UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

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....

Rock musical Bat Out of Hell had its debut performance in Manchester in 2017. Following a limited run at the London Coliseum soon after this, the production took over the Dominion Theatre in the West End in April this year. The show is loosely based upon a Peter Pan and Wendy-type story but is inste...

Fringe festivals can be places where performances are to be endured, rather than enjoyed. Fortunately, they can also showcase absorbing and innovative work. As part of Playmill, the King's Head Theatre's exciting season of brand new work, two new productions demonstrate both great potential and thou...

Through one family and one company, Italian playwright Stefano Massini tackles big topics: the development of Western capitalism, the immigrant experience, the American Dream. But this isn't just any family – it's the Lehman Brothers, the collapse of whose banking firm precipitated the 2008 financ...

Jukebox musical that should have stayed in the pub....

Part-cabaret, part-therapy, leading lady Danielle Hope brings her solo show Life for Rent to Live at Zedel. Since winning BBC's Over the Rainbow in 2010, she has entertained audiences as Dorothy Gale, Eponine Thenardier, Maria von Trapp and more in West End and touring productions....

How far would you go to get your man? And then when you have him, what lengths do you go to ensure no one steals him away. How do you preserve a dying relationship? Is it sometimes better to just walk away? Can it ever be that easy? These are some of the questions (amongst many others) that are aske...

To present the world premiere of a re-discovered play written by Great War veteran and poet Robert Graves in the centenary year of the First World War is something of a coup for the tiny Finborough Theatre. But It Still Goes On is an exploration of familial and romantic  relationships played out in...

Written by King's Head Theatre's Junior Associate Catherine Exposito, Immaculate Correction details what it feels like to be a working class Catholic schoolgirl in rural Scotland in 2005. Stacey (Dani Heron) has big dreams of running away and being the first Scottish girl on the X Factor, but small ...

Reunited following successful runs of The Lorax, the director-composer team of Max Webster and Charlie Fink bring a new version of the Shakespeare classic to the picturesque (and rather appropriate) setting of Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. This well-loved comedy is in demand this year, with it bei...

A strange show about the strange relationship between a fake German count and his young, but dead, bride....

An all-singing, all-dancing old school musical that will delight fans of all ages....

What is it that you dream about at night? For some it's of wild encounters with wannabe lovers, for others its high-speed chases and mad adventures. New Public, the company behind this production bring lots of different ideas to the table. A story told through music and movement, Lucid is a tale of ...

Birdsong, based on the book by Sebastian Faulks, is a brutal and beautiful observation of war and remembrance, with this new revival touring in time for the Armistice centenary this November....

Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson's play had such a good reception during its run at the Young Vic Theatre back in the winter that it has transferred across the river to the Playhouse Theatre in the West End, bringing its cast with it (along with some additions). It is based on Murphy and Robertson's exp...

Premiering at Nuffield Southampton Theatres' City venue, SS Mendi: Dancing the Death Drill resurrects those lost at sea in a little-known wartime tragedy through a cultural feast of powerful theatre, music and song....

When researching content for their show, Poltergeist Theatre were put in touch with Robert, a man convinced he's been contacted by aliens. He saw them lighting up the sky above Tesco car park, and now he's saying that one's coming to stay in his spare room....

A show about Judy, Audrey and Marilyn including songs by the gifted Beth Burrows - but does it tell us anything new?...

I didn't know it was possible for a play this bloody to be so funny. Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore is a dark comedy about terrorism and violence set in Ireland in 1993. When Irish National Liberation Army member Padraic finds out his beloved cat is poorly, he immediately heads home o...

Big themes play out through dozens of small scenes in this effervescent production of Caryl Churchill's play....

Aisha and Safa have been best friends since forever. As the pair get ready to finish university and embark on the next stage of their lives, it quickly begins to dawn on them that their relationship is about to change. It'll be the first time they do anything without the other; will they still be as...

Courtroom drama set on the Western Front that doesn't convince in its script and staging but still presses the emotional buttons....

Following a hit run at New York's Lincoln Center Theater in 2015, Bartlett Sher's production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic makes its way to London's West End for a limited run at the London Palladium. Transferring with it is Tony Award nominee Ken Watanabe and Tony Award winner Kelli O'Hara...

A diverse cast; a score packed with many musical genres, including rap; and a sung-through treatment of an important period of American history... No, it's not Hamilton, but a superb concert presentation of the late Martin Smith's King The Musical by Hackney Empire and London Musical Theatre Orc...

Following on from a timely Rome Season, the Royal Shakespeare Company again looks to the past to inform the present, with a West End transfer of Imperium - I: Conspirator & II: Dictator. And who can blame them? With politics and personages all too familiar, Rome and its Republic make the perfect ...