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Aliya Al-Hassan
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Review: THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, Opera Holland Park
Stormy weather and an enthusiastic audience mark Julia Burbach’s The Flying Dutchman as it proves a smashing success to open the 2025 season of Opera Holland Park....
Review: THE FROGS, Southwark Playhouse
The recent UK premiere of Here We Are, Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, certainly demonstrated that the much-mourned legend had his flaws. His aficionados already knew this, though – Sondheim had nearly as many flops as he had successes, and The Frogs was one of them....
Review: TALL STORIES: THE ELMER ADVENTURE, artsdepot
The Elmer Adventure, inspired by David McKee’s beloved patchwork elephant, bursts onto the stage with a kaleidoscope of colour and charm....
Brighton Fringe Review: THE LADYBOYS OF BANGKOK, Sabai Pavilion
If theatre is, at its best, a mirror held up to society then The Ladyboys of Bangkok offers that reflection in rhinestones, feather boas, and a kaleidoscope of pop anthems....
Brighton Fringe Review: HAVE YOU MET STAN? A NEW MUSICAL, The Grounds @ Platf9rm, Hove
There’s something quietly powerful about Have You Met Stan?, a new original musical by Bart Thiede, that has just had its final show at the Brighton Fringe. Set within the everyday hum of a pub, this Irish-Polish queer love story has sincerity and charm as it delves into the meet-cute between Seá...
Review: DIAGNOSIS, Finborough Theatre
You may not know Athena Stevens’s name, but you may remember her legal troubles: her allegations against Shakespeare's Globe of sexual abuse by a fellow actor and disability discrimination were widely reported in March this year. Now, after a period of what she terms “creative exile”, the Finb...
Review: POP OFF, MICHELANGELO!, Underbelly Boulevard Soho
#Pop Off, Michelangelo! might just be the gayest show in London right now. And that’s saying a lot. But this high camp new musical, overflowing with pop culture references, has to be seen to be believed. The show transports us to the Renaissance – no, not Beyonce’s hit album, the other one. Wh...
Review: AFTER THE ACT, Royal Court
To pin an entire show on one piece of local government legislation may seem an implausible move at first glance. But After The Act has made it happen, which is testament to the seismic impact and notoriety of its subject: Section 28, the Thatcher-era clause that, until 2003, forbade local authoritie...
Review: FAUST, Royal Ballet And Opera
Celebrating its sixth revival, David McVicar’s critically acclaimed production of Faust is a spectacular success with stunning sets and costumes, a magnificent cast, and some of Gounod’s greatest music....
BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: SPLIT ENDS, Rotunda Theatre Brighton (Squeak)
In Split Ends, writer-performer Claudia Schnier blurs the lines between autobiography and artifice with an intensity that lingers long after the house lights come up. Billed as a part-stand-up, part-puppetry piece, this visceral one-woman show defies easy categorisation—and that’s part of its po...
Review: OUTPATIENT, Park Theatre
A journalist writing a story about death and terminal illness finds out she herself is dying. The irony is off the charts, and it’s undeniably a fascinating set-up. Edinburgh Fringe hit Outpatient turns this premise into a witty one-person show, now running in Park Theatre’s studio space....
Review: RADIANT BOY, Southwark Playhouse
Back in 2023, the Royal Shakespeare Company celebrated the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio with a national playwriting competition. From over 2000 entries, 37, spanning all genres, were picked. Readings for the winning plays were held through the autumn of that year and subse...
Review Roundup: What Did Critics Think of MRS WARREN'S PROFESSION?
Vivie Warren is a woman ahead of her time. Estranged from her wealthy mother, she delights in a glass of whisky, a good detective story, and is determined to carve herself a sparkling legal career in an age ruled by men. Her mother, however, is a product of that old patriarchal order. Exploiting it ...
Review: MRS WARREN'S PROFESSION, Starring Imelda Staunton
Imelda Staunton leads a blistering revival...
Review: THE CRUCIBLE, Shakespeare's Globe
The Globe Theatre is no stranger to witches, but usually this takes the form of the Wyrd Sisters in the Scottish Play rather than a trip to Salem in the 1690s. It's a rare thing indeed for a non-Shakespeare play to take pride of place at the heart of the Globe Theatre during the summer season, let a...
Review: LITTLE BROTHER, Jermyn Street Theatre
Little Brother at Jermyn Street Theatre is essential viewing for its masterful transformation of harrowing migration narratives into an intimate, human story of fraternal devotion. I liked Wertenbaker's adaptation as it strikes the perfect balance between documentary-like authenticity and compelling...
Review Roundup: SHUCKED at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
Marking the start of Drew McOnie’s inaugural season, the award-winning corny musical Shucked has now opened at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. In a small town where the cherished corn crop is fading, Shucked follows farmgirl Maizy as she seeks help by going to the big city, shaking up the town'...
Review: BALLET BC DOUBLE BILL, Sadler’s Wells
Ballet BC present a double bill at Sadler’s Wells with work by heavyweight contemporary dancemakers of the present day.
...
Review: THE MUSICAL OF MUSICALS (THE MUSICAL!), Phoenix Arts Club
If there’s any fanbase that is totally unafraid of in-jokes and self-references, it’s musical theatre enthusiasts. This is a group of people who will quote a throwaway line from one of Sondheim’s lesser known shows and not care whether or not the joke lands. It’s that kind of sentiment that ...
Review: SHUCKED, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
Dying crops, a community in distress, scandals, affairs, Shucked was hailed as the pinnacle of musical comedy when it premiered in 2022. With a book by Robert Horn (writer of Tootsie and the stage adaptation of Disney’s Hercules, to mention a few credits), plus music and lyrics by country son...
Review Roundup: David Ireland's THE FIFTH STEP @sohoplace
After many years in the 12-step programme of Alcoholics Anonymous, James agrees to become the sponsor of newcomer Luka. On the cusp of Step 5, their conversations must turn to confessionals, with progress hinging on Luka revealing secrets that could lead back to alcohol. But it’s clear that James ...
Review: IN OTHER WORDS, Arcola Theatre
“That’s life”, sings Frank Sinatra over the sound system, in just one of the many hits from his back catalogue that makes up the soundtrack to In Other Words. And he has a point: this understated drama about the slow progress of Alzheimer’s disease, which returns to the Arcola after an accla...
Review: IL BARBIÈRE DI SIVIGLIA, Glyndebourne Festival
Opera buffa is an ever-popular genre of the art, and more than two centuries after its composition, Rossini's Il barbière di Siviglia remains one this genre's most often staged operas. The music and lyrics are pure genius, but the success of this particular opera comes from an inherent understand...
Review: THE LAST INCEL, Pleasance Theatre
Incel. As a word, its used as an insult, a harmful label, a warning. But what if the men who once was called the cautioned word started wearing it like a badge of honour and as a way to validate their disturbing behaviour?...
Review: THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY, Chichester Festival Theatre
Mark Addy and Jenna Russell lead a super cast in a show based on Rachel Joyce's runaway bestseller...
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