UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

An atmospheric story of a group of trapped explorers at the mercy of mother nature, the UK premiere of Joby Talbot’s Everest has a chillingly eerie resonance....

It’s the obvious legend to draw upon in our current age of police brutality, austerity, and the withdrawal of the right to protest - and when you have a stage surrounded by an almost-forest, it should be the perfect fit. This summer at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Carl Grose turns his attenti...

Interdisciplinary is a bittersweet word/theory, and when I come across it, I'm equally filled with both anticipation and foreboding. The former as when it works it's hard to beat, the latter as when it doesn't, the night can be an awkward one. And in this spirit, I'm afraid Saving Face by Si Rawlins...

The National Theatre invites the nation's young people to its Dorfman Theatre and is all the better for it...

This touring production is the first to include female actresses included as regular Charlie Bucket performers. This is just one of the ways that inclusion has been developed into this production as scenes with Charlie’s mother, performed here by Leonie Spilsbury, see the actors very effortlessly ...

Creating a stage musical of Mrs. Doubtfire, a much beloved 90’s film with an even more beloved Robin Williams at its helm, could in theory be disastrous. Happily, my inner child is thrilled to report that Kevin McCollum and Jamie Wilson’s adaptation is not only a sensitive homage to the original...

A family-friendly production with plenty of promise....

Sarah Middleton’s Shewolves was quite the success at Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year, so it’s not a surprise it’s now made its way to London. Directed by Hannah Stone, it’s a high-energy production with a young soul. Gurjot Dhaliwal (Priya) and Harriet Waters (Lou) are a close-knit cast,...

If there were an award for most unpredictably bonkers play of the year this would be the top contender. But there is method in the madness. Roll with it. You will be rewarded. Dance with its bombastic weirdness but fasten your seatbelt first....

It has been 20 years since Martin McDonagh’s play The Pillowman was first staged at the National Theatre and following a delay caused by the pandemic, it’s now returned to London for the first time since 2003....

After playing to sold-out crowds for their whole run at VAULT Festival earlier in the year and winning an Origins Award for Outstanding New Work, Soho Theatre learnt why I F*cked You In My Spaceship has been the talk of London’s fringe scene. ​​Louis Emmitt-Stern’s play is a tender explorati...

With humour and sympathy, James Graham's play gives the nation the leader it needs...

Spy For Spy is a play with a difference: The audience is in control of how its scenes play out, picking song titles with red heart balloons forty minutes before the performance starts....

Olivier-award winning director Jeremy Sams lights up the stage with a fast-paced show. For anyone not convinced by turning a Fifties film into a musical today, Roman Holiday is more relevant than you’d think....

A lacklustre central performance shifts the focus towards Charlotte's tragedy instead of Werther's....

When Holly Martins arrives in Vienna to start a new job after the Second World War, he learns that his childhood friend Harry Lime died a few days prior. A broke novelist who was promised a cut in his business, he finds Harry’s sudden death suspicious and starts to investigate. Considered one of t...

It’s exactly four years since English National Ballet brought Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella to the Royal Albert Hall. It sat happily in my memory, from 2019, as a visual spectacle; the opulent ball scene, those slapstick sisters and Julian Crouch’s fantastical designs. Now it returns, thes...

Brian Gleeson and House of the Dragon's Milly Alcock shine in this revival....

It can be a daunted thing to bring Shakespeare’s work to life – it’s something that is so familiar to the public that it can sometimes feel tired and overdone. And yet Rebecca Frecknall’s production of Romeo and Juliet at the Almeida is a wonderful retelling of a Shakespearean classic.  ...

A pub theatre in Earl's Court turns into a Quaker Meeting House for Naomi Wallace and Marcus Rediker's intriguing play The Return of Benjamin Lay, which takes the true story of a farmer, sailor, and abolitionist who stands just 4 feet tall and makes his passion for equality universal. ...

Starting life in 1984 and garnering a successful reboot in 2020, Spitting Image remains a British comedy staple. Taking jabs at every public figure possible regardless if they’re a politician, celebrity, royal family member or musician, the cult classic show has made its way to the West End follow...

Bioh's take on friendship, sisterhood and Queen Bees sizzles in this production....

Two men bond over a shared love of dogs and discover they have rather more in common than first appears....

“You’re going out a youngster, but you’ve got to come back a star!” Ever since the pandemic forced theatres to close, then threw their return into jeopardy as actor after actor tested positive for COVID, and performances were either cancelled or more cover than normal was called on at short ...

Must-have, dip-in, flick-through book to help make Shakespeare's plays fun for actors, students, directors and teachers...