UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Nikolai Gogol's 1836 satire The Government Inspector caused a stir for calling out the Russian government's corruption. It's easy to see why Peter Myers wanted to bring its relevant story to the stage two centuries later, but the biting commentary under the silliness is lost in translation in this c...

The strapline for Stephanie Ware’s WHOA MAMA! had me intrigued – a one woman comedy about a 40-something woman and her choice to remain childfree. There’s certainly no shortage of rhetoric on this subject, particularly on social media where the childfree “movement” has a real chokehold. Bu...

Pub garden theatre specialist Open Bar Theatre has returned for a spring season with a deft and slightly chaotic version of William Thackeray's Vanity Fair. Dealing with the fortunes of two young women, the story explores early 19th-century English society, specifically how money and ambition can ...

Hayao Miyazaki’s legacy is one for the ages. The co-founder of Studio Ghibli revolutionised the Western consumption of anime and set a new standard for Japanese animated films. London isn’t a stranger to the stage adaptations of his creations: a major example is My Neighbour Totoro, which took u...

Mark sits in a white box on a red chair. He is dressed in a grey t-shirt and jeans. With the exception of sporting a red cape, he is nondescript, ordinary, normal. In the next 65 minutes, we are taken on an emotional ride through Mark's experiences of love, parenthood and devastating loss, all while...

Currently on tour across the UK, Tim Rice: My Life In Musicals is two hours of musical theatre bliss that you will never forget....

Part violent psychodrama, part sunny romcom, The Winter’s Tale was not the most obvious of plays for the Royal Ballet to take on....

Much Ado About Nothing is a laughter-filled production with stellar performances throughout....

Cutting Shakespeare isn’t rare, with time restraint and accessible efficiency at the top of the list. What happens when you remove the text altogether, leaving only the bare bones of the story? Hong Kongese company Nonverbal Theatre of Gesture have the answer....

An excellent cast are let down by self-obsessed direction....

'Bilal Zafar: Imposter is an hour-long story in which Zafar uses comedy to tell the audience about a wild experience he had when his housemate tried to get him arrested five separate times.'...

With their new work Cycles, it is clear that Boy Blue are at something of a crossroads....

As soon as Faustin takes the stage, she immediately jumps right in, creating a conversational atmosphere with the audience. She designates a table of audience members in the front row as the “rich table” and begins by talking about her experiences flying first class....

Is serial killing ever a forgivable act? A controversial question certainly and the central premise of Bryony Lavery’s Frozen. Told from three points of view, this play explores the impacts of trauma and loss on very different members of society....

What can be more cheering on a dreary, wet evening than seeing a jolly Alan Ayckbourn comedy?...

Stephen Schwartz's 70s musical Pippin makes a triumphant return with a note perfect casting at Drury Lane's concert version, with Fosse-inspired choreography and costumes given a disco pride vibe. Alex Newell's vocals do not disappoint, Jac Yarrow is a fine lead, while Patricia Hodge is a poignant B...

When Connor dies whilst in the care of the NHS, his mum, Sara, wants answers. Premiering under Stephen Unwin’s taut direction, Sara Ryan’s Laughing Boy is a bittersweet docu-play about brutal neglect and apathy. While it’s a damning inquiry into the shortcomings of public health, is it a good ...

It ought to echo with eerie prescience in 2024 as an ever-closer prophecy for an age where AI and algorithms will dictate the minutiae of our lives. But David Haig's new stage adaption is more like a cyberpunk-themed orgy at Printworks....

Many of us ask ourselves about the definition of love, what is the purest form perhaps, or what does it mean to make promises while in love. Michael Batten’s play Remembrance Monday asks these questions through the lens of a seventy minute psychological thriller....

An intense and well filmed release of an atmospheric production of Macbeth. Showing in cinemas from 2 May....

If you've ever idolised a lesser-known band and endlessly reminisce about its utter brilliance through rose-tinted spectacles, then This Is Memorial Device at Riverside Studios is a must-see....

Coming on like some kind of sadistic Mr Bean, the scarier-than-Pennywise Doctor Brown has been terrorising audiences with his silent comedy since 2009 and returns to Soho Theatre with his first new show in over a decade....

What is theatre fundamentally about? Why do we create any form of literature or performance? Why do we tell stories? Stories are such a formative part of life, forging our knowledge of the world and helping to bring communities together....

In her PhD on “Deconstructing the Spectacle: Aerial Performance as Critical Practice”, Dr Laura Murphy had a singular mission: “to challenge normative ideas attached to and embedded in aerial work”. In A Spectacle Of Herself, she delivers on this challenge with style and conviction....

A charming adaptation of Herman Melville’s masterpiece, Sebastian Armesto’s Moby Dick mixes music and drama in an effective, atmospheric production that never gets lost at sea, no matter how daunting a task it is to stage the novel....