UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

After a disappointing start to the new season with the bizarre Salome, the ENO fights back with a towering production of the Gershwin brothers' Porgy and Bess. After nearly 80 years since its premiere, the folk opera receives its first staging by the ENO as a co-production with the Dutch National Op...

The National History Museum unveils a brand new theatre in the Jerwood Gallery with Trish Wadley Productions and Dead Puppet Society's The Wider Earth. After sold-out seasons in Australia, it's ready to cast its spell on London as well. The coming-of-age play sees a rebellious and pre-beard Charles...

It's a #MeToo-era Measure for Measure over at the Donmar, with Josie Rourke conducting a fascinating experiment: abridging Shakespeare's problem play to just over an hour and running it twice, once in period, once in modern dress. And with the key roles of Isabella and Angelo swapped between Hayley ...

Solomon provides a transcendent sensory experience and more than a few lessons for today;s rulers....

A tremendous re-imagining of a novel that has not been more relevant at any point in the 82 years since its writing - a wonderfully realised piece of theatre....

The ancient Greek gorgon, Medusa, has been reimagined and reincarnated as a feisty and foul-mouthed rock star in a new, creative production at Nuffield Southampton Theatres....

Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard's Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love was first adapted for the stage in 2014, and hailed as a triumph on the West End. Four years on, a new production sets out on a UK tour, and proves a delight from start to end...

'But men are men...' Gender is taking centre stage in the current climate, telling her story not history. From new writes like SIX and The Old Vic's Sylvia, to the reframing of classics from a female perspective, the Liverpool Everyman's female led Othello and the Globe's Imogen prove the relevance...

Developed in partnership with York Theatre Royal, Fo's farcical comedy follows two working class women who take advantage of a riot at a local supermarket to stock up their cupboards, and the chaos that ensues as they concoct increasingly outlandish plans to hide their crime from their straight-lace...

Britain's foremost political playwright David Hare returns with a new play examining the current state of the Labour Party. Or not exactly - this is a world with no Brexit, no Corbyn, nothing, in fact, to anchor it to the burning issues of 2018. A relief, perhaps, but this is a state-of-the-nation p...

The Unreturning follows the fallout of war through the story of three different men returning from the Front Line....

There's much promise in this play that speculates on what Sigmund Freud and Gustav Mahler may have spoken about on a walk they shared, but pedestrian writing and underdeveloped characters scupper any chance of its reaching its potential....

French playwright Florian Zeller returns, with another compelling puzzle box of a play - the only thing definite about it being the trademark definite article in the title. But anchoring the human side of this elliptical work is a pair of commanding performances from Eileen Atkins and Jonathan Pryce...

The Notting Hill Carnival comes to Illyria, bathing its mournful sadness in music and colour; this concept couldn't be more apt, given the tragedies the West London community has gone through in recent times, though coming out as resilient as ever. In 2016, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Oskar Eustis and Shaina ...

Mount Olympus gets a swanky revamp in Mythic, Marcus Stevens and Oran Eldor's new musical retelling of the myth of Persephone (Georgie Westall). Daughter of Zeus (Tim Oxbrow) and Demeter (Daniella Bowen), young P. has been brought up by her single mother - a very zen Mother Earth - away from the buz...

Ten-year-old Jessica's behaviour has been troublesome recently, so her parents (Amy Marston and Peter Hamilton Dyer) are called in to discuss the concerns at their daughter's school. After having a row over a game of Cluedo (won by Jessica to her father's utter dismay and horror) the two adults emba...

Seth Rudestky is a Broadway musician, comic, actor, writer and radio host. He is also known on YouTube for his OBSESSED! video series where he dissects Broadway actors' voices and their performances. His concert series Seth Rudetsky's Broadway @ Leicester Square Theatre, produced by Mark Cortale, re...

"After this night is over, then you can drift away, then you can sleep for ever, for nothing will ever matter again." A quote, from Michael Morpurgo's 2003 novel Private Peaceful which currently tours the UK as a single-hander play, adapted and directed by Simon Reade, following a successful run at...

In opera, there is often nothing more dangerous than female sexuality. Salome is a story where a woman's love becomes dangerous obsession, leading to bloodshed and necrophilia. From a feminist perspective, the story is challenging to say the least, but as Richard Strauss' opera, the result should b...

Immersive dining theatre seems to be in the in-thing in the capital at the moment. The result can be painful performances with even worse food, but happily Journey To The Underworld is an fun evening that combines a playful, if simplistic story, with excellent fodder....

To Have To Shoot Irishmen brings the tragic story of Francis Sheehy Skeffington to the stage, with music and lyricism, a reminder of Ireland's fractured past and a warning about its fragile present....

Dance telling the story of how only some stories are told....

Nearly two years ago to the day, Carlos Acosta presented A Classical Farewell at London's Royal Albert Hall, a mix of solos and pas de deux with his esteemed Royal Ballet colleagues to celebrate his career . Fast forward to 2018, and he's still saying farewell but now with a focus on the future, th...

A raucous take on the play-within-a-play is a real highlight of this new take on Shakespeare's tale of love and magic....

Another scaled down opera, retaining full force singing and emotional clout, from the King's Head, Violetta now a pole dancer in a sleazy Bristol nightclub....