UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

After a rather muted reception of The Tempest, fans of director Jamie Lloyd’s work can breathe a sigh of relief. It seems that he has discovered both fun and colour in this brilliant and bold version of Much Ado About Nothing starring Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell....

Richard II is played by Jonathan Bailey, whose past work includes Bridgerton, Fellow Travellers, Cassio in Nicholas Hytner’s National Theatre production of Othello and Edgar to Ian McKellen’s King Lear. He has also won an Olivier Award for his role of Jamie in Company and is Fiyero in the Wicked...

AI and ChatGPT are yesterday’s news but artificial general intelligence - and the very existential threat it presents - may very well be tomorrow’s....

The premise of The Shark is Broken is deceptively simple; three men in a boat, waiting and talking. We meet the cast of a new film in 1974 when Bruce the mechanical shark, necessary for the whole shoot, is indeed broken. Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and Richard Dreyfuss would go on to star in the icon...

As someone with a love for musicals and comedy who grew up with an odd fascination around the Titanic and its tragic end, you can only imagine the excitement I felt seeing the press release for Jordan Brookes: Fontanelle. A comedy looking at the commodification of the Titanic that also has some musi...

Sara Bareilles writes the songs and sings them in a production brought to the screen for the first time...

Set in a corporate building’s executive ladies’ room in Seattle and with its tagline promising us a story of “holding on, letting go and everything in between”, Liesl Wilke’s new musical Stalled makes its world premiere at Kings Head Theatre....

And so to the final new production of English National Opera’s season; Mary, Queen of Scots, directed by Stewart Laing and conducted by Joana Carneiro. Scottish composer Thea Musgrave’s opera was last heard in London at Sadler’s Wells back in 1980, after premiering in Edinburgh in 1977, with ...

Super play that creates a fragile world between two people...

Desperation, desire and dance in a drowned world...

Airlock Theatre has returned to Soho Theatre with their “third big queer musical extravaganza” - Count Dykula. Written and performed by Eleanor Colville, Rosanna Suppa and Robbie Taylor Hunt, the show tells the story of the titular Count Dykula (Suppa), a butch vampire who simply wants to live h...

A nation in need, an unsuitable king, banishments, murders, attempted coups. Richard II has it all and so does Jonathan Bailey. He might be dancing through Hollywood and hanging out with the biggest celebs, but he proves that he’s still one of us with this triumphant return to the stage....

Ensemble work tells an important story, but too quickly and too loudly for its full horror to sink in...

Unicorn is Mike Bartlett's explicit, funny and provocative new play, directed by James Macdonald, starring Nicola Walker, Stephen Mangan and Erin Doherty. What did the critics think?...

You would think that Nicola Walker and Stephen Mangan had had enough of acting roles surrounding marital discord. In Abi Morgan's hugely popular TV series The Split, the pair have been up and down on the rollercoaster of marriage for years. Now reunited on stage, alongside Erin Doherty, for Mike B...

Amy Leach directs Tatty Hennessy’s adaptation of Orwell’s shockingly relevant novella, exploring greed and corruption in a sophisticated production that integrates British Sign Language. It’s essential viewing in the current political climate....

Drenched in eerie green and red light, Wet Mess’ Testo is a unique, subversive fever trip through masculinity, transness, and queer identity. A hidden gem of last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, this inventive piece fuses drag king performance with verbatim and cabaret, incorporating the voices of peop...

Botox and Ozempic can make anyone beautiful and AI will outthink us all. What is left for the human race? That’s the question that’s unravelled in More Life...

After debuting at Liverpool's Royal Court and successful London and West End transfers, James Graham's adaptation of Alan Bleasdale’s iconic television series is now on a national tour. And what a good thing, as this is urgent and thoughtful theatre that deserves to be seen by as many people as ...

Dazzling acting and directing delivers a fine revival in a perfect space...

Mark-Anthony Turnage has a provocative habit of turning unconventional narratives into opera...

The Prozorov sisters are desperate for entertainment. Plagued by their dreary provincial life, they yearn for the lights and excitement of Moscow, but have to make do with the visiting soldiers. When their only brother marries, their sister-in-law isn’t exactly what they dreamed of. Her lacking se...

In 1942 Moscow a top-secret meeting occured between Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin as the Nazis rampaged through Europe and into the Soviet Union. This world premiere of Howard Brenton’s play imagines the attempts at diplomacy, political clashes and eye-watering amounts of drinking that may ...

The five-star sold out production of The Years has transferred to the West End for 12 weeks only. Based on Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux’s fearless masterpiece, five actors create an unapologetic portrait of a woman shaped by her rapidly-changing world....

Critics raved about its initial run at the Almedia last year. Can it make the leap from intimate space to grand West End playhouse?...