All stories by Friends on BroadwayStars

Friday, November 10, 2023

MATES IN CHELSEA Royal Court, SW1 by Libby Purves and Friends

FLAT WHITE AND WOEFUL        If you’re going to splash out on a visually arresting finale of assassination, a vivId fire destroying a Norman tower and a lyrical monologue about Lenin,�…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:10AM

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 1936 by Libby Purves and Friends

ECHOES OF DARKNESS     Jews gather, laughing and chattering, offering a toast as they run down the aisles to settle downstage for a Passover meal with candles, prayers and the ancient ques…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:55AM
Thursday, November 9, 2023

CLYDE’S. Donmar, wC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

FAR MORE THAN A SNACK     Caught this late, and it’s much reviewed and almost sold out. But it’s worth saying in a brief word here that if you buy a return as I did, you are in  luck.…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:58PM
Tuesday, November 7, 2023

BACKSTAIRS BILLY Duke of York’s theatre WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

A QUEEN WHO NEEDED QUEENS     The curtain rises on the Clarence House garden room in 1979,  where the Queen Mother held her eccentric little court.  Much gilding, unreasonably many oil …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:58PM

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD Hampstead Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

      WHEN WE THAT ARE LEFT GROW OLD….       Sometimes you have to rely on a team with multiple comedy awards to  hold a mirror to society and move your heart.  This is by Richard …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:13AM
Thursday, November 2, 2023

THE INTERVIEW. Park Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

DIANA AND THE DECEIVER Jonathan Maitland did a superb play for this theatre about Thatcher and Howe, “Dead Sheep”, and one on Jimmy Savile which was far more telling and cathartic than t…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:42PM
Wednesday, November 1, 2023

THE TIME TRAVELLER’S WIFE. Apollo, W1 by Libby Purves and Friends

SCIENCE FANTASY AND HONEST EMOTION        I don’t normally indulge in first-night anecdotes,  but feel I should mention that in the big wedding scene Joanna Woodward tossed her bouque…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:23PM

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. Richmond & touring by Libby Purves and Friends

AGATHA STRIKES AGAIN       This is Extreme Agatha Christie, her most preposterous (and bestselling) plot and one of the most murderously morbid (NB the final moments of the staging are no…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:59PM
Tuesday, October 31, 2023

JEFFREY BERNARD IS UNWELL. Coach and Horses, Soho by Libby Purves and Friends

MEMORIES OF A MAVERICK   It’s an immersive show, in that you buy a drink in the cramped saloon of the old pub on Greek Street, find a corner, and ideally fall into conversation with anoth…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:20PM

THE INQUIRY Minerva, Chichester by Libby Purves and Friends

WHILE THE REAL ONE RUNS…. With the Covid Inquiry surging along in a froth of accusations and curses and scandalous Whatsappery, it was hard to resist a hasty day-return to Harry Davies’ …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 02:12PM
Friday, October 27, 2023

THE UNGODLY Red Rose Chain, Ipswich by Libby Purves and Friends

THE FIRST WITCHFINDER, NOT WITHOUT LESSONS FOR TODAY         This is remarkable,  Joanna Carrick’s best and deepest play yet,   following her acclaimed Reformation trilogy. In its sm…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:44AM
Wednesday, October 25, 2023

THE CONFESSIONS Lyttelton, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

A MOTHER’S LIFE, A SON’S PERSPECTIVE Sometimes it is almost useful to be a day late (sorry,  tied up yesterday) because it gives a chance to read other people’s take on the play you s…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:25AM
Friday, October 20, 2023

THE SCORE Theatre Royal, Bath by Libby Purves and Friends

GENIUS, REALPOLITIK, RELIGION      In days  of horrifying conflict there was quite a jolt in a confrontation between Stephen Hagan’s  resplendently silver-suited Frederick the Great a…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:16AM
Tuesday, October 17, 2023

OWNERS Jermyn st Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

PROPERTY RAGE FROM ANOTHER AGE Here’s a curiosity from 1972;  an early , rarely-seen Caryl Churchill play revived  with dashing elegance under the Jermyn’s Artistic director Stella Pow…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:18PM

A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE Chichester Festival Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

GRIM AND PURE BY THE DOCKS, PITY AND POETRY    The lawyer Alfieri, prowling in memory round Arthur Miller’s stark  tale of immigrant longshoremen on the 1940’s Brooklyn docks,  speak…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:12PM
Monday, October 16, 2023

A VOYAGE ROUND MY FATHER touring by Libby Purves and Friends

A LEARNED FRIEND REMEMBERED      Rumpole of the Bailey is occasional comfort-viewing in our house, thanks to Talkingpicturestv repeats. John Mortimer’s  portrait of the old barrister a…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:12AM
Friday, October 13, 2023

