UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

An Australian takeover comes to Peckham's painfully trendy Bussey Building with two writers from down under showing in a double bill. Raimondo Cortese's 'The Holiday' and Lally Katz's 'The Eisteddfod' are both darkly comic two man shows....

The West-End's Garrick Theatre played host to some of the UK's hottest upcoming musical talent at the eighth annual Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year Competition. The final saw 12 drama students from colleges across the UK deliver top-class performances of some of the stage's tr...

Gary Naylor sees an ambitious, clever and tremendously rewarding adaptation of Hilary Mantel's award-winning historical novels, transferred from the RSC's Stratford-upon-Avon home to the West End for a summer season....

Circles is the new play written by Rachel De-lahay; her third piece of writing following massive success with The Westbridge and Routes. Circles has two interweaving stories within it; two teenagers striking up an unlikely friendship on the number 11 bus and a mother watching over her daughter's att...

Award-winning children's author Michael Morpurgo has been pushed into the forefront since 2007 since his stage adaptation of War Horse was produced by the National Theatre to worldwide success. It is easy to forget that Morpurgo has written over 100 books for children since 1976; one of which is Pri...

After its award winning debut in 2013, Phoebe Waller-Bridge's one-woman show FLEABAG has returned to the Soho Theatre for what looks likely to be another sell-out run....

Richard Eyre's revival of this classic American musical is worth getting out of bed for. In Coronation Street, the machinists at Carla's knicker factory steal the petty cash and gossip over cream cakes. Rewind to 1954 and working conditions are very different. The unionised workers at Mr Hasler's pa...

Gary Naylor sees an ambitious, clever and tremendously rewarding adaptation of Hilary Mantel's award-winning historical novels, transferred from the RSC's Stratford-upon-Avon home to the West End for a summer season....

Gary Naylor sees a musical comedy that delivers as good a night's entertainment as any available in London, packing in jokes, songs and a few tugs at the heartstrings when we go backstage with the Ushers....

Gary Naylor sees Sharon Sexton's fabulous performance that brought Liza Minnelli to London in spirit, if not in person, after her cancellation of a summer tour. Well worth spending some of the refund at the Landor Theatre....

Featuring as part of the International Dance Festival Birmingham programme, Les 7 Doigts de la Main are currently playing at Birmingham Repertory Theatre with their show, Sequence 8....

New musical theatre is often showcased in fringe venues to test the water and see if the show could have success on a larger platform. Water Babies, however, has its first outing on the stage of one of the largest producing houses in the country, the Curve in Leicester. The production values are ext...

The heat certainly is on at the Prince Edward Theatre! Finally Miss Saigon has returned to the West End, and what a comeback it has made! At the second preview, the house was full, and as soon as the first note was heard from the orchestra pit you could hear a pin drop....

Gary Naylor sees an extraordinarily powerful performance of extracts of Oscar Wilde's De Profundis that successfully place Wilde the Man back at the centre of his story....

On Monday the Lyric Theatre became a temporary home to a large, famous and exceedingly talented cast and band, who performed Rags - all in aid of Centrepoint, the UK's leading charity for homeless people....

Gary Naylor sees a splendid adaptation of Wodehouse delivered with style and no little skill. The words that PG Wodehouse wrote simply leap off the page - the sparkling wit, the shimmering similes, the warm generosity...

A Spoonful? It's rather more than that - 90 years more! But if you're feeling exhausted by the long haul from January 1 to April 18 for a day off work, A Spoonful of Sherman (back at St James Theatre Studio until 22 April) will certainly help the medicine to go down....

Gary Naylor sees a play that has that touch of Marmite about it - you'll love it or you won't! It's hard to get a grip on the Constitution of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - Brits may have written plenty of constitutions around the world, but they didn't write one for them...

Gary Naylor sees Chekhov's classic updated, but diminished, saved by wonderful performances and the Russian's genius....

Jeffrey Lane and David Yazbek's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is making its West End debut, with a star-studded cast of miscreants. A fun, sweet romp of a show, this is surely one of 2014's theatrical highlights....

The word 'epic' is derived from Ancient Greek via Latin, but it really should come from Russian - just ponder the vastness, the history, even the National Anthem! Nobody does epic like Russia....

Jon Robin Baitz's Pulitzer-nominated OTHER DESERT CITIES is the latest Broadway hit to transfer to the Old Vic under Kevin Spacey's soon-to-finish tenure. It's also the start of a season of plays being performed in-the-round for the first time since 2008....

Gary Naylor sees a wonderfully entertaining musical about young love - and the X Factor - with an hilarious book from Harry Hill....

A month into their UK tour, Birdsong, produced by the Original Theatre Company and Birdsong Productions, is playing at the Birmingham Rep this week. This show is one of many on the road this year that marks the centenary of World War I and is based on the world famous novel by Sebastian Faulks....

Sometimes, fringe theatre is at its best when it's poking fun at the bigger brothers and sisters in the West End. USHERS: THE FRONT OF HOUSE MUSICAL is a fantastic tease, but this is no mere snarkfest - there's a heart underneath the satire....