UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Digging deep into human nature, Oli Forsyth’s Brace Brace combines the pace and excitement of a thriller with an unexpectedly perceptive intelligence. Ambitiously designed and skillfully directed, it’s a deeply engrossing piece of theatre writes our critic. ...

As his latest production Theatre Of Dreams amply demonstrates, it’s probably easier to pin strawberry jelly to a wall than to precisely pin down Hofesh Shechter’s exuberant full-on style. ...

If you're looking for sparkles, then Aladdin has you covered. The Broadway and West End hit is currently touring the UK and comes complete with heavily sequinned costumes and set pieces so drenched in gold they could have been created by King Midas. It's a slightly uneven production, but there are e...

If you're a parent, brace yourself - and enjoy the glorious singing and fine music writes our critic about TROUBLE IN TAHITI and THE QUIET PLACE. ...

Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun was the first play by a Black woman to appear on Broadway. Since its first performance in 1959, it remains as hard-hitting as ever. Exploring a domestic drama in its depiction of an everyday working class Black family, with ordinary desires, confl...

There’s a ghost of a good show lingering beneath the surface but it never materialises. ...

For Forced Entertainment, a linear story or a place without the space to play would be unthinkable. Signal To Noise is a piece of theatre like no other. I highly recommend you let the creativity wash over you. You won't see anything else like this, and you will definitely come away with somethi...

The landmark National Theatre and Neal Street production of The Lehman Trilogy, directed by Academy Award, Tony Award, and Golden Globe winner Sam Mendes, has returned to the Gillian Lynne Theatre for a strictly limited encore season this autumn. Hailed by The New York Times as 'a genuinely epic pro...

Tobias Kratzer’s production pulls the rug from underneath you writes BWW's critic. ...

Dance Umbrella 2024 opened at the Barbican last night for the 46th year of the cutting-edge dance festival. People have come to expect the opportunity to see experimental work during the run, and last night didn't disappoint in this sense. ...

Greek mythology has always had a hold on pop culture, but it seems like it’s taken a place of honour in recent times - especially on stage. Just a few streets down from the Lyric, where Eurydice and Orpheus fall in love every night in Anaïs Mitchell’s musical, Jermyn Street Theatre focuses on t...

A brilliant comedy hit that fuses music, physical theatre, and that type of really-clever-yet-really-dumb humour that works for most audiences, it’s a show that keeps the audience laughing at every turn....

The Other Place brings thousands of years of history and all the power of theatre to bear on its dissection of the dynamics of grief, transgression and despair. ...

This co-production between the New Diorama Theatre and Kali Theatre is a visceral investigation of how migrant communities transform under the layers of anger, fear, and resilience they adopt - products of survival in a vexatious state. ...

One of my biggest bugbears in theatre is a production that remains on stage well past its welcome. Overlong and flabby shows do neither the audience nor the show itself any favours. It is therefore a huge endorsement for me to state that a production of nearly three and a half hours really is worth ...

Two young women, Gigi and Dar, are dressed in khaki and clutch machine guns. They are guarding a roadblock and out to kill time. With just six of their 730 days of conscription to go until they can return to Civvy Street, their fantasies about the future (travels, marriage and internships) are begin...

The Place welcomes back the National Dance Company Wales in a double bill: Frontiers. See what our critic had to say. ...

Sophie Duker: But Daddy I Love Her starts on a high, with music blasting and the lights flashing as Duker jumps into the audience, running around and dancing her heart out, encouraging the crowd to cheer even more for her. Duker then jumps back on stage and, with a grin, tells us the one thing we ne...

Following a critically acclaimed run in 2019, Girls Don’t Play Guitars is back at Liverpool’s Royal Court. ...

Daisy Hall’s debut is already a decorated piece of writing, having been a finalist for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting last year and a huge success at the latest edition of the Edinburgh Fringe. It’s a play of tender humanity. The very generous setting and chatty script offers an almost Beck...

Tony award-nominee J. Smith-Cameron stars as Juno Boyle opposite Mark Rylance as ‘Captain’ Jack Boyle in a highly anticipated new production of Juno and the Paycock, Seán O’Casey's timeless masterpiece, directed by Tony and Olivier award-winner Matthew Warchus. So what did the critics th...

A cost of living crisis, people being fit to work but choosing not to, poverty, nationalism and women's control of their own bodies. Seán O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock may have first been performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1924, but a century later, his tragicomedy resonates mor...

In 70 minutes, Louise Orwin's performance piece aims to successfully interrogate the fastest growing and one of the most popular social media platforms in the world; Tik Tok. Is it perfect? No. But her form is smart, her commentary is sharp, and she’s a joyous performer....

A must for Shakespeare completionists. Read our critic's take. ...

The world is a dark place. Every day, we seem to edge closer to the start of another global conflict. Nowhere is safe. War and destruction have become steady protagonists on our television screens, to the point where we’re growing increasingly desensitised to violence. ...