All stories by Friends on BroadwayStars

Thursday, July 27, 2017

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ Menier, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

MICHAEL ADAIR, 25  ¾ ,  APPROPRIATELY TAKES OVER AND WRITES..     Before The Inbetweeners, the most accurate reflection of the total embarrassment of teenage life in Britain wa…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:56AM
Wednesday, July 26, 2017

GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY Old Vic, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

BOB AND CONOR: A NEW DIRECTION HOME…     Bob Dylan songs – from each of six decades – woven into a musical by Conor McPherson? At Dylan’s own suggestion? What? But …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:59PM

MOSQUITOES Dorfman, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

A COSMIC CLASH OF PHYSICS AND FAMILY   Ah, now this is what the National Theatre is for1 A great reckless sprawl of a brand-new play, with spectacular technology, extraordinary design (…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:14AM
Friday, July 21, 2017

DESSERT Southwark Playhouse SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

FINE DINING AND FINANCIAL FURY   Piquant idea, to open Oliver Cotton’s play about financial inequality in BBC Salary Embarrassment Week.  While the inequity between multi-million…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:51AM
Thursday, July 20, 2017

INK – more thoughts by Libby Purves and Friends

With the news of its West End transfer in autumn – well deserved –  I  finally caught up with INK (reviewed here on opening night by Luke.   I agree with his rating of fiv…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:37AM
Wednesday, July 19, 2017

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF Chichester Festival Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

FROM HIS MOUTH TO GOD’S EAR…     We know Omid Djalili best as a comedian: one of our few Iranian standups. Great timing and great heart, a good Fagin but comparatively …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:14PM
Wednesday, July 12, 2017

YANK! Charing Cross Theatre, SW1 by Libby Purves and Friends

NEW GUEST CRITIC THOMAS HOLLOWAY FINDS A NEW MUSICAL     Arriving at the Charing Cross Theatre this weekend, in the wake of London’s Pride weekend, is this transfer from the ente…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:43AM
Monday, July 10, 2017

QUEEN ANNE Theatre Royal, Haymarket WC1 by Libby Purves and Friends

A MODERN WORLD GROWING, BENEATH THE PERIWIGS     I saw Helen Edmundson’s marvellous RSC history-play about Anne’s short reign some eighteen months ago; the review is here ̵…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:37PM
Wednesday, July 5, 2017

LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR AND GRILL Wyndham’s , WC1 by Libby Purves and Friends

A GREAT HEART AND TALENT,  REMEMBERED WITH LOVE   O my days! If you have any feeling for jazz and blues, for women, music or the historic trials and triumphs of black America, don’t …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:31PM
Monday, July 3, 2017

COMMITTEE Donmar, WC1 by Libby Purves and Friends

THE MIRACLE THAT FAILED     The subtitle is “The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Takes Oral Evidence on Whitehall’s Relationship with Kids’ Company…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:27PM
Thursday, June 29, 2017

BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES – another view by Libby Purves and Friends

WE DON’T OFTEN REVIEW TWICE, BUT THE SHORTAGE OF YOUNGER AND DIVERSE VOICES MATTERS…SO (ON HER OWN TICKET)  JENNIFER-JANE BENJAMIN,  A YOUNG LONDONER WHOSE OWN HERITAGE IS NIGE…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:11PM
Wednesday, June 28, 2017

INK Almeida N1 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER LUKE JONES GLORIES IN JAMES GRAHAM’S SUN BACKSTORY  It’s a solid stunner of a play which has you punching the air for Rupert Murdoch by the interval. Bertie Carvel’…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:51AM
Thursday, June 22, 2017

HIR Bush, W12 by Libby Purves and Friends

MILLENIAL  LUKE JONES TIRES OF THIS GENDER AGENDA     There aren’t many issues in life that haven’t been solved, rationalised or  helpfully knocked about by plays. &#…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:33AM
Wednesday, June 21, 2017

GLORIA Hampstead, NW3 by Libby Purves and Friends

WHEN SHOCK BECOMES A SALES PITCH     There are three acts: the first long, expressing an enervatingly pointless world and ending in a sharp shock. The second is competitively cynic…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:59PM
Tuesday, June 20, 2017

BAT OUT OF HELL           London Coliseum WC1 by Libby Purves and Friends

WHERE ROCK ‘ N ROLL DREAMS COME TRUE   “On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?” Or in this case, a red carpet  lined with …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:21PM
Friday, June 16, 2017

BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES Dorfman, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

