UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

All in all, this iteration of the production is a springboard. While it’s a missed opportunity at the moment, nothing's carved in stone when it comes to theatre. A firmer grasp on the play’s intent and a further unfurling of its core could make it a thorough analysis of the casual cruelty and ev...

Michael Sheen is Nye Bevan in this surreal and spectacular journey through the life and legacy of the man who transformed Britain’s welfare state. Written by Tim Price and directed by Rufus Norris, the National Theatre's production of Nye is now open....

The emotions driving the birth of the NHS, as experienced by its founding father, explored in epic production...

When you’re a 35-year-old bisexual dating another woman, you get asked quite a few questions, especially about childhood. Comedian Catherine Bohart is here to tell us all about her experiences with relationships, queerness, and family in Catherine Bohart: Again, With Feelings....

Nachtland is a nervous, difficult play whose purpose is decisively blurry. It doesn’t revel as much as it should in the unknotting of its cerebral conundrum and doesn’t bask in the incredible satire it holds. The ideas it presents are topical, yet the piece is distracted. It tries to be quirky a...

By their very nature, improvised shows will have good nights and not so good nights...

“The city has eyes and it watches your every move.” There’s no time for welcomes for newly arrived Trinidadian immigrant Galahad. Only warnings from street-smart fellow immigrant Moses. The latter has taken the former under his wing; together they will traverse the twisting streets and intermi...

A shocking and taboo-busting production fires young minds like no other art form can....

It’s a piece of existential gig-theatre moulded with a cynical celebration of one of Japan’s most renowned authors and what he stood for. Presented in Japanese with surtitles, the experience is unlike anything that’s being staged at the moment and probably isn’t ideal for the average commerc...

A highly intelligent and slightly arrogant cynic as a main character helms the investigative noir set against a bleak view of the business. ...

Sarah Keyworth: My Eyes Are Up Here begins with Keyworth talking about their feelings on turning 30, a milestone birthday that they recently celebrated. They talk about different ways to celebrate a 30th birthday, telling the audience about how one of their friends celebrated with a foursome....

Woman and Man sing lesser-known songs from the Broadway master's oeuvre and fail to connect...

With an eclectic programme including an immersive dreamscape, an intense two-hander and a revolutionary footstomper, the Ballet national de Marseille present a six-pack of impressive dance pieces....

From the outset, the word/concept heavy narration often doesn't relate to the disjointed movement being executed, so disconnection feels apparent...

Tathata Theatre have some good ideas, but we see what looks more like a work-in-progress than a fully realised play...

Albery’s revival of his Flying Dutchman simply works: with a great cast and a smooth atmosphere created by a dreamlike ship-inspired set, it all builds towards a Gesamtkunstwerk that Wagner might have enjoyed himself. A great success, all around....

In the dimly lit theatre, the audience is transported into the mysterious world of Castle of Joy a production by Det Ferösche Compagnie, a Faroese theatre company. Directed and written by the multi-talented Búi Dam, with Kristina Sørensen Ougaard leading the cast, this experience is as enigmatic ...

“Sometimes the Devil doth preach.” In a winter season that has arguably gone too light on Shakespeare, it is nonetheless fitting that the final production is a brand new version of John Webster’s bloody tragedy. Dominic Dromgoole’s production opened the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse ten years ago,...

We never really leave the place where we grew up, even if we run from it....

Through the lens of three households living in Sheffield’s Park Hill housing estate, Chris Bush examines family and politics in modern Britain....

It’s odd to watch an opera where the actual opera is an afterthought. At least that’s how it feels watching Simon McBurney’s The Magic Flute. His revival production sizzles with circus spectacle, high tech pageantry, and boundary breaking chutzpah. But underneath it all you’ll be hard presse...

In the 2024 UK premiere of his 2020 work, INK, we see Papaioannou himself and Šuka Horn perform a “nightmarish manhunt…testing the limits of reality.”...

Looking at their impressive longevity and sheer depravity, Lessons In Nihilism’s combination of musical trio The Tiger Lillies and drag’s philosopher king David Hoyle is an almost inevitable team up, the only surprise being that it hasn’t happened before....

Keeley Hawes and Jack Davenport, make their long-awaited returns to the London stage in The Human Body; a story of political and private passions from writer Lucy Kirkwood. In his final production as Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, Michael Longhurst directs together with Ann Yee, w...

Walking into the Soho Theatre for Amusements, you are greeted by jazz music, making the space feel more like a cabaret than a house of comedy. Indeed, when Ufomadu walks onto the stage, he doesn't fit the comedian vibe - he doesn't introduce himself from behind the curtains, instead wandering up to ...