fri 27/06/2025

Theatre Reviews

The View UpStairs, Soho Theatre review - well-intentioned but needs a rewrite

Matt Wolf

If good intentions were all, The View UpStairs would be Gypsy.

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The Bridges of Madison County, Menier Chocolate Factory review - Iowan romance fizzles

Marianka Swain

Robert James Waller’s bestselling, though critically panned, 1992 romance novel was reincarnated in the Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep-starring film, and then again in Jason Robert Brown and Marsha Norman’s Tony-winning 2013 musical – both adaptations wisely sloughing off some of the original’s schmaltz and sappiness.

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The Night of the Iguana, Noël Coward Theatre review - Clive Owen and Lia Williams burn bright

aleks Sierz

One of the glories of contemporary London theatre is its revivals of classic American drama. Year after year, audiences are able to revisit and enjoy the great landmarks of postwar American playwriting from greats such as Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Sam Shepard and David Mamet (recently joined by the likes of Lynn Nottage).

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Equus, Trafalgar Studios review - passionate intensity

Tom Birchenough

When he gave Martin Dysart, the troubled psychiatrist protagonist of Equus, a line in which he speaks about “moments of experience” being “magnetised”, Peter Shaffer might almost have been talking about theatre itself.

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Tao of Glass, Royal Exchange, Manchester review - brilliant, enchanting tales fascinate

Robert Beale

Who would have thought that a one-narrator show, mainly about projects that never got off the ground, would turn out to be such a satisfying evening’s entertainment?

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Whitewash, Soho Theatre review - a wild-at-heart linguistic joy-ride

Rachel Halliburton

This witty street-smart play about a white-skinned boy born to a mixed-race mother deploys its narrative with the dexterity of a dance.

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Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, London Palladium review - bright, brash, largely irresistible

Matt Wolf

Cheeky and broad and (for the most part) as entertaining as seems humanly possible, this embryonic entry from the collaborative pen of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber is back at its onetime London home, the Palladium. It's a production far surpassing any of the various London and Broadway Joseph...

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The Fountainhead, The Lowry, Salford review – marathon in Mancland

Robert Beale

Ivo van Hove’s reputation precedes his work as a rumble of thunder goes before a storm.

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Peter Gynt, National Theatre review - towering protagonist, middle-way production

David Nice

Like Hamlet and both parts of Goethe's Faust, with which it shares the highest peak of poetic drama, Ibsen's Peer Gynt is very long, timeless...

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Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Harold Pinter Theatre review - smart stagecraft, skimpy script

Matt Wolf

Better than the 2001 film but likely to disappoint devotees of the book, Captain Corelli's Mandolin onstage works best as a reminder of the identifiable stagecraft of its director, Melly Still.

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Advertising feature

★★★★★

A compulsive, involving, emotionally stirring evening – theatre’s answer to a page-turner.
The Observer, Kate Kellaway

 

Direct from a sold-out season at Kiln Theatre the five star, hit play, The Son, is now playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre for a strictly limited season.

 

★★★★★

This final part of Florian Zeller’s trilogy is the most powerful of all.
The Times, Ann Treneman

 

Written by the internationally acclaimed Florian Zeller (The Father, The Mother), lauded by The Guardian as ‘the most exciting playwright of our time’, The Son is directed by the award-winning Michael Longhurst.

 

Book by 30 September and get tickets from £15*
with no booking fee.


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