FOLLICLES, FOLLY, FATHERHOOD   It’s fun down in the Dorfman pit. Under exuberant African barbershop posters from Lagos, Harare, Accra – and London – a cast of barbers and …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:48AM
Thursday, June 15, 2017

TRISTAN & YSEULT Shakespeare’s Globe, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

WHAT BECOMES OF THE BROKEN-HEARTED?     This is a famously significant piece of theatre: created in 2003 in a Cornish field , it was one of the first successes of Emma Rice’s Kne…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:17AM
Tuesday, June 13, 2017

KISS ME Trafalgar studio 2 SW1 by Libby Purves and Friends

  ANOTHER KIND OF ETERNAL TRIANGLE     I have a taste for plays about the years between the wars. The WW1 anniversary saw some fascinating contemporaneous ones, often at the J…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:20AM
Tuesday, June 6, 2017

COMMON National Theatre, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI FINDS HERSELF REACHING FOR HER PITCHFORK “You are blight and darkness and sin…” Lost village girl Mary comes home to her beloved Laura after a lifetime …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:49PM
Monday, June 5, 2017

ANNIE Piccadilly theatre, W1 by Libby Purves and Friends

BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR ON IT…   If Nikolai Foster’s production of Annie came in a tin, it would prove to be exactly what the label promised. Feelgood, joyful, corny, gorgeous. Ruby …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:13PM

GIFFORD’S CIRCUS Touring by Libby Purves and Friends

MOLTO SPLENDIDO   From caravans in little greens and fields, Velasquez figures emerge into the hastily erected big Top in silks and plackets, ruffs and feathers and frilled pantaloons a…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:25AM
Saturday, June 3, 2017

THE ISLAND Southwark Playhouse , SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

PITY, TERROR, TRIUMPH     For the first fifteen of the hundred minutes no word is spoken by the two men in ragged prison cottons: Edward Dede as the younger Winston, Mark Springer …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:16AM
Thursday, June 1, 2017

TWITSTORM Park Theatre, N4 by Libby Purves and Friends

THE PERILS OF PC, THE TERROR OF TWITTER   This little  theatre is on a roll, catching topicalities as they fly. After David Henry Hwang’s wonderful CHINGLISH. about trade with China,…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:03PM
Thursday, May 25, 2017

TWELFTH NIGHT Shakespeare’s Globe SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER MICHAEL ADAIR ROCKS ALONG WITH RICE AT THE GLOBE…   “In Love We Trust” – is the motto of the SS Unity, the ship that swiftly sinks moments into Emma Rice�…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:31AM
Tuesday, May 23, 2017

WOYZECK Old Vic, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

  GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI FINDS LOVE, PITY AND HORROR IN EQUAL MEASURE AT THE OLD VIC Jack Thorne’s explosive new Woyzeck brings Büchner’s unfinished working class tragedy …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:33PM
Monday, May 22, 2017

THE ADDAMS FAMILY Touring by Libby Purves and Friends

LOOK INTO THE DARK AND SMILE ALL TOUR LONG     This cheerfully macabre celebration of Charles Addams’ famous 1930’s cartoon is off on tour: link below. I saw one of the last shows in i…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:47PM
Friday, May 19, 2017

RICHARD III Arcola, London E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

TWISTEDLY IRRESISTIBLE    I would not like you to think that I stalk Greg Hicks (though obviously I do: aaah, that odd strong Caesar, that agonized Leontes, that bonkers newspaper edit…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:10AM
Wednesday, May 17, 2017

LETTICE AND LOVAGE Menier, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

ENLARGE, ENLIGHTEN , ENLIVEN…ENTERTAIN!     Expatiating on the Grand Staircase of a dreary Tudor stately home (built with ironic love by designer Robert Jones) our tour guide Let…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:00PM
Tuesday, May 16, 2017

LIFE OF GALILEO Young Vic SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

LET THERE BE LIGHT!   The year 1632 : we are halfway through the epic conflict between Galileo Galilei and the Holy Roman Church, an authority in its day quite as ruthless as Stalin and…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:47PM

OUR LADIES OF PERPETUAL SUCCOUR Duke of York’s, WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

IN WHICH MICHAEL ADAIR LOSES HIS THEATRE-CRITIC VIRGINITY TO A PACK OF SCOTTISH MINXES     A few years ago, when High School Musical and Glee were in their pomp, we were forever se…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:11AM
Friday, May 12, 2017

CAROLINE, OR CHANGE Minerva, Chichester by Libby Purves and Friends

BLEACH, BLUES, AND BLACK AMERICA RISING   Here’s a pocket musical with huge themes, a blues opera of historic seriousness but with a singing washing-machine in a bubbled minidress. A …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:39PM