UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

This revival of Kenneth MacMillan's Manon is a visual and aural delight that should melt the heart of even the most reluctant ballet sceptic....

Antonio Pappano's conducting of the work evoked gloom but didn't approach closely enough the more sinister subject of death....

Robert Icke's updating of The Wild Duck gains in contemporary relevance, but loses a little of its heart en route....

Embracing the darkness of the play and space, we are 'cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears' alongside Macbeth in Polly Findlay's terrifying and thoughtful production....

Celebrating 20 years of performance excellence, Sadler's Wells Associate Artist Jasmin Vardimon's incredibly talented company present another unforgettable, highly entertaining masterpiece....

Returning to the Arts Theatre in London's West End after a UK tour, The Wipers Times proves that the history of the Great War can be engaging and at times entertaining....

Back for its third year, Jonny Woo brings his eclectically exuberant production to the Hackney Empire, promising it to be the most spectacular yet. And it is certainly fabulous. Woo has curated an event that features artists from a wide range of performance mediums, cultures and experiences. Celebra...

Premiering at London's Bush Theatre in 1993, and inspiring a film adaptation three years later that became a cult classic, Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing is currently playing at Bristol's Tobacco Factory Theatres. Set on a council estate during the 1990s, it explores the relationship between Ja...

For three performances only, renowned director/choreographer Stephen Mear has brought his own semi-staged version of the classic musical Guys and Dolls to the Royal Albert Hall. The Royal Philharmonic Concert orchestra bring Frank Loesser's much-loved score to life, along with a cast that includes A...

Scott Alan premieres his new musical The Distance You Have Come in the intimate The Cockpit. Presented as a cycle of songs and with little-to-no dialogue, it sees a group of six people dealing with various degrees of desperation and challenges. A struggling actress (Emma Hutton), a broken lesbian co...

How do you become a playwright? How do you behave as a playwright? When are you officially a playwright? Papatango's Chris Foxon and George Turvey answer all budding playwrights' answers and take the immeasurable task of giving advice by the horns in their first venture, Being a Playwright - A Caree...

Troilus and Cressida begins with a thunder of drums that knocks the programme out of your hands....

Teddy (Clifford Samuel) meets Jeremy (Douglas Booth) at the bar of a shabby hotel in Amsterdam, he asks if he wants to join him in his room and he agrees. Upstairs, they get very close in an entirely confusing play....

Quietly gives us two men, deep in middle age, looking back to the irreversible actions they took as 16 year-olds during The Troubles in an electrifying conversation....

Ross MacGregor's Dracula needs a transfusion of narrative pace if it is to achieve its considerable (and laudable) ambition....

Last year, Nina Raine had a National Theatre hit with Consent, which grilled deceit and empathy in both the legal system and relationships. Now, she turns her attention to a 39-year-old single woman desperately seeking a sperm donor - and once again, procedures are sharply juxtaposed with people....

Emma Rice is back after her kerfuffle with Shakespeare's Globe, debuting her brand new company with an adaptation of Angela Carter's novel of the same name. After being shown out of the Bard's doors last April, and following the company's funding controversy, she silences doubters by taking up resid...

'If music be the food of love, play on'… and play Wils Wilson does with Shakespeare's chaotic, sharp-witted comedy.While wonderfully entertaining, and a comical, musical, and colourful delight, without distinct commentary on the seventies setting or a timely political parallel, this Twelfth Night ...

Studio 88 launches a new series featuring some of the most well-known stars of London's West End. Coming straight off stages around London, the musical theatre performers jump under the neon lights to sing some of her favourite songs....

Fup: A Modern Fable brings Jim Dodge's novel from the page and onto the stage. Adapted and directed by Simon Harvey, the tale takes place in the depths of Cornwall, at the haphazard home of a centenarian, a slightly drunken duck, and a large man called Tiny....

The Trench, in trying to do so much, forgets to let us into the lives of the soldiers whose ordeal lies at the heart of the story it tells....

Phone rings, door chimes, in comes Marianne Elliott, ushering in a new age of adaptation with her. Almost 50 years since it opened on Broadway, Company returns to the West End. Reworked, though respectful of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's original material, this hopefully opens the door for mor...

t's never easy to debut in a role when half the audience bought tickets to see someone else, but this was the situation Ryoichi Hirano faced last week as announcement of Edward Watson's injury was made. Watson is known for his compelling portrayal of the multifaceted role of Crown Prince Rudolf of A...

Set a generation after the AIDS crisis, Matthew Lopez's two part world premiere checks in with gay men living today. What does love mean in contemporary New York? How do we find our sense of belonging in a city that's so easy to get lost in? A heartbreaker from start to finish, this rare theatrical ...

The Habit of Art is a wonderfully funny and deeply moving revival of Alan Bennett's fantastic 2009 follow up to The History Boys. The play focuses on a fictional meeting between WH Auden and Benjamin Britten in 1972, when Britten seeks out his old friend to combat his loneliness and ask advice abou...