UK / West End Theater Reviews

Review: DOCTOR BROWN: BETURNS, Soho Theatre
by Franco Milazzo - April 26, 2024

Coming on like some kind of sadistic Mr Bean, the scarier-than-Pennywise Doctor Brown has been terrorising audiences with his silent comedy since 2009 and returns to Soho Theatre with his first new show in over a decade....

Review: OLIVE JAR, Grand Junction
by Niamh Jones - April 26, 2024

What is theatre fundamentally about? Why do we create any form of literature or performance? Why do we tell stories? Stories are such a formative part of life, forging our knowledge of the world and helping to bring communities together....

Review: A SPECTACLE OF HERSELF, Battersea Arts Centre
by Franco Milazzo - April 26, 2024

In her PhD on “Deconstructing the Spectacle: Aerial Performance as Critical Practice”, Dr Laura Murphy had a singular mission: “to challenge normative ideas attached to and embedded in aerial work”. In A Spectacle Of Herself, she delivers on this challenge with style and conviction....

Review: MOBY DICK, Wilton's Music Hall
by Michael Higgs - April 26, 2024

A charming adaptation of Herman Melville’s masterpiece, Sebastian Armesto’s Moby Dick mixes music and drama in an effective, atmospheric production that never gets lost at sea, no matter how daunting a task it is to stage the novel....

Review: BOYS FROM THE BLACKSTUFF, Liverpool's Royal Court
by Sarah OHara - April 25, 2024

Following its sold out run in 2023, Boys from the Blackstuff has returned to Liverpool’s Royal Court, before the show transfers to the National Theatre in London and Garrick Theatre in the West End....

Review: WHAT (IS) A WOMAN?, Arcola Theatre
by Niamh Jones - April 26, 2024

A person’s life can be dictated by many things - career, relationships, decisions made… In the case of Andrée Bernard’s What (is) a Woman it seems that men have dictated the protagonist’s life....

Review: SHELF: TEENAGE MEN, Soho Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - April 26, 2024

Walking into Shelf: Teenage Men, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Based on the show’s description, there would be “anecdotes, songs, jokes about performing for kids, the Instagram algorithm, confronting your toxicity, and more.” How was all of this going to fit into an hour-long show? Luckily, I had no...

Review: TESTMATCH, Orange Tree Theatre
by Debbie Gilpin - April 25, 2024

“This way, you win, no matter what.” The Women’s Cricket World Cup Final in the present day, and eighteenth century Calcutta – on the face of it there’s the barest of connections, but when you drill down a bit deeper you can see how the relationship between England and India was first forged. Or, pe...

Review: THE SLEEPING BEAUTY, Sadler's Wells
by Matthew Paluch - April 25, 2024

Is there anything similar to The Sleeping Beauty overture? With Tchaikovsky filling the theatre with full-blown fairy tale drama - it's quite the opener. ...

Review: GHOST STORIES OF ANTIQUARY, Longfield Hall
by Kat Mokrynski - April 25, 2024

Ghost Stories of Antiquary, a “seated site-specific show with immersive elements” directed by Nicholas Benjamin and co-devised by Benjamin, Niamh Handley-Vaughan, Nadia Lamin and Miles Blanch, takes place in Longfield Hall, a building that survived the bombings of World War II, the very rads that th...

Review: YOU ARE GOING TO DIE, Southwark Playhouse
by Franco Milazzo - April 23, 2024

A show dripping in pretension performed by a naked man? An impenetrable work obsessed with having a sex toy deep inside one’s backside? A meditation on “existential anxiety” that does little of note with an hour of precious life? There’s enough irony in You Are Going To Die to power an Alanis Moriss...

Review: SILENCE, Birmingham Rep
by Laura Lott - April 24, 2024

“Old friends in the morning, then wanting us dead in the afternoon”, says one of the men in Silence, repeating the line over and over. Decades after the event, he still can’t understand the speed at which hate and violence ignited in the wake of the 1947 Partition of India....

