UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

With its live singers, superb clowning and disappointing vaudeville acts, The Entertainers’ Cirque: The Greatest Show is bringing its dazzling show around the country....

Join everyone’s favourite princess-sorceress for one hell of a good time as she shares stories of when she was Scottish and swaggered into the wonderlands of Berlin, Tehran and New York. Other guests on the mic include her bitter ex Jason (of the Argonauts) and old pal the Chariot Queen....

Written and performed by Adrian Lukis and directed by Guy Unsworth, Being Mr Wickham brings us into the world of the infamous Pride & Prejudice character after his 60th birthday, having withdrawn from the festivities to a quiet space. But, suddenly, Wickham looks into the audience, acknowledging us ...

Knight Fever sees the return of the narcissistic pop star character, Jazz Emu, this time vying for a Knighthood at the Royal Variety Show. The character, created and played by Archie Henderson, has done several shows in the past and has gone viral on social media for his hilarious and catchy songs....

Real life is looming right after the end of Year 11. Entrusted with a robotic newborn, a group of students need to survive a week in their new roles as parents while their GCSEs get closer and closer. The school is trying to teach them responsibility and warn off any unwanted pregnancies - but the t...

The powerful story of a tender and gentle human forced into a brutal environment filled with hate and toxic masculinity....

The final Ashton Worldwide bill at the Royal Opera House (23-24 season) was a Gala programme performed by the Sarasota Ballet in the Linbury Theatre...

Two terrific leads will delight audiences, but the source material's misogyny proves too much to simply sweep aside...

We're back for more Ashton, with a variation on the initial Royal Ballet programme...

She was exceptional, but the musical written about her is anything but. It tends to be old-fashioned and traditional in structure, willing itself to be a majestic epic, but never reaching that stage. Her life story feels rushed and vague, the songs are run-of-the-mill, standardised, lacking that big...

The talented cast and creatives can only do so much to elevate the musical’s inherent camp, but Jonathan Harvey and the Pet Shop Boys' script and songs feel underbaked with characters who aren’t able to be fleshed out. With this in mind, it feels closer to hell....

Ivo Graham: Carousel is a step in a new direction for Graham, who is most well-known for his standup comedy, having been performing since the young age of eighteen. In this show, he “invites you onto his own carousel,” bringing you into his world through an hour of remembrance....

DIVA: Live From Hell has arrived at the King’s Head Theatre. With a book and characters by Nora Brigid Monahan and music/ lyrics by Alexander Sage Oyen, the one-man musical brings us into the eternal punishment of Desmond Channing, a high schooler from Florida who is forced to reenact the final fe...

The Ashton Worldwide (2024-2028) international festival continues at the Royal Opera House with the Royal Ballet on the mainstage in Ashton Celebrated. The company is performing two mixed bills with slight repertoire changes....

Interracial marriage has been legal in the United States for less than six decades. To put it into perspective, sliced bread was first sold forty years earlier. Set in 1918 South Carolina, Wedding Band is a blistering portrayal of unjust laws and discrimination, of conscious and unconscious bias, of...

Even if the press night weather for this open air production suggested otherwise, this latest take on The Barber Of Seville is the perfect summer opera with its fluffy blend of humour and romance and some of the art form’s best known arias....

New comedies are hard to get right and often land in a highly subjective space, but this one has to be called out as a bit of a dud...

'wit, charm and elegance' are the words used to describe the work of Royal Ballet founding choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton (1904-1988). English ballet, or rather style wouldn't exist without him, so The Frederick Ashton Foundation have understandably instigated the Ashton Worldwide (2024-2028) in...

Walking into the Soho Theatre Upstairs for Jamie Finn: Nobody’s Talking About Jamie, you are greeted by a bit of an unusual sight - an exercise bike. Finn enters wearing an outfit one might find someone wearing at the gym, with a Blondie t-shirt and bright green gym shorts, and the show begins wit...

Juggling not only apples but comedy, dance and socio-sexual commentary, the troupe co-founded by Sean Gandini and Kati Ylä-Hokkala in 1992 bring back their signature production to London....

In a sudden lurch away from their epic 2022 creation The Burnt City, immersive specialists Punchdrunk’s next effort is a far more cosy affair. Small barefoot groups walk their way through the Nineties fairytale world of Viola’s Room with the story relayed over headphones by Helena Bonham Carte...

The first major revival of Arthur Miller's A View From The Bridge in a decade plays on the downfall of the 'Everyman'. Eddie Carbone is a hard-worker, popular, a man's man. But something deep and dangerous is gnawing at his heart....

Advertised as “Grease meets Squid Game”, Fun At The Beach Romp Bomp A Lomp!! manages to go from the ridiculous to the sublime, even if it does lose its way every now and then....

It's not a seamless transition from screen to stage, but it works well enough and, sadly, it still resonates with a truth albeit in a very different world...

It’s a sophisticated manifestation of human activism that’s unafraid to display shared trauma and address the threat of authoritarianism. An ode to dissidents and a celebration of the legacy of those who were brutally murdered during the demonstrations and whose deaths have been weaponised to fu...