UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Single-handedly one of the best immersive theatre experiences currently out there, this evening is sure to entertain audiences from all backgrounds. Pitched to both the regular theatregoer and the first-time newbie, the production uses a unilateral emotion to unite everyone - desire. It's a feeling ...

Classic Spring's year-long season ends with Wilde gone wild: a free love riot that yanks the homosexual subtext into text, with everyone from masters and servants to, er, the long-lost brothers sharing snogs and cigarettes. The famous passive aggressive tea party turns into a food fight, and even La...

'Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation' is one of many wonderful lines by Lebanese-American writer/artist Kahlil Gibran. Broken Wings is a brand new musical adaption of his 1912 poetic novel....

What would you do to achieve your dream of becoming an actor? How long would you wait for the call that will change everything? What would you suffer to be able to watch and wait for the dream to begin? Sacrificeis a new play, written by Co-Director of Ardent Theatre, Andrew Muir, to explore these i...

Michelle Terry's first season at the Globe continues apace, with what some will have marked out as a highlight since its announcement back in January. Mark Rylance returns to the Globe stage, once again directed by Claire van Kampen, starring as Iago alongside American actor Andre Holland in the tit...

The first thing we see is Anna Fleischle's Fifties-tastic giant doll's-house set: each period-perfect room bathed in a different twinkling hue, flowers painted onto the brick wall, and jaunty music setting the tone. But Katherine Parkinson's Judy is able to open the front wall like a folding door - ...

After his sold-out Sex/Crime (The Glory), Alexis Gregory presents the verbatim Riot Act, directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair. Written especially for King's Head Theatre's Queer Season, the piece explores the role of Stonewall, queer history, activism, drag queens, and loss in three gut-wrenching monologu...

The London Tap Dance Intensive is the UK's top tap festival, and took place from Friday to Sunday last week. Over the course of three days a variety of workshops were offered at three different studios; led by talented teachers from across the tap spectrum, they covered everything from rhythm choreo...

Charlotte Jones's new play for nearly a decade, The Meeting, is an emotional twister that evokes concerns about female empowerment, treatment of those who are different, and the limitations of religious teachings....

There are live performers who bring a charisma and immediate sense of warmth and charm to the stage, along with an astounding talent. Joe Stilgoe is one such performer; sliding onto the tiny stage of Ronnie Scott's, he looked like he had lived most of his life holding court in front of an audience....

It's 1957 and Edith Piaf is rehearsing her for her last concert in the United States, she recounts the heartbreaks in her life singing through her pain. Directed by Damian Cruden, Elizabeth Mansfield becomes Piaf once again - a role she's been doing on-and-off steadily throughout her career - and is...

Following on from a hugely successful run at Chichester, Sir Ian McKellen is back in the title role of King Lear, in the same theatre in which he made his West End debut in 1964. The Duke of York's is decidedly bigger than the Minerva, but with the addition of a walkway through the centre of the aud...

A demanding, but rewarding, production of Britten's opera about ancient Rome, with plenty of lessons for today....

Exit the King at the National Theatre has a beautiful design and wonderful performances from some of the cast, but it ultimately falls flat. While Patrick Marber's new version of Eugene Ionesco's absurdist drama about a dying king has its good moments, it seems to drag on for a play that is only an ...

Based on the hugely popular Dreamworks animation, Madagascar The Musical brings the much-loved film to life in an energetic whirl of funky dance routines and quirky characters. After becoming disillusioned with his life in a Manhattan zoo, Marty the zebra escapes to see the outside world. Fearful...

Gerard Alessandrini is not throwing away his shot. The creator of satirical revue Forbidden Broadway realised that the unprecedented success of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical warranted a standalone show, and thus Spamilton was born. A 2016 Off-Broadway hit, the affectionate spoof now follows Hamilton ...

The Simon and Garfunkel Story is a loving tribute to the multi-platinum selling 60s dup that suffers a little from presentational issues....

This highly anticipated new play from 84-year-old Alan Bennett premieres at the Bridge, continuing his long-standing relationship with Nicholas Hytner. It's an exciting get, and there are wonderful flashes of Bennett wit, wisdom and stirring empathy, but also polemical outbursts and baggy plotting t...

The tragic story of a student resistance group in wartime Munich told with skill and commitment by a talented cast....

The annual show from Sheffield People's Theatre is a crowd-pleasing musical about the importance of community and the idea of 'home'....

Playwright Rory Mullarkey is back with another show at the Royal Court Theatre, following on from his 2014 production, The Wolf From the Door. At the start of Pity, it seems like an ordinary day in a quiet town somewhere in England but, as the synopsis on the back of the play text quite literal...

When Fantasia first landed on the scene in 1940, it was a game-changing piece for the world of entertainment as it was the first ever commercial film presented in stereophonic sound. Now, The Vaults present a new production of immersive theatre celebrating the animated flick in the shape of Sound an...

You can most certainly dance, jive and have the time of your life at Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. The sequel to Judy Craymer and Gary Goetzman's 2008 romantic comedy, based on the stage show created by Catherine Johnson, opens in UK cinemas on 20 July....

After being turned into a film, Patrick Ness' award-winning novel A Monster Calls becomes a visceral stage play. It analysed the depths of grief and loss in a teen, Conor (Matthew Tennyson), who's slowly losing his mum to cancer. He's visited by a Monster (Stuart Goodwin) who tells him stories and e...

Ever since John Waters introduced us to Tracy Turnblad and co in his cult 1988 film, audiences have come to expect big voices, big dance numbers and even bigger hair. Luckily, the 2017/18 touring production of Hairspray delivers in a production that is colourful, energetic and full of soul....