Theatre
Scrounger, Finborough Theatre review - uncomfortable play tackles disability discriminationTuesday, 14 January 2020
Scrounger is no comfortable evening in the theatre, for reasons both intentional and inadvertent. Athena Stevens’ new play recounts her 2016 battle with British Airways and London City Airport, who subjected her to the humiliation of being... Read more... |
Magic Goes Wrong, Vaudeville Theatre review - entertaining spoofFriday, 10 January 2020
Mischief Theatre's “Goes Wrong” oeuvre is now well established: broad humour combined with physical comedy and slapstick mishaps. Magic Goes Wrong, though, is the company's first outside collaboration – with American magicians Penn & Teller,... Read more... |
The Tyler Sisters, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs review – raucous celebration of sisterhoodWednesday, 08 January 2020
The Tyler sisters start as they mean to go on: bickering. Middle sister Gail (Bryony Hannah) has come home from uni to find that youngest Katrina (Angela Griffin) has stolen her room. “What about Maddy’s? Why didn’t you take that?” Gail snaps. “She... Read more... |
Celebrating the musicals of Jerry Herman (1931-2019)Friday, 03 January 2020
How is it that, in the nearly 900 pages of Sondheim's collected lyrics with extensive comments Finishing the Hat and Look, I Made a Hat, with numerous special boxes celebrating other composers and lyricists, he managed to mention Jerry Herman only... Read more... |
Best of 2019: TheatreSaturday, 28 December 2019
Political dysfunction and societal distress led many amongst us to the brink this year, so where better than the theatre to find succour if not always solace in the abundantly thoughtful offerings of a creative community as often as not working at... Read more... |
Girl From The North Country, Gielgud Theatre review – poignant collaboration between Conor McPherson and Bob DylanMonday, 23 December 2019
Despair hangs like mildew over the small iron-ore mining town of Duluth, Minnesota, where dreams go to die, and the living haunt the clapped-out buildings like lost souls. This poignant collaboration between playwright Conor McPherson and Bob Dylan... Read more... |
Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Alexandra Palace Theatre review - JM Barrie's classic as you have never seen it beforeThursday, 19 December 2019
Mischief Theatre is a wonder of modern commercial theatre. In 2008, a group of young actors who had met at drama school started the ensemble – writing, producing, directing and performing their own work. They had their big breakthrough with The Play... Read more... |
Curtains, Wyndham's Theatre review - unexpectedly giddy funWednesday, 18 December 2019
Who knew? This West End premiere of the 2007 Broadway entry from the legendary songwriting team of John Kander and Fred Ebb (Chicago, Cabaret) secured a prime holiday-season slot at the last minute when this playhouse's previous entry, The Man... Read more... |
Snowflake, Kiln Theatre review - strong but clumsy generational warTuesday, 17 December 2019
The prolific Mike Bartlett – from whose pen have leapt television series such as Doctor Foster and Press, as well as stage hits such as King Charles III – has two things to celebrate tonight. On ITV his new three-part psychological drama, Sticks and... Read more... |
Swive, Shakespeare's Globe review – pacy, dagger-sharp rewriting of historyMonday, 16 December 2019
History has corseted Elizabeth I with the title of “Virgin Queen” for centuries, but in Ella Hickson’s laceratingly witty new play she is revealed as nothing less than a lioness on a hot tin roof. In this pacy, dagger-sharp production we watch... Read more... |
Teenage Dick, Donmar Warehouse review - a fearlessly acted, well-intentioned messFriday, 13 December 2019
If good intentions were everything, Teenage Dick would be the play of the year. As it is, this British premiere at the Donmar of an Off Broadway entry from summer 2018 grants centre-stage, and not before time, to two disabled actors, one of whom... Read more... |
A Kind of People, Royal Court review - multiculturalism falls apartThursday, 12 December 2019
The trouble with prejudice is that you can't control how other people see you. At the start of her career, playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's work was set in her own Sikh community. But, like other playwrights from similar backgrounds, she has tended... Read more... |
