UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Selling millions of copies and adapted into a 2001 film, Louis de Bernieres' epic wartime novel, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, is a literary tour de force. Now inventively, if not entirely faithfully, adapted for the stage by Rona Munro, it begins its new incarnation at the Rose Theatre....

London's latest foray into Arthur Miller has serious transatlantic star power, with its leading quartet of Bill Pullman, two-time Oscar-winner Sally Field, Colin Morgan and Jenna Coleman. However, Jeremy Herrin's Old Vic/Headlong co-production is surprisingly understated, with the play's politics, r...

Other People's Money shows us that the misogyny and avarice scrawled on social media and polluting today's politics, can trace its roots back 30 years at least....

It's a sensible time to be tackling Timberlake Wertenbaker's modern classic Our Country's Good. The role of theatre in society is ripe for the examination, as cuts bite arts institutions and school curriculums alike. The question is, what is there to be gained by putting on a play?...

Isango Ensemble's SS Mendi: Dancing the Death Drill is a sad lament for needlessly lost lives and a celebration of the cultures from which the men had sprung. And it's ever so emotional....

Night of the Living Dead Live! pays homage to its inspiration, the George A. Romero cult classic movie, while generating laughs and shocks aplenty...

At a time when youth and beauty are valued above all andwe can edit our own images at the touch of a button, a staging of Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray seems both prescient and timely. A dark and cautionary tale exploring art, aestheticism, ego and narcissism, it seems that Wilde s...

Sheffield's Merlin Theatre celebrates its 50th anniversary with its first professional production....

There are many Beatles shows around the world, but few will be as successful as this one, the orchestral arrangements complementing the accomplished band up front....

The corpse of a young man is found dead on the Tumulus on Hampstead Heath. Then, another one. Both are immediately linked to the city's chemsex scene but Anthony thinks something else is going on, so he sets off on a personal investigation that spans parties and intimacy in Christopher Adams' play....

Isango Ensemble bring their unique storytelling skills to show us the life of a Somali boy, alone and running away to a place that barely differs from the hell he leaves behind....

Set in 1960s New York, Sweet Charity centres around unlucky-in-love dance hall hostess, Charity Hope Valentine who has dreams of making a better life for herself. This revival of Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields and Neil Simon's show marks Josie Rourke's final production as Artistic Director of the Donmar...

Craig Lucas, Daniel Messe and Nathan Tysen's musical adaptation of the acclaimed film Amelie, which ran on Broadway in 2017 and now kicks off a UK tour, fills the Watermill's stage with the music, bustle and romance of Paris....

Director Rebecca Frecknall and actress Patsy Ferran recently picked up deserved Olivier Awards for their revelatory revival of Summer and Smoke. Now, they're back at the Almeida, bringing that fresh approach to well-known Chekhov instead of obscure Tennessee Williams....

Having been away from the stage for 12 years, Maggie Smith has returned in exceptional style in Christopher Hampton's A German Life. It's an almost 2 hour monologue, in which Smith recounts a life story as if to a long-lost friend visiting for afternoon tea....

Green Day's 2004 concept album American Idiot shot to fame for its themes of disillusion and angst in society during events such as the war in Iraq. The rock musical based on the album of the same name comes to Brighton as part of its 10th anniversary UK tour....

Two women and a man are called into the same studio at different times to have their portrait taken by John, an aging artist....

It is over 35 years since David Mamet's scorching critique of the male ego and the dangers of capitalism debuted at the National Theatre. Glengarry Glen Ross went on the win the Pulitzer Prize and an Olivier. In 2017, it was revived for a successful West End run, directed by Sam Yates and starring ...

'Playwriting' feels like a love letter to theatre and the craft of writing for the stage. It echoes encouragement to new, emerging and struggling playwrights and exudes an unexpectedly paternal affection to the reader....

Southwark Playhouse Young Company premieres Papatango award-winning playwright James Rushbrooke's new play, The Clinic....

Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet has been performed no less than 400 times by the Royal Ballet and with a lengthy run this season from the end of March to mid-June, the popularity of perhaps the most famous love story of all time shows no signs of subsiding....

The pretense begins as the audience walks into the auditorium. It's as the warm smell of perfect nearly-burnt toast hits their noses that the good-hearted and fluffy nature of Toast reveals itself. Based on Nigel Slater's homonymous memoir, Henry Filloux-Bennett's bakes a play with enough nostalgia ...

Bruno Ravella sparks new magic into David McVicar's production, refreshing the feel of the piece whilst ensuring its original spark is retained. Although the fifth revival of McVicar's take on the classic, Ravella ensures that the original text is delivered to ensure the story is allowed to speak fo...

Curve Productions, at Rose Theatre in Kingston, have teamed up with the National Circus Training Academy to create a magical adaptation of Dr Seuss' The Cat in the Hat....

The Marvelous Wonderettes is a jukebox musical that does exactly what it says on the tin - the four singers vocally splendid in front of a fine band....