Friday, March 31, 2023
A reprehensible man treats women badly, but the political magic is left entirely unexplored
One wonders if Ricky Simmonds and Simon Vaughan pondered long over their debut musical’s title.…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:42AMTuesday, March 7, 2023
Evanna Lynch heads up wan troubles-themed dark comedy
“Darkly comic thrillers” (as they like to say) set in Ireland tracking how families, or quasi-families, fall apart under pressure ar…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:24AMWednesday, March 1, 2023
Ambitious but misconceived take on musical theatre landmark outstays its welcome
It is, perhaps, important to note that this production was first staged in London at the Young Vic, a venue …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:40AMMonday, February 20, 2023
★★★★ STANDING AT THE SKY'S EDGE, NT 60 years in one Sheffield flat tells our nation's story
Chris Bush and Richard Hawley write a love letter to a friendly and flawed hometown
Buil…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:07PMFriday, February 17, 2023
★★★★ SYLVIA, THE OLD VIC Beverley Knight is compelling and complex in suffragette musical
Sylvia Pankhurst suffers for her commitment to votes for women and to socialism
For many ye…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:16AMSunday, February 5, 2023
★★★★★ SMOKE, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Kim Davies' 2014 play has only grown in relevance for the post #MeToo world
The perils of navigating power relations when sexual tension is all …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:49AMFriday, February 3, 2023
★★ TITUS ANDRONICUS, SAM WANAMAKER PLAYHOUSE Gory play full of murders played with neither gore nor murders
Tricksy staging distracts and disappoints
If All's Well That Ends Well, …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:26AMFriday, January 27, 2023
★★★★ NOISES OFF, PHOENIX THEATRE Michael Frayn's farce about a farce still jars the funny bone
Sure it's overly familiar, but, 40 years on, the laughs keep coming
There’s a chance…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:04AMFriday, January 20, 2023
★★★★ ALLEGIANCE, CHARING CROSS THEATRE Beautifully sung show shines light into a dark corner of American history
Star Trek's Mr Sulu honours fellow Japanese-American survivors o…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:31AMFriday, January 13, 2023
★★★★ A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, ALMEIDA THEATRE Torment, toxicity and trauma in New Orleans
Torment, toxicity and trauma in New Orleans
It’s a long way from the dank chill of…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:20AMWednesday, January 11, 2023
★★★★ WATCH ON THE RHINE, DONMAR Country house comedy transforms into call to arms
In wartime, when tough actions are needed to back up easy words, what do you do?
We’re reminded, …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:15AMThursday, December 15, 2022
★★★ DOLLY PARTON'S SMOKY MOUNTAIN CHRISTMAS CAROL, SOUTHBANK CENTRE Great songs, but a sanitised book declaws Yuletide parable
Dolly and Dickens team up for dreams and deliverance …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:42AMWednesday, December 7, 2022
Victoria Hamilton-Barritt brings superstar quality and emotional depth to villainous ogre
Hovering way, way above us, three aptly named high fairies, in voluminous chiffon, open a show that …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:06AMSaturday, November 26, 2022
★★★★ ELF, DOMINION THEATRE Plenty of presents for all the family in a spectacular show based on the much loved film
Buddy the Elf charms everyone on either side of the fourth wall…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:36AMSaturday, November 19, 2022
★★★★ A CHRISTMAS CAROL, RSC Old favourite finds contemporary relevance in sanitised staging
The RSC Christmas show delivers exactly what it promises
Life is full of coincidences and…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 11:24AMThursday, November 17, 2022
★ HERE, Southwark Playhouse Characters drown in a surfeit of issues
The prestige of the Papatango Prize cannot rescue a play that fails to transcend its inexplicable limitations
The kitch…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:54AMWednesday, November 9, 2022
Super songs can't quite rescue an ill-focused story and sparse staging
Whorehouses, gay prostitution and suicide – you can see why James Jones’ bestselling 1951 novel was bowdlerised by …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:06AMThursday, October 27, 2022
★★★★ TAMMY FAYE, ALMEIDA THEATRE The rise and fall of a iconic figure whose reach stretched across late 20th century American culture
Plenty of heart and bite in a show illuminated …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:03PMFriday, October 7, 2022
★★ THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE, ROSE THEATRE Uncompromising adaptation of Brecht outstays its welcome
Carrie Hope Fletcher one of few bright sparks on a tough evening for the audience
Bre…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:37AMSaturday, October 1, 2022
★★★ IPHIGENIA IN SPLOTT, LYRIC HAMMERSMITH THEATRE Howl of protest at the cost of austerity leads to a different conclusion seven years on
Timely revival of Gary Owen's solo play
It�…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:37AMSaturday, September 24, 2022
★★★★ THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISSOCIA, THEATRE ROYAL STRATFORD EAST The landscape of mental health explored in surreal comedy
A woman confronts her neuroses in a phantasmagorical wor…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:43AMThursday, September 22, 2022
★★★ CLUTCH Odd couple in a Corsa drive in fourth gear for comedy but second gear for pathos
After a strong start, newly commissioned play takes a wrong exit from the roundabout
Max is…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:07AMThursday, September 15, 2022
Funny, poignant and stimulating, a delightfully welcome piece of intellectual escapism
It can’t have been an easy pitch. “Popes. Both foreign, yes. German and Argentinian – sorry, can…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:33AMThursday, September 1, 2022
★★★★ RIDE New musical about a difficult, charismatic, barrier-breaking woman freewheels into the West End
New musical about a barrier-breaking woman freewheels into the West End
…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:07AMFriday, August 26, 2022
★★★★★ INTO THE WOODS Breathtaking production captures the unease at the heart of this fairytale musical
Prepare to be dazzled and disoriented in a phantasmagorical festival of t…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:24AMThursday, August 25, 2022
★★★ TREASON THE MUSICAL IN CONCERT Semi-staged production shows promise - and problems
Semi-staged production shows promise - and problems
A semi-staged concert performance of a musi…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:25AMWednesday, August 17, 2022
Leave memories of Paul Daniels at the door and embrace the sweet deception inside
There’s nothing quite like magic, live, up close and personal. Sure there are the TV spectaculars, the cas…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:07AMSaturday, August 6, 2022
If you think a fat man wearing yellow swimming trunks is funny, you're on the right island
Alexei Sayle, in his angry young man phase, once said that you can always tell when you’re watchi…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:42AMSaturday, July 30, 2022
★ TASTING NOTES New musical set in a wine bar should have stayed in the cellar
Not much goes right for a show whose characters are similarly ill-fated
LJ's dream has come true - she h…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:18AMThursday, July 28, 2022
★★★★ SISTER ACT THE MUSICAL Event theatre and a sensational lead performance make the trip worthwhile
Crowdpleasing musical retains its glitz and charm (and cheese, too)
If jukebox…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:03AMSaturday, July 23, 2022
★★★ THE DARKEST PART OF THE NIGHT, KILN Issues-led drama has its heart in the right place
The didactic vies with the dramatic in Zodwa Nyoni's incident-packed new play
Music plays a …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:33AM 
