UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Beloved by parents and children alike, the National Theatre has taken on the first major stage adaptation of Noel Streatfeild’s best-selling book Ballet Shoes as their big ticket show this festive season. It is a brave move, as the book is so well known and hasn't been out of print since 1936. H...

This is Home Alone like you've never seen it before....

Though we admit that venturing as far as saying that the witch looks like a mix of Margaret Thatcher and the old Queen might be just us being fastidious with our interpretative vein, the links are there to see and analyse. Yes, it’s a bit cheesy and adults playing children is always slightly jarri...

The Devil Wears Prada may be the most hyped musical of the year. With a stellar cast, incredible clothes and none other than Sir Elton John at the helm of the music. The publicity tells us to 'gird our loins.', but after seeing this thin and rather flat show, the question is: for what?...

One for the Brecht completionists...

This year’s festive crowd pleaser from the Royal Ballet does not feature a growing Christmas tree nor a Kingdom of Sweets. Instead, an alternative is offered in the form of Frederick Ashton’s 1948 Cinderella, revived eighteen months ago after a lengthy absence and seen again now for the festive ...

With an abundance of witty filth (and filthy wit), A Very Naughty Christmas is an adults-only musical burlesque which has come straight up from down under....

Bedazzled with sequins and bouncing with 90s pop, Bright Places is a technicolour journey through a Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis. Heaps of educational fun, it imbues what is at its core a tough, life-altering experience with energy and creativity....

The National Theatre's Summer 2024 hit is now available on its streaming platform, National Theatre at Home...

Something for everyone in a hit-and-miss comedy...

Sarah Tipple brings the comedic opera to life with gloriously ridiculous period costumes, an outstanding cast and an abstract set that mirrors the plot’s absurdism with precision....

A film that’s all one shot of one colour may not sound like much, but Derek Jarman’s Blue is a rich, intricate tapestry, and a landmark piece of queer filmmaking. For World Aids Day 2024, the film has been reimagined as a live performance, with the voices of queer actors and poets, and a new liv...

Now at its second run and presented in an updated version, Cutting the Tightrope puts together a list of brilliant playwrights (Hassan Abdulrazzak, Mojisola Adebayo, Phil Arditti, Sonali Bhattacharyya, Nina Bowers, Roxy Cook, Ed Edwards, Afsaneh Gray, Dawn King, Ahmed Masoud, Joel Samuels, Sami Abu ...

Comedy Club 4 Kids Christmas Cracker Show at The Arts Depot is a family comedy show aimed at inclusive comedy, without the rude bits and swearing, for children aged 6+. The Christmas Cracker Show featured comic compere Abigoliah Schamaun, improviser Bobbles The Elf, Magician Nutty Noah and comedian...

Expendable, written by Emteaz Hussain, all takes place in a family kitchen. As the play begins, we meet Zara (Avita Jay) – a Pakistani mother living in northern England – as she chops onions. This environment of domestic familiarity is quickly disturbed by a knock on the door, and a buzz of tens...

Superb performances from a cast entirely at ease with themselves and their director make this show a must-see...

Joe Kent-Walters is Frankie Monroe: LIVE!!! begins in quite the spooky manner, with Kent-Walters slowly making his way around the stage, shrouded in darkness, creepily whispering, “Here comes Frankie . . .” The show, directed by Jonathan Oldfield, brings audience members into The Misty Moon, a w...

On 20 March 2022 at 4:59 PM, Paul Foot’s life changed forever while he was driving on the outskirts of Lancaster, and we’re about to find out why. Paul Foot: Dissolve is Foot’s way of telling audiences what happened to him and the implications it has on not only him but the world around him as...

Following a hugely successful run at Soho Theatre in 2022, Nick Mohammed’s A Christmas Carol(ish), has now made its way to @sohoplace....

From the bold new musicals aimed at Gen Z audiences, to classic play revivals and experimental dance productions, London has offered a variety of shows across its stages this year. Louise Penn celebrates her pick of the work of the West End and smaller off-West End spaces....

Billed as a 'weird and wonderful gathering', Eva Recacha's full-length work The Picnic is inspired by the painting The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch, dating from the 15th century.  The Picnic is about pleasure, power, privilege, passion, playfulness and partying. It is as hed...

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical is an adaptation of the first book in the hit series by Rick Riordan, which follows Percy Jackson, a young boy who discovers that he is a demi-god, the son of Poseidon, and that he must stop a war between the gods by finding and returning Zeus’s maste...

Grand dame Sian Phillips stealing the show, Adam Cooper giving an unexpected twirl and smaller theatre spaces punching above their weight. These are some of BroadwayWorld reviewer Cheryl Markosky's favourite theatre moments of 2024....

A festive treat lands just in time for Christmas...

Colourful and full of detail, Eleanor Tindall’s Tender is an engrossing evening of theatre. Combining the sweetness of a contemporary queer rom-com with the dark underbelly of body horror, the play showcases two excellent performances and some stunning design work....