UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

If you input “what does death smell like?” into Google, you’ll get a variety of results saying that it depends on the conditions of the body. That’s what Linda searches after she hasn’t seen her neighbour in some time. Life at Laurel House will never be the same; loneliness kills in Farah ...

Featuring two of the most awkward sex scenes you'll ever see, this acerbic comedy is a merciless meditation on teenage fumblings....

Despite its title, Elton John is far from the central focus of Henry Naylor’s blisteringly paced one-man show, Monstering the Rocketman. Instead, the target of Naylor’s pen is British journalism, and specifically the thriving 1980s tabloid press....

Confronting issues that echoes down the decades, american vicarious resurrects the 1965 Cambridge Union debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr at Wilton’s Music Hall....

If it's not quite as slick as it might be, this oldies show can still push a lot of the right nostalgia buttons...

Whitney White collapses time and space to insert new perspectives into old plays...

Japanese company Chiten Theatre returns to the Coronet with an energetic adaptation of Dostoevsky’s novel The Gambler. Directed by Motoi Miura with a translation by Ikuo Kameyama, it’s accompanied by experimental rock trio kukangendai. It’s an entertaining, fascinating production, presented in...

When Penelope’s father passes away in England, the family divides: where should he be buried? His Greek Cypriot sister thinks ancient tradition should take over, but his wife refuses to move his body abroad. An ugly feud erupts. The plot of The Ophiolite has a lot of potential. Philip de Voni’s ...

Of all Tom Stoppard's work, Arcadia has always stood out. Touching on sex, Fermat's last theorum, the second law of thermodynamics, landscape gardening with a detective story thrown in, it is a mixture of subjects that few playwrights could attempt to combine. Does it matter if you don't understand ...

On 1 February, some of the West End's most esteemed stars gathered for Love Life: West End Unites Against Cancer - a concert performance raising money for One for the Boys. The charity aims to raise awareness surrounding male cancers, encouraging men to speak up when they notice a change in their bo...

There’s nothing like a great love story. Jess and Robbie met and instantly fell head over heels for each other – well, almost. Then, it was bliss until it wasn’t. Stuck in a liminal space, they disclose their own versions of the facts. Frantic Assembly take on romance and loss in their new pro...

“Domestic matters are more your domain than mine,” a husband says to his wife in the middle of her working day, echoing a thousand gaslighting, supposedly liberal men who’ve come before and since. There are audible gasps from the audience....

The Tempest is perhaps the most metatheatrical of Shakespeare's plays: the plot takes place in real time, and Prospero asks the audience to “free” him with their applause. So who better to direct than the king of theatrical deconstruction himself, Tim Crouch?...

Make no mistake, the writing is dated and it’s far from being a masterpiece, but the production does something that’s so specifically disturbing that it’s difficult to ignore. Bateman’s raison d’être is unnerving to begin with. Once you combine this archetypal psychopath with a jaunty syn...

A journey through time and memory, Ballad Lines must be one of the most exciting new musicals to hit the stage in some time. We follow Sarah, an American queer woman, as she dives headfirst into her family’s roots. Through the centuries, the same melodies come back to link the women who came befor...

BIGRE/'Fish Bowl' is a glorious, inventive display of comedy clowning with the ability to engage and surprise. The timing is impeccable and the reactions sublime. It's quite silly, but it also has an emotional heart running through it as these three characters find a way to coexist in the same space...

In Mrs President, an overuse of technical gimmicks reveals the lack of a cohesive, structured script. Mrs President is ultimately a frustrating and disjointed experience, with little insight into the woman it wishes to rehabilitate. In creating the famous photographs of Mary Lincoln, almost exactl...

Kenneth Williams brought back to life, tics and torments intact....

October 1936, Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists march on East London. When they reach Cable Street, a stone’s throw from Whitechapel, they find that its people have gathered in a united front against fascism. British, Irish, Jewish, and communists are blocking the road, ready to figh...

Is there a story more universally connected to the experience of girlhood than Little Women? Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 coming-of-age novel is a beloved read across the world, with its descriptions of sisterly devotion, struggle, love, and loss. The March sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy - have wove...

It was probably a dark, rainy night when Francesca Marlowe came across the mysterious case of the dead asylum seeker. Plumes of vape smoke flowing from her nostrils, she turns the facts over in her head. The man had not been in the country long, or at least not long enough to accumulate deadly enemi...

What would you do if the results of your 20-week pregnancy scan were not what you were expecting? Would you continue with the pregnancy and adapt to the serious additional needs your baby is likely to have, or could you take the decision to have a termination? That is the choice facing Rosie Sheehy ...

There is something that remains so alluring about the chaotic and ultimately tragic lives of F Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. The booze, the breakdowns, not to mention the immense talent. Michael Greif's new musical, Beautiful Little Fool, tells their tempestuous story from the perspective of their ad...

Since the 7th of October 2023 nearly 20000 children have been killed in Gaza. This number doesn’t include the kids who are still buried under the debris, or maimed by the bombs, or missing. Israel’s strikes on the innocent are ongoing, even after the so-called ceasefire came into action last yea...

What do World War II, dishwashers and beef have in common? They all play an important role in Pierre Novellie’s newest hour of comedy, Pierre Novellie: You Sit There, I’ll Stand Here. The show has a short and sweet description that tells it exactly like it is - “It's time for Pierre to do stan...