UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Before the world had an understanding of the word feminism, Charlotte Bronte was delivering a masterpiece tutorial in female independence and emancipation. Jane Eyre demonstrates that being plain and poor is no barrier to a desire for knowledge and the quest for love and liberation. The story is ...

'My mother says you're tragedy personified,' reports a precocious child to Carol, who recently attempted suicide. It's typical of Alice Birch's harrowing new play, which wrings blistering humour as well as despair from its accomplished portrait of women in pain and their disconnect from those around...

Continuing Chichester Festival Theatre's run of plays, prior to its first musical offering of the season, is Tennessee Williams' 1959 work Sweet Bird of Youth. It comes a few months after Williams' classic The Glass Menagerie enjoyed an Olivier-nominated run at the Duke of York's Theatre in London's...

In this febrile climate, do we want societal critique from our theatre or pure escapism? As I experienced when I recently swapped BroadwayWorld UK Editor duties for a New York trip, both theatrical regions are currently just as charged by provocative, resonant commentary as by jazz hands ­– as th...

What is the purpose of life? Is it to climb to the top? In theory, a person's success should be a product of their hard work, talent and ambition....

Directed by Anna Ledwich, Kiss Me is passionately and heartbreakingly intimate. Stephanie (Claire Lams), a war widow, struggles to reconcile her role as a "modern woman" with her longing to have a baby. She is met by a man, Dennis (Ben Lloyd-Hughes), whose job is to give exactly what the woman wants...

After recent performances of new choreography from Crystal Pite, Wayne McGregor and Liam Scarlett, one could be forgiven for believing the Royal Ballet has dragged itself reluctantly into the 21st Century. Perhaps it's an overly emotional response, there is something wonderfully reassuring and warm ...

Jon Robyns, Cassie Compton and Ruth Madoc lead an impressive UK tour of the musical adaption of the 1998 hit romantic comedy film....

Following the success of Dr Seuss's The Lorax during the festive season of 2015-16, and prior to its return this autumn, the creative team have reunited to create an original piece of theatre from the first solo outing by singer-songwriter Charlie Fink (formerly frontman for Noah and the Whale). It ...

With a burst of passionate tango and an iconic 'click click', everyone's favourite kooky family has taken up residence at the Birmingham Hippodrome this week, the latest tour venue hosting the UK premiere of The Addams Family musical. A cult fan favourite, thanks to the wildly popular Nineties movie...

As eavesdropping opportunities go, the barber shop has everything a playwright could desire: a constant stream of close encounters and a broad range of people willing to sit still and talk. That talk feeds directly into Inua Ellams' new play for the National, which follows a day in the life of male ...

Has there ever been a time when we're more in need of irrepressible optimism? The orphan who convinces everyone around her that 'the sun will come out tomorrow' has certainly hit the West End at an opportune moment, and there's plenty of enjoyment to be had from a show that is, nevertheless, far mor...

With Wicked going strong across the world, and Hamilton a few months away from its much anticipated West End transfer, it seems like the perfect time for the European première of a reworked musical that features compositions from the pens of both Stephen Schwartz and Lin-Manuel Miranda, as well as ...

This take on the Hollywood classic Thoroughly Modern Millie last played Broadway back in 2002. However, regardless of the casts plucky efforts to inject some New York panache to proceedings, 'Millie' emerges as a particularly poor choice for revisiting in 2017. The story features threads that sit un...

It's entirely possible that there will one day be a fascinating Heart of Darkness-esque documentary about the making of Common. We can only hope, because the creation of something so extraordinary, so wilfully bewildering, on the National's biggest stage is surely a story worth telling....

Northern Ballet has a reputation for pioneering contemporary, narrative ballet, but this may be its most challenging subject to date. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas has been a book and later a film, both of which have seen their fair share of controversy. In a tale praised and criticised in equal...

Like other young men, Jack, a 25-year-old with a learning disability, has needs and desires, and his parents don't want him to feel left out of significant life experiences, so they decide to hire a prostitute to arrange their son's first sexual encounter. Julia will slip into the cracks of a marri...

With Donald Trump's social media habits regularly causing a stir worldwide, it seems quite apt for the latest Park Theatre production to focus on this wide-ranging topic. Chris England's play Twitstorm revolves around popular TV host Guy Manton's spectacular fall from grace as a tweet from his offic...

La Strada, adapted from the Fellini movie is a play with music that captures the style and ethics of a classic movie, indeed the Neo-Realism style....

Before jetting off to Broadway to direct Jack Thorne's King Kong musical, Olivier winner Drew McOnie has returned to the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre to revive On the Town. Set over twenty-four hours in 1944, the musical follows three American sailors on shore leave in New York. Each has a whirlwi...

How much are you in control of the choices you make? This is the central question posed by 1927's Golem - a story inspired by the myth of the clay man Golem but given a distinctly modern edge over 90mins of exhilarating and ingenious theatre....

Vixen updates Leos Janacek's opera for the victims of Generation Rent moving the action into the big city of 2017 with hi tech and great singing....

Edward Fox stars in the one-man tribute to Great Britain's most acclaimed Poet Laureate John Betjeman. Following a successful UK tour, Sand in the Sandwiches is a verbal tour de force for the actor, who, at the age of 80, delivers a distinguished transposition of the artist....

Seen by many as one of the greatest plays of the 20th century, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman has been performed in many guises since its first production in 1949....

Annie Get Your Gun delivers wonderful, uncynical entertainment, the romance studded with some of the finest songs ever written for the theatre....