UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Inua Ellams' dynamic new play debuted last June, to critical acclaim. Following its successful run at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Barber Shop Chronicles returns to the National with a bang. The story takes its audience to barber shops in Peckham, Johannesburg, Lagos, Accra, Harare and Kampala....

Three women place their naked bums on a table and speak through them into a microphone. Literally talking out of their arses, they enter into a prolonged rant detailing how terrible the show is meant to be, using text from critics who have seen it previously. And any resemblance to these critics, li...

Hackney Empire can be counted on to deliver a hilarious and naughty panto every year, but Cinderella also has heart. This fun and fantastical production caters to both children and adults with its contemporary humour, talented cast, and impressive staging. Hackney's diverse reimagining of the classi...

Uncle Vanya at its simplest is a bleak take on the human condition. At its most complex, it's a harrowing look into the never-ending cycle of humanity and how easy it is to be consumed by your own mind....

A journalist ventures to the front line in search of a story. Underage girls wait to be a soldier's playthings. A medic mourns the loss of her lover. In the bleakest areas of Ukraine, a war rages on....

There's been a real buzz of anticipation around the West End with the impending opening of Everybody's Talking About Jamie. In fact, it has felt like everybody really has been talking about it! So much so that for theatre fans, trying to watch the show without any preconceived ideas is almost imposs...

Ordinary Days captures the ups and downs of romance in a big city with fine singing and warm, winning performances....

Terrorist plots, underfunded government departments, unjustifiable military action - all very modern worries, I'm sure you'll agree. However, playwright Anders Lustgarten and director Matthew Dunster beg to differ. The second production of The Winter Selection is a new play, The Secret Theatre, oste...

Three very different dances united by the stellar qualities of Bolshoi superstar Svetlana Zakharova....

This is a great, complex, problematic, Shakespearean, mythic, disturbing, provocative play....

After a season that saw some triumphant returns of classic operas, such as the magnificent revival Jonathan Miller's The Barber of Seville, the ENO has taken another gamble on bringing a brand new production to the stage of the London Coliseum. Following Two Boys in 2011, Marnie is the young compose...

Directed by Jermyn Street Theatre's own artistic director Tom Littler, Miss Julie is revived in an effortlessly visceral new production....

Having also played host to The Mandela Trilogy opera and new musical Only The Brave, it seems that the Wales Millennium Centre seems to be making a name for itself when it comes to mounting new productions. In its latest venture: Tiger Bay The Musical audiences are transported back to Cardiff in the...

Following a hugely successful UK tour and an engagement at the acclaimed Feinstein's/54 Below in New York, West End star Rachel Tucker has become a celebrated solo performer....

Remaining true to the traditions of Aeschylus's time, The Suppliant Women company consists of three professional actors, a professional musician and a recruitment of locals - who have trained and rehearsed in a choral-like manner, to create a 50-piece ensemble that roars on the Young Vic stage....

Inside Pussy Riot is an immersive, provocative experience, not for the faint of heart. This innovative performance was created by Les Enfants Terrible and the Tsukanov Family Foundation, in collaboration with Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova and Bird & Carrot. The piece puts the audience in...

Recent figures show that more and more people are visiting their GP with anxiety, stress and other mental health concerns. With so many facilities running at full capacity, options become limited for those in need. And, despite the rising number of people accessing mental health services, there are ...

The Dark Room raises important issues but its lack of nuance and relentless emotional pain delivered at top volume and top speed, detract from its dramatic potential....

Celebrated performer Barb Jungr put this collection of songs together a couple of years ago (alongside long-time collaborator and pianist, Simon Wallace) and has been taking the songs across the UK and the US, amongst other places, as well as appearing on the bill of the Art of Protest cabaret at th...

Eighteen-year-old Callum is taking his first steps out of care, dreaming of becoming a track star. He is immediately flung into a world of poverty and toxic company, and when his legs start to fail him, he loses the only control he has on his life....

As it settles into its run, expect this production of 'Earnest' to bring out comedy that goes against the grain of the times, but is no less funny for that....

The British appetite for thrillers is seemingly unquenchable. Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap has now been running for 65 years in London and detective and murder mystery stories are standard Sunday night television fare. Adam Penfold's revival of Ira Levin's 1978 Broadway hit Deathtrap is obviously...

News as showbiz, entire networks and even a reality TV President fuelled by articulating popular rage, and gradual corporate dehumanisation: we are now living Paddy Chayefsky's satirical dystopia. Lee Hall's astute adaptation recognises that the 1976 movie needs little updating to feel like a searin...

Daphne du Maurier is the master of Cornish gothic storytelling and ghostly intrigue. Jamaica Inn is her 1936 novel; a haunting tale set in Cornwall in the 1800s. Following the death of her mother, Mary Yellan goes to live with her downtrodden aunt Patience and bullying uncle Joss in mysterious Jamai...

When Becca (Holly Donovan) is sent to a hospice in order to serve a community punishment, she meets Anna (Clare Corbett), a cancer patient at terminal stage. An unlikely friendship starts between the two women, who at first glance have nothing in common but being confined in the same space. As they ...