UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Giffords Circus: Laguna Bay takes audiences and transports them from a 600-seat tent in Chiswick House and Gardens to a beach resort in 1950s America, with sunglasses and leather jackets aplenty....

Return to the forest this summer – a dream world of flying fairies, contagious fogs and moonlight revels. The seating is wrapped around the action while the immersive tickets allow the story to be followed on foot. Following its critically-acclaimed run in 2019, the Bridge Theatre’s five-star pr...

Miss Myrtle’s garden is an oasis caught in the jaws of gentrification. As her mind starts to go, her grandson Rudy moves in with his “friend” and prods her for answers about their shared past. The generational gap is an abyss of doubt, but is that what’s making it hard for her grandson to be...

“I have had a most rare vision. I had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was…” Like Nick Bottom (and the lovers), stepping out of the Bridge Theatre auditorium after a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream does feel like you are waking up from some kind of reverie. Even if ...

Opera Holland Park has never shied away from audacious programming, and with Jonathan Dove’s Itch, it plunges boldly into radioactive territory—literally. Originally seen here in 2023 and based on Simon Mayo’s YA novel about a teenage element hunter who stumbles upon a potentially world-alteri...

The finest immersive experiences ask much of their audience. Titled “The Burning Blimp Festival”, Phantom Peak’s latest season makes demands on your detective skills, your physical stamina and - at one point - your immortal soul. Gulp....

Jordan Fein understands that Fiddler on the Roof is more than just Jews and jazz hands. For him, it’s as much a Greek tragedy that cuts to the heart of the human condition as much as it is a piece of summer escapism. Philip Roth infamously derided it as 'shtetl kitsch’. He might have retracted h...

Terence Rattigan's work remains a stalwart of the British stage. Richmond's Orange Tree Theatre has a particular fondness for his lesser revived work; lighter, frothier plays such as French Without Tears and While the Sun Shines. In Praise of Love, Rattigan’s poignant penultimate play, is a di...

Based on Sarah Ruhl’s eponymous 2018, the stage adaptation of Letters from Max is downright harrowing. It follows her correspondence with a brilliant former student of hers, Max Ritvo, whose sudden cancer recurrence in his early 20s echoes in Ruhl’s life. As the pair discuss illness and artistry...

Grave Mistake is an unmissable farce and dark comedy created by writers Matthew Ballantyne and Toby Hampton. The plot celebrates the hilarious and frequently fractious relationship between two dysfunctional sisters....

John Cranko's Onegin returns to the Royal Ballet and Opera stage for a second block of shows this season, and it's largely good news for all involved....

David Shopland's new dramedy is flawed by its lack of focus...

‘A Transported by Culture’ initiative by London Transport Museum, Director and CEO Elizabeth McKay has materialised into the premiere of a new family theatre show aimed at children aged 5+-11 on site in the Museum’s very own Cubic Theatre, in Covent Garden....

After two highly successful runs at the Bush theatre, Anoushka Lucas's beautifully pitched and intensely captivating solo piece now arrives at the Menier Chocolate Factory in a slightly extended form....

An unmissable evening of beautiful words from Thomas Hardy (read by National Treasure Anton Lesser) and music from Orchestra of the Swan at Stonehenge....

As Forrest Gump wisely said 'Life is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're gonna get.' House of Life takes that idea and runs away with it to flamboyant effect....

Whether you want to relive the second summer of love and the late-Eighties acid house rave scene or just want to feel what it might be like to fly through the cosmos, the updated “Virtual Reality adventure” In Pursuit Of Repetitive Beats is a compelling experience. ...

Like Tim Firth’s other works, This Is My Family makes the ordinary extraordinary while carrying a raw truthfulness. It may not one hundred percent work as a musical in my opinion, but it’s still a funny, relatable yet bittersweet show with a stellar cast....

Must-see new play based on Sathnam Sanghera's novel about a Sikh immigrant family and the tension between seeking success while trying to hold onto older traditional values....

Stormy weather and an enthusiastic audience mark Julia Burbach’s The Flying Dutchman as it proves a smashing success to open the 2025 season of Opera Holland Park....

The recent UK premiere of Here We Are, Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, certainly demonstrated that the much-mourned legend had his flaws. His aficionados already knew this, though – Sondheim had nearly as many flops as he had successes, and The Frogs was one of them....

The Elmer Adventure, inspired by David McKee’s beloved patchwork elephant, bursts onto the stage with a kaleidoscope of colour and charm....

If theatre is, at its best, a mirror held up to society then The Ladyboys of Bangkok offers that reflection in rhinestones, feather boas, and a kaleidoscope of pop anthems....

There’s something quietly powerful about Have You Met Stan?, a new original musical by Bart Thiede, that has just had its final show at the Brighton Fringe. Set within the everyday hum of a pub, this Irish-Polish queer love story has sincerity and charm as it delves into the meet-cute between Seá...

You may not know Athena Stevens’s name, but you may remember her legal troubles: her allegations against Shakespeare's Globe of sexual abuse by a fellow actor and disability discrimination were widely reported in March this year. Now, after a period of what she terms “creative exile”, the Finb...