiday and Notting Hill Carnival - but go back a few centuries and the only thing on Londoners' minds would be Bartholomew Fair. An annual event that sprung up in Smithfield around St Barthol...

Phoebe Waller-Bridge is big business. She's a TV superstar, both comedy (Fleabag) and drama (Killing Eve); a Star Wars standout; and, in theory, the feminist saviour of James Bond. But never mind all that. Theatre needs her back....

You know Scott Joplin is a genius, but having that conformed by this wonderful, uplifting, yet shocking opera, is a delight and a privilege. Beautifully performed too....

Lady L's 60th birthday is approaching and her children Gordon and Oonagh (Theo Bamber and Lucy Lowe) join her for the celebration. It becomes immediate that they're not there out love, but to claim what is theirs. Meanwhile, Kapenie, the help, makes it clear to his grandson George: his loyalty st...

Prom 50 featured the Orchestre de Paris playing three pieces: Robert Schumann's Genoveva-overture, Jörg Widmann's Babylon Suite, and Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 in F major, a?oePastorala??....

Kate Grenville's acclaimed 2005 novel, The Secret River, centres around the brutality and tragedy surrounding the colonisation of Australia. After premiering in Sydney in 2013, the award-winning theatrical adaptation comes to the National's Olivier Theatre after blistering reviews at the Edinburgh F...

After the success of an en masse production of Pericles last year, the National Theatre has collaborated with the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch to bring together a colourful and joyous large-scale musical version of Shakespeare's As You Like It as part of their Public Acts scheme....

At 30 years old, Judith is has never been in a relationship but now she's getting ready to entertain her date. Filled to the brim with tunes from the 1950s, Unlovable is a howler of an act. Carly Jurman lands her one-woman clown show to Camden Fringe in spectacular fashion....

Psychiatrist Orestes Carter (Riccardo Carollo) is presenting his new thriller. In the novel, he details how he went back to his childhood home to help his sister Electra (Mariana Elicetche). The events that unfolded after, he says, are pure fiction. The core of Arif Alfaraz's play is anchored to Gre...

Death feels unappreciated. Nobody mentions him during funerals and his work goes unnoticed as a?oefreak accidentsa?? and such. So, he takes the stage to tell his own story....

People in their twenties will start to notice that all their friends are either getting married or having children. Except that it's not true. No Limits puts the struggles and anxiety of reaching adulthood to a pop beat....

Oskar is 32 years old. Or perhaps he is 26, depending on the man he's sleeping with that night. Oskar Hartman recounts his escapades and details the spicy sex life he's lead during the run-up to his 30s....

Performer Antigoni Spanou wades through her depression and eating disorders exploring the character of Ophelia and puts her own lived experiences next to the character's in her interactive piece Ophelia Rewound. Sharp and decisive lighting opens the highly personal journey and sets the tone for what...

Dora Maar was Pablo Picasso's muse for about nine years across the mid-1930s and 1940s before she was discarded like his other women. She was dragged into the Cubist's radical life, made to fight physically for his attention with his partner and mother to his daughter Marie, and went on to inspire m...