UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

English composer Benjamin Britten is writing The Turn of the Screw. Based on a novella by Henry James, it follows the worries of a young governess sent to the countryside to take care of a pair of children. As Britten is building his melodies, the government is working hard to shut down the influenc...

Fresh from a UK tour and three years after the Amazon Prime movie, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is back in London. The well known story is one of a Year 11 student in Sheffield who faces the challenges of his surroundings in order to become a drag queen. The musical, based on a true story, rema...

Kip Williams' adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray has now opened in London's West End, running until 11 May. This ground-breaking production delivers an explosive interplay of live performance and video in an astonishing collision of form. So what did the critics think?...

Yaël Farber described King Lear as theatre’s Everest. If that’s true, then they might just have scaled the summit....

'Entering Dock X for Macbeth, you are greeted by a large, dark space filled with audience members, jazz music playing as you wait for the theatre to open. Suddenly, a siren begins to wail. This is the call to enter the theatre and audience members are greeted by scenes of destruction and soldiers st...

Daniel Goldman brings award-winning Franco-Uruguayan Sergio Blanco's 2016 play to English speaking audiences for the first time...

I'll admit that I have never dropped acid, but I can imagine that watching Kip Williams' adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray must come close to that experience. Part morality tale, part technical extravaganza, part fall down the rabbit hole, this is a theatrical evening that will remain long in...

Some people only need one name: Cher, Madonna etc. In dance we have Pina - as in Bausch, the revered German dancer, choreographer and Director of Tanztheater Wuppertal until her death in 2009. ...

'Do you like picnics? Charlie Vero-Martin certainly does, and she’s ready to share her love for the activity with the world. Charlie Vero-Martin: Picnic is a collection of sketches is Vero-Martin interjecting between them, telling us about how excited she is for our big picnic at the end of the sh...

Eleanor Rhode directs a modern version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, starring Mathew Baynton of Horrible Histories and Ghosts fame as Bottom, the fool who becomes one of several victims of fairy mischief. But, in a delightful twist, the star of the show is Puck, who was played by Premi Tamang due ...

Dodie Smith’s comedy is revived in a desaturated production that crackles with deliciously sly humour. Emily Burns directs a series of majestic tableaux that, while wordy and excessively traditional at times, offer an authentic slice of polite society. It’s not the most action-packed or dramatic...

On its West End debut, The Addams Family musical makes the most of its graveyard humour and kooky characters, even if the star casting is questionable....

The longstanding favourite is all very slick but, 37 years on, the production is showing its age...

The story of Live Aid, raising hundreds of millions remains compelling. Bob Geldof's indefatigable efforts to rouse the world into action deserve to be brought to the stage, but not necessarily in this format....

Appearing as part of their Festival of New Choreography, the Royal Ballet have partnered with the National Ballet of Canada for Dark With Excessive Bright, an extraordinarily intimate experiment which allows audience to experience the art form in a radical way....

Considering their recent losses, physical theatre giants Spymonkey would have been justified to adapt a Greek tragedy rather than a comedy. The death of Stephan Kreiss in 2021 and the departure of Petra Massey to Las Vegas now leaves only Toby Park and Aitor Bassauri remaining....

'If the world is the Titanic, we are the people on the sinking ship and Milo Edwards is our entertainment as the ship goes down.'...

'Brent Would’s Got Wood is a “drag king cabaret romp,” with Would (Francesca Reid) desperately attempting to find love through flirting with and singing to audience members. The show’s description even mentions the opportunity to “win a date” with Would - it would appear we’re in for q...

'Jessica Fostekew: Mettle is a show in which Fostekew talks about her life through observational comedy. Whether it’s her son’s obsession with drill rapper Central Cee or her partner’s strange flirting techniques, Fostekew is looking at her life and sharing her thoughts with us - the good, the...

Considering the São Paulo Dance Company was founded in 2008, it’s taken them 16 years to perform in the UK! But the wait is over. ...

Onjali Q. Raúf’s The Boy at the Back of the Class has become a widely read novel since its publication in 2018. The book, and recently adapted play, tells the story of refugee boy Ahmet arriving at a London primary school and having to integrate into the Year Five class. Adapted by Nick Ahad, the...

'Henry Moss: Henry Queen of Squats begins with the sounds of an orchestra warming up before the lights dim. From those first few seconds, you can tell that you’re in for a dramatic performance, and Moss certainly lives up to these expectations'...

'Written by Katie Sayer and Will Johnston and directed by Phoebe Gibby, Love’s A Beach follows Ben [Iain Ferrier] and Cyrus [James Akka], the winners of a dating reality show, after their time on the screen as they settle into life together as a couple.'...

Death comes to us all and the spectre of the end of life often brings families together who may not have met for years, even decades. Jez Butterworth’s bittersweet and bitingly funny new play, The Hills of California, draws both on this and how events are shaped by memory and by who remembers them...

Jermyn Street’s Footprints Festival continues with the UK debut of an Italian modern classic. Written by Cristina Comencini in 2006, Two Rounds is a melancholic exploration of female solitude and human anguish. ...