UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Ballet Black continue to move from strength to strength. Having recently secured funding and completed work on a more spacious London studio, they now tour nationally with their acclaimed narrative ballet, Red Riding Hood as the main attraction in this varied triple bill....

Every day a woman lays an egg, and then faces a decision: does she raise it or eat it? Natalie Palamides is a name I had never heard of before, but after this, there is no way I'm ever going to forget her. An LA based comedian, Palamides explores the troubles of motherhood through the surreal in Lai...

David Mamet's Pulitzer-winning play, which premiered at the National in 1983, in back in London in a star-studded, pugilistic revival from Sam Yates. Though kept firmly in period, it's not hard to find skin-crawling contemporary parallels in Mamet's exposure of a toxic capitalist culture ruled by th...

A pared back but wholly successful production that places the storytelling and poetry at the centre of the storm of hubristic violence....

Set in a city where the gap between the rich and poor widens every day, Coriolanus opens the RSC's Rome season in London. He is as much a myth as he is a man, and if he did live, he would have been around at the start of the 5th Century BCE - when Rome was building itself into a republic....

Based on Daniel Wallace's novel and Tim Burton's 2003 film adaptation, this musical is quite the oddity. Screenwriter John August has tinkered with the book since its brief Broadway run in 2013, but it remains an unfathomable mixture of magical and mawkish, whimsy and desolation....

A laborious meditation at the start sets this play up to be something it's not. We expect a lesson in the Buddhist way, but what we get is the Londoners' interpretation. Scattering spoons on the floor, Tony arrives to disrupt Luke's stillness. What unfolds thereafter is a debauched 90-minute clash o...

With the release of the Christmas advert from Marks And Spencer, we can all rest assured that the festive season is drawing ever near. Sam Holcroft's well received play, Rules For Living, gets its first revival at Kingston's Rose after a 2015 run at The National Theatre and serves as a timely remind...

In a chance of fate, two young lovers sit and get to know one another. They drink, play-fight, cuddle and forget the fact that their countries are at war. Planes fly overhead, looking for places to drop bombs, but in this countryside house there's a different sort of spark happening. This Beautiful ...

Mother Courage and her Children grows with relevance as Josie Lawrence turns in a once in a lifetime performance as a woman whose eye for business blinds her to what really matters....

Patrick Marber was inspired to write The Red Lion following his own experiences in non-league football club ownership. And the play - which was first performed in 2015 at the National Theatre has been revised (by Marber) to make it a much slicker and darker insight into male relationships and the ...

A bereaved couple meet after a long separation. Stilted pleasantries give way to raw accusations and brutal truths. It would be very easy for Poison to be a melodramatic hour and twenty minutes of trite pain, closure and gaining the strength to move on. Thankfully this UK premiere of Lot Vekemans' c...

They don't speak English, and the others don't speak Spanish. But despite this, they understand one another. Through their shared experience, six Falkland/Malvinas veterans discuss the different effects the war had on both sides. They used to encounter one another on the battlefield, but now they co...

You wouldn't expect a Victorian tale to be this relatable, but The Diary of a Nobody showcases a surprisingly modern everyday life. London clerk Charles Pooter struggles through family issues, class conflict and work trials with hilarity and hijinks....

Suzy Storck is stuck in a routine. Her life is anything but mundane, yet her regular behavioural patterns result in an exhausting struggle through each day. Right from the off we are hit with a domestic tragedy, but at that moment it is unexplained. We see Suzy alone, drinking wine, listening to the...

Fresh from taking part in the dazzling nationwide celebration of Kenneth MacMillan's work, a severe change of gear is required as Birmingham Royal Ballet now turn their attention to Aladdin, for a brief run at Sadler's Wells....

Imagine This is considered and serious in its examination of life in the Warsaw Ghetto, but is ultimately let down by a plodding book and samey songs....

We're back in the world of ration books, blackouts and spam fritters, as Nicholas Wright delves into the home front via his adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's 1947 novel. Though there's a certain period chintz about Jonathan Kent's production, darker undercurrents make this a more complex proposition ...

The iconic film loses its way on transition from screen to stage in disappointing adaptation low on shocks....

59 years after it first premiered, Roger Gellert's Quaint Honour is revived as part of the fiftieth anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act. In 50s Great Britain, homosexuality is still illegal, but this doesn't deter the boys at boarding school. Following a dare, Tully (Harley Viveash) sets off to s...

This is the first in a series of original musicals that will be brought to Live at Z del thanks to New., whose aim is to showcase young, emerging talent on the stage. The Dysfunctional Guide To Being A Third Wheel was written by Henry Roadnight and Adam Johnson, and is a musical for the millennial g...

Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr's enterprise is certainly an historic one: The Bridge is London's first new wholly commercial theatre in 80 years. If its opening play isn't the same landmark work, it's nevertheless an auspicious start to a promising enterprise....

Sci-fi epic The War of the Worlds has received a number of adaptations over the years, and now, in time for its 120th anniversary, Midlands-based company Tin Robot Theatre have given the masterpiece a modern twist. It's an immersive and sensory experience, bringing the classic into today's world....

What do you get if you take a French film, a liberal portion of chocolate and a sprinkling of Emma Rice magic? The opening winter season production, Romantics Anonymous! This brand new musical, based on Les Emotifs Anonymes, plays for a limited time across the festive season and is Rice's final new ...

After a successful run in 2015/16, leading to an Olivier Award nomination, David Greig's stage adaptation of the Dr. Seuss tale is back at the Old Vic for a three-week run prior to a North American tour. Music and lyrics come from singer-songwriter Charlie Fink (recently seen at the same theatre wit...