SUNSET BOULEVARD. Savoy theatre WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

ITS THE PICTURES THAT GOT SMALL? Not if Lloyd can help it. It felt  strange to see this in the bowels of a gala-night Savoy, only a week or two after our local arts centre showed the  1950…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:16AM
Sunday, October 1, 2023

PETER PAN GOES WRONG touring by Libby Purves and Friends

IT’S BACK, THROUGH THE NURSERY WINDOW, STILL FLYING       Just to reassure you:  this offshoot from Mischief, the team who brought you the perennial  Play-goes-wrong, is still a lot o…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:50AM
Thursday, September 28, 2023

CLOSE UP Menier, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

  THE TWIG WHO BRANCHED OUT      We get up to speed on the period,  with irresistible tracks from the golden age of pop: Beatles, Stones, Animals.   Onstage is a photographer’s white…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:33PM
Tuesday, September 26, 2023

OCTOPOLIS Hampstead Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

A TANKFUL OF EMOTIONAL TENTACLES       Where better than Hampstead to watch the interplay of cutting-edge science with emotional intensity and philosophical unanswerables?  Upstairs we h…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:38AM
Friday, September 22, 2023

PYGMALION Old VIc, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

PHONETICALLY PHABULOUS      Last time Bertie Carvel was on this stage it was as Donald Trump. Now our best shapeshifter is Henry Higgins: capering, swearing, somewhere on the far side of …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:17AM
Thursday, September 21, 2023

THE WHITE FACTORY. Marylebone theatre, NW1 by Libby Purves and Friends

THE INFECTION OF WICKEDNESS          The history of the Lodz ghetto in Poland is a part of the Holocaust story worth foxusing on, ot least because the Jewish population there were made …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 02:04PM

REBECCA Charing Cross Theatre WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

LAST NIGHT I DREAMT I WENT TO MANDERLEY  YET AGAIN…       Daphne Du Maurier’s story is almost a national myth, what with the grand house on the towering cliffs, the terrifying housek…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:18AM
Tuesday, September 19, 2023

ANTHROPOLOGY Hampstead Theatre, NW3 by Libby Purves and Friends

LOSS AND GRIEF IN A SILICON WORLD         In a bleak grey minimalist space  Merril (a restlessly gamine Myanna Buring) is grieving her much younger sister Angie,  who has vanished, pre…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 02:55AM
Friday, September 15, 2023

THE FATHER AND THE ASSASSIN Olivier, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

INDIA 1948 , LESSONS FOR ALL TIME      This show  is a happy return, especially if like me you missed it last summer: the National at its best, a modern epic and warning directed with fl…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:56AM
Thursday, September 14, 2023

THE INVINCIBLES Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch by Libby Purves and Friends

SHOOT, SCORE, SPARK!  This is the year of  football plays. First Dear England at the Olivier, now  the women’s turn on another stage,  out East a bit.  Here’s another neon strip lig…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:58AM
Wednesday, September 13, 2023

INFAMOUS Jermyn St theatre SW1 by Libby Purves and Friends

A SCANDALOUS WOMAN IN A STORMY WORLD       A distant thunder of naval artillery: against elegant panelled walls in Naples a bundled matron   in a bonnet watches her flighty daughter toss…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:22AM
Sunday, September 10, 2023

GOD OF CARNAGE Lyric, Hammersmith by Libby Purves and Friends

FOUR MORE AWFUL PEOPLE, HURRAH          Two four-handers about awful middle class behaviour in a week:  just what the irritable heatwave needed.   This, which I caught in a late previ…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:50AM
Thursday, September 7, 2023

NEVER HAVE I EVER. Minerva, Chichester by Libby Purves and Friends

WHEN THE VIRTUE-SIGNALS DRIVE YOU OFF THE RAILS      In a boutique restaurant going bankrupt, Jacq and Kas nervously prepare to admit it to their main investor Tobin and his wife Adaego.�…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:05AM
Friday, August 18, 2023

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park by Libby Purves and Friends

 HAVING THE BEST OF TIMES IN THE PARK     Even in familiar classics you can never predict which anthem will set you dabbing your eye.    You might expect it at Albin’s anguished ‘I …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:11PM
Thursday, August 17, 2023

THE EFFECT. Lyttelton, SE 1 by Libby Purves and Friends

DOPAMINE , DRUGS, DANGER, DOCTORS   This intriguing play by Lucy Prebble  aired in 2012 in the intimate Cottesloe space , with Billie Piper and Jonjo o’Neill as paid subjects in an antid…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:55AM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic
TBA: Ragtime