UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Dance Umbrella present their international double-bill Change Tempo with SU PinWen and Alexandre Fandard. ...

Two-hander comedy feels a little underpowered, but gathers its fair share of laughs while making valuable points on both sides of the argument...

A mega night at the theatre....

With a charming libretto by Jodi Picoult and Timothy Allen McDonald, and folk-style music and lyrics by Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson, The Book Thief is filled with the warmth of a young girl's friendships and discoveries. But the dangers of war and Nazi rhetoric are a constant threat beneath the ...

If you haven’t seen Foil, Arms & Hog live, you’ve probably seen one of their many sketches on YouTube, where their videos have reached hundreds of millions of views. The trio’s specialty is sketch comedy, and their show at the Palladium brings audiences exactly that....

A modern adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's tragic story of Hedda Gabler, reframed to reflect the #MeToo movement sounds both intriguing and promising. Nina Segal's version captures the claustrophobia and anguish of the original, while setting it against a very modern framework, but it suffers from a lack...

An iconic venue and a new take on a classic story....

Benjamin’s study of Victor’s mental health is exceptionally refreshing, but ends up feeling a tad apocryphal in the context, especially when considering the major changes to Shelley’s narrative. All in all, it’s a decently eerie night out in the lead-up to Halloween, but it isn't the must-se...

An interactive adventure brimming with typical Gigglemug silliness....

“A show about stress, love and driving a tank with your hairdresser.” If that show description doesn’t capture your attention, I don’t know what will. Ian Smith: Crushing at the Soho Theatre is an hour-long comedy in which Smith describes what his life has been like recently, particularly th...

Rosie Jones is a triple threat in several ways, all of which you will find out throughout her new show, appropriately titled Triple Threat. And, according to Jones, there are only three jokes in the show, and all of them are placed at the end, so you have to wait!...

Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov sizzle in a crowdpleasing revival of the Royal Ballet's 2013 production...

Trompe L’Oeil is a French phrase meaning trick of the eye, or optical illusion. Coincidentally, when said out loud it sounds rather a lot like ‘Trump loyal’. Most people who notice this similarity would likely shrug it off and move on with their day. Henry Parkman Biggs, however, decided it wo...

Produced by Access All Areas, a theatre company led by disabled and autistic performers, Imposter 22 thrusts questions about disability centre stage. It’s exuberant, bombastic, and undeniably well-intentioned, but good intentions are not enough to make good theatre....

Body Show is an apocalyptic, gender-bending, drag-infused spectacular tackling dysphoria and eating disorders head-on. Fresh from their hit Fringe run, individual performance artists Frankie Thompson (Catts) and Liv Ello (Swarm) bring their collaborative show to London, presenting something both tho...

Did they do it? It's a 50/50 and you decide. And you have a lot of fun getting there too....

Written and directed by Ben Elton, Close Up: The Twiggy Musical is fast paced jukebox biopic of the iconic Twiggy is a moving but entirely relatable story; although she is an international superstar, her life portrayed within this show highlights some of the more personal moments....

George Benjamin's slick new opera plays at the Royal Opera House after a critically acclaimed run at Festival d'Aix-en-Provence...

The touring production of Shrek The Musical brings the fairy-tale-inspired story to life....

Rachel Garnet’s new play is the chance to explore workers’ rights and mortality. It’s a tense black comedy, jam-packed with philosophical arguments and tied together by Natasha Rickman’s controlled vision. It’s, however, in spite of the pair of razor-sharp performances, a tad too lengthy t...

The latest part of the the Death of England tetralogy is theatre at its most courageous...

Everyone loves a thinker, and Akshay Sharma definitely seems to be one. He presented his rigorous, 2023 solo Can This Place be a Temple? at The Place 3 October for one night only....

The verbatim script is thoroughly chilling. Rough poetry and arresting repetition guide the audience in a world of state-mandated violence, carried out not by the criminals but by the officers and staff who are meant to keep them safe. The fear, desperation, and frustration of those involved in the ...

Octopolis is an intimate two-hander that initially feels small-scale but reveals itself to be about vastly expansive ideas - essentially about the very concept of humanity. Marek Horn’s writing is probing and incisive, shifting from extended paragraphs of anthropological theory to funny innuendo a...

Derren Brown calls his new production, Unbelievable, 'the magic show I've always wanted to see'. It's not only a show without Brown himself, but crucially (with the exception of Simon Lipkin) it is a magic show not performed by professional magicians. In fact, many members of their cast are making...