UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

#Pop Off, Michelangelo! might just be the gayest show in London right now. And that’s saying a lot. But this high camp new musical, overflowing with pop culture references, has to be seen to be believed. The show transports us to the Renaissance – no, not Beyonce’s hit album, the other one. Wh...

To pin an entire show on one piece of local government legislation may seem an implausible move at first glance. But After The Act has made it happen, which is testament to the seismic impact and notoriety of its subject: Section 28, the Thatcher-era clause that, until 2003, forbade local authoritie...

Celebrating its sixth revival, David McVicar’s critically acclaimed production of Faust is a spectacular success with stunning sets and costumes, a magnificent cast, and some of Gounod’s greatest music....

In Split Ends, writer-performer Claudia Schnier blurs the lines between autobiography and artifice with an intensity that lingers long after the house lights come up. Billed as a part-stand-up, part-puppetry piece, this visceral one-woman show defies easy categorisation—and that’s part of its po...

A journalist writing a story about death and terminal illness finds out she herself is dying. The irony is off the charts, and it’s undeniably a fascinating set-up. Edinburgh Fringe hit Outpatient turns this premise into a witty one-person show, now running in Park Theatre’s studio space....

Back in 2023, the Royal Shakespeare Company celebrated the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio with a national playwriting competition. From over 2000 entries, 37, spanning all genres, were picked. Readings for the winning plays were held through the autumn of that year and subse...

Vivie Warren is a woman ahead of her time. Estranged from her wealthy mother, she delights in a glass of whisky, a good detective story, and is determined to carve herself a sparkling legal career in an age ruled by men. Her mother, however, is a product of that old patriarchal order. Exploiting it ...

Imelda Staunton leads a blistering revival...

The Globe Theatre is no stranger to witches, but usually this takes the form of the Wyrd Sisters in the Scottish Play rather than a trip to Salem in the 1690s. It's a rare thing indeed for a non-Shakespeare play to take pride of place at the heart of the Globe Theatre during the summer season, let a...

Little Brother at Jermyn Street Theatre is essential viewing for its masterful transformation of harrowing migration narratives into an intimate, human story of fraternal devotion. I liked Wertenbaker's adaptation as it strikes the perfect balance between documentary-like authenticity and compelling...

Marking the start of Drew McOnie’s inaugural season, the award-winning corny musical Shucked has now opened at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. In a small town where the cherished corn crop is fading, Shucked follows farmgirl Maizy as she seeks help by going to the big city, shaking up the town'...

Ballet BC present a double bill at Sadler’s Wells with work by heavyweight contemporary dancemakers of the present day. ...

If there’s any fanbase that is totally unafraid of in-jokes and self-references, it’s musical theatre enthusiasts. This is a group of people who will quote a throwaway line from one of Sondheim’s lesser known shows and not care whether or not the joke lands. It’s that kind of sentiment that ...

Dying crops, a community in distress, scandals, affairs, Shucked was hailed as the pinnacle of musical comedy when it premiered in 2022. With a book by Robert Horn (writer of Tootsie and the stage adaptation of Disney’s Hercules, to mention a few credits), plus music and lyrics by country son...

After many years in the 12-step programme of Alcoholics Anonymous, James agrees to become the sponsor of newcomer Luka. On the cusp of Step 5, their conversations must turn to confessionals, with progress hinging on Luka revealing secrets that could lead back to alcohol. But it’s clear that James ...

“That’s life”, sings Frank Sinatra over the sound system, in just one of the many hits from his back catalogue that makes up the soundtrack to In Other Words. And he has a point: this understated drama about the slow progress of Alzheimer’s disease, which returns to the Arcola after an accla...

Opera buffa is an ever-popular genre of the art, and more than two centuries after its composition, Rossini's Il barbière di Siviglia remains one this genre's most often staged operas. The music and lyrics are pure genius, but the success of this particular opera comes from an inherent understand...

Mark Addy and Jenna Russell lead a super cast in a show based on Rachel Joyce's runaway bestseller...

Plays like The Fifth Step don't come around often. Those whose layered philosophical exoskeleton props up their own dramatic contradictions in quietly superb theatre. At its core, though less pure black comedy and more complex introspective drama coated in dark irony than what you’d expect from Da...

It’s common to hear about people moving to New York City in order to find themselves and start their path. Something not as common? Moving from New York City to a small village in rural Germany. But that’s exactly what the family of Alexis Sakellaris does when he’s only eight years old, and it...

Chloe Radcliffe: CHEAT begins with a bang - literally, with Radcliffe telling the audience about the time that she “lived a porn” and had sex with the FedEx delivery driver. It’s a surprising start to the show, but it certainly sets the tone for the show, with Radcliffe revealing a secret that...

In the Jez Butterworth canon, it’s easy to overlook Parlour Song. First staged at the Almeida in 2009 and not revived in the UK since, this kitchen sink drama lacks the fiery polemicism of The Ferryman or the bold state-of-the-nation reflectiveness of Jerusalem. Greenwich Theatre Artistic Director...

Rumours are flying, people are fucking, and the queen’s been taken to the tower. Ava Pickett’s debut play 1536 tears through a story of female sexuality and male violence, bringing a distinctly twenty-first century language and sensibility to the era of Anne Boleyn....

Lindsay Posner’s austere production is almost obsequiously faithful to the text...

Mischief’s new action-packed thriller The Comedy About Spies is gripping audiences with laughter at the Noël Coward Theatre. The multi award-winning team behind The Play That Goes Wrong and The Comedy About a Bank Robbery step into 1960s London in this hilarious spy caper full of misunderstandin...