Review: 1884, Shoreditch Town Hall
by Franco Milazzo - April 22, 2024

What is the difference between a house and a home? And who gets to write history? Interactive experience 1884 provokes challenging answers to these questions in the context of an almost-forgotten historical event that had significant consequences for two continents....

Review: CALENDAR GIRLS, The Mill at Sonning
by Mica Blackwell - April 22, 2024

Unlike Firth’s decision to stretch out the film’s first half for the musical, confusingly ending it on the long-awaited calendar photoshoot, his play adaptation allows the audience to see the impact the calendar has on the outside world and the women’s personal lives....

Review: BEATS, King's Head Theatre
by Olivia Woods - April 22, 2024

Returning to the brand new King’s Head Theatre, Ned Campbell takes on award-winning Scottish playwright Kieran Hurley’s Beats in an adaptation that champions our imaginations and emphasises the power of collective gathering....

Review: LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, Royal Opera House
by Alexander Cohen - April 22, 2024

Nadine Sierra’s enthralling central performance helms this nerve-jangling revival....

Review: ANDREW DOHERTY: GAY WITCH SEX CULT, Soho Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - April 24, 2024

We begin with Kaelan Trough (Doherty) gleefully repeating the word “Love,' grinning as he wanders around the stage. Kaelan and his partner, Jeremy, are having a gender reveal party for their baby. There is a black balloon hanging from the ceiling. Once popped, if the baby is a boy, blue rose petals ...

Review: TAMSYN KELLY: CRYING IN TK MAXX, Soho Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - April 24, 2024

Tamsyn Kelly: Crying in TK Maxx is a show about the men in Kelly’s life, starting with her father growing up and ending with a man who works in her local chicken shop. Kelly grew up on a council state, the only one with a father, ironically wishing that he would leave as he was causing nothing but p...

Review: THE BALLAD OF HATTIE AND JAMES, Kiln Theatre
by Franco Milazzo - April 19, 2024

Somewhere in King’s Cross, a middle-aged woman sits at a piano and plays an original piece with surprising fluency. There begins Samuel Adamson’s tumultuous tale of two teenage musical prodigies whose lives become thoroughly entangled....

Review: LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Royal Shakespeare Theatre
by Cindy Marcolina - April 21, 2024

Spring brings renewed energy into the year. There isn’t a better moment for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s recently appointed Co-Artistic Directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey to launch their vision for the organisation. Led by a big name that will attract new audiences who are probably younger ...

Review: ALGORITHMS, Park Theatre
by Cindy Marcolina - April 20, 2024

Between the contradictions of her age group and the difficulties of navigating a life where everyone is too busy, yet your ex is already moving on, Brooke is crumbling. It’s unfortunately relatable for a large chunk of chronically online public. ...

Review: ROCKETMAN: LIVE IN CONCERT, Royal Festival Hall
by Debbie Gilpin - April 21, 2024

“People don’t pay to see Reginald Dwight, they pay to see Elton John!” In the sea of ubiquitous biopic-by-numbers that is modern cinema, one film really stood out from the crowd. Dexter Fletcher and Lee Hall’s Rocketman is the epitome of ‘What Would Elton Do?’, as it veers from one multicoloured mus...

Review: BOYS ON THE VERGE OF TEARS, Soho Theatre
by Alexander Cohen - April 19, 2024

A cathartic and powerful moment, a veinous fist unclenching....

Review: DIANA: THE UNTOLD AND UNTRUE STORY, King's Head Theatre
by Alice Cope - April 19, 2024

This is a fantastical and entertaining production and a great way to honour the icon herself....

Review: MACHINAL, The Old Vic
by Gary Naylor - April 19, 2024

Given the emotional investment required on stage and in the stalls, one feels somewhat shortchanged by a production that invites sympathy for a character with few redeeming features...