UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson's 2015 musical adaptation of Adrienne Shelly's film, about a small-town waitress who processes her feelings via her skilful baking, brings its sugar and spice mixture to the West End. The result is a tasty treat - albeit with the odd ill-mixed ingredient. Hollywood H...

Four women, along with the assistance of their stage manager Chrystal, attempt to create a proposal for a new female-led prison drama - one that this time actually details the truth of the judicial system. How will they ensure that they've got their facts right? Well, they've all been inside themsel...

Harriet Lane's memorably unsettling 2012 novel, about an overlooked sub-editor who infiltrates the literary elite, has been adapted for stage by Lucinda Coxon. Its combination of psychological thriller and industry satire is decently translated, but a conservative production from Bridge boss Nichol...

Seen for the first time in 35 years, Athol Fugard's play loses none of its relevance as two men and one woman fall apart under the strain of living under the Apartheid regime....

Euripides most famous and ruthless female character comes to life again at the hand of director Simon Stone and International Theatre Amsterdam after an award-winning run in the Dutch capital in 2014....

Theatre with lasting cultural impact is not something that's created often. Especially not modern ballet. Yet Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake has that impact, and deservingly so....

A comic operetta is a difficult thing to pull off, but the ENO has good form with the genre, having had great success with an irreverent version of Iolanthe last year. This year, they turn their attention to a new version of The Merry Widow for the first time in over a decade....

They say that history is written by the victors. Though the ill-fated wives of Henry VIII may not seem to come out on top in your average history textbook, Six The Musical proves that there are two sides to every story - and this time, it's the women who are doing the talking....

In a shabby NHS ward, Mr Stone (Andy de la Tour) is turning food down and slowly dying after a stroke. After a major fall-out years before, his sons come together to attempt to convince their father to stop withering away. The subsequent hour sees them getting at each other's throat refusing to ...

We've had the film, TV and music awards, so now it's the theatre's turn to hand out some prizes. Once again, the Prince of Wales Theatre threw open its doors to some of the most popular productions from the past 12 months, as the WhatsOnStage Awards took place on Sunday evening - the only awards cer...

In 1998, French playwright Yasmina Reza was slightly bemused to win an Olivier Award for Best Comedy with her play ART. Her intention was to write a biting satire, tinged with tragedy, but British audiences have consistently failed to see the play as a tragedy, appreciating the play as a hilarious a...

Molly loses her mum when she's 21. Actually, she knows where her mother is, she is inside a box at the crematorium. With razor-sharp humour and the cheek to go with it, Miss Fortunate is a personal journey through insecurity and grief to the acceptance of life's disruptions rooted in Molly O'Shea's ...

Emmy finds her life to be absurdly limiting. When she gets sacked by her boss, she takes the chance to set on a mission to find her hero: Amelia Earhart. The pilot has been missing for 81 years but our heroine is certain she must be somewhere....

After a European tour, Out of Chaos bring their celebrated Unmythable to The Vaults. Devised by the company on the lines of something Reduced Shakespeare Company might do and directed by Mike Tweddle & Paul O'Mahony, it celebrates Greek mythology by putting its stories together in a big pot luck....

Having previously played to sold out audiences in 2016, Disney's Broadway Hits returns to the Royal Albert Hall. An evening of indescribable feelings lies in store, ranging from nostalgia to excitement for upcoming shows. However, with the previous version still in fans' minds (and available on Broa...

Sheffield Theatres bring debbie tucker green's play to the city in this vibrant revival....

It's fitting that the once industrial space of the Tobacco Factory is now the dystopian setting for the latest outing of the Factory Company - a gender-bending A Midsummer Night's Dream....

A nightmarish scream anticipates the lights. A maid is standing over a bloodied corpse, fresh blood is soaking her arms up to her elbow and staining her crisp white apron....

An often beautiful, sometimes confusing, work that uses dance and technology to move from the rigid certainties of three dimensions into the threats and opportunities of the fourth....

A dressing room of a West End theatre. Narcissus is putting makeup on as she starts to talk to a therapist of sorts who's sitting, in her mind, in a corner....

The Bush has had non-stop success after success with their recent programming, however this show misses the mark by a lot. Roy Alexander Weise, whose career has also gone from strength to strength, directs Eve Leigh's confusing and dull text. Billed as a magic show, it is anything but spectacular....

Gingerline was founded by food and drink enthusiasts who aim to create the ultimate - immersive - dining experience. To say too much more would spoil it, but you can expect a secret location, a delicious five-course culinary journey, and a few bits of non-stressful audience participation......

Stephen Adly Guirgis's play is as relevant today as ever, its coruscating examination of the nature of American justice and religious redemption losing none of its power a generation on from its first outing....

When John Rolando fails to be able to get an instant erection on the set of a porn film, his life starts to fall apart and kicks off a curious experiment of meta-theatre....

Waitress is 32 years old and is still serving tables. She didn't plan out to stay in the service for this long, nor she enjoys the humiliation and stress it comes from it. Yet, she does it day after day, greeting customers and dealing with their every impossible request....