UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

It's taken 15 years since opening on Broadway, but URINETOWN, directed by Jamie Lloyd, has finally hit London with quite a splash. This dystopian satire has sell-out crowds cheering at the stylish St James Theatre in Victoria....

Due to open on Friday at the Charing Cross Theatre, Ushers: The Front of House Musical is also being released by SimG Records on Monday so a busy week for this new British musical! The show was one of the finalists in last year's 'Search for a Composer' competition by West End Producer and following...

Gary Naylor sees a long play, full of good intentions, about the aftermath of World War I and its portents for the future....

Isy Suttie sings her way around London Town in this whimsical story about the family who invented the A-Z....

Gary Naylor enjoys a conversation with John Travolta that could have delivered more, but probably shouldn't have - an evening for fans, not investigative journalists....

THE FAT MAN'S WIFE, the latest of prolific American playwright Tennessee Williams's one-act plays, was only discovered among his writings in 2000, 27 years after he died. Now, 14 years later, Little Venice's Canal Cafe Theatre is hosting the UK premiere....

'Orwellian' is a word understood by millions of people who have never read George Orwell's books; 'Big Brother' and 'Room 101' are television shows that feel like they have been around since 1984; and screens fill our homes which we use to 'interact'....

It's back to the 80s (and the 50s, 60s, 70s, 90s and 00s) with a legend of the screen telling tales about some of the most famous names in entertainment. She may have played some bad bad women, but she is so lovely in real life - unless you're an ex-husband or a lawyer!...

Berlin fans were were out in force at the Royal Festival Hall for a new retrospective marking what would have been his 125th year....

Some people call Grease 2 a guilty pleasure. Many more consider it to simply be a bad film. And then there's the rest of us: people who come across it at an early age (often too young to understand what the 'Reproduction' lyrics we like to sing at the dinner table mean), genuinely love it to pieces ...

Following an acclaimed run at the Donmar Warehouse last year, Josie Rourke's production of Conor McPherson's play, set in an out-of-the-way pub in Ireland, transfers to the West End. A strong cast do justice to riveting dialogue....

Pantomime, even fairy tales, are not known for their well-rounded characters - and the cookie-cutter bad girls, The Ugly Sisters from Cinderella, are no exceptions. But what if they were not men in drag, not just caricatures on envy, not just vicious bullies - what if they were real women?...

A witty new translation of this raucous seventeenth-century comedy of mistaken identity marks the start of the Arcola's Spanish Golden Age season....

After a glorious limited run at Guildford's G Live last year, Stephen Sondheim's review Putting It Together finally makes its London debut....

Brought together by their father's suicide, sisters Abra and Samana are reunited in their parents' house ahead of the funeral. Brooklyn based actor and playwright Gregory Beam's new play KEEPSAKE, enjoying its world premier at Islington Old Red Lion Theatre, explores what happens when family secrets...

You are Home: The Songs of Anderson & Petty is Barry Anderson and Mark Petty's debut songbook album and like their transatlantic working relationship, the recording also showcases talent from both sides of the pond. A range of genres are performed meaning there is something for everyone. The recordi...

Andrew Lloyd Webber's newest work, Stephen Ward, is a musical portrayal of the Profumo Scandal that took place in the 1960s....

Her video went viral - and then she starred in her own sold-out cabarets at the London Hippodrome! No surprises for guessing Christina Bianco's highlights of the year......

Four lads bicker on stage in a multiplicity of languages - like a bad night in the Green Room at the Eurovision Song Contest. There's a slightly bossy one, a tall one, a sensitive one and a feisty little one. And on that familiar structure, Folds unfolds its extraordinary hour of circus, music, danc...

Like a giant teddy bear in a red nose, the Yellow Clown chases a balloon one minute, kicks through snow the next and, occasionally, clambers into the audience. He's a clown, but often a sad one, alone at first, until... Mayhem!...

Emily O'Keeffe won Best Supporting Actress in a Fringe/Regional Musical at this year's 2013 BWW:UK Awards - here she is with her certificate! She tells us what she's enjoyed most about the past year in theatre......

There was always going to be a great atmosphere at this gig. One of London's newest and best performance spaces - and just across the road from the Apollo Victoria - the St James Studio played host to Louise Dearman's Christmas cabaret, entitled 'The Perfect Year', and showcasing ner new album 'It's...

Kenneth Grahame's classic is a Christmas cracker for the whole family....

New musical thriller American Psycho has a killer cast, choreography is bloody excellent, and every line is executed brilliantly. It is totally and utterly brutal, yet artistically beautiful....

So, 109 shows reviewed in 2013 (with a couple more to come) - how to choose the best from that lot! Of course, I can't, as the variety and quality of London's theatre make comparisons invidious....