UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Guest starring as Norma Desmond on Mondays is West End and Broadway performer Rachel Tucker. However, if you think that means seeing the show on a Monday is in any way a compromise, you could not be more wrong....

Less a bust up of two of the 20th century’s great British artists, Perfection, of a Kind: Britten vs Auden is a celebration of the artists’ curious friendship, and shared artistic virtuosity. Deftly curated musical and poetic extracts from Auden and a young Britten, it is left up to us to decide...

An alleged hit at the Fringe in 2022, it disappears on a bigger stage and sadly becomes a steady trudge....

Every Christmas we are promised a 'new take' on either Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker and Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Often these are changed for change's sake, but in Drew McOnie's new take on the iconic ballet, we have a joyful, fresh and vibrant production, with a subtle message of acceptance and l...

The introduction of Tom Brace: A Trick Down Memory Lane is a fascinating one in which a disembodied voice recounts the time when Derren Brown played Russian Roulette live on television, creating a controversy not only in the world of magic but in general....

​​​​​​​Celebrated performance artist Marina Abramović is very much in town: as well as a huge exhibition of her works at the Royal Academy, this “opera project” in London’s largest West End theatre sees her explore the life, works and final moments of the diva’s diva Maria Cal...

Welcome to Zona Franca, a show created by Brazilian choreographer Alice Ripoll and dance company Cia Suave that does its level best to defy being pigeonholed. Can this even be called a dance production if only about a third of the time is spent on hip-shaking and booty-waving? ...

New English Ballet Theatre is in its 13th year as a company and presents a mixed programme at the Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadler’s Wells that's also a rather mixed bag… ...

What do you get when you combine poetry, comedy, and a little bit of drum and bass? You get Luke Wright’s Silver Jubilee. The show, a celebration of Wright’s 25 years performing and touring poetry is an hour of the poet/comedian discussing a range of topics including being adopted, privilege, an...

From the moment the lights go up, Lizzie is a full throttle onslaught of female rage. There's heavy guitars, some serious belting, strobing lights, and plenty of fake blood. Unfortunately, though, the storytelling feels disjointed - it’s not always easy to figure out what exactly is going on, as m...

Northern Ballet presents the Generations: Three Short Ballets triple bill at the Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House as part of its national tour this autumn. ...

What role does a journalist play in telling the truth versus getting a good story? How does one find the line between the truth and an agreed narrative? Jonathan Maitland’s new play, The Interview, attempts to tackle these questions by taking a close look at the BBC Panorama interview with Princes...

Premiering at the Storyhouse in Chester last year, the new musical has now made its West End home at the Apollo....

This is a gold standard production in every sense of the phrase. It holds up extremely well against the west end production, to which inevitable comparisons will be drawn. Ivano Turco is fourth in a line of iconic Jamies past, and his elegance of movement is what sets him apart from those who stood ...

Bang-bang-bang. Tap-tap-tap. Stomp-stomp-stomp. Crackity-crack-crack. Matías Jaime’s Argentinian hit Malevo sounds like the world’s loudest hailstorm while serving up a feast of blistering choreography....

Immigration and adapting (or not) to a new homeland is as current a topic as it has ever been. In Arthur Miller’s 1955 play A View From The Bridge, we see the difficulties in casting off centuries of inherited tradition to adapt to a new social structure. Holly Race Roughan’s thrilling productio...

Kenneth Branagh returns to the West End to direct and play the title role in William Shakespeare’s KING LEAR, for 50 performances only. Completing the cast is a company of RADA graduates....

Robert Bathurst holds fort with tale after tale in the pub from which most of them started and a few finished...

Alarm bells ring when a director stars in the play they are also directing. Even if that director is Sir Kenneth Branagh. Nine times out of ten the production falls flat and the audience are left wondering if ego is to blame. Branagh’s hotly anticipated stab at King Lear is, sadly, no exception....

Post-lockdown, Murakami's themes of emotional and sexual isolation resonate all the more in a world of increasingly technologically mediated relationships...

With the AI (artificial intelligence) summit at Bletchley Park this week, Machinal at the Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath, couldn’t be more timely....

I wonder why London has had to wait five whole years to see this extremely worthwhile piece? ...

Cowbois might sound like a reboot of Sister Act but there is far more going under the satin bonnets. Gunslinger Jack Cannon (Vinnie Heaven) arrives in a small Wild West-era outpost, handsome by appearance, fearsome by reputation and with a bounty of 200 dollars on their head. The town is populated o...

London company Gothic Opera returns to Hoxton Hall for their fifth outing and their take on French composer Robert Planquette's Rip Van Winkle....

Society places a huge amount of pressure on mothers to be perfect, so it's a joy to see this new musical that reassures mums that their best is good enough. With a book and lyrics by Emily Beecher, who developed the show after her own diagnosis of postnatal depression, this production is produced, d...