UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

It's New Year's Eve 1999 and Jennifer (Elizabeth Chadwick) and Christopher (Simon Burr) are ready to host the party of the millennium. But as their guests begin to arrive, everything starts falling apart....

'The busy world is hushed. The fever of life is over and our work here is done.' Keith Bunin's play is an attempt to make sense of God's place in our lives, in the hope that from that discovery, one can learn how to love one other more beneficially....

Theatre N16's upstairs space has been turned into a bedroom attic, home to Wendy, Michael and John Darling. It's time for bed, but the boys want one more story, and so do the children sitting in the audience. Wendy agrees, and off we go....

A timely revival for Terry Johnson's play that delivers on its themes, but falls short on its drama....

In an exclusive collaboration, National Youth Theatre's Rep Company present Frantic Assembly's award-winning adaptation of Othello. This is the company's first staging of Shakespeare's text since its acclaimed 1995/1996 production starring Chiwetel Ejiofor in the title role....

There is always a risk in seemingly simple dramatic two-handers. Where there are no visual tricks, no impressive set changes or sparkling costumes, the whole play relies on the chemistry and repartee between the two actors. Robin Lefevre's excellent revival of Tom Kempinski's Duet For One needs no t...

With her most famous play, The Mousetrap, celebrating its 65th anniversary in London's West End, it only seems right for another of Agatha Christie's stage works to be brought back for a limited run. Based on the short story Traitor Hands, Christie adapted it into a play in the early 1950s - and it ...

Chekhov's classic is given a fresh update in this beautifully staged and passionately acted production....

The words 'an intimate evening with' may seem at odds with the cavernous Palladium. But leave it to the pint-sized Broadway legend with the huge voice to work her magic on the space. Somehow, with just a mic and a piano, Kristin Chenoweth put on a spectacular show and simultaneously formed a heartfe...

Daniel (James Lance) and Oliver (Joshua Silver) are the picture of a happy gay marriage. Now, they're about to have their first baby with their closest friend Priya (Chetna Pandya) acting as a surrogate. Chris Thompson's Of Kith and Kin, which premiered at Crucible Sheffield last month, is a powerfu...

Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea surfaces onto the Donmar stage, directed by soon-to-be Young Vic Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah and with a magnetic central performance from Nikki Amuka-Bird....

The Opera House's new season continues with a joyful celebration of Kenneth MacMillan, seeing the Royal Ballet joined by the country's other top companies for a rare spectacle....

The urge to present state-of-the-nation plays following the Brexit vote is understandable, even vital, but has produced decidedly mixed results. Thankfully, Mike Bartlett's empathetic Chekhovian response is a real winner: rich in loamy metaphor, yes, but also a gripping family drama crackling with h...

A frustrated New York thespian finds himself in the dusty hills of Nevada with two choices, follow instructions and foreclose the town's rundown theatre, or follow his heart and save it with a spectacular show....

Featuring the greatest hits of Dusty Springfield, including 'The Look Of Love', 'I Only Want To Be With You', 'Spooky' and of course, the classic 'Son Of A Preacher Man', this sparklingly funny and sweetly touching new musical play by internationally-renowned writer Warner Brown will have you laughi...

In Event of Moone Disaster marks Andrew Thompson's debut. The play was chosen by a panel for the 2016 Theatre503 playwright award, out of 1,629 scripts submitted from 52 countries....

Ten industry professionals have teamed up to create a step-by-step lesson plan for how to write a play for theatre. Edited by MA Dramatic Writing at Drama Centre course leader Jennifer Tuckett, The Student Guide to Writing: Playwriting is an accessible tool suitable for both new writers and seasoned...

Dominic Dromgoole's new company Classic Spring kicks off its year-long celebration of Oscar Wilde with lesser-known 1893 work A Woman of No Importance. A starry cast, led by the incandescent Eve Best, makes a strong case for the play, though Dromgoole's reclaiming of Wilde in the proscenium arch the...

David Ives's two-hander was first performed seven years ago Off-Broadway, before heading to Broadway and subsequently running in theatres around the world and being adapted to film by Polanski. Venus in Fur now has its West End premiere at Theatre Royal Haymarket, directed by Patrick Marber and sta...

A bittersweet trip back to a school in throes of Cool Britannia....

First performed in London in 1989 at the Piccadilly Theatre (with stars including the inimitable Brian Blessed), the musical version of Metropolis (by Joe Brooks and Dusty Hughes) has been revived for a short Off West End run at Ye Olde Rose and Crown in Walthamstow....

It seems to be the week for notable romcom two-handers. Joining Simon Stephens' Heisenberg and David Ireland's The End of Hope is David Eldridge's meditation on the loneliness and halting longing of modern relationships....

Hair The Musical is back for a 50th anniversary show, but only provokes Gary Naylor to turn on, tune in and drop off....

Soho Theatre and The Orange Tree Theatre present David Ireland's new play, The End of Hope, a revealing rollercoaster where no taboo is left untouched....

Chekhov's gorgeous masterpiece is given a dynamic reinvention by the Olivier Award-winning Simon Stephens at Lyric Hammersmith. It's a story of undying love, intense jealousy, weapons, alcohol and art....