UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

The Jungle is the debut play from Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, founders of humanitarian theatre company Good Chance. Alongside a team of volunteers, they built their first theatre in the refugee and migrant camp in Calais, in 2015. They conceived it as a place for people to enter and express themse...

As Canada celebrates 150 years since its confederation, stories of the countries untold natural history are starting to come to light, and White Fang is an example of this. Taking the themes of Jack London's popular novel, Jethro Compton has staged a production that is visually exciting, but perform...

With the success of last year's fantastical take on The Wind in the Willows, Kingston's Rose Theatre looks to another classic this year with Alice in Winterland, a new take on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass....

There is a prince, a princess and a quest for happy ever after. You may think you have heard it all before, but add a big green ogre, a talking donkey and a dragon that can sing and you'll quickly learn this is no typical fairytale....

It was September of this year that I first saw this particular Titus Andronicus, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Back then, I was struck by how timely a production this seemed: corruption of power, toxic masculinity and the silencing of women all at the forefront under Blanche McIntyre's direction...

Charming, affectionate and exuberant - this latest version of the Wizard of Oz is a magical crowd-pleaser....

The puppet who wants to be a real boy is all grown up in this new musical version - very much the darker side of Disney. Book writer Dennis Kelly went back to the original 19th-century Italian tale, by Collodi, and tonally, John Tiffany's production leans more towards that incarnation: a Pinocchio r...

What would happen if instead of Belle, there was Beau, Gaston was transformed into Chevonne, and the Beast wore a velvet corset? Fat Rascal Theatre gender-swap the classic fairytale and transform it into a hysterical and fast-paced musical....

To be frank, Christmas has not begun until you have seen Christopher Biggins sashaying across a stage to the Strictly Come Dancing theme tune in a fuschia pink fringed dress with giant red foam cherries for breasts....

It's undeniably/unavoidably* panto season in theatreland (*delete as per your personal proclivity). Qdos Entertainment's production of Dick Whittington at the London Palladium has been hotly anticipated following last year's triumphant Cinderella. So does it live up to expectations?...

Traditionally, Dick Whittington tells the tale of a man who travels to London to find his fortune. And with infamous showman John Barrowman playing the staring role, Dick Whittington, and a charming Seventies duo, The Krankies, this production has the foundations to be a fantastic show. But despite ...

The Twilight Zone takes us into the world of early 60s cult science fiction TV in a bold and innovative adaptation that never quite transcends its structural weaknesses....

Currently enjoying a West End revival at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, 42nd Street has also released a brand new cast recording....

For me, the best thing about panto is the stuff that's not in the script - we went every year when I was little and my favourite memory is of the year that Brian Blessed's trousers split when he was playing Captain Hook and he and Smee had an extended fit of giggles....

The beautiful story of Clara and her enchanted Nutcracker doll is as much a part of Christmas as carols and novelty jumpers. The pair discover a magical world where they battle with the Mouse King and take an enchanted hot air balloon rides over a snow-covered London to the land of the Sugar Plum Fa...

When a production transfers, changes are inevitable. Different spaces create different possibilities and limitations, for actors, directors and designers alike. For the audience then, the entire experience between watching a show in one theatre and another may be wholly different. Part of the Roya...

A straight, gimmick-free production of Julius Caesar that may be as relevant today as at any time in the last 420 years....

Stripped back and startlingly intimate, Puccini's great tunes are given full value by wonderful voices and sensational acting in a production that raises boutique operas to a new level....

Rachel Tucker: On The Road is the second studio album by West End and Broadway star Rachel Tucker....

Of all of Bernard Shaw's wonderful plays, it seems a brave and slightly odd choice for the Orange Tree theatre to choose to revive Misalliance. When the play premiered in 1910, it was hated by critics and audiences alike for its verbose text and uneven plot. It has rarely been seen performed since a...

Beauty and the Beast in Concert at the Royal Albert Hall enhanced a wonderful star-studded movie by having its beautiful score expertly played by the Philharmonia Orchestra. This film is a great choice for a movie screening with live music because Alan Menken's score seems like it's meant to be hear...

Chloe Lamford and Sam Pritchard have collaborated on a piece that perplexes and entices. This was my first visit to The Site, (the exterior space located across from the stage door), and I was amazed by its capability to totally transport you from the streets of Sloane Square, into the world of an u...

It's 1680 in London, Arabella Hunt (Marilyn Nadebe) is secretly married to Amy (Georgia Bruce) in what inadvertently becomes the first ever recorded gat marriage in England. In the meantime but in 1936, Alan Turing (Darren Sia) is paying a final visit to Isobel Morcom (Phoebe Hames), mother to his ...

The Hound of the Baskervilles is a delightful take on the classic Sherlock Holmes story that proves a comic stance on Holmes is sometimes better than a dramatic one. The show is the Jermyn Street Theatre's first co-production with a theatre abroad, having run at the English Theatre Frankfurt over th...

Offstage drama infamously hijacked the 1995 premiere of Simon Gray's play, with star Stephen Fry walking out mid-run - hastening the production's early closing. Here, then, is a chance to put the focus back on the work itself in Edward Hall's revival....