West End
One Man, Two Guvnors, Theatre Royal HaymarketWednesday, 14 March 2012
Was it the players, or the play, that has made a phenomenon out of One Man, Two Guvnors, the prize-winning comedy now on its third London theatre and preparing to hop the pond to Broadway next month? Well, bacon and eggs(!), it turns out there’s... Read more... |
Hay Fever, Noël Coward TheatreMonday, 27 February 2012
“Winsome” isn’t a word you hear very often these days. The taint of coy, simpering campery already hung about it in the 1920s when Noël Coward gave it a starring role in the after-dinner word-charades of his hit Hay Fever. Yet now (as then) it’s a... Read more... |
The Recruiting Officer, Donmar WarehouseWednesday, 15 February 2012
Drum rolls, fiddles and flutes were all in action last night at the Donmar Warehouse to herald the beginning of an era. After ten successful years under the direction of Michael Grandage, it was the turn of the theatre’s new Artistic Director Josie... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Actor Zach BraffSunday, 12 February 2012
Zach Braff (b 1975) is overwhelmingly known as the star of Scrubs, the hugely popular American hospital comedy which came with a side order of surrealism. But fans of low-budget indie cinema will also cherish fond memories of Garden State, which he... Read more... |
The Madness of George III, Apollo TheatreTuesday, 24 January 2012
Alan Bennett’s The Madness of George III has enjoyed something of a royal progress around England over the past year. Touring in Christopher Luscombe’s slick production for the Peter Hall Company, the show has finally arrived in the West End. The... Read more... |
National Theatre, 2012 SeasonWednesday, 11 January 2012
The National Theatre's summer highlights include Simon Russell Beale directed by Nicholas Hytner in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens and Julie Walters as an ageing society dropout in the debut stage play by TV writer Stephen Beresford, The Last of the... Read more... |
2011: All Watched Over by Matilda and MelancholiaMonday, 26 December 2011
At its best, theatre is enthralling, and this year's offerings were led by one brilliant musical and one amazing comedy. With the West End immune to the chills of the recession, its profits went up, and it warmly welcomed a couple of hits from the... Read more... |
A Christmas Carol, Arts TheatreMonday, 12 December 2011
That a tale confronting society’s most pernicious evils, giving poverty a human face and desperation a voice, should become a cornerstone of the British festive experience is perhaps unexpected: testimony either to the moral deviance of the general... Read more... |
Cabaret Falafel, Gaby's Deli, second verse!Saturday, 10 December 2011
Well, the stars were out near Leicester Square, and it was neither the premiere of a Hollywood blockbuster, nor even a clear night. Instead, the stars were in conjunction at Gaby’s Deli, now the hotbed of a revolt against the plastification of... Read more... |
Cabaret Falafel, Gaby's DeliWednesday, 07 December 2011
Even in London’s variegated show-world, something called Cabaret Falafel stands out as an exotic title. To discover that it will take place in a delicatessen, performed by the wonderful Henry Goodman, makes it both more piquant and more explicable,... Read more... |
Some Like It Hip Hop, ZooNation, Peacock TheatreThursday, 27 October 2011
The title is a warning, as is the cheesy grinning poster - this is going to be Fun with a capital F, and Feel-good too, and Family Friendly. And it is going to clean up hip hop’s badass image. I was already prejudiced against it before I sat down.... Read more... |
Death and the Maiden, Harold Pinter TheatreTuesday, 25 October 2011
At the newly renamed Harold Pinter Theatre (formerly the Comedy), the inaugural show is a special tribute to the Nobel Prize-winning playwright, who died in 2008. The subject matter of Ariel Dorfman’s play, which won an Olivier Award on its first... Read more... |
