UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Blondel The Musical has elements of pantomime and elements of the real punch of musical theatre in a show that works well only intermittently....

After a 20-year absence, acclaimed American singer Lorna Dallas returns to cabaret with Home Again, a music medley that pairs classics by celebrated composers with less well-known, personal favourites chosen by Dallas herself....

James Graham's portrait of Seventies politics, This House, recently enjoyed a West End outing, and his latest epic venture into Britain's past may well follow suit. If slightly weighed down by detailed research, it's still a riveting depiction of the birth of The Sun as we know it, and the revoluti...

Originally staged at Bristol Old Vic in 2014, Jane Eyre then transferred to London's National Theatre and toured in 2015. Now on a new UK tour, this co-production shows Bronte's beloved classic magnificently refreshed and reinvented for the stage....

One American great inhabits another in this superior cabaret, as the Broadway legend Audra McDonald slips into the skin - and unforgettable voice - of jazz icon Billie Holiday. The emotional sensitivity makes it far more than just an immensely skilful impersonation, and makes McDonald's delayed West...

James Bridie's Mr Gillie comes to the London stage after more than 60 years. Helmed by Jenny Eastop, this production is a successful portrait of love and passion for art and education....

With searingly topical timing, this summer sees the Lyric Hammersmith presenting the UK premiere of Terror, a tense courtroom drama by German lawyer and writer Ferdinand von Schirach which has become something of a worldwide hit. The premise is simple enough: a trial is undertaken on stage and the w...

Owners of a passed-down takeaway joint on an Australian highway, sisters Elma (Emma Playfair) and Nancy's (Lily Newbury-Freeman) unstable relationship is challenged on a daily basis between running the shop and dealing with their past. When they decide to turn their activity into a proper restaurant...

As London temperatures soar, Bat Out Of Hell - a scorching hot new musical - has opened at the ENO London Coliseum following its recent premier in Manchester....

American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins asserts that the nightmarish workplace depicted in Gloria bears little resemblance to his time at the New Yorker, but that tension between truth and imagination adds a nicely meta layer to this spiky portrait of the ways in which we appropriate, fictionalis...

Set in early 20th-century York, Everything Is Possible tells the moving story of Annie Seymour-Pearson, a local housewife who risked her life to fight for the right to vote....

Upon being discharged from the Marine Corps, Isaac (Arthur Darvill) goes back home only to find an anarchically ruled household at hand of his mother (Ashley McGuire). Fed up with domestic patriarchy, Paige seized the opportunity given by her abusive husband Arthur (Andy Williams) having a stroke t...

Director Paul Jepson expressed in an interview in the show's programme that he was not at all daunted by the technical challenges of staging an adaptation of E. Nesbit's The Railway Children....

It's been over 10 years since the comedy musical Blondel was last seen on stage in London and with a new production about to open at the Union Theatre, Stage Door Records has released the Original London Cast album as a timely reminder of the wonderfully wacky show....

These Tress Are Made Of Blood tells the story of Argentina's Dirty War using cabaret as a vehicle to describe the horrors and the politics that drove it....

How can a truth be told? How can a secret be spoken? The shame, guilt and fear of our childhood can haunt us into adulthood. A betrayed schoolboy, a Japanese soldier, and the inventor of the saxophone all have something in common - the desire to be heard. Raw, thought-provoking and never self-indulg...

Following a sold-out Almeida run, Robert Icke's thoughtfully contemporary take on Shakespeare hits the West End, with its original cast mainly intact (Derbhle Crotty succeeds Juliet Stevenson as Gertrude on 4 July). The big draw, of course, is the superb Andrew Scott in the title role, but Icke's pr...

The stage adaptation of the iconic 1987 film embarks on a second UK tour, with a stand-out performance by Carlie Milner as Penny....

In this new production, Bristol Old Vic and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School demonstrate that inventive design and captivating young talent is a recipe for a bold, visceral retelling of Shakespeare's political tragedy Julius Caesar....

Another tale of doomed love continues Emma Rice's 'Summer of Love' apace. Currently making its way around the country, Kneehigh's revival production of their much-beloved Tristan & Yseult weighs anchor at the Globe for a short run before continuing its UK tour. It sits somewhere in between concurren...

15-year-old Christopher Boone has an extraordinary mind. He can solve maths problems that would send most adults into a mild panic and he can remember levels of detail that confound those around him. He also, however, hates the colour yellow, can't use a toilet if a stranger has used it and has neve...

The Heather Brothers are back with their new heavenly blaspheme musical comedy Holy Crap!. After launching the first pay-per-view religious channel in Great Britain, the American Bobby Del La Ray (John Addison), The "Hallelujah Cowboy", soon realises that there is no market for such an enterprise in...

Anthony Biggs presents the UK premiere of Maxim Gorky's 1908 The Last Ones in a highly dramatic and touching production that nevertheless feels ultimately insubstantial....

Following a successful national tour, Ramps on the Moon's co-production of The Who's Tommy continues its journey with a run at Theatre Royal Stratford East this month. Ramps on the Moon is a budding consortium that is associating closely with several UK theatres and theatre companies as they work on...