UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

The foundations of musical theatre are sacrificed for spectacle and energetic enthusiasm in a venue with acoustics that fail to do justice to the quality of the singing and musicianship...

It's a clever, engaging format. Resembling more to a daytime talk show than a traditional cabaret, the audience joins in in the scripted malarkey while the guests discuss anything from dream roles to nervous poos. It truly is a chance to get up close and personal with the stars to discover personali...

It's always a hard task to 'put a spin' on a story as traditional and well known as Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Morgan Lloyd Malcolm's adaptation gives us a female Scrooge, Charlie Dickens as a magical narrator and a school of cold and hungry children, run by Scrooge's nephew and his wife, w...

As fine a Christmas show as you'll see in a beautiful venue and at a price that won't blow the budget (well, not too much)...

Let me start this review with a confession - I’m an American who had never seen a panto before last night, and I had no idea what to expect from Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I was aware of the tradition of the pantomime, but did not know the extent to how beloved it was in the UK. So it was wit...

An on-stage sitcom unable to find its feet....

All in all, the piece is promising at this stage, but it could be so much more. The idea is clever, the dynamic is intriguing, it just needs a rewrite or two....

Sir Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty debuted in 2012 to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of Bourne’s New Adventures company. Ten years on, the celebratory production is now in its own turn being celebrated....

Another triumphant vindication of a uniquely thoroughgoing philosophy at Chickenshed...

Those who deride this particular vision of Handel’s masterpiece as being inauthentic should be locked in some stocks and pelted with facts....

Poor Hex. Scuppered by Covid last year before it even got to press night and dogged by rumours of nepotism, this re-working of the fairytale Sleeping Beauty had a lot to overcome. It could have been the festive highlight at the National Theatre, but is compromised by a meandering story and less-tha...

Drag queens are rarely charged with the crime of being understated so it is hardly surprising that San Fran’s Peaches Christ and her co-host Edwin Outwater chose to partner up with the Royal Albert Hall for the UK debut of their perennial Christmas show....

Michael Grandage directs Emma Corrin in Neil Bartlett’s joyous new adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s modern masterpiece – Orlando. Leading an eleven-strong company in a bold new staging, Olivier Award nominee Emma Corrin returns to London’s West End in one of the most surprising stories in the ...

Playwright Paul Morrissey explores a fascinating case, transforming it into a boutique paranormal thriller whilst trying to explain the lead-up to their disappearance. Directed by Shilpa T-Hyland, Wickies: The Vanishing Men of Eilean Mor is a good alternative to the Christmas stories that traditiona...

This small-scale production chimes with the spirit of Christmas in the Cratchit house by making the most of everything it has to create plenty of good cheer....

On the surface it might seem impossible to adapt Orlando for the stage, but Neil Bartlett and director Michael Grandage have achieved a warm and witty play that is also a welcome antidote to today's culture wars....

The concept of a Greek tragedy as a Christmas show may seem contrary or unusual, but in fact this entire performance is built on such contradictions....

This versified version of arguably the greatest Christmas film ever is a seasonal highlight....

Ever wanted to step inside the world of one of the National Gallery’s paintings? Immersive theatre company Boo Productions may have the answer. Boo Productions pluck their protagonists from the foreground of Avercamp’s wintry village scenes, and use them to create an original, pantomime-influenc...

A gentle and wholesome festive show which offers a nice alternative to the chaos of panto....

A beautifully constructed piece of children's theatre, filled with puppetry and song....

Peppa Pig and friends come to London's West End, offering toddlers the chance to experience live theatre in a fun and friendly environment. Not much in it for the adults but a hit with Peppa's young devotees....

“Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.” Attributed to Nobel Prize-winning economist and Ali G interviewee JK Galbraith, this is the phrase that rolls around my head as I venture into the Crystal Maze-like Monopoly Lifesized, a highly entertaining take on ar...

A meandering meditation on Zionism in desperate need of refinement...

Clint Dyer’s production is the first Othello from a black director at the National. Starring Giles Terera as Othello and Rosy McEwen as Desdemona, the Shakespearean tragedy opened last night (30 November). What did the critics think of the new revival?...