UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

The entire evening was a poignant reminder of the power of dance. How it feels to do, and to watch, with all the work exuding expression, joy and freedom, which shouldn't be underestimated ...

Performed for the first time outside Spain, El Patio Teatro’s Entrañas asks two simple questions: what does it mean to be a human, and what does it mean to be human? The deceptively simple title roughly translates as “Insides” and obfuscates the intellectual and emotional breadth and depth of...

'Written by and starring Sidsel Rostrup and Suzy Kohane, Hexenhammer takes a look at the book of the same name, translated into English as “The Hammer of Witches,” the 15th-century guide to witch hunting. Rostrup and Kohane take on the roles of the authors of Hexenhammer, Heinrich Kramer and Jac...

'Self-Raising begins with a sack of flour. But it’s not just a sack of flour. The show begins with writer and performer, Jenny Sealey, telling us how it was originally meant to be an adaptation of Annie Fine’s Flour Babies, but quickly changed into Sealey telling her own life story. Just with a ...

Julia Masli: ha ha ha ha ha ha ha is an absurd yet strangely comforting hour of agony aunt-style comedy that will leave you slightly nervous about having a microphone attached to a prosthetic leg being placed in front of your face for you to confess your fears to the world....

Even with its scenes of torture, sexual extortion, execution and suicide, this thirteenth revival of Jonathan Kent’s take on Tosca digs deep into the romantic story at its heart. ...

Arts funding has never been more threatened at a time when it's never been more needed...

The local NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service facility has a new temp, but Jay’s bright eyes and hopeful attitude grate against Angela’s 30 years’ worth of experience. This Might Not Be It confronts the issues that plague our national health services with an excavation of their huma...

Frantic Assembly’s new version, penned by Lemn Sissay, may be poetically vivid and visually mesmerising, but it is terminally plagued by dramatic inertia. Without that key ingredient, the production melts into the looming shadows. An expressionistic mess. But a beautiful one to watch unravel....

The UK can’t claim too many music groups with the impressive longevity or sheer depravity of Fascinating Aïda. Celebrating forty years of dropping jaws with a set of songs that still amuse, shock and titillate, they return for yet another tour up and down the country. ...

Moving, poignant and with timeless classics that will have you singing throughout the night, if I could give more than 5 stars to Something About George, I would. It is a must see....

Filled with a couple of operas’ worth of tragedy, Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles is not the likeliest source of inspiration for a dramatic circus show but Ockham's Razor are here to prove us wrong. ...

Paul Ruder's opera, based on Margaret Atwood's celebrated novel, has, frighteningly, gained more relevance since its premiere in 2000...

Jonny Lee Miller and Tanya Reynolds shine in this debate between art and artifice....

Gwyneth Goes Skiing is a fun and delightfully queer show that has lots of hilarious audience participation and some great musical moments (even if it is a play with music). It is full of joy and some truly silly puns that had be groaning with a smile. I look forward to seeing more from Awkward Produ...

Bronco Billy is a fun show with some great performers and catchy songs. While a more developed plot would have been appreciated, it is still a show that will have you smiling throughout. If you’re a fan of pantomimes and/or a fan of country music, you’ll definitely be a fan of this!...

Meshing together live artwork, puppetry and music, Stereoptik’s latest work Antechamber is a theatrical experiment that largely delivers on its intriguing premise....

Three women live parallel lives on the same London street. One desperately wants a baby, one regrets her choices, one is haunted by the past. Michèle Winstanley addresses motherhood and the female experience in a tender piece that becomes a sad reminder that, as women, we rarely fully win. ...

What is classic for some feels dated to others. Those who were horrified by Daniel Fish’s starkly stripped back version of Oklahoma! should rush to the Dominion Theatre for something much more traditional. After a UK tour, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I settles in for a brief six week ...

Till the Stars Come Down is a sparkling bundle of light and luminous love. If you don’t believe me, believe the colossal disco ball hovering above the stage....

The Beautiful Future is Coming is a play that’s at once expansive and intimate. In the hidden little underground space of Jermyn Street Theatre, the cast of four lead us on a journey from the past to the future, in a story made up of three separate but connected narratives....

'Jodie Mitchell: Becoming John Travulva is a fantastic comedy show that does an excellent job in discussing the role that gender plays in comedy, whether consciously or unconsciously. Whether they are Jodie Mitchell or John Travulva, Mitchell is a great comedian and I look forward to seeing more fro...

Neil Simon’s three-act play about couples in crisis, Plaza Suite, has now opened at London's Savoy Theatre, already extended until 13 April. Celebrity couple Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick reprise their roles from the Broadway production. Excitement (and tickets prices) are high, so, ...

Louise Young: Feral is a fun show that will have you thinking your life is pretty tame compared to what Young has gone through. And, according to her, there are still plenty of stories she hasn’t told - I look forward to hearing them!...

The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions has relocated to the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall for its London premiere, having run at Manchester International Festival. The performance is billed as a ‘music theatre piece rewriting the history of the world through a joyful and uto...