Our UK / West End Critics
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Aliya Al-Hassan
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Amber-Rae Stobbs
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Caroline Cronin
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Cheryl Markosky
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Cindy Marcolina
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Debbie Gilpin
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Franco Milazzo
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Gary Naylor
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Kat Mokrynski
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Mica Blackwell
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Michael Higgs
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Vikki Jane Vile
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Review: THE FIFTH STEP, starring Martin Freeman and Jack Lowden
Plays like The Fifth Step don't come around often. Those whose layered philosophical exoskeleton props up their own dramatic contradictions in quietly superb theatre. At its core, though less pure black comedy and more complex introspective drama coated in dark irony than what you’d expect from Da...
Review: A STAN IS BORN!, Riverside Studios
It’s common to hear about people moving to New York City in order to find themselves and start their path. Something not as common? Moving from New York City to a small village in rural Germany. But that’s exactly what the family of Alexis Sakellaris does when he’s only eight years old, and it...
Review: CHLOE RADCLIFFE: CHEAT, Soho Theatre
Chloe Radcliffe: CHEAT begins with a bang - literally, with Radcliffe telling the audience about the time that she “lived a porn” and had sex with the FedEx delivery driver. It’s a surprising start to the show, but it certainly sets the tone for the show, with Radcliffe revealing a secret that...
Review: PARLOUR SONG, Greenwich Theatre
In the Jez Butterworth canon, it’s easy to overlook Parlour Song. First staged at the Almeida in 2009 and not revived in the UK since, this kitchen sink drama lacks the fiery polemicism of The Ferryman or the bold state-of-the-nation reflectiveness of Jerusalem. Greenwich Theatre Artistic Director...
Review: 1536, Almeida Theatre
Rumours are flying, people are fucking, and the queen’s been taken to the tower. Ava Pickett’s debut play 1536 tears through a story of female sexuality and male violence, bringing a distinctly twenty-first century language and sensibility to the era of Anne Boleyn....
Review: THE DEEP BLUE SEA, Theatre Royal Haymarket
Lindsay Posner’s austere production is almost obsequiously faithful to the text...
Review: BEARABLE SEQUENCE, Golden Goose Theatre
This piece, along with the fight it is fighting, is not quite finished yet. This exceptionally promising play is something I think needs to be sat in for a while to fully immerse yourself in the understanding of it. ...
Review Roundup: THE COMEDY ABOUT SPIES from Mischief Theatre
Mischief’s new action-packed thriller The Comedy About Spies is gripping audiences with laughter at the Noël Coward Theatre. The multi award-winning team behind The Play That Goes Wrong and The Comedy About a Bank Robbery step into 1960s London in this hilarious spy caper full of misunderstandin...
Review: NORTHERN BALLET - JANE EYRE, Sadler’s Wells
The dance world is all the richer for having different kinds of storytellers - no doubt. But equally, audience members will inevitably gravitate towards makers they feel a connection with.
I should be clear - I don't connect with Cathy Marston’s take on narrative dance, or perhaps just Jane Eyre ...
Review: THE COMEDY ABOUT SPIES, Noel Coward Theatre
Has there been a British comedy franchise as successful as Mischief’s since the days of the Carry On films? While The Play That Goes Wrong is still going strong in the West End and New York, their latest The Comedy About Spies rolls off the conveyor belt at the Noël Coward Theatre....
Review: HOUSE OF GAMES, Hampstead Theatre
Beautifully performed, but somewhat vanilla, Richard Bean's adaptation lacks a necessary bite...
Review: INSANE ASYLUM SEEKERS, Bush Theatre
Laith’s parents have survived unimaginable atrocities in order to save themselves and give him a better chance, yet he struggles. This exploration of the personal consequences of the Arab diaspora cracks open the constant compromising of immigrant children. Emily Ling Williams directs Tommy Sim�...
Review: DEAR ANNIE, I HATE YOU, Riverside Studios
Sam is a football-loving, tomboyish young woman with a lifetime of fun ahead of her. That’s until a violent accident on the pitch puts an end to the carefree part of her youth. All of a sudden, she is ruled by a mercurial new enemy, Annie the aneurysm, who threatens to burst at all times. Gone are...
Review: ROMEO & JULIET, Royal Ballet And Opera
Considering Kenneth MacMillan’s production of Romeo and Juliet is 60 years old…it looks as fresh as a daisy.
This is no mean feat. As when a company is familiar with a ballet it can become stale before you know it - but this absolutely isn't the case, so bravo to all involved.
...
Review: BALLET TO BROADWAY: WHEELDON WORKS, Royal Ballet And Opera
It's a big deal to have an entire evening dedicated to your work, so kudos to Christopher Wheeldon, who's achieved this accolade in his early 50s.
Wheeldon deserves recognition, as he's a renowned choreographer of skill and range with an ever-increasing canon. And Ballet to Broadway: Wheeldon Works...
Review: REMYTHED, King's Head Theatre
“Stories are always being put through the wash, and end up with a sock in there which was never there before.” It’s an old sentiment, the idea that mythological tradition is fluid by its very nature, but somehow, in the hands of Remythed’s company, it feels new....
Review: MEOW MEOW: IT'S COME TO THIS, Soho Theatre
Somewhere in a parallel dimension, there’s a version of Melissa Madden Gray that became an internationally renowned singer, as comfortable in French, Italian and German as English. In another one, she finds herself an in-demand circus clown able to bring the house down with her wickedly funny cock...
Review: THE MAD ONES, The Other Palace
There won’t be any big road movie for Samantha Brown. There could have been, but there won’t. Not after her brazen best friend, Kelly, died unexpectedly. As she sits on the hood of Kelly’s old faithful, she ponders her limbo: stay back and watch life pass her by with an overly protective mum a...
Review Roundup: What Did the Critics Think of Sondheim's Final Work, HERE WE ARE?
Stephen Sondheim’s final work, Here We Are, is directed by two-time Tony Award-winner Joe Mantello with book by Tony Award-nominee David Ives. It is now open at the National Theatre with an all-star cast including Jane Krakowski and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. So what did the critics think?...
Review: HERE WE ARE, National Theatre
Other eat-the-rich satires that have sharper teeth and larger appetites....
Review: SNAP: A NEW MUSICAL, King's Head Theatre
There’s something of the film Challengers in the pivotal scene of Snap, when an earnest male model and the lecherous photographer he’s working with end up in bed with each other’s partners, and all four actors anxiously sing their way through their tangled professional and personal lives. Than...
Review: EINKVAN, The Coronet Theatre
This production is a treat. Einkvan (Everyman) is a play about connection, humanity, and intimacy. Written by Jon Fosse – the most performed Norwegian playwright after Ibsen and winner of the Nobel Prize in 2023 – it’s a haunting, longing journey. The search for compassion and kinship unfold...
Review: RAMBERT X (LA)HORDE: BRING YOUR OWN, Southbank Centre
Collaborations are very now, and the Rambert x (LA)HORDE combination is a very worthwhile experiment. It brings together the UK's longest running contemporary dance company (with classical ballet beginnings) and one of France's most of the moment collectives (who also run the Ballet National de Mars...
Review: FAYGELE, Marylebone Theatre
Faygele deserves credit for its empathy, and how it can resonate with those both within and outside the Jewish and queer communities....
Review: THE EMPIRE STRIPS BACK: A BURLESQUE PARODY, Riverside Studios
The Empire Strips Back has docked at Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios. With over two hours of themed fun based on the original Star Wars film trilogy, it bills itself tautologically as “a burlesque parody” (the word burlesque comes from the Italian burla meaning a joke or ridicule). ...
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