Our UK / West End Critics
View All »
Aliya Al-Hassan
Critic
Amber-Rae Stobbs
Critic
Caroline Cronin
Critic
Cheryl Markosky
Critic
Cindy Marcolina
Critic
Debbie Gilpin
Critic
Franco Milazzo
Critic
Gary Naylor
Critic
Guest Author
Critic
Kat Mokrynski
Critic
Matthew Paluch
Critic
Mica Blackwell
Critic
Michael Higgs
Critic
Vikki Jane Vile
Critic
Review: HOTEL ELSINORE, Riverside Studios
The grieving family of a prominent Shakespearean actor gathers at the location where he was due to perform before his sudden demise. The late Henry Elder, however, wasn’t willing to let anything get between him and the celebrations for his career-defining one-man show. Hamlet at the Elsinore Shake...
Review: BURNT TOAST, Battersea Arts Centre
It’s difficult to say at which exact point during Susie Wang’s Burnt Toast I noticed that my jaw had dropped and stayed dropped. If Sarah Kane’s Blasted had been set in Fawlty Towers, it may have turned out something like this....
Review: PERSONAL VALUES, Hampstead Theatre
When physical items take over your life, what space is left for real people? Personal Values, the debut play from Chloe Lawrence-Taylor, seeks to answer this question, digging through boxes and bags to examine family, grief, and memory. What it uncovers is intriguing, but doesn’t quite hold togeth...
Review: THE GREAT GATSBY, Starring Jamie Muscato and Corbin Bleu
There's a party going on at the London Coliseum this summer. Unfortunately, it's one of those parties that you eagerly look forward to, only to wish you had stayed at home and read an improving book instead....
Review: ALL THE HAPPY THINGS, Soho Theatre
In the intimate space of Soho Theatre, All the Happy Things unfolds as a poignant exploration of grief's distorting mirror. Dramaturg Somebody Jones crafts a narrative that refuses to conform to conventional representations of loss, instead offering a raw, sometimes disorienting journey through the...
Review: HOW TO FIGHT LONELINESS, Park Theatre
All great plays have a moral dilemma buried at the centre. Loyalty, truth, justice, et cetera. The greatest playwrights narrow down these big juicy themes and shape them into a story, making the personal universal and challenging the audience by turning their views against them – it’s a difficul...
Review: SOIR NOIR: A NIGHTCLUB CONFIDENTIAL, Crazy Coqs
Walking into the dimly lit room in a black suit and glittery top, David Rhodes somewhat resembles a funereal mirrorball. ...
Review: SALTY BRINE: THESE ARE THE CONTENTS OF MY HEAD (THE ANNIE LENNOX SHOW), Soho Theatre
“Fasten your seatbelts!” cries Salty Brine at the top of the show, “it’s going to be a bumpy ride!” He’s not wrong: watching him at work is like standing in the middle of a four-way road junction and being smashed over and over by cars from every direction. In a good way....
Review: SNOW WHITE: THE SACRIFICE, Sadler's Wells East
Caroline Reece leads the company as the wicked Queen, but every moving part is in perfect sync...
Review: DICK, Drayton Arms Theatre
With scenes so long that it forces you to feel uncomfortable, the real meaning of theatre is back. Plays that make you feel human emotion in real time and force you to try to look away, make you learn something new about yourself....
Review: MR BURTON, in cinemas
Richard Burton acquires a new name, a new voice and a new authority under the guidance of a loving teacher...
Review: THE INSEPARABLES, Finborough Theatre
** 'One for the Simone de Beauvoir fans'...
Review: TENDING, Riverside Studios
Writer El Blackwood's Tending, produced by Another Theatre, is a three-hander based on more than 700 verbatim interviews with NHS nurses over a two-year period. She boils everything down into three characters: a paediatric ICU nurse played by Blackwood, palliative care nurse (Anjelica Serra) and A&E...
Review Roundup: GHOSTS, starring Victoria Smurfit and Callum Scott Howells
Gary Owen’s new play, a contemporary reimagining of Ibsen’s classic, is directed by Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan, reuniting the team behind the critically acclaimed Iphigenia in Splott, Romeo and Julie and Killology....
Review: DAN WYE AM I SAM SMITH?, Soho Theatre
Written and performed by Dan Wye and directed by Lee Griffith, Dan Wye Am I Sam Smith? is Wye’s debut hour, exploring how their life has been changed by being a doppelgänger of singer Sam Smith, which leads them to experience a life full of the negative aspects of being famous without being able ...
Review: BODY STOCKING LEGION, Bethnal Green Working Men's Club
Brooklyn Rep UK presents their newest show Body Stocking Legion is ripping its way into the theatre scene with comedy your grandparents would clutch their pearls at. ...
Review: THE ABNORMAL FAMILIARITY OF US, Theatre503
Libbi Moss's drama of a fractured family hits hard but could do with a larger canvas to explore well-crafted characters...
Review: GHOSTS, starring Victoria Smurfit and Callum Scott Howells
Victoria Smurfit and Callum Scott Howells are the tragic mother-son duo in an exciting, tense, suspenseful adaptation. Owen shifts the script and makes this classic all about domestic abuse and the power of upper-class disdain. Rachel O’Riordan’s production is a masterclass in distilling tensio...
Review: THE DA VINCI CODE, Salisbury Playhouse
As I'm probably one of only a handful who hasn't read the book or seen the film of The Da Vinci Code, I was looking forward to the play based on Dan Brown's bestselling novel of 2003 described as thriller, mystery and treasure hunt....
Review: HEISENBERG, Arcola Theatre
Simon Stephens' 26th play, Heisenberg, currently showing at the Arcola Theatre, is a masterful exploration of quantum uncertainty principles translated into human relationships. The production offers a nuanced portrayal of connection between two seemingly incompatible individuals.
...
Review: ASSES.MASSES, Battersea Arts Centre
Would you spend over seven hours with a hundred other people in the same room playing and watching a video game where donkeys attempt to overthrow their employers? Presented as part of London Games Festival‘s side events programme, asses.masses is an unusual experience that could well hold the key...
Review: DEAD MOM PLAY, Union Theatre
A recently bereaved young man spars with his hyper-critical dead mother and Death himself in an attempt to accept his grief and move on. One too many vignettes à la Scooby Doo chase and not enough personal reckoning have this black comedy twist and turn but never truly fulfil its potential. ...
Review: MIDNIGHT COWBOY: A NEW MUSICAL, Southwark Playhouse
And so another stage-to-screen musical rolls into town. Based on the only adult-rated film to win an Oscar for Best Picture, Midnight Cowboy is about the friendship between male prostitute Joe Buck and con man Rico “Ratso” Rizzo in 1960s New York....
Review: WILL OWEN: LIKE, NOBODY’S WATCHING, Soho Theatre
Will Owen believes that he was born for the silver screen and tonight, he’s going to prove it to a live studio audience. Written and performed by Owen and directed by Daniel Emery and Molly Stacey, Will Owen: Like, Nobody’s Watching has Owen reflecting on his life through his love of television ...
Review: THE FORSYTHE PROGRAMME, Sadler's Wells
Back in 2018, English National Ballet premiered Playlist (Track 1, 2) as part of their Voices of America programme. It was William Forsythe’s first new work for a British company in 20 years....
Videos
TICKET CENTRAL
Tickets From $71
Buy Tickets
Buy Tickets
Tickets From $101
Get UK's #1 Theatre Newsletter
Get the best news & discounts for UK Shows & beyond.
