Thursday, July 21, 2022
★★★★CLOSER, LYRIC HAMMERSMITH Still sordid and sexy 25 years on
Lovers come together, split apart and come together again
Drama is writing in thin air, its content instantly spirite…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 11:12AMThursday, July 7, 2022
Fine acting and bleak humour barely ameliorates a grim slog through a broken relationship
Rebecca Lenkiewicz's adaptation of August Strindberg's 1900 paean to the power of loathing over lovi…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:12PMFriday, July 1, 2022
Claudia Rankine's 2018 play insists on raising difficult questions
Art and race intersect to provocative effect
We’re in New York City, in an upscale loft apartment, with that absence of…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:18AMWednesday, June 1, 2022
A classic play can still collapse time and space with its heartrending relevance
The stage is cluttered with objects; a pianola sits stage left; a large cabinet, soon to be revealed as a di…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:18AMSaturday, May 28, 2022
Marina Carr's angry, poetic take on Clytemnestra's story is delivered in all its gory glory
Playwrights return to classical myths for two main reasons – to shine a light on how we live …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:06AMWednesday, May 18, 2022
★★★★ GREASE, Dominion Theatre Nostalgia for the late 1950s and late 1970s underpins an entertaining show
Crowdpleaser pleases crowd: this High School musical delivers what its audie…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 11:07PMSaturday, May 14, 2022
★ JULIUS CAESAR, SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE Misjudged masterpiece
Intrusive 21st century agenda and dismal staging waste an opportunity
With tyrants licking their lips around the world and th…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:54AMThursday, April 21, 2022
Iconic couple shoot for West End success
One of the more irritating memes (it’s a competitive field, I know) is the “Name a more iconic couple” appearing over a photo of Posh and Becks…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:42AMSaturday, April 16, 2022
Swordplay and songs never quite hit their stride
Zorro (what a name!) is back, swashing and buckling his way into the West End, 13 years after he left and now not the only one wearing a mask…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:06AMThursday, April 7, 2022
Political lesson on the dangers of populism fails to hit home
Loud madcap comedy morphs into mime and flops when it should fly
When Rhum + Clay conceived this show, the idea of a comic becom…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:12AMThursday, March 10, 2022
Abigail Graham's pacy production focuses on the moneylender's fate
A supposed 'comedy' gives the moneylender Shylock pride of place
The Merchant of Venice is a comedy, you say? Shakespeare,…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:03AMMonday, March 7, 2022
Dennis Kelly's 2005 play presses many 2022 buttons
Lockdown, #MeToo and Ukraine give new urgency to a dystopian fable
Mark was teased about the fallout shelter at the bottom of his garden …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:36AMFriday, March 4, 2022
Another musical based on a movie hits London, with a moral guaranteed to please audiences
Wave your pom poms for a show with its heart in the right place
We open on “Seventeen is Swell”,…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:48AMThursday, February 17, 2022
Few concessions to 21st century sensibilities, but a great night out
Iconic film on stage heats up the West End
Wind the clock back 45 years and the Big Apple was bankrupt, the lights had go…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:18AMWednesday, February 16, 2022
Plodding book detailing a poet's sentimental education falls flat on stage
Somewhere in the world right now, one can hear Mister Mister's AOR hit, "Broken Wings" on an MOR radio station, cap…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:42AMWednesday, January 19, 2022
★★★ THRILL ME:THE LEOPOLD & LOEB STORY Child killers seduce us with charisma and song
Child killers seduce us with charisma and song
There's a lot of True Crime stuff about, so it'…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:33AMWednesday, January 12, 2022
Sir David Suchet reflects on his extraordinary career
Sir David Suchet takes us from school days to sleuth days
In the 80s, An Audience With... gave a television studio to an actor who th…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:48AMSaturday, December 18, 2021
★★★★ THE TIGER LILLIES' CHRISTMAS CAROL: A VICTORIAN GUTTER, SOUTHBANK CENTRE Melancholy musical retelling laced with wit and political venom
The Tiger Lillies tell a familiar…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:24PMMonday, November 29, 2021
★★★ THE GOOD LIFE Nostalgic comedy with a surprising resonance 45 years on
Tom, Barbara, Jerry and Margo are back in the '70s, but with a message for today
"Off-grid" wasn't a thing…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:03AMFriday, November 26, 2021
★★★ A Christmas Carol - Immersive Dickens production not quite a Christmas cracker
Stephen Mangan's Scrooge learns his lesson in imbalanced Dickens adaptation
Four years and a Broadw…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:42AMWednesday, November 17, 2021
★★★★ VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE Comedy mines Chekhov for laughs and finds some rich seams
Super London debut for Russian-inspired Broadway comedy
Vanya and Sonia and Mas…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:36AMSaturday, November 13, 2021
★★★★★ FOOTFALLS AND ROCKABY, Beckett's ferocious contemplations on the ebbing of life
Double bill finds the Irish master at his most raw
Like all great art, Samuel Beckett's works…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:42AMWednesday, November 10, 2021
★★★★ MILK AND GALL, Baby turns New Yorkers' lives upside down, while Trump has a tantrum or two
No holds barred comedy lays bare the unsentimental side of parenting
Tuesday, 8 No…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:32PMTuesday, November 9, 2021
★★★ THE CHOIR OF MAN, Decent blokes sing old school hits in an old school pub
Lots of songs and lots of sugary sentimentality
Like a previous occupant of this venue, Six, The Choir Of…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:12PMFriday, October 29, 2021
★★★ THE MAGICIAN'S ELEPHANT, ROYAL SHAKESPEARE THEATRE A musical about trust and hope, and an unexpected elephant
An elephant awakens an emotionally shattered town
Trigger warnings h…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:42PMTuesday, October 26, 2021
★★ VANARA, HACKNEY EMPIRE Falls well short of its West Side Story inspired ambition
Two tribes feud over fire in a post-apocalyptic world's last surviving forest
Two tribes, both alike…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 11:32AMTuesday, October 5, 2021
★★★★ WHAT IF IF ONLY Caryl Churchill's short play considers the despair of grief and the optimism of hope
A beautifully staged reflection on the pain of confronting loss and the nece…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:42AMTuesday, September 28, 2021
★★★★ BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL, ADELPHI THEATRE A spectacular West End show to delight fans old and new
Whether you've seen the movie ten times or never, this will be a night …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:48AMSaturday, September 25, 2021
★★★★ THE LAST FIVE YEARS, GARRICK THEATRE Jason Robert Brown's semi-autobiographical show gets a West End upgrade
Flaws remain, but audiences will lap up the gorgeous melodies, be…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:06AMWednesday, September 22, 2021
★★★ BLITHE SPIRIT, HAROLD PINTER THEATRE Jennifer Saunders delights her fans in classic comedy
Jennifer Saunders delivers a fine turn as the celebrated Madame Arcati in Sir Noël Cowa…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:03AMTuesday, September 7, 2021
★★★ STATEMENTS AFTER AN ARREST UNDER THE IMMORALITY ACT, ORANGE TREE THEATRE Timely revival of Athol Fugard's searing indictment of Apartheid
Forty-nine years on, Fugard's anger has l…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:54AM 
