UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Let's talk stereotypes for a moment. Joaquin Cortes definitely changed any fixed narratives about flamenco when he entered the global stage circa 1995, but the general consensus would still be ‘woman in frilly red dress’ I imagine....

Sadler’s Wells' Flamenco Festival really is a festival. As in the programme includes a wide range of approaches and possibilities when dealing with the genre. It makes the relevance of flamenco in 2023 something to ponder - as there's clearly an interest, and different generations of creatives ver...

A sombre warning against dogmatism adherence has resonances today. It's just curiously unclear what they are....

With society bursting with an array of social issues to tackle, creative platforms hold great potential in providing complex and transformative commentary on such issues. Bones, a co-production between production company Refine and leading rugby mental health organisation – LooseHeadz – is a pro...

Set in New Mexico, the story revolves around the former lead singer of a country-rock band, who, at a critical moment in her life, invites her old bandmates to join her for “the party of a lifetime” while keeping her true motivations a secret. In Dreams will take you on a joyous uplifting but al...

Familiar and safe it may be, but the show delivers spectacle and entertainment as only theatre can...

Written a decade ago, the piece is perhaps more significant now than it was in 2013. Beneatha’s Place is unquestionably and ideologically hefty, academically relevant, and socio-politically topical. It very much rides on the coattails of Raisin, covering the same points with an added first-hand re...

“I am the soul that dances chainless. I am the moon’s insatiable dream. I am a witness in life’s shadow…there is no need to tell you that this is my flamenco heart which has a bolero soul.” And with this, Alma's opening speech lays bare the poetic nature of this legendary flamenco dancer�...

Fisheye is the crown jewel of the first edition of Omnibus Theatre’s AI Festival. If expanded and developed accordingly, it might have the reach and impact of a new earth-shaking classic. Pout’s world-building is ambitious but consistent and decisive, as is his attention to detail and allegoric ...

There are plenty of riveting reflections, from the science versus belief argumentation, to how the awareness of mortality plagues our race, pushing us to research a more significant meaning to make sense of it. ...

In today’s more progressive world, society still tells women the most fulfilling part of life is to have children. So often they’re told “give it a try” or “you’ll change your mind,” but Florence Howard’s debut play Agatha at Theatre503 boldly says sometimes women don’t want childr...

Originally performed in Chester as early as 1375, The Mystery Plays have been performed every five years in the city since 1951, with a cast of 150 actors, singers and musicians of all ages staging the 2023 production in the historic setting of the city’s beautiful cathedral....

With a plot packed with clichés that are older than the hills and gags of pure corn which may be even older, it’s just as well that Crazy For You is an utterly spectacular feast for the eyes and ears....

With June being a prime time to get hitched, now should be as good as any time to dig up and put on stage Felix Mendelssohn’s 1842 incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a score which features the famous Wedding March. Despite the play’s themes, this melding of classical sound and dra...

The Company of Elders' Saturday matinee performance at Sadler's Wells finished with a nightclub atmosphere. It saw the cast of the last piece coming into the auditorium and inviting the audience members onto the stage to dance the afternoon away. ...

Hot off Broadway with a Best Musical Tony and a Pulitzer Prize for its script, Michael R Jackson’s A Strange Loop comes to London for a summer run at The Barbican....

In the light this week's report into exclusion and racism in cricket, this lovely one man show could not be more timely....

The summer season of the Bush opens with a politically charged show about the delicate, complex connection between Jonathan, who lives in Hong Kong, and Chloe, an ambitious second-generation Hongkonger in England. Their long-distance relationship works through music recommendations and sweet message...

The world premiere of Isley Lynn’s The Swell is a head scratching affair. It’s a short sharp 90 minutes, but there’s a lot to get your head around. Buckle up....

The writers want so badly for this to be a soberly romantic mix between The Notebook and The Bridges of Madison County via Dear Evan Hansen, but only manage to hit the nails of its coffin. It’s unexciting, unengaging, and as deep as a rivulet. The characters are one-dimensional figurines, includin...

Unique production defies easy categorisation, but thrills and appals to live long in the memory...

Before DC, Marvel and Spider-Man cottoned onto the potential of cinematic crossovers, Off The Record created arguably the most intriguing of them of all: a staged multiverse drawn from Quentin Tarantino films which is as sweary, gory and fun as one would expect....

While Greg Wilkinson’s play is incredibly thought-provoking, the majority of its themes are offered and then left unexplored. AI becomes the incidental catalyst for the downfall of the couple, but there’s more to it than that....

The play is unforgiving. It tears apart the Met Police, their brutal questioning techniques, gross negligence, finger-pointing, and the inherent duplicity of governmental affairs. It’s a refreshingly political addition to the West End. ...

The tables are turned on two twentieth century playwrights who find themselves trapped in a hybrid of their own plays....