All stories by Lyn Gardner on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

How to evoke a world in chaos? Let 13 teenage girls storm the stage by Lyn Gardner

The Hamilton Complex explores our attitudes towards girls on the cusp of adulthood and uses adolescence as a metaphor for society’s uncertaintyIn 1971, the British photographer David Hamil…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:34AM
Monday, June 27, 2016

Who needs fake blood? Eye-catching ways to play dead on stage by Lyn Gardner

Theatre has found all sorts of lively ways to represent death – it’s been done with butchered cabbages and even bright pink blancmangeBugsy is back in town. I mean Bugsy Malone, Sean Hol…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:10AM

Plan your week’s theatre: top tickets by Lyn Gardner

The latest from the brilliant Anthony Neilson opens at the Royal Court, Dundee Rep hosts girls behaving badly, Howard Jacobson relives his Manchester childhood, and the On the Edge festival …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:57AM
Sunday, June 26, 2016

The Shadow King review – Lear gambols to his fate in the desert by Lyn Gardner

Barbican, LondonSet amid the Indigenous Australian community, this loose adaptation by Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre stirs Shakespeare’s text into a rich linguistic stewKing Lear has len…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:36AM
Friday, June 24, 2016

Five of the best... theatre shows by Lyn Gardner

Our Ladies Of Perpetual Succour | The Flying Lovers Of Vitebsk | Matilda The Musical | Cuttin’ It | The AlchemistHeading to the National Theatre in August, Lee Hall’s adaptation of Alan …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:14AM
Thursday, June 23, 2016

Miss Revolutionary Idol Berserker review – merciless Japanese pop-culture sendup by Lyn Gardner

The Pit, LondonThis 45-minute plunge into Japanese celebrity mania is like a cross between reality TV, Les Mis and a toddlers’ food fightWe are often told, “you will never have seen anyt…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:26AM

Great outdoors: how performance broke out of the theatre come rain or shine by Lyn Gardner

In getting to parts that other arts don’t reach, outdoor shows attract audiences that genuinely represent the wider population, as a new study findsThe weather may still be a bit iffy, but…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03AM
Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Barnbow Canaries review – heartfelt salute to women of the first world war by Lyn Gardner

West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsAlice Nutter’s gripping story of munitions factory workers is full of verve, but veers towards soap operaThe “women behind the guns” were the thousands o…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:57AM
Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Not-so-Secret Theatre by Lyn Gardner

A critic who tweeted the title of the Lyric's new season sparked outrage – and possibly drove audiences to the theatreI love going to the theatre when I don't know very much about a show, …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:40PM

Psst! The dismal truth about theatre's 'secret location' gimmick by Lyn Gardner

Shows such as Philip Ridley’s Karagula aim to entice audiences with the promise of a mysterious venue. All too often, this has little relevance to the play itself“Immersive” was once t…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:15AM
Monday, June 20, 2016

Plan your week’s theatre: top tickets by Lyn Gardner

Groundbreaking European theatre arrives in Birmingham, Slung Low commune with the fairy world in Stratford-upon-Avon, and 1984 returns to the West EndThe Offbeat festival starts at the Old F…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:09AM
Sunday, June 19, 2016

Karagula review – JFK rituals and snow-globe worshippers by Lyn Gardner

Styx, LondonPhilip Ridley’s three-hours-plus tangle of dystopian fantasies doesn’t lack for imagination, but is undone by its own excessesIn fairytales, communities ensure their continue…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:51AM
Friday, June 17, 2016

Five of the best... new plays by Lyn Gardner

The Truth | Bird | The Curious Incident Of The Dog in The Night-Time | Cuttin’ It | Can I Start Again PleaseThe Florian Zeller hit factory just keeps on delivering. First came The Father, …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:48AM
Thursday, June 16, 2016

Theatre excels at exposing injustices, just not its own by Lyn Gardner

Shows around the UK are underpinned by countless unpaid hours, short-term contracts and decreasing fees. At a time of cuts, artists are afraid to rock the boatThe Office for National Statist…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:03AM

Late Night review – Europe's in meltdown, but the music plays on by Lyn Gardner

The Pit, LondonA shattered ballroom is the setting for Greek company Blitz’s apocalyptic vision of a lost continent where catastrophe is political and emotionalLondon has gone dark, Paris …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AM

