All stories by David Nice on BroadwayStars

Thursday, July 11, 2019

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

James McArdle's lead, strong ensemble and David Hare's Ibsen adaptation compel Like Hamlet and both parts of Goethe's Faust, with which it shares the highest peak of poetic drama, Ibsen's Pe…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:42AM
Friday, June 21, 2019

The Damned, Comédie-Française, Barbican review - slow-burn horrors in devastating images by David Nice

Ivo van Hove reinvents Visconti's fable about a 1930s German House of Atreus Is the terrifying past of Germany in 1933 also our future? Having had nightmares about the brilliant dystopian TV…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:54AM
Wednesday, May 29, 2019

The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare's Globe review - a gallimaufry of acting styles by David Nice

1930s setting for Falstaff's escapades wins out only in song and dance Need Shakespeare's Falstaff charm to be funny? Those warm, indulgent feelings won by Mrisho Mpoto in the amazing Globe…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:06PM
Thursday, May 16, 2019

Henry IV Parts 1 & 2/Henry V, Shakespeare's Globe review - helter-skelter ensemble history trilogy by Heather Neill and David Nice

Doubling, humour and an outstanding female Henry V Henry IV Part One (***)

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:48AM
Saturday, April 20, 2019

SS Mendi: Dancing the Death Drill, Isango Ensemble, Linbury Theatre - evocative and essential lyric theatre by David Nice

Compelling fantasia about black South Africans drowned in a World War 1 disaster While Bach's and Handel's Passions have been driving thousands to contemplate suffering, mortality and grace,…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:22AM
Thursday, March 7, 2019

Medea, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Barbican review - lacerating contemporary tragedy by David Nice

Simon Stone's homage to Euripides is faultless, while Marieke Heebink tears at the soul Hallucinatory theatre has struck quite a few times in the Barbican's international seasons. On an epic…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:15AM
Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Gently Down the Stream, Park Theatre review - gay history sifted for compact drama by David Nice

Martin Sherman has the excellent Jonathan Hyde telling true talesRipeness is sometimes all. Martin Sherman's new play, receiving its UK premiere at canny Park Theatre, says more about gay hi…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:06AM
Sunday, February 10, 2019

The Good Person of Szechwan, Pushkin Drama Theatre, Barbican review - slick Russian Brecht by David Nice

Musically strong, if persistent, this production has a star protagonist"In our country the capable man needs luck," belts out Shen Te, the Good Person of Szechwan in the most powerful song o…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:32PM
Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Dietrich: Natural Duty, Wilton's Music Hall review - elegy for one by David Nice

Poignant take on Captain Marlene in the Second World WarGetting the look right is half the battle: in that, Peter Groom's one-time-Captain Marlene Dietrich is a winner from the start. The lo…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:36AM
Sunday, October 14, 2018

The Inheritance, Noël Coward Theatre review - tangled knot of gay fairy-tale and reality by David Nice

A virtuoso ensemble justifies this youthful baggy monster's West End transferIts roots are in truth: 15-year-old Matthew Lopez saw the film, then read the book, of Howards End and 11 ye…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:42PM
Thursday, June 21, 2018

Kiss Me, Kate, Opera North, London Coliseum review - Cole Porter delivered in true company style by David Nice

Just a tad short on Broadway charisma, but this sophisticated production glides alongFirst palpable hit of the evening: a full orchestra in the pit under hyper-alert Opera North stalwart Jam…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:18AM
Monday, June 18, 2018

Julius Caesar, BBC Four review - electrifying TV launch of all-women Shakespeare trilogy by David Nice

Harriet Walter and Jade Anouka are the superlative opposite poles in a perfect ensembleWho would have thought, when Phyllida Lloyd's Donmar Julius Caesar opened to justified fanfare, that tw…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:12AM
Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Life and Fate / Uncle Vanya, Maly Drama Theatre, Theatre Royal Haymarket review - the greatest ensemble? by David Nice

Stunning detail from Lev Dodin's company in desperate tragedy and human comedyTowards the end of the Maly Drama Theatre of St Petersburg's Life and Fate, a long scene in director Lev Do…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:18AM
Saturday, April 14, 2018

The Moderate Soprano, Duke of York's Theatre review - love and opera with a flinty edge by David Nice

Roger Allam and Nancy Carroll serve David Hare's iron fist in velvet glove to perfection"What could be more serious than married life?" asked Richard Strauss, whose operas became a surp…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:51AM
Friday, March 2, 2018

Fanny and Alexander, Old Vic review - agile but shallow Bergman adaptation by David Nice

