UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Three years in the making, Dimanche comes to London as part of MimeLondon 2025 and tackles the climate crisis with savage mockery and tender tragedy using life-size puppets, exquisite clowning and heartfelt writing. ...

During these dark and cold nights, something magical is happening on stage at the Lyric Hammersmith. Play On! was originally created by director Sheldon Epps and writer Cheryl L. West back in 1997, transferring from San Diego to Broadway. Talawa theatre company have stripped the show back and have...

Written by and starring Aidan Pittman, Dr Dolittle Kills A Man (And Reads Extracts From His New Book) is set at an event where Dr Dolittle is, as one might guess, reading extracts from his new book, Dr John Dolittle: The Time of My Life. As the audience takes their seats, a number of slides appear o...

Competition in the Arts...now there's a loaded statement! Nonetheless, London has a new biennial event, or rather two, in the form of the Rose, and Bloom Prize. ...

Miriam Freedman's stroy is both a tribute to Human Spirit and a warning for today...

At its worst Inside No.9 Stage/Fright plays out like a greatest hits album. Familiar rhythms rewired into a thank you for the fans, who no doubt will vibrate with delight at some of the references to old episodes. Not much of a criticism when the endlessly inventive original is so salute worthily br...

Much like the Inventor creating the titular character, Scissorhandz - A Musical Reinvented has a lot to love about it but could do with some tinkering to fix its narrative issues....

Robert Carsen's vision is as uncompromising as ever, but the world has changed in three short years...

Dreams and stories, music and wine – Tom and Leila will share anything to get back to sleep. But can they bring their stories to an end before the sun comes up?...

Jin Hao Li: Swimming in a Submarine is the first stand-up show I have been to in which, before the show starts, the comedian goes around the audience, giving each person a thumbs-up and asking, “You good?” It’s a surprise, but a welcome one that makes something immediately clear - Jin Hao Li i...

Even before the show begins, Demi Adejuyigbe is Going To Do One (1) Backflip has me laughing with its preshow playlist, a fascinating tracklist of songs that have been turned into some absolutely wild mash-ups. From combining Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan to making a seamless transition from Kendri...

When thinking of the classic settings for a heartfelt story about friendship and emotional vulnerability, a construction site is not somewhere that typically comes to mind. Yet, this is exactly where Joe McNamara brings audiences with Bricks....

Northern Ballet return to the Linbury Theatre for a triple bill of diverse works…or is it really a double bill with an additional third piece that's just five minutes long?! ...

Amy Gledhill: Make Me Look Fit on the Poster begins with Gledhill posing a question to the audience - “Would you like to go to bed with me?” It’s a fun way to start a show, encouraging the audience to react, but Gledhill takes it a step further by completely redoing the beginning and handing o...

An anonymous package arrives in Colin’s post, sending him into a spiral. Whether it’s a revenge plan gone wrong or a silly prank, what Colin receives in an unassuming cake box disturbs him out of his mind. His sister Lisa and his best friend Brian (also Lisa’s boyfriend) try to help. Our imagi...

Director James Dacre presents these two short dramas by Terence Rattigan under the banner title Summer 1954, the date when the action is set. An unusual pairing of these unshowy productions convey the intellectually astute and emotionally searing spirit of Rattigan’s writing....

One room, two people. A murder case, as yet unsolved. Jamie Armitage’s An Interrogation takes a simple premise and layers it with questions of gender, class, and responsibility....

When entering the Etcetera Theatre to see Pat Rascal: Space Gravy, audience members are greeted by props scattered across the space and two metal chairs sitting in the centre. The show’s description even acknowledges the number of props, stating that they “may or may not fit in the Etcetera Thea...

With life-size puppets and cinematic stylings, Plexus Polaire’s Moby Dick is a dark and immersive plunge into Herman Melville’s epic story....

In a glorious assault on the image obsessed and therefore resulting trauma of the Noughties, Amy Annette’s ‘Thick Skin’ Debut UK Tour opened at The Soho Theatre to a sell-out audience. Through familiar nostalgia, the mesmerising image of a Nokia 6110 model consumed the background, a game of �...

If sacred cows make the best burgers, Underbelly Soho could soon become the most popular fast food joint around. One Man Musical’s latest outing is quickly becoming something of a word-of-mouth must-see and, while the marketing is understandably coy about who the “one man” is, it becomes clear...

There are two kinds of people in this world - those who are aware of the significance of lions and llamas and those who are not. Those who have inhaled Sharpie fumes putting cat whiskers on their faces and those who have not. Those who know who Dan and Phil are and those who do not. With three sold-...

The one thing we can always count on is a new reading of The Rite of Spring. Welcome to London the Dewey Dell, 2023 production at the Purcell Room on the Southbank. ...

Shifting identities and hierarchies interweave like a spider’s web in Cymbeline. A pinch of added complication can’t hurt?...

Cranko took the predictable love melodrama - I want you, I don't, actually I do, well now I don’t - and turned it into a full-length, 3 act ballet. It divides people - some love, some less so. I definitely think it has strong moments throughout, and an overall, refined structure that can't be deni...