Spinning on the graves: Circa stage a show in London cemetery by Lyn Gardner

Circus is a celebration of being alive – so what happens when acrobats perform in a graveyard? Yaron Lifschitz of the Australian ensemble talks about the dusk staging of their eerie new pi…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:51AM
Monday, June 13, 2016

Plan your week’s theatre: top tickets by Lyn Gardner

It’s the last chance to see many big shows, London and Yorkshire festivals bring drama, dance and and site-specific treats, Chagall’s lovers fly into the Globe, and Timothy West plays Ki…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:28AM
Sunday, June 12, 2016

The Father five-star review – a savagely honest study of dementia by Lyn Gardner

Ustinov, BathFlorian Zeller’s Molière award-winning play, starring Lia Williams and Kenneth Cranham, takes us into the confused world of an elderly man and his carer daughterThere is usua…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:08PM
Friday, June 10, 2016

Five of the best… new plays by Lyn Gardner

Bugsy Malone | The James Plays | People, Places & Things | The Night Watch | The FlickSplurge guns at the ready! Sean Holmes’s delicious revival of Alan Parker’s New York gangster mu…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:22AM
Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Edinburgh festival 2016: what to see and where to go by Lyn Gardner

The fringe programme is out today – so here’s a venue-by-venue look at some of this year’s highlights across the Edinburgh festival. Let us know what’s caught your eye Continue readi…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:08AM
Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: a box-office hit before it has even begun by Lyn Gardner

The omens look good for the first instalment of the two-part play, which previews at the Palace theatre in London tonight – and hardly needs critics’ star ratings to be a successMany are…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:24AM
Monday, June 6, 2016

Sir Peter Shaffer obituary by Lyn Gardner

Playwright best known for The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Equus and AmadeusAlthough the playwright Sir Peter Shaffer, who has died aged 90, wrote one of the best farces of postwar British theatre…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:32PM

A drag queen's heels and a miner's boots: show lets you walk a mile in their shoes by Lyn Gardner

In the latest part of her ‘empathy museum’, Clare Patey invites audiences to put on a stranger’s footwear and take a walk while listening to the shoe-owner’s personal story on headph…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:32PM

The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk review – Kneehigh and Chagall make a fine marriage by Lyn Gardner

Bristol Old VicEmma Rice’s final Kneehigh show is a love letter to the company she founded as much as a celebration of Marc and Bella Chagall and their lost Russian-Jewish worldThere is a …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:15AM

Plan your week's theatre: top tickets by Lyn Gardner

Isabelle Huppert plays Phaedra and Mike Bartlett’s new play Wild opens, plus the rest of the week’s unmissable theatreThere are lots of great shows starting in the London international f…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:05AM
Friday, June 3, 2016

Five of the best… plays this week by Lyn Gardner

Bird | Beyond Caring | Show Boat | People, Places And Things | The FlickLike a fragile bird whose fiercely beating heart can be detected in your cupped hand, Katherine Chandler’s Bruntwood…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:04AM
Thursday, June 2, 2016

Taylor Mac review – a glittering vision of subversion by Lyn Gardner

Hackney Empire, LondonThe US drag artist raised the roof on the London international festival of theatre with a raucous opening night of songs, sequins and joyous misgendering“Normally I c…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:10AM

Big audio dynamite: how theatre is moving at the speed of sound by Lyn Gardner

Long treated as a final flourish, sound design is now sitting at the heart of theatre productions – and new technology means it can make drama more tense and terrifying than ever beforeYae…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:08AM
Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Sarah Frankcom: turning the Royal Exchange into a northern powerhouse by Lyn Gardner

Via bold collaborations with Maxine Peake and a ruthless self-analysis, Frankcom has shrugged off the ‘regional theatre’ tag at Manchester’s Royal Exchange. The argumentative director …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:38AM

Stella review – emotional hide and seek in real-life cross-dressing drama by Lyn Gardner

Theatre Royal, BrightonNeil Bartlett returns to the scandalous story of Ernest Boulton in a piece that doesn’t quite deliver emotionally but has moments when it glows brightlyA loud knock …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:30AM

Before I Leave review – joyous drama about reality of dementia by Lyn Gardner

Sherman, CardiffPatrick Jones’s play is as messy as life can be, but its honest, unsentimental approach and terrific cast ensure it strikes directly at the heartTo be honest, Patrick Jones…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:20AM