UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

American playwright Rajiv Joseph's latest certainly doesn't lack for ambition, spanning 90 years, three countries, and mixing history and fiction in its form to make a point about, well, mixing history and fiction. Storytelling through to the pertinent “fake news” abounds, but this near-three-ho...

Part of the inaugural season at the Bridge Theatre, Laurie Sansom directs Nightfall. An exquisite exploration into grief, anxiety and change, Barney Norris' new play is an introspective character study and one which plays as such....

A slice of working class life that tickles the funny bone and pulls at the heartstrings, but never quite resolves its structural issues....

Those of us who have played strategy computer games will be familiar with the frustration of coming across locked doors, retracing our steps and getting lost in a virtual world. A House Repeated plunges the audience into a virtual Brighton Dome and we are encouraged to 'explore' by the two guides/na...

On the face of it, a play based upon a 13-year-old boy being expelled from his naval college for allegedly stealing a five-shilling postal order does not sound like the stuff of captivating drama. However, in the masterly hands of Terence Rattigan, this story does indeed enthral and quietly impress....

Guillem Clua's new play is a serious examination of how love finds expression differently, beautifully translated and acted with great sensitivity - a thought-provoking and ultimately uplifting production....

The Magic of Animation was a wonderful celebration of music from animated films and the debut concert for new company West End Does. They performed a lovely mix of both classic and newer Disney songs, from shows like Moana and Frozen, along with some tunes from other animated movies like Anastasia a...

Classic Spring's third Oscar Wilde production gains extra piquancy from Amber Rudd's resignation - dealing, as it does, with political scandal and social hypocrisy. It's another facet for Jonathan Church's well-balanced revival, which proves as handsome, witty and ultimately kindly as its beguiling...

Cumbernauld Musical Theatre Society bring their first staged musical to Cumbernauld Theatre only a year after the Society's inception. Audiences can expect spooks, laughs and a ridiculously catchy score in this loveable monster of a musical....

Commissioned as part of National Youth Theatre's 60th anniversary in 2016, James Fritz's The Fall takes a candid look at young people's relationship to their elders mixing humour with a deeper contemplation of life and death....

For their third production this season, the Everyman company tackles Shakespeare's enduring tragedy based upon lies, jealously and power....

Gendered power dynamics, the commodification of art, and abuse in the creative industries: Joe Penhall's new play certainly feels of the moment, and there's a particular frisson in seeing such subject matter explored at the Old Vic, which is dealing with the legacy of Kevin Spacey. Yet a potent topi...

10,000 interviews from young people aged between 6-22 have been strung together, to create a piece of verbatim theatre that holds nothing back. Mixing the dialogue with original songs and improvised discussions, Why is the Sky Blue is an intimate and unpredictable 80-minute investigation into the in...

Chess, by Tim Rice and ABBA's Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, hasn't had a major West End revival since its Eighties heyday, but it's back with a bang in a semi-staged production that features aerial silk acrobatics, cheerleading stunts and drunken Cossack dancing. But it's the work that really s...

As soon as their Reaction Season was announced in autumn 2017, Jermyn Street Theatre launched a competition to all identifying as female playwrights; submissions were open and 390 anonymous people sent in a five-page scene responding to Noel Coward's Still Life. The winners - Morna Young, Emma Hardi...

Boo, Bo and Pickle have all made plans for the evening, but someone has to remain at home and look after the pregnant pooch, Princess. Each of their engagements is of paramount importance to the individual, and what starts of as meaningless folly turns into a downward spiral of absolute anarchy....

Bodies fly everywhere and the endurance of the human body is tested in this explosive triple brill brought by Jasmin Vardimon, in collaboration with Yunkyung Song and Andre Rebelo. Now in its 6th year, JV2 places focus on the nurturing of emerging dance talent, inviting them to work together with co...

Director Lucy Bailey has solid form with adaptations of Agatha Christie stories; her Olivier-award nominated version of Witness For The Prosecution is currently a hit at County Hall. She has also directed Dial M For Murder and Gaslight, so it is not entirely surprising that this touring version of L...

Natasha Gordon's debut play opens the new season at the Dorfman Theatre. 2018 marks 70 years since the Empire Windrush brought many hopeful Jamaicans across to Britain, some were specifically recruited (due to labour shortages) to work in hospitals, the postal service or the transport system, others...

Even those who have never seen a Harry Potter movie will recognise Hedwig's Theme, the song that has become an anthem for Potter fans around the world. The second in the series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, recently stopped at the Royal Albert Hall following a hugely successful live conc...

Holly (Tamsin Newlands) and Sophie (Claire Heverin) are aspiring (and broke) filmmakers. Frustrated by their sex lives and the lack of female-lead porn, they find themselves writing an erotic film of their own. Written by Grace Carroll and Bryony Cole, Wet is politely funny with a couple ingenious d...

A Lionel Bart post-Oliver! flop given a new book and a huge injection of energy just makes you feel happy - and ain't that a good thing!...

Noel Coward's comic play Present Laughter is said to be his most autobiographical work, dealing with the complexities of a life of fame in the theatre world. It tells of the mischief and misery of actor Garry Essendine (an anagram of 'neediness', as the programme note points out), his household staf...

Originally produced at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester in 1983, Sarah Daniels' Masterpieces is revived on commission by Finborough Theatre. Progressive and revolutionary in the past, now it becomes sticky and frigid. Its three middle class couples do a lot of talking but lack action, taking...

The Royal Court has been one of the most vocal venues in the conversation surrounding power manipulation and control within the industry. Their prolific stance has seen them host events that have invited testimonies of personal experience, and their latest offering in The Prudes takes a look at thes...