Theatre
Assassins, Watermill Theatre, Newbury, review - Sondheim musical in scalding formThursday, 10 October 2019
“Every now and then the country goes a little wrong”: so goes one of the many lyrics from the Stephen Sondheim-John Weidman musical Assassins that makes this 1990 Off Broadway musical (subsequently chosen to open Sam Mendes’ Donmar Warehouse in 1992... Read more... |
Mephisto [A Rhapsody], Gate Theatre review - the callowness of historyThursday, 10 October 2019
You wonder about the title of French dramatist Sam Gallet’s Mephisto [A Rhapsody], an adaptation for our days of Klaus Mann’s 1936 novel about an actor unable to resist the blandishments of fame, even if they come at the cost of losing himself.... Read more... |
The Man in the White Suit, Wyndham's Theatre review - sparks but no combustion in this chemistry farceWednesday, 09 October 2019
A hit comedy about a textile scientist? It might sound unlikely, but Ealing Studios’ 1951 sci-fi satire, starring Alec Guinness, was one of the most popular films of the year in Britain. Now, Sean Foley hopes to repeat its success with his new West... Read more... |
Shuck 'n' Jive, Soho Theatre review - a mixed bag, lots of promiseTuesday, 08 October 2019
Shuck 'n' Jive is an hour-long two-hander about writing a play about being black in a white industry. The industry? Theatre. Performance. The stage.Simone (played by Olivia Onyehara), an opera singer, is from Lincolnshire. Cassi (played by Tanisha... Read more... |
Noises Off, Garrick Theatre review - sublime chaos in Michael Frayn's meta-farceFriday, 04 October 2019
“Doors and sardines. Getting on, getting off. Getting the sardines on, getting the sardines off. That’s farce. That’s the theatre. That’s life.” Michael Frayn’s laugh-til-you-weep backstage comedy transfers from the Lyric Hammersmith (where it... Read more... |
Our Lady of Kibeho, Theatre Royal Stratford East review - heaven and hell in Rwandan visionsFriday, 04 October 2019
The American dramatist Katori Hall has created a work of rare accomplishment in Our Lady of Kibeho, a play that combines a beautifully established picture of a particular world – a church school in rural Rwanda, in the early 1980s – with profound... Read more... |
Ian McKellen On Stage, Harold Pinter Theatre review - a master relishes the joy of theatreThursday, 03 October 2019
Reviewing Ian McKellen's show is, in one sense, like appraising the Taj Mahal or Mount Everest: he too is an awe-inspiring phenomenon. In another sense, Sir Ian is not like that at all, going out of his way to be available to the adoring patrons... Read more... |
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Trafalgar Studios review - tragi-comic masterpieceWednesday, 02 October 2019
Playwright Peter Nichols died aged 92 last month, just before the opening of this starry West End revival of his most celebrated masterpiece. A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1967) is based on his own family experience of bringing up his disabled... Read more... |
'Master Harold' ... and the Boys, National Theatre review - timelessly movingWednesday, 02 October 2019
Time has been kind to Athol Fugard's "Master Harold"...and the Boys. It's a stealth bomb of a play that I saw in its world premiere production in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1982 and that has been a regular part of my playgoing life ever since. Yes,... Read more... |
The Watsons, Menier Chocolate Factory review - Laura Wade's inventive new playTuesday, 01 October 2019
What a joy Laura Wade's latest play is. Transferring from its successful run at the Minerva Theatre at Chichester last year, The Watsons is developed from Jane Austen's unfinished novel (started in 1804 and abandoned the following year). But rather... Read more... |
Macbeth, Chichester Festival Theatre review - cosmic yet closely craftedTuesday, 01 October 2019
There’s a fine balance between the cosmic and the closely crafted in director Paul Miller’s Macbeth, his first production in the expansive space that is Chichester’s main stage. It comes across as a drama unravelling in the wide open spaces of... Read more... |
Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp., Royal Court review - still experimental after all these yearsFriday, 27 September 2019
At the age of 81, Caryl Churchill, Britain's greatest living playwright, is still going strong. Her latest is a typically imaginative quartet of short plays. Each of them is vividly distinct, being linguistically agile, theatrically pleasurable and... Read more... |
