UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Emerging from a winter of traditional crowd-pleasers featuring Nutcracker and La Sylphide, the dancers of English National Ballet were finally allowed to cut loose in this new mixed bill - thanks to some eerie swamp monsters and a new and unexpected club banger from William Forsythe. This certainly...

For those that are unaware of this venue, The Glory is a popular and welcoming pub in Haggerston, East London. It's a place where people come together to drink, party and relax after a stressful day. Underneath the space is an intimate cabaret room where a variety of performance regularly takes plac...

The term 'all-round entertainer' is often used to describe John Barrowman. Having been hugely successful in theatre, television, writing and recording, there really isn't much he hasn't covered....

After its momentous success at the Hampstead Theatre, David Hare's sweet love story transfers to the West End. Centring on the formation of the worldly revered Glyndebourne, the play reveals the two great passions of John Christie: the opera, and his beautiful wife, Audrey Mildmay....

The Comedy About a Bank Robbery celebrate their second birthday amidst a tsunami of laughter. The new cast members shine while the veterans have the comedy locked down to perfection. 'Everyone is a crook' in Minneapolis in the late 50s, so when City Bank is entrusted with protecting a diamond worth ...

Amongst the explosion of interest in Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sara Driver's film locates his emerging genius in a beautifully rendered time and place - late 70s New York City....

Jason Robert Brown's concert at the London Palladium was a wonderful mix of familiar and new songs sung by Brown himself, Betsy Wolfe, Norm Lewis, and Rachel Tucker. Brown juggled multiple hats as singer, piano player, and at times conductor, but proved that storytelling is what he truly does best. ...

By any standard, playwright James Graham is having quite a week. Labour of Love won Best New Comedy and Bertie Carvel won Best Supporting Actor for Ink at last weekend's Olivier Awards, and Tuesday saw the West End opening of Graham's latest play Quiz, which recounts the tale of the man who won the ...

Following on from their stunning creation Brainstorm (a play I absolutely loved and wouldn't stop talking about), Company Three return to the Yard in this production performed by a cast of teenagers....

What a feeling! What an evening! The 80s film-musical adaption trend is alive and well. In addition to Fame, Footloose and more, fans of the iconic poppy music era can catch the 1983 classic Flashdance during its current UK tour, which currently plays the Theatre Royal in Brighton....

Joining the ranks of the thoroughly-revised musicals is Working, whose latest cast recording debuted from its recent London cast. The musical, with a score by Stephen Schwartz and book and lyrics by Schwartz and assorted collaborators, originally debuted on Broadway in 1978, where it flopped rather ...

Cheek by Jowl began life in 1981, first producing plays in English before branching out to other languages; their current production of Shakespeare's Pericles is performed in French, which has recently embarked on a tour that includes Oxford, Naples, Madrid, and several venues in France, stopping fo...

Ah secondary school - the most important time in any persons life. The years where you make the best memories, meet the most exciting people and have zero care in the world. That place where nothing really matters and everything seems pretty chill - right?...

Miss Nightingale manages to portray both the delicious naughtiness of 1940s wartime entertainment and the difficult and heart-breaking reality the performers lived off the stage equally well. Matthew Bugg's original musical has had a long journey to its current run at the Hippodrome Casino. This lov...

William Congreve's restoration classic originally premiered in 1700 and even though it bombed back then, nowadays it is adored for its bonkers farce and balletic lyricism. The story may be long; the play lasts three hours in total and as an audience your patience will be tested. But stick with it; t...

Kevin Armento's play puts the narratives of five different and complex women on stage; whilst at the same time places an intense glare upon Bill Clinton's illicit relationship with Monica Lewinsky....

Director Luke Fredericks gives a new spin to William Wycherley's salacious comedy The Country Wife, taking it from its original Restoration setting to the crackling Roaring 20s. Sprinkled with anachronistic nudges, shirtless scenes, and a luxurious set and costume design by Stewart Charlesworth, the...

The song-writing partnership of Carole King and Gerry Goffin was such a formidable force in the sixties that even Lennon and McCartney often spoke about wanting to emulate them. It's with this partnership then, that Beautiful: The Carol King Musical spends most of it's time....

What could be more patriotic to Britain than watching a wartime drama that complains about the weather? David Haig's Pressure, first seen at Edinburgh, then Chichester, and soon off to the West End, is a highly watchable, microscopic look into the mechanics of battle....

A powerful, perhaps even necessary, play that doesn't always succeed dramatically but can be forgiven for the boldness of its narrative and unflinching take on a divided city in a divided nation....

Following a UK tour, original 1950s rock 'n' roll musical Teddy has landed at The Vaults Theatre. It brilliantly evokes the atmosphere of a crumbling post-Blitz London and combines a live band, a talented duo of actors, and energetic dancing for an exciting show. The unique poetic language, written ...

Death of a Hunter sees Ernest Hemingway fighting his demons at once in the last harrowing hour of his life. Unable to write like he used to, he questions the ghosts of his past and examines the path that's lead him to that point. Finborough Theatre sees the English language premiere of Rolf Hochhuth...

Next up at the RSC's Swan Theatre is an oft-forgotten Restoration comedy by Mary Pix; originally titled The Beau Defeated, Jo Davies' production shifts the focus onto the widowed protagonist with the new title The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich. It comes in the same year as two new productions of ano...

It's apparently the worst holiday ever. The rain pours down and four children sit inside moping as their parents are at the local pub getting drunk. They have a play ready to be staged, but no audience to see it? So what is there left to do?...

This play doesn't sugarcoat anything; instead it bluntly reveals the harsh realities of suffering when the odds are unfairly stacked against a person. It's a situation that isn't uncommon in today's society, but nowadays are we desensitised to other people's sufferings?...