★★★ FANNY AND ALEXANDER, OLD VIC Agile but shallow Bergman adaptationThree strong performances weakened by miscasting elsewhere and restless soundtrackCould an epic cinematic masterpie…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:05AM
Tuesday, October 4, 2016

No's Knife, The Old Vic by David Nice

Nobody said that a 70-minute audience with the undead was going to be easy. You can read Samuel Beckett's Texts for Nothing in your own time, pausing for thought, leaving off, coming back. W…

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:14AM
Saturday, September 24, 2016

Imogen, Shakespeare's Globe by David Nice

What's in a name? Imogen has a softer music to it than Cymbeline, the only one of Shakespeare's plays in which the title character is marginal - even if Hal and Falstaff just outshine Henry …

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:57AM
Friday, September 9, 2016

The Emperor, Young Vic by David Nice

She gave us the most moving of King Lears years before the news broke that Glenda Jackson would be playing the role. Only Mark Rylance has recently matched the malicious wit of her Globe Ric…

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:36AM
Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Allegro, Southwark Playhouse by David Nice

Southwark's golden triangle – the Menier, the Playhouse and the Union – has given us so many "lost" musicals which only a decade or so ago would have been lucky to get in-concert airings…

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:15AM
Saturday, June 11, 2016

Phaedra(s), Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, Barbican by David Nice

Britten fathomed Phaedra's passion for her stepson in a shattering quarter of an hour's dramatic cantata. Euripides' Hippolytus takes about 90 minutes in the playing. Director Kryz…

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:46AM
Tuesday, May 3, 2016

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Middle Temple Hall by David Nice

You rarely see a full production of Shakespeare's dream play so magical it brings tears to the eyes. But then you don't often get 42 players and 14 voices joining the cast to sing and play e…

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:34AM
Monday, April 25, 2016

Kings of War, Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Barbican by David Nice

Banished from the Barbican are the hollow kings of the mediocre RSC Henrys IV and V. In their place comes a whole new procession of living, breathing monarchs in a vision that's light years …

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:09AM
Monday, April 4, 2016

Sunset Boulevard, London Coliseum by David Nice

Could the fascination of Glenn Close's Norma Desmond transcend the frequent bathos of Lloyd Webber? Would they have sorted out the miking which wrecked last year's first choice of semi-ENO m…

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:30PM
Thursday, February 4, 2016

The Master Builder, Old Vic by David Nice

Demons, trolls and dead souls have a habit of latching on to Ibsen's bourgeois Norwegians. Surely the best way for actors to handle them is to keep it natural, make them part of the furnitur…

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:02AM
Friday, December 18, 2015

Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Donmar Warehouse by David Nice

The last time I saw Janet McTeer, she was doing her best with the slightly underwritten role of sister to Glenn Close’s lethal Patty Hewes in Damages, the ultimate TV series about the disc…

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:55AM
Friday, November 27, 2015

Little Eyolf, Almeida Theatre by David Nice

Greek family smashups at the Almeida now yield to northern agony sagas, less bloody but potentially just as harrowing. In Little Eyolf the 66-year-old Ibsen dissected a failed marriage as ru…

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:15AM
Friday, October 30, 2015

The Hairy Ape, Old Vic by David Nice

Never use one word when you can get away with two: that seems to have been the maxim of Eugene O’Neill even in one of his shorter plays. After all, when is an ape not hairy, and why does s…

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:19AM
Friday, October 2, 2015

Medea, Almeida Theatre by David Nice

With her strong, often fierce features and her convincing simulations of rage, Kate Fleetwood might have been born to play Medea. Unfortunately this isn’t Euripides’ Medea but Rachel Cus…

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:22AM
Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Farinelli and the King, Duke of York's Theatre by David Nice

No doubt this sophisticated bagatelle worked like a charm in the intimate space and woody resonance of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. The Duke of York's Theatre is one of the West End’s smal…

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:31AM
Friday, September 18, 2015

Don Juan, Lesya Ukrainka Theatre, St James's Theatre by David Nice

Whose Don Juan – progenitor Tirso de Molina’s, Molière’s or Pushkin’s? None of the above. Unless you have a decent knowledge of Ukrainian culture, you won’t have heard of Lesya Uk…

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:04AM
Saturday, August 15, 2015

The Iliad, British Museum /Almeida Theatre by David Nice

You don’t know Homer’s Iliad until you’ve heard it read aloud, all 24 books – well, very nearly all - and 16 hours of it, as the oral tradition would have kept it alive at least unti…

SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:25PM

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