UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

After You is the first musical to be performed at The Crazy Coqs venue, deep under Piccadilly Circus at Brasserie Zedel in London's West End. Childhood friends and musical collaborators Katie Lam and Alex Parker were commissioned to create a musical specifically for the venue and the result is a tim...

Following the sell-out run in 2015 at The Vaults deep under Waterloo Station, Les Enfants Terribles' and ebp bring their Olivier award nominated Alice's Adventures Underground back to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll's beloved book. Less like a gentle retelling of the story and more ...

Mike Leigh wrote his most famous play, Abigail's Party, 40 years ago, as a reaction to the boom in consumerism after the war and as a general commentary at the absurdism of class aspiration. Set in a suburban 70s house, Beverly and her staid estate agent husband Laurence are hosting that most potent...

Nuclear War comprises elements of drama, dance, mime and song to create a dystopian vision of an alienating present that seemed both overly familiar and hazily unfocused....

Christopher Hampton's 1969 take on Moliere's The Misanthrope is often played with actors older than their characters, but director Simon Callow has recruited some of TV's bright young things to play the solipsistic academics. It may well attract new audiences to the West End, but this uncomfortable ...

Jessica Swale's play about the unlikely heroine who went from lowly orange seller to national treasure features a stand-out titular performance by Laura Pitt-Pulford....

Whisper House comprises some lovely songs beautifully sung, but lacks the narrative drive one expects in musical theatre....

After breaking up five years prior, Charlie (Samuel Lawrence) writes a quite melodramatic letter to Vic (Katharine Davenport), his ex-girlfriend, confessing how he is dead inside, and how he almost feels as if he were rotting away. He is a medical mystery, his heart is not pumping any blood and his ...

It's back to the 90s at the King's Head for a show brimming with that decade's biggest hits sung wonderfully well....

Six-time Tony winner and reigning Queen of Broadway - plus 'Olivier Award presenter', jokes partner-in-crime Seth Rudetsky in his introduction (though surely that's just a matter of time, with her Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill coming to Wyndham's this summer) - lauded actress and singer Audra ...

The English National Opera (ENO) have been criticised in recent years for their staging of musicals. The last two years have seen the company-whose home is the London Coliseum-score huge success with their adaptations of Sweeney Todd and Sunset Boulevard (which starred Hollywood icon Glen Close) and...

Arthur Miller's The Crucible was written in response to the McCarthy-era in America, as an allegory for the witch hunts against supposed communists. The presidential order resulted in an obsession with exposing the 'red under the bed', destroying friendships and disrupting communities with fear and ...

Bill Rosenfield premieres his play 46 Beacon in the United Kingdom with director Alexander Lass at the helm. His tale of identity, pride, and becoming is warm and viciously funny at Trafalgar Studios....

The sun and stars were out at the same time this afternoon as London's theatre community descended upon the Royal Albert Hall for this year's Olivier Awards. With excitement high, the nominees, presenters and guests were all keen to share their hopes and predictions for the evening ahead....

Macbeth's grim pursuit of power, with his Lady prompting and then agonising in the background, is brought to life in this low budget, committed production....

Edinburgh Music Theatre's return to the King's Theatre doesn't disappoint, with Bock's music and Harnick's lyrics portrayed clearly and passionately....

In the Barbican's vast space, Cheek by Jowl presents their formidable, modern-dress take on Shakespeare's account of blind jealousy, suspicion, abandonment, loss, and young love. The company is back for the first time since their 2015 Measure for Measure, as part of a new global tour....

Alexandra Burke leads a strong ensemble in director Craig Revel Horwood's re-imagining of the hit West End and Broadway musical, which features a tuneful score by Alan Menken....

The late, great Edward Albee is certainly having a West End 'moment', but it rather places this particular revival at a disadvantage, comparing unfavourably as it does with the shattering, unforgettable Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? a few streets away....

Written and directed by Adura Onashile, Expensive Shit is not afraid to show an uncomfortable truth. Going back and forth between Lagos in 1994 and Glasgow in 2013, the play revolves around Tolu, a toilet attendant, and her relationship to women and men around her....

If Matthew Bourne had set out to produce a dance show to express the sentiments of Brexit, he couldn't have done it more effectively than this. The fact that Early Adventures is a mixed bag of pieces he made almost 30 years ago is by the by: two thirds of the evening is a fond and gently satirical e...

Amidst the middle-class small talk between two couples, one reeling from the arrival of a new baby, comes a shocking confession: 'I've been raping pensioners.' What kind of monsters are we dealing with here? Well, legal ones - it's barrister speak. Having tackled the NHS in Tiger Country, Nina Raine...

The curtain rises just high enough to reveal a long line of tapping feet: a thoroughly appropriate intro, as those feet are the real stars of the show. The plot might centre around a leading lady battle, but this loving backstage fairy tale is really a paean to the chorus - the hard-working, unceasi...

When Laura Wade's Posh premiered at the Royal Court in 2010, its dark promise that these destructive student toffs - members of the Riot Club, a loosely fictional version of Oxford's Bullington - would one day run the country had a timely frisson: former club members David Cameron, George Osborne a...

Celebrating the 150th year from its first production, Caste at Finborough Theatre is an underwhelming classist act with a polyester feel....