UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

It is said that we stand on the shoulders of those who have come before. In April De Angelis's Playhouse Creatures, she celebrates five women who were clever innovators and brave pioneers of the stage at a time when female actors were openly objectified, judged and derided....

Azuka Oforka’s powerful debut play transports us to the Llanrumney sugar estate in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica, in 1765, where Elizabeth Morgan (Nia Roberts) lays the law as an unwed modern entrepreneur who’s facing the failure of her crops. All of a sudden, the threat to their survival exacerbat...

Some diamonds in the rough, but why can't we choose for ourselves from the BBC archive?...

Nick Hyde’s tragicomic Double Act uses clowning and comedy to tell the story of a young man (played by Hyde and Oliver Maynard in white face paint) who wakes up and sets off to kill himself somewhere on the South Coast. He has a few things, though, to tick off his list before he throws himself off...

After a sellout run in Australia, Plied & Prejudice, written by Matthew Semple and directed by Dash Kruck, is ready to booze it up in London, taking the classic Jane Austen work and turning it into a comedy in which five actors desperately try to get through the story with a few modern twists....

Walking into the Soho Theatre Upstairs for What If They Ate The Baby feels a bit like entering an alternate universe that’s a strange mix between the 1950s and the modern day. Audience members are greeted by a set made to look like a kitchen, with checkered floors, table and chairs and a window fr...

Ryan Calais Cameron’s tight knit three-hander cuts deeper than a meditation on money or morality....

With plenty of colour, masks, and a mystical ambience, Andrei Șerban’s 1984 production of Turandot feels just as fresh as ever. Paired with a stellar cast on top form, it represents a great success, all around....

The Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival continues across venues in London with the Lyon Opera Ballet presenting Merce Cunningham Forever. Cunningham needs no introduction…yet somehow we see very little of his work performed in the UK. It comes down to the Europeans (again) giving us ...

One thought rattled around my head all night while watching this radical take on Paradise Lost: how would God react to all of this? Would Jehovah, The Almighty, Him Up There be more or less angry than he was at the original text? Would He raise a solitary finger and cast lightning down on the venue?...

Dulcé Sloan, a former senior correspondent for The Daily Show, is bringing her stand-up show to London at the Soho Theatre. Unlike most comedy shows at the venue, there really is no description for her show on the site, giving it a bit of an air of mystery as audience members head downstairs to the...

Dear England dives deep into England's football culture and the pressures of success....

Quite where The Tindersticks fit into the modern era is a bit of a mystery. The latest tour brings this band to the Royal Albert Hall for a show that celebrates their recent successes and their mellifluous back catalogue....

After two sold-out runs at The Crypt in 2023, Sleepwalk Immersive’s Bacchanalia and the world of Thebes has returned to London, this time at Hoxton Hall. The show, directed by Sebastian Huang (Artistic Director for Sleepwalk Immersive), takes the story of The Bacchae by Euripedes and places it in ...

Horrendous events in Guyana, now almost 50 years ago, provides the subject matter that this extraordinary company carry forward by harnessing every element of the power of theatre...

Vampires have always had that sexy je ne sais quoi. Whether they have ever been this sexy and this funny at the same time is a different question. Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen give Bram Stoker a run for his money with their sensational adaptation of the most famous of blood-suckers. Dracula, A C...

Clueless is a new musical comedy based on the Paramount Pictures classic film. The modern spin on Jane Austen’s Emma gets another timeless makeover from the original film’s writer-director alongside a majorly acclaimed creative team....

Havisham, written and performed by Heather Alexander with direction and dramaturgy by Dominque Gerrard, offers a compelling backstory to one of literature's most enigmatic characters. This one-woman show opens with a ghoulish, macabre set that perfectly establishes the tone for this exploration of ...

Have you ever heard of a cargo cult? Pierre Novellie has, and he’s ready to tell the audience all about it. Pierre Novellie: Must We? is Novellie’s newest hour of comedy and takes a look at the fairness (or unfairness) and expectations of life, using his own as an example. ...

Turning one of the world’s most famous children’s works into a lively stage adventure populated with quirky characters and illustrated by marvellous sights sounds like a money-making machine. So how does this production get it so wrong?...

It’s 30 years since Amy Heckerling’s American high school adaptation of Emma hit cinema screens, so how better to mark that than with a move to the stage? Fresh from try-outs in Bromley last year, the musical adaptation has just opened in the West End; Heckerling’s book is backed by music from...

Both a quiet act of defiance against the current theatre landscape and a show of solidarity with those striving to create within it. It also stands as a testament to the talent behind it—Rachel Lemon’s direction, in particular, is exceptional....

We live in a time where Trump has been accusing the Democratic Party of Communism since his first campaign. He even went as far as describing last year’s election as “a choice between communism and freedom.” But the United States have been on the fear-mongering route for much longer than Trump...

It would be fair to say Weather Girl was the talk of last year’s Edinburgh Fringe. With a Scotsman Fringe First, a Lustrum Award, and a queue stretching back into the Summerhall courtyard, it was only a matter of time until this sweltering success got a much-anticipated London transfer. Now fully ...

As one might guess from the title, the show delves into the anxiety that Barnes has faced over the years and how it has affected her life in both serious and funny moments. She also discusses other aspects of her personality, including how her synesthesia allows her to see abstract concepts as colou...