UK / West End Theater Reviews

Review: WASTED, Lyric Hammersmith
by Cindy Marcolina - March 25, 2023

Running at around 50 minutes, it’s snappy and positively Gen-Z in pace and subject. Fernandes crafts a script that wanders from deliciously colloquial to slightly expository, but remains solid throughout. Mundane conversations about parties and cleaning rotas act as the foundation for the pair’s bon...

Review: OF MICE AND MEN, Birmingham Rep
by Laura Lott - March 24, 2023

John Steinbeck's 1937 novel, set in California during the Great Depression, may be a period piece, but the parallels with current life in the UK are unmistakable. Dealing with themes of poverty, displacement, prejudice and the desperation for independence, Of Mice and Men makes a timely return to th...

Review: COLOSSAL, Soho Theatre
by Katie Kirkpatrick - March 23, 2023

In Colossal, Patrick McPherson presents us with what initially seems to be a love story. As the show develops however, we gradually discover what it really is: a twisting, tricky tale of morality. McPherson has been on the Fringe circuit for a few years now, finding success in Edinburgh and in Perth...

Review: CREATURE BY AKRAM KHAN, Sadler's Wells
by Louise Penn - March 24, 2023

Creature is a fascinating experiment, but requires a familiarity with both pieces of source material and a constant attention to what is going on in the story. This may ultimately isolate the audience from full enjoyment. It has much to say on experimentation and torture, but doesn’t quite make the ...

Review: KILLING THE CAT, Riverside Studios
by Gary Naylor - March 23, 2023

Existential questions abound in world premiere of a musical that does not make the fur fly...

Review: DEBATE: BALDWIN VS BUCKLEY, Stone Nest
by Gary Naylor - March 22, 2023

Taut and razor-sharp verbatim adaptation of a famous debate from the 60s is entertaining and enlightening...

Review: BLACK SUPERHERO, Royal Court Theatre
by Alexander Cohen - March 22, 2023

A boldly inventive but flawed deconstruction of superhero obsession...

Review: LEAVING VIETNAM, Park Theatre
by Gary Naylor - March 21, 2023

Richard Vergette's one-man play is never less than engaging, but one wonders why here and why now?...

Review: AKHNATEN, London Coliseum
by Franco Milazzo - March 19, 2023

Who’s up for a three-hour long opera about the relatively unknown pharaoh Akhnaten? With the singing in Egyptian, Hebrew and Akkadian? With no surtitles? Based on the music of minimalist composer Phillip Glass? And with an entire troupe of jugglers? Us, that's who....

Review: CONTEMPT, VAULT Festival
by Cindy Marcolina - March 19, 2023

While the writing is gripping and Gabrielle Nellis-Pain’s performance is excellent, there’s something missing. Catherine’s colleagues are ancient ghosts through the hallowed corridors as she puts on a sleazy, raspy voice to portray them against her well-spoken main character. ...

Review: WHAM BAM THANK YOU MAM, VAULT Festival
by Paige Cochrane - March 20, 2023

Wham Bam Thank You Mam is a collaboration straight from the minds of Frances Keyton, Su Mi and Marty Gleeson. Exploring heartache, cultural identity, and ways to stick a middle finger up at social expectation, this trio have combined an hour of captivating storytelling with some truly brilliant come...

Review: NOT YOUR GRANDMA'S FOLK TALES, VAULT Festival
by Kat Mokrynski - March 21, 2023

Not Your Grandma’s Folk Tales is a beautiful hour of storytelling that will wrap you up in a blanket of magical tales and leave you feeling ready to face the world, armed with the words of others....

Review: YOU ARE GOING TO DIE, VAULT Festival
by Cindy Marcolina - March 19, 2023

You are going to die. It’s a certainty, but it’s also the title of the latest play by This is Not Culturally Significant writer Adam Scott-Rowley. Performed entirely naked, You Are Going To Die is a show about everything and nothing. You can read as much or as little as you wish in it. What does it ...

Review: FREAK OUT!, VAULT Festival
by Cindy Marcolina - March 19, 2023

Coin Toss Collective are an exceptionally creative young company. Freak Out! highlights a problem that wouldn’t cross the mind of the average British person who lives in the inland. They deliver an amusing, chaotic farewell to East Anglia. Who would’ve thought that a show about coastal erosion would...

Review: VANILLA, VAULT Festival
by Cindy Marcolina - March 19, 2023

Laura Mead writes with prudish humour while Keith Swainston directs her, Ned Wakeley (Dan), and Scott Henderson in a production that’s almost as uninteresting as Katie and Dan’s sex life. Mead’s script is as traditional as the missionary position, but wishes to be as funny as an inappropriate joke a...

Review: BURNOUT, VAULT Festival
by Cindy Marcolina - March 19, 2023

This approach has the story losing focus and looks like a plain attempt at quirkiness. Ultimately, while they mention how difficult it is to have only one hour, the piece comes off as struggling to fill those 60 minutes. All in all, the spirit of Burnout is strong and the creatives behind it have al...

Review: THE WAY OLD FRIENDS DO, Park Theatre
by Alexander Cohen - March 18, 2023

A heartfelt love letter to ABBA that'll want to make you say thank you for the music....

Review: ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST, Lyric Hammersmith
by Franco Milazzo - March 18, 2023

With references ripped from the headlines, this rocket-paced update of Dario Fo and Franca Rame’s Accidental Death Of An Anarchist is at once both deeply political and utterly hilarious....

Review: BEOWULF, Barbican Hall
by Debbie Gilpin - March 18, 2023

“I shall gain me glory, or grim-death shall take me”, says the titular hero in the thousand-year-old epic poem. Last night, however, it was the turn of composer Iain Bell to seek a different kind of glory as his new adaptation of Beowulf (commissioned by the BBC) made its world première at Barbican ...

Review: MACBETH, Southwark Playhouse Borough
by Gary Naylor - March 17, 2023

Flabbergast Theatre take a bold approach to a familiar play and hit and miss along the way...

Review: THE MESSIAH COMPLEX, VAULT Festival
by Cindy Marcolina - March 17, 2023

The Messiah Complex is a fascinating exploration of dystopian philosophy and intellectual restrictions. Alexander Knott, James Demaine, and Ryan Hutton devise a piece with clearly defined lore and logic. It’s a bold provocation of Orwellian stature....

Review: THAT'S ACE, VAULT Festival
by Cindy Marcolina - March 17, 2023

In 45 minutes, Brace doesn’t have any answers to Ace’s uncertainties, but his queries aim the spotlight at a subject that still isn’t staged much. He gives a profound insight into the doubts and tribulations of growing up with platonic feelings and sexual confusion. It’s a heartwarming, touching com...

Review: FURTHER THAN THE FURTHEST THING, Young Vic
by Alexander Cohen - March 17, 2023

A parable about the perils of capitalism that prioritises self-aggrandising polemics over dramatic substance...

Review: AFTER THE ACT, New Diorama Theatre
by Katie Kirkpatrick - March 16, 2023

After the Act is entirely different to any other musical currently running in London. Worlds away from the glitz and the glamour of the West End, theatre company Breach have tackled an era of British queer history through the form of a verbatim musical, and the result is a raw, creative performance ...

Review: GUYS & DOLLS, Bridge Theatre
by Gary Naylor - March 16, 2023

As perfectly realised a revival as one could ever hope to see, full honour paid to both the incomparable source material and the times in which we live now...