UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Describing a Blue Man Group show after just leaving one to a person who has never seen them may feel like sticking jelly to a wall: messy, futile and you might be feeling a bit sticky. ...

New play packs plenty of ethical questions into an engaging and fascinating production that offers much to think about on the way home...

The King's Speech achieves something other screen to stage adaptations struggle with: staying true to the spirit while feeling like its own entity. Anchored by a still compelling script and captivating lead duo, the Watermill's production is a beautiful tribute to David Seidler's magnum opus....

Eighty dates into Bianca Del Rio’s Dead Inside tour, the sweary New Orleans-born comedian is still very much alive and kicking. The artist formally known as Roy R. Haylock is an insult comic whose outsized personality and foghorn voice easily fills the capacious Eventim – but does her latest sho...

The wonderfully silly story tells of an out of work actor who is employed to work within the basement of Barbra Streisand’s Malibu property, where they form an unlikely relationship....

What did our critic think of 1984 at Theatre Royal Bath?...

Confluences of history weave together in Lyndsey Turner’s pulsating new production...

Deservedly still Tchaikovsky’s most celebrated opera, Eugene Onegin astounds with angelic music that never ceases to amaze. This production by Ted Huffman, in his main stage Royal Opera debut, features a stellar cast with Kristina Mkhitaryan as Tatyana, Gordon Bintner as Onegin, and several choice...

More than 17 years since its onstage premiere, The National Theatre’s acclaimed production of War Horse is providing yet another unforgettable theatrical experience for audiences on its current UK and Ireland tour....

Asi Wind brings his latest show Incredibly Human to Underbelly Soho this week and raises eyebrows, though not always in appreciation....

David Edgar's new stage play about Elia Kazan and Arthur Miller places us mainly in Connecticut, 1952, but struggles to tease out the personal and political complexities within a creative friendship. There is a strong play within Here In America, but it would benefit from being stripped back to the ...

You wait all your life for someone to come up with an immersive show which blends magical and cocktails and suddenly London has two. What to do?...

Whatever you do, don’t ignore the signs. The posters outside the auditorium alerting audiences to the “very loud music” are not being overly cautious. Quite the opposite. With its ear-splitting drums and a rumbling bass that rolls across the room juddering through our bodies, this Giselle’s ...

“I love you like Mary Shelley loved her monster.” Being in the right place at the right time can change your life. So, when young producer Marcia Jeffries stumbles upon a drunken Larry Rhodes while she’s recording a radio segment somewhere in the southern States, it seems like it’s fate. A g...

Pappano is top of his game as he once again proves he is a pristine fit as Chief Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. His leadership ties the entire evening together so seamlessly that it’s hardly surprising he earns a standing ovation....

On the press night for My English Persian Kitchen, the smell of chopped onion, mint, and garlic wafts down the stairs of Soho Theatre. Hannah Khalil’s atmospheric play, combining true storytelling and live cooking, turns these scents into stories rooted in real life. Fresh from the Traverse progra...

“Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside…” Anne Odeke’s play about the first woman of colour to enter a beauty pageant in the UK is a celebration of a bit of Essex’s history that has previously flown under the radar, as well as an interrogation of the effect of empire and patriarchy on the ...

Obsessive behaviour takes many forms, from philatelists hunting down rare stamps, ambitious chefs refining gastronomic dishes and online gamers playing through the night to reach the next level. Check out what we thought of the new play here....

A country road. A tree. Evening. Two figures commiserate with each other’s woes. “Nothing to be done”. We have to wait 35 years to receive a really revolutionary new take on Waiting for Godot: Samuel Beckett’s estate still has too much power over any revival of the 20th century classic. Jame...

Stella Feehily's new play examines the life of pioneering astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin...

In a slightly disappointing end to the festival, short pieces and long pauses failed to live up to much of the wonder of the previous eight weeks....

Nearly midway through their whirlwind tour of the UK and Ireland, the glorious Gareth Joyner as Myra Dubois and Frank Lavender, should be revelling in selling out the enormous 1268 capacity venue Hackney Empire....

All Things Considered Theatre Company opened their latest production, 8 Hours There and Back, at Liverpool’s Unity Theatre on 13 September....

The Bold Tendencies Communion season came to an end last night, and it didn't go quietly. With 119 musicians of the Philharmonia Orchestra, 100 members of the Philharmonia Chorus and two soloists sopranos, conductor Nefeli Chadouli led the vast troupe in Gustav Mahler's Symphony No 2 'Resurrection�...

Icarus Theatre show how new tech can tell old tales...