Theatre
& Juliet, Shaftesbury Theatre review - the Bard with dancefloor bangersThursday, 21 November 2019
It’s bright, it’s brash, it’s a gazillion times camper than Christmas: but is it such stuff as theatrical hits are made on? If that misquotation is already making you cringe, then this glittery pop juggernaut probably isn’t for you – but it is,... Read more... |
The Best Musicals in LondonWednesday, 20 November 2019
Aladdin, Prince Edward Theatre ★★★ Disney's latest blockbuster film-turned-stage show remains airborne – justCome From Away, Phoenix Theatre ★★★★ 9/11-themed musical crosses the Atlantic, capacious heart intactDear Evan Hansen, Noël... Read more... |
Dear Evan Hansen, Noël Coward Theatre review - this social outcast will steal your heartWednesday, 20 November 2019
Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen is an institution in the States, running on Broadway since 2016 and currently on its second year of a national tour. It also made a star... Read more... |
Measure for Measure, RSC, Barbican review - behind the timesTuesday, 19 November 2019
Because he dramatised power, Shakespeare never really goes out of fashion. Treatments of his plays do though, and the RSC’s Measure for Measure, a transfer from Stratford set in turn-of-the-century Vienna, feels distinctly slack. The backdrop is... Read more... |
Stray Dogs, Park Theatre review – no fire in this historic encounterMonday, 18 November 2019
How do you begin to dramatise one of the most extraordinary conversations of the 20th century between two of its most charismatic and complex intellectuals? When the philosopher, and then First Secretary at the British Embassy in Moscow, Isaiah... Read more... |
'By the end I’d lost me': Joe Simpson, mountaineer and writer - interviewSaturday, 16 November 2019
In Peru in 1985, Joe Simpson - then 25 - and his 21-year-old climbing partner Simon Yates were descending the remote Siula Grande, which was hard to get up but even harder to get down, when Simpson broke his leg. They both assumed it was a death... Read more... |
Touching the Void, Duke of York's Theatre review - not quite high enoughFriday, 15 November 2019
Theatre can touch thousands of lives. But can it compete with the success of a bestselling book? First published in 1988, mountaineer Joe Simpson's Touching the Void has apparently sold more than a million copies, and it's been translated into some... Read more... |
Mary Poppins, Prince Edward Theatre review - a lavish but old-fashioned revivalThursday, 14 November 2019
It’s been 15 years since Cameron Mackintosh’s stage musical version of P. L. Travers’ Mary Poppins made its West End debut. Now, the magical nanny returns to the Prince Edward Theatre, with Zizi Strallen (who also headlined the UK tour) succeeding... Read more... |
The Taming of the Shrew, Barbican review - different but still problematicFriday, 08 November 2019
This is one play by Shakespeare ripe for tinkering. It's well nigh impossible now to take it at face value and still find romance and fun in the bullying: the physical and psychological abuse as a supposedly problematic wife is "tamed" into... Read more... |
Shadows, Coronet Theatre review - talking heads in the voidThursday, 07 November 2019
In a flowering branch of London theatre, Norway comes to Notting Hill with what's becoming revelatory regularity, thanks to the cultural support of that admirable country. Two visionary-searing Ibsen productions are now joined by an off-piste piece... Read more... |
The Antipodes, National Theatre review - mysterious and gently momentousWednesday, 06 November 2019
The National Theatre is forging its own special relationship with American playwright Annie Baker, having now produced three of her plays within four years, all in their smallest Dorfman space. The result has allowed a gathering acquaintance... Read more... |
Sydney & the Old Girl, Park Theatre review - black comedy too melodramaticWednesday, 06 November 2019
Actor Miriam Margolyes is a phenomenon. Not only has this Dickensian starred in high-profile shows both here and in Australia, a country whose citizenship she took up in 2013, but she is also Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films. And a... Read more... |
