Thursday, December 29, 2016
Soho theatre’s pop-up soapbox inspired a raft of brief yet pointed speeches. The project’s 2017 tour of London venues couldn’t come at a better timeThe downstairs space at Soho theatre…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:48AMFriday, December 23, 2016
Nottingham PlayhouseKhaled Hosseini's bestselling novel spans 30 years, shifts continents, entwines Afghanistan's bloody history with a family saga, and deals with themes of betrayal, guilt …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:42AMTuesday, December 20, 2016
The Egg, BathThere’s plenty of fun in the forest as Robin and his merry men redistribute wealth – to the sounds of an all-female ska bandSedition is being preached in normally sedate Bat…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36AMMonday, December 19, 2016
Soho theatre, London Marisa Carnesky’s exploration of the menstruation taboo starts off cheeky and turns into something downright hair-raisingA woman, naked but for a pair of blood-red sho…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:04AMBlack Beauty gallops in Scotland, La Soirée keeps swinging in Leicester Square, and there are festive treats including a Snow Mouse, two Snow Queens and David Walliams’s hippoIf you find …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:24AMThursday, December 15, 2016
St James, LondonThere is vocal magic and energetic choreography in Bruce Guthrie’s production of Jonathan Larson’s New York musicalJonathan Larson’s musical is 20 years young and still…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:54AMWednesday, December 14, 2016
There’s a renewed interest in the lost age of music hall and this West End wonder, which keeps its tongue firmly in its cheek, continues to be a class actJohn Nevil Maskelyne was a 19th-ce…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:12PMTuesday, December 13, 2016
Tara theatre, LondonThe cross-cultural company’s festive show isn’t short on local appeal, but Jatinda Verma’s production lacks verve and inventionThere aren’t many pantos that inclu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:04PMMonday, December 12, 2016
Bristol Old VicA goblin experiments on deep-frozen children and a depressed reindeer is roused from apathy in this ingenious take on Hans Christian Andersen’s storyThe opening moments of L…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42AMCambridge Junction New International Encounter’s talented ensemble of actor-musicians conjure a sophisticated story with a quirky comic edge‘Daddy, poor’s not very in at the mo,” lis…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42AMYoung Vic, LondonThe actor Mark Lockyer’s gripping story of his bipolar disorder plays on his status as an unreliable narratorIn 1995, while playing Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet for the RS…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42AMDavid Walliams’s The First Hippo on the Moon goes on tour, an RSC double-header opens at Theatre Royal Haymarket and there are festive shows aplentySh!t Theatre’s Sing-a-long-a Muppet Ch…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:04AMSaturday, December 10, 2016
Critics are getting laid off. It's getting tougher to find ways to be paid to write. It sounds as if theatre criticism is on life support. Or is it?Is theatre criticism in meltdown, as some …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:06AMFriday, December 9, 2016
Fuel’s Situation Room is a night of performance and debate prompted by our changing political landscape, but such events must reach out to include the voices absent from our stages“We ha…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:24AMTrouble In Mind | Beasty Baby | Shakespeare Trilogy | School Of Rock | The Tempest | Romeo And Juliet | The Nutcracker | Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes1 Trouble In MindTanya Moodie turns i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AMThursday, December 8, 2016
Derby theatre The results-driven school system provides a framework for Mike Kenny’s inventive adaptation, in which the despotic Queen of Hearts is headmistressUpdating Lewis Carroll’s c…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:06AMLiverpool Playhouse was once home to mesmerists, acrobats and all sorts of variety acts. A new show, The Star, celebrates the artists who knew how to make the audience laugh, cry and sing al…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:02AMWest Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsThe stage version of Baz Luhrmann’s movie gives the audience a good time and there are moments when Drew McOnie’s choreography burns up the floorBaz Luhrma…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:31AMWednesday, December 7, 2016
UnderbellyPhoebe Waller-Bridge's up-for-anything antiheroine provides a distinctive take on the effects of porn on 21st-century womenForty years ago, Erica Jong coined the phrase "zipless fu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:02AMTuesday, December 6, 2016
Royal and Derngate, NorthamptonDirector Luke Sheppard throws everything he can at Rick Elice’s convoluted story, but it still can’t touch JM Barrie’s masterpiece A convoluted and anach…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:02AMArcola, London The father-son myth is reborn by playwright Sergio Blanco as a skirmish probing identity and male power that is funny, taut and puzzlingOne of the closing images in this vivid…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:02AMPhyllida Lloyd’s storming all-female Shakespeare trilogy is saluted by Lyn Gardner who, in no set order, chooses other essential productions of the yearMore on the best culture of 2016Phyl…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:02AMMonday, December 5, 2016
Mary Stuart flips a coin at the Almeida, Gemma Arterton becomes Saint Joan, Jack and the Beanstalk gets a Bollywood twist, and the festive spirit touches everyone from Robin Hood to Hansel a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:36AMSunday, December 4, 2016
Nuffield, SouthamptonExpanding on Dahl’s original cast of characters, the show leads us into interesting territory but loses its nerve and mixes its messagesIt’s early morning. A barber …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:54AMHackney Empire, LondonSusie McKenna delivers a bright, brash and cheeky production, with fine voices and a kick-ass princess, but it lacks the brilliance of previous yearsSusie McKenna’s a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:54AMFriday, December 2, 2016
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonFour Hans Christian Andersen stories are reimagined with beguiling, anarchic irreverence in Emma Rice and Joel Horwood’s heartwarming showA match is struck a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:42AMStrictly Ballroom | Bollywood Jack | Sweet Charity | Peter Pan | Cinderella | Annie Get Your Gun | Saint Joan | Simon Callow | The Siege Of Christmas | Black Beauty | The Nutcracker | The Wo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:12AMWednesday, November 30, 2016
Lyric Hammersmith, London Daftness trumps topicality in a magic carpet ride that finds the actors working the audience really well, even if the dame gets a bit lost in the washVice is except…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:18PMHalf a century after their first gig in a bookshop’s basement, the innovative group are staging their 132nd show which promises to be as unpredictable as everIt’s almost impossible to de…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:18AMMonday, November 28, 2016
Many of those flocking to a theatre’s annual festive show intuit that the rest of the year’s programme isn’t for them. It’s about time panto had serious artistic statusOver the next …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:24AMLeeds goes Strictly Ballroom, Sweet Charity is revived in Manchester and the Donmar’s astonishing Shakespeare Trilogy continuesWhat do we value and have we got our priorities right? Those …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:42AM 
