UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

A confession. It’s a guilty pleasure of mine to read the death notices on Wikipedia - I am my mother’s son after all and, without the columns of classifieds in the Liverpool Echo, where else is there to look?...

A life coach and his struggling daughter embark on a journey to find their Irish roots. Each of them is running away from something. Joy, who is exceedingly against the idea of leaving for an unplanned trip with her father, is going through a bad breakup; Winston, overly chatty and intrusive, is try...

Here & Now arrives at New Wimbledon Theatre with all the sparkle, nostalgia and high-camp energy you’d expect from a show built around the hits of one of Britain’s most beloved pop groups, Steps. Set in a seaside supermarket, the musical blends tongue-in-cheek humour with heartfelt moments, deli...

'O, beware, my lord, of jealousy' Tom Morris’s new West End production of William Shakespeare’s Othello is now open, starring David Harewood as Othello, Toby Jones as Iago and Caitlin Fitzgerald as Desdemona. Directed by Tony Award-winner Tom Morris with music by PJ Harvey, this epic ...

In Sheffield, the self-proclaimed “lesbian capital of the North”, a revolution is coming. The freedom fighters in question are a group of lesbian mechanics, loosely based on the real life Gwenda’s Garage, a lesbian-owned garage named after pioneering racing driver Gwenda Stewart that became a ...

There’s a fine line between genius and idiocy, and, in his determined effort to “save literature”, Garry Starr doesn’t so much walk it as perform the can-can on it wearing black tails, orange flippers and nothing else. In a show that drops jaws (and, in at least one case, drawers), he flaps ...

Artistic Director of Papatango George Turvey presents the winner of their 2024 New Writing Prize: The Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights. Hannah Doran’s debut play thrives under Turvey’s enticing vision, alternating spells of emotional introspection with devastating blows to the gut. ...

How to Train Your Dragon reaches new heights with the help of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra...

Tom Rosenthal: Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I Am is, essentially, a form of lecture on the 2006 Arctic Monkeys’ debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not - the title of the show is a bit of a hint!...

After some feedback from her last show, Urooj Ashfaq has returned with a new hour as a transformed woman. How to Be a Baddie has Ashfaq leaving behind the good-girl expectations that were set in the show that won her the Best Newcomer award at the 2023 Edinburgh Comedy Awards. But what inspired this...

Tove Jansson’s beloved final Moomin tale finds new life in Moominvalley in November, a tender and contemplative musical which opens Upstairs at the Gatehouse. Co-produced by Nummulite and Chromolume, this adaptation by Swedish-born composer Hans Jacob Hoeglund delicately explores themes of grief,...

Director Tom Morris has been busy running the Bristol Old Vic, but now returns to the capital to start a five year partnership with Chris Harper Productions to direct Shakespeare plays for the West End. His Othello looks impressive, is well acted, thoughtful and glossy, but lacking in sufficient dar...

If you’re one of the lucky few to be seated on the stage during new one-hander Wyld Woman, you’ll be treated to a close-up of US writer-performer Isabel Renner acting out some of the worst sex you’ve ever seen (one particular metaphor about Covid tests sticks in the mind). You’ll also hear h...

Afro-Caribbean theatre company lend their own flavour to a universal tale of the dangers of political misjudgement and hubris...

What did our critic think of JOBURG BALLET - COMMUNION OF LIGHT at Royal Ballet And Opera: Linbury Theatre?...

Cindy Marcolina’s journal. (Not kept in shorthand.) 30 October. London. Left Warren Street Station at 6:42pm, arriving at Camden People’s Theatre at 6:47pm; should have arrived at 6:45, but the streets were busy. Countess Dracula was waiting. Joanna Holden and Jack Kelly team up for a brash look...

Anyone wanting to get to the bottom of newspaper stories about illegal migrants in Britain could learn a great deal from Dial 1 for UK at Riverside Studios. Written and performed by assured actor/dancer Mohit Mahur, his debut one-man play provides plenty of laughs, as well as poignancy when a migran...

An award-winning LGBTQ novel, adapted for the stage by playwright of the moment Jack Holden (Cruising; Kenrex)... It sounds like a surefire hit for the Almeida, and sure enough, the entire run is currently fully sold out. But can a production be too sure of itself? Slick but straightforward, this pr...

In Tinned Laughter’s The Bang Gang, Don Lambrini is in trouble. He got on the wrong boat leaving Palermo in 1946 and, instead of his preferred destination of the Bronx, ended up in Blackpool. Thirty years later, his “waste management” firm is under threat from local competitors and now his nem...

Girls rule ok in Ella Hickson's enchanting revival of the Darling children's 'second star to the right and then straight on until morning' journey to Neverland ­– first performed in 2013 and now showing at the Barbican for a five-week run....

The Barbican has the perfect Halloween show. With a multi-media production devised by Elisabeth Gunawan, Daniel York Loh, and Jasmine Chiu, it will destabilise and provoke you. In Chinese mythology, the greedy, selfish, and envious get reincarnated into “hungry ghosts.” Forced to relive their ac...

There can be a tendancy to eye-roll at the prospect of a new interpretation of a classic play. However, Tanika Gupta's new take on Ibsen's Hedda Gabler at the Orange Tree is a genuinely innovative and fascinating take on the tale of the destructive nature of manipulation and the complexities of marr...

Theatre beyond London proves varied and interesting...

Directed by Daniel Raggett, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s brings a new version of Macbeth to the small studio space in Stratford-upon-Avon. Starring Sam Heughan, best known for his role in the series Outlander, and Lia Williams as Lady Macbeth. This staging imagines the play in a gangland pub i...

Just missing 'Back to the Future Day' on 21 October (the date Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel to in the sequel), the iconic film Back to the Future film is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. A re-release is coming to cinemas at the end of this month and the stage version keeps on growing,...