Theatre
Saturday Night Fever, Peacock Theatre review - crowd-pleaser stays true to its rootsThursday, 17 February 2022
Wind the clock back 45 years and the Big Apple was bankrupt, the lights had gone out and many native New Yorkers were packing their bags. Gangs controlled whole neighbourhoods, drugs were the currency of choice and, for a kid with no college,... Read more... |
Broken Wings, Charing Cross Theatre review - new musical fails to flyWednesday, 16 February 2022
Somewhere in the world right now, one can hear Mister Mister's AOR hit, "Broken Wings" on an MOR radio station, capturing mid-Eighties synth pop perfectly. Few listeners will know that its inspiration is a 1912 autobiographical novel by Lebanese-... Read more... |
The Forest, Hampstead Theatre review - puzzling world premiere from Florian ZellerWednesday, 16 February 2022
If Florian Zeller isn’t a Wordle fan, I’d be very surprised. As with the hit online game, the French playwright likes to offer up a puzzle for the audience to solve, clue by clue, before the curtain falls. His latest play, The Forest, which had its... Read more... |
Queens of Sheba, Soho Theatre review – energy, entertainment and rageMonday, 14 February 2022
Black women often find themselves subject to a double dose of prejudice. Pressure. They face everyday racism as well as sexism. It’s called misogynoir, and Queens of Sheba is a short show dedicated to calling it out. In as joyous and energetic way... Read more... |
The Chairs, Almeida Theatre review - a tragi-comic double act for the agesFriday, 11 February 2022
By all accounts, whenever The Chairs is dusted off for a new production it manages to resonate for audiences, as would any half-decent play laughing in the face of the futility of existence. And this cheeky, charming, often uproarious new... Read more... |
Wuthering Heights, National Theatre review - too much heat, not enough lightFriday, 11 February 2022
“If you want romance,” the cast of Emma Rice’s new version of Wuthering Heights say in unison just after the interval, “go to Cornwall.” They’re using the modern definition of romance, of course – Emily Brontë’s novel is full of the original meaning... Read more... |
Hamlet, Shakespeare's Globe review - melancholy mash-up lacks chemistryTuesday, 08 February 2022
Hamlet isn’t often played for laughs. When David Tennant took the comedic approach in the RSC’s 2008 production, it was testament to his mercurial genius that his performance brilliantly conveyed the manic grief of a young man whose world was... Read more... |
Purple Snowflakes and Titty Wanks, Royal Court review – fearless, frank and feministMonday, 07 February 2022
Irish teenager Saoirse Murphy has a dirty mouth. And she’s not afraid to use it when talking to the nuns at her convent school. But it soon emerges that her feistiness is a cover for some very disturbing problems in Sarah Hanly’s energetic debut... Read more... |
A Number, Old Vic review - revelatory yet againThursday, 03 February 2022
Time continues to be kind to A Number, the astonishing 2002 play by Caryl Churchill that reaps fresh rewards with every viewing. Revived just prior to the pandemic at the Bridge, here it is anew at the Old Vic, in a smart reappraisal by the director... Read more... |
Conundrum, Young Vic review - inscrutable and ungraspableTuesday, 01 February 2022
Conundrum is a tricky play. Written and directed by Paul Anthony Morris, founder of Crying in the Wilderness Productions, it’s an extended meditation on Blackness and what it means to live in a racist society. Anthony Ofoegbu is the star of the show... Read more... |
The Glow, Royal Court review – bizarre, beautiful and breathtakingMonday, 31 January 2022
Bizarre. Breathtaking. Beautiful. I leave the Royal Court theatre with these Bs, as well as others such as bewitching and beguiling, buzzing in my mind. Alistair McDowall, whose previous plays include Pomona (2014) and X (2016), has created a mind-... Read more... |
Dr Semmelweis, Bristol Old Vic review - dazzling but overloadedFriday, 28 January 2022
Dr Semmelweis, a star vehicle for Mark Rylance, one of Britain’s most versatile and talented actors, fills the Bristol Old Vic with a dizzying kaleidoscope of words, sounds and images. Tom Morris – the theatre’s energetic and inventive director –... Read more... |
