UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

The first edition of the Italian Theatre Festival, curated by Monica Capuani and in partnership with the Italian Cultural Institute in London, brings contemporary Italian theatre to London. Presented mainly in Italian with surtitles, it kicks off with Hanno Tutti Regione (which means 'everyone is ri...

Mischief Theatre's A Comedy About A Bank Robbery has recently embarked on its first UK tour, opening at the Rep in Birmingham this week. This production is the company's third large-scale show, following The Play That Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong, and it's also been running in the West End s...

Pericles shows our nation what our nation is - a tremendous achievement by the National Theatre's Public Acts movement and a gamechanger for the concept of outreach....

London dance fans are still reeling from the glorious opulence of Liam Scarlett's new Swan Lake for the Royal Ballet. Heavy with emotion, high on budget and dramatic staging, it's in stark contrast to the precise, drilled and efficient Swan Lake courtesy of Konstantin Tachkin's St Petersburg Ballet...

Christopher Marlowe's tale of relentless, ruthless ambition has a Game of Thrones vibe and a distressingly familiar topicality...

SimG Records' latest release is a National Youth Music Theatre commission entitled Imaginary, which was performed at The Other Palace in London in August 2017. This brand new musical about childhood and growing up received great acclaim and was recorded live across four performances, featuring 30 ta...

The will-they-won't-they trope of the Beatrice/Benedick relationship in Much Ado About Nothing is so familiar to audiences that, even though it's staged repeatedly (the last time this reviewer saw it was at Shakespeare's Globe in March), the joy in watching it again is to see how much sparkle a new...

Critically acclaimed musical The Quentin Dentin Show has gone down a storm with audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe and in London and now supernatural game show host, Quentin Dentin himself, will be releasing his debut album next month....

Sir Simon Rattle enslaved the LSO under Ravel's near-supernatural spell; solo singers strived to follow him along the trail....

When reflecting on your fondest childhood memories, you'd probably decide upon visiting your grandparents as one of your highlights. Whilst there you could watch your favourite TV show, eat lots of junk food, and stay up way too late. Even now I still think back to all of the happy memories that wer...

Who better to perform a musical about a group of angsty German teens than an actual group of young people? Spring Awakening joins Bring It On and Goodnight Mr Tom as the British Theatre Academy's third show of the summer. This rock musical is beautifully designed and staged and features many talente...

Don't we all secretly wish life was more like a musical? There's more to it than one might think. Alexander Bermange's hysterical and heartwarming revue I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical returns to Live at Zedel and examines the life of the musical theatre actor, directed by Derek Bond....

It's that time of year again. Commuters watch and wonder, as waves of people cram onto their rush hour trains. You can spot them a mile off, thanks to their lightsabers, corsets, and this year blindingly bright Hawaiian shirts. It can only mean one thing: Secret Cinema is taking over London. Just a...

As the lights fade up on stage in the Royal Festival Hall, nine figures lying supine and inert are revealed, along with a rack of clothes, rocks, silver pails of what appear to be soil and, most curiously, a suit of armour. Suddenly, everything comes to life, including the suit of armour....

The Dorfmann Theatre within the National Theatre complex is proving to be an even more versatile space than promised when it reopened after refurbishment in 2014....

What larks! Maybe not for the purists nor for anyone looking for a Chekhovian analysis of the human condition, but a guilty pleasure full the laughs....

Thirty years after composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and director Jonathan Moore's trailblazing opera Greek premiered at the ENO, it's apparent from this new production, part of Arcola Theatre's Grimeborn Opera Festival 2018, that it's lost none of the punchy, punk attitude that made it such an innovati...

Brian Friel's Aristocrats have moved into the Donmar for the late summer. The aristocrats in question are four of the O'Donnell siblings, reuniting at their childhood home Ballybeg Hall at a time when their father is seriously ailing and one sister is about to marry a significantly older man......

Originally premiering on Broadway in 2000, the musical production of The Full Monty is a respectfully adapted version of the 1997 film about a group of unemployed men who decide to become strippers for a night to raise money. Surprisingly, the more recently produced play didn't reach the stage until...

It's over 35 years since Little Shop of Horrors had its off-Broadway debut, but it remains a consistent choice for revival. Now Director Maria Aberg brings a new version to Regent's Park Open Air Theatre that indicates the show will be as successful as ever. Despite the incredulous story of hapless...

In the programme notes for her darkly disturbing new play Spiral, Abigail Hood quotes a plea she discovered at the bottom of a free London newspaper: "Dear Steven, we love you, we miss you. We hope you found what you were looking for."...

It is 1626 and a young d'Artagnan heads for Paris, determined to join the King's Musketeers. After befriending legendary Musketeers Athos, Aramis and Porthos, the four friends quickly become embroiled in a plot to ruin the honour of the Queen and threaten the stability of the entire French state. Se...

There's an explosion of spirit and - yes - 'cheer face' at Southwark Playhouse, hosting the long-awaited UK premiere of this 2011 musical; last year's national tour was sadly postponed. But Ewan Jones's dynamic British Theatre Academy production, with its minimal scenery and tight ensemble perfe...

As the first play to be funded by Bitcoin, the origins of Alex Oates' play Silk Road are as intriguing as the contents. For those who are unfamiliar with the name, Silk Road was the (now defunct) eBay of the dark web, where you could order any narcotic and have it delivered directly to your own door...

Step inside the Roundhouse's main space right now and you'll be treated to an overwhelming onslaught of glitter, glamour and all things gorgeous. Welcome to Club Swizzle, a place where the wild are allowed to go crazy; where people can drink, seduce, play and party. Hosting by cabaret sensation [ins...