UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Prom 63: The Rite By Heart is a story of two parts, the same structure as The Rite of Spring itself. In Part One, actors and musicians come together to tell the story of how Stravinsky created The Rite of Spring. In Part Two, the Aurora Orchestra performs the Rite of Spring by memory with not a musi...

Marking the Proms debut of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin), their artistic director Vladimir Jurowski conducted a lively and varied programme of works by Weill, Adès and Rachmaninov to a Royal Albert Hall high in anticipation. ...

Its strength is obviously in its joyous and uncompromising queer nature. McDougall casts it entirely gender-blind, making it a piece where gender doesn’t matter, even though its role is at the very core of it. They turn it into an exploration of the performative quality of identity with plenty of ...

What did our critic think of RESURGAM at St Paul's Cathedral?...

Family-friendly shows like Kinder can serve and do deserve the widest audience and, despite its dark material, it edifies and satisfies without dumbing down or skirting the emotional impact of the situations they depict. In a fast-moving hour, it delivers a brilliant blend of clever storytelling and...

After seeing Police Cops: Badass Be Thy Name and loving the group’s sense of humour and fantastic dynamic, I knew that I wanted to see their 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, Police Cops: The Musical. Somehow, this show managed to exceed my already high expectations, making for a perfect last s...

Last night’s performance consisted of a rendition of Francis Poulenc’s Figure humaine by the BBC Singers, as well as the London Symphony Orchestra tackling Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9. A fitting pairing for something of a bittersweet evening, as it brings together words from the French Resi...

The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s second outing at this year’s Proms celebrated the magic of movement, with varying degrees of dance in pieces by Stravinsky, Ravel, Gershwin, and a European première from Carlos Simon. Their programme took the audience back in time, beginning in the 2020s and endi...

Every member of the company brings their best to create an all-around remarkable performance. From the little kids to the older performers, it’s exciting to see what can be done when resources are used to include the community in a large-scale project like this. It’s encouraging to realise that,...

The thrill of operatic voices singing up close and personal in a radical re-interpretation of an opera ripe for bringing into the 21st century...

Villain is a brilliantly creative and fun mix of musical theatre and comedy that puts a fresh spin on the villains of our favourite works of fiction. If being the baddie of the story is a sense of style and self-assurance, a refusal to conform to society’s expectations, and a sometimes outright ag...

Are you a budding writer not sure where to begin? Perhaps you’ve managed to get something onto the page, but don’t have any theatre contacts to proceed further. Or maybe you’re a bit nervous about offending someone and ending your writing career before it even gets going....

In this musical, Franklin Shepard's pursuit of fame and money unbalances his personal and professional life, and those around him. No one is happy in this harsh expose of the backstage reality behind 'putting on a show', which makes closing number 'Our Time' the most devastating moment of the produc...

One of the most unique and important narratives of masculinity and sexuality that I’ve seen- told in a 75-minute showcase of immense talent. ...

What do you do when you achieve your dream and then, less than a year after, lose everything you’d worked for? That’s what Josh Weller takes a look at in his Fringe show, Josh Weller: Age Against the Machine. ...

Will Rowland and Eddy Hare, the UK’s lowest energy double act (striving to be Europe’s lowest energy double act) tell the story of Eddy’s grandfather who fought in the war in Crizards: The Means War. The tale is based on the stories that Eddy’s grandfather told him and is not fact-checked �...

An interesting story sapped of its weight by gimmicks over eager to impress...

Ultimately, it’s one of those shows that matter in an ephemeral way. It’s a wonderful showcase of what the Bush are doing to secure the future of theatre, but the play itself could be better. Scenes could be tightened and made less about trying to display the young talent and more about the stor...

Critically acclaimed Broadway musical Next to Normal has now opened at London's Donmar Warehouse. Caissie Levy stars as Diana, a suburban wife and mother living with bipolar disorder and haunted by her past. Donmar Artistic Director Michael Longhurst directs the long-awaited UK première of this...

This is a piece of folk storytelling at its best. Das Paradies und die Peri is an exciting piece of music which has everything you might want in an evening: moments of battle evoked by complex orchestrations; true love brought to life by the emotional power of song; and eventual redemption....

In theory, watching Shakespeare in a bucolic pub garden on a summer's evening is one of the nicest ways to spend your time. Open Bar Theatre was formed in 2016 by Nicky Diss and Vicky Gaskin to produce Shakespeare for Fuller’s pub gardens, with the intention of creating accessible theatre....

Over a decade has passed since Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom Of The Opera, was an undoubted flop during its first (and last) London run so this week’s revival in concert is a welcome retrospective. Was it a victim of its own hype or is it just a bad show?...

What was it about 1973? Already this year there have been events celebrating the 50th anniversaries of classic albums such as David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, and countless others – then last night at the Royal Albert Hall, the Jules Buckley Orchestra added t...

It’s a musical of profound emotional intelligence and accuracy. Informed and thought-provoking, it encourages reflection and promotes a healthy dialogue on the matter. It’s a touching, life-size picture of a family who can’t overcome their pain. Too many productions are haphazardly labelled as...

It’s definitely not your regular staged concert. While there isn’t as much character exploration in this instance, the fact-driven numbers are enough to give a morsel of what a complete production could do. ...