Grief narratives were in vogue, and psychological maladies, too, at the annual Scottish arts showcase.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:18PMIn a soul-baring new show at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Australian stand-up leans once again into fears, anxieties and mental health worries.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:48AMThe event’s best theater production avoided the gimmicks of other shows in favor of well-drawn characters and well-written dialogue.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:42AMMultiple shows at the Edinburgh Fringe make camp fun out of the 2023 civil action that spurred a thousand memes — and one of them is a triumph.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:06PMNostalgia will undoubtedly lure many to a London revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. It has more in common with a theme park than with theater, our critic writes.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:42AMHow do you bring an almost plotless book of elliptical fragments to the stage? The director Katie Mitchell has tried with three actors, four screens and three bottles of whiskey.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:32PMThe London production, starring Tom Holland, sold out in hours. But its understated rendering of the central romance may leave some theatergoers wanting more.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:02AMA production at the Shakespeare’s Globe theater faced criticism because a nondisabled actor plays the scheming king. But disputes like these miss the point, our critic writes.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:24PMBenedict Andrews’s production in London offers perfectly pitched comedy where other directors find somber tragedy.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:54AMThe Royal Shakespeare Company’s co-artistic directors have put together a challenging debut season. But many visitors come to Stratford-upon-Avon seeking something more traditional.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:06PMOur theater critics and a reporter discuss the big winner — “Sunset Boulevard” — and the rest of the honorees at Britain’s equivalent of the Tonys.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:32AMIvo van Hove’s stage adaptation of the 1977 John Cassavetes film, with music by Rufus Wainwright, turns a taut character study into a corny melodrama.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:42PM“For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy” and “Red Pitch” offer generous portrayals of male bonding.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:06PMIn a stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Snook plays all the characters — with the help of screens.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:18PMJez Butterworth’s new play explores the family dynamics of a song and dance troupe that didn’t make the big time.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:24AMThe Belgian director’s revival of “Jesus Christ Superstar” showcases some of his signature aesthetic techniques. But it’s an odd pairing.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:54PMRalph Fiennes and David Tennant take Shakespeare’s psychodrama along divergent paths in two simultaneously running shows.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:36AM“Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” a London theater show based on the Netflix series, pummels the audience with sensory overload and its lavish budget.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:12PMA London production adapted from Eliza Clark’s debut novel refuses to justify its unreliable narrator’s violence, but lacks narrative depth and complexity.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:37AMIn London, transforming Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” into a one-man show is an impressive feat, but it costs the play its pathos.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:55AMIn a revival of Lucy Prebble’s play at the National Theater, in London, Paapa Essiedu and Taylor Russell are terrific as a couple who meet during a pharmaceutical trial.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:55AMThis year, the stronger productions in the open-to-all event were on a par with many in the more prestigious, curated Edinburgh International Festival.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:33AMIn plays from Scotland, Korea and Switzerland, theater companies explored questions of belonging, with varying degrees of success.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:07AMAt the Edinburgh Festival, Geoff Sobelle presents a dinner party as a theatrical spectacle, in which silliness is the end in itself.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:49AMA revival reimagines the polarizing musical for the 21st century while a new show offers a bawdy riposte.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:13PMA new James Graham play about the soccer coach Gareth Southgate is a lively romp, but its core message about embracing male vulnerability feels soppy.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:43AMA London revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s partner-swapping musical is a camp amoral romp. But is this obsession really the same as romance?
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:12PMThe Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s hit 2020 novel is elegant and tasteful — but also formulaic and sentimental.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:06PMThe show, in London, skewers its protagonist through maximalist kitsch, but it comes with a tone of finger-wagging moralism that’s no fun.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:36PMThe British experimental theater company Complicité turns the Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk’s novel “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead” into a thought-provoking, entertaining…
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:24AMOn London’s West End, Aidan Turner and Jenna Coleman star in a lightly dystopian comedy that succeeds as a portrait of a troubled couple, but falls short as political satire.
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