Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Overlong Sam Steiner play needs clarity to go with its compassion
Armageddon would appear to be at the gates in Sam Steiner’s intriguing if ramshackle play, a co-production between Paines…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 11:24AMFriday, January 17, 2020
Claire Moore was Sarah Brightman’s replacement more than three decades ago as Christine Daaé in the West End’s The Phantom of the Opera and has rarely been long absent from the London s…
SOURCE: Broadway.com at 03:42PMThursday, January 16, 2020
From the bloodbath of “The Duchess of Malfi” to the intergenerational confusion of “Snowflake,” family disputes are at the center of three plays in London.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:06AMSunday, January 12, 2020
Heavy topics abound, but there’s still room for a laugh and a song – from an Alanis Morissette musical to a dildo-waving new play
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:42PMMonday, December 30, 2019
Newcomers and veterans were both given chances to shine on the London stage this year. Below, listed in no particular order, are five performances for which we will have fond memories of wel…
SOURCE: Broadway.com at 06:18PMSaturday, December 28, 2019
Arthur Miller may have been ubiquitous on the London stage this year, but there was no shortage of homegrown British talent—from that fearless octogenarian Caryl Churchill at the Royal C…
SOURCE: Broadway.com at 10:24AMThe classics got a shake-up, while provocative new writing came mostly from America
Political dysfunction and societal distress led many amongst us to the brink this year, so where better th…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:24AMWednesday, December 18, 2019
Late-arrival to the West End is broad, brash - and delightful
Who knew? This West End premiere of the 2007 Broadway entry from the legendary songwriting team of John Kander and Fred Ebb (Ch…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:24PMMonday, December 16, 2019
Katie Brayben won a 2015 Olivier Award for her star-making performance as Carole King in the West End premiere of Beautiful. Since that time, she shifted genres to star in a revival of the n…
SOURCE: Broadway.com at 02:03PMFriday, December 13, 2019
Mike Lew's riff on Shakespeare needs more art to go with its heart
If good intentions were everything, Teenage Dick would be the play of the year. As it is, this British premiere at the Donm…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 11:54AMSaturday, December 7, 2019
Jodie Prenger came to attention as the winner of the BBC reality TV competition series I’d Do Anything in 2008, as a result of which she got to play Nancy in Oliver! in the West End for th…
SOURCE: Broadway.com at 07:54AMThursday, December 5, 2019
As they take on more challenging themes, provocative material and divisive subjects, the capital’s theatres have never felt so vital.
SOURCE: www.standard.co.uk at 07:44AMWednesday, December 4, 2019
Period confection in three acts could use pruning
There’s slight (White Christmas, to name but one) and then there’s The Boy Friend, a period musical so unabashedly vaporous that if yo…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:48AMFriday, November 29, 2019
Jordan Belfort memoirs translate unpleasantly, even unnecessarily, to the stage
Of all the groups you probably wouldn’t want to be part of, surely the hyper-adrenalised, hardscrabble popu…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:36AMThursday, November 28, 2019
Seasonal entertainment is cheerful if essentially dull
Nostalgia for things that probably never were is an animating theme in politics these days.
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:06AM“Dear Evan Hansen” is the latest Broadway musical to open in the West End, along with the pop bonanza “& Juliet” and nearby, the quietly powerful “Ghost Quartet.”
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:06AMTuesday, November 26, 2019
Miriam-Teak Lee was something of an overnight sensation when she played Claire De Loone in the 2017 Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park revival of On the Town, since which time she went on to u…
SOURCE: Broadway.com at 01:12PMFriday, November 22, 2019
Michael Greif has shepherded Dear Evan Hansen successfully into port many times at this point, but only now is the 2017 Best Musical Tony Award winner being seen outside North America. Its W…
SOURCE: Broadway.com at 11:54AMWednesday, November 13, 2019
In the first part of our chat with the ever-vital Elaine Paige, the English musical theater legend spoke about making the shift into radio and the excitement that has accompanied this unexpe…
SOURCE: Broadway.com at 04:33PMFriday, November 8, 2019
Elaine Paige needs scant introduction as the “first lady of the British musical theater,” a title that the veteran star of Evita, Cats, Chess and Sunset Boulevard, to name just a few of …
SOURCE: Broadway.com at 04:03PMThursday, November 7, 2019
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Annie Baker's latest will divide opinion but reward devotees
The National Theatre is forging its own special relationship with American playwright Annie Baker, having now produced three of h…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:36AMTuesday, November 5, 2019
London has seen numerous Phantoms in the 33-plus years since the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera had its world premiere before going on to become a global phenomenon. Bu…
SOURCE: Broadway.com at 01:18AMMonday, October 28, 2019
High Fidelity didn’t last long on Broadway in 2006, but the musical adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel has had plenty of airings elsewhere since that time and is now in previews at southw…
SOURCE: Theatre.com at 02:59PMThursday, October 24, 2019
Arinzé Kene play from 2011 packs a renewed punch
Time has been not just kind but even crucial to Little Baby Jesus, the 2011 play from the multi-hyphenate talent Arinzé Kene, who since…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:24AMTuesday, October 22, 2019
Gorky play suffers an identity crisis in uneasily-pitched revival
Even the mighty Almeida is allowed the occasional dud and it’s sure as hell got one at the moment with Vassa. Maxim Gork…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:48PMFriday, October 18, 2019
The Lion King this month marks 20 years on the London stage, during which time it has become the sixth longest-running West End musical ever, with no end in sight. The iconic Disney musical …
SOURCE: Theatre.com at 02:08PMWhether it’s finishing what Jane Austen started, imagining the private conversations of first ladies or inserting the personal, on London stages female playwrights are mixing things up.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:33AMSaturday, October 12, 2019
The Tony-nominated composer/lyricist Dave Malloy of Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 fame hasn’t had a London presence until this fall, when he is unexpectedly being represent…
SOURCE: Theatre.com at 12:00AMFriday, October 11, 2019
The ever-likable Mischief Theatre's latest stretches them in new if still-unfinished ways
If ambition were all, Groan Ups would get an A*. Marking the first of a very welcome three-show res…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:48AMThursday, October 10, 2019
Sondheim's 1990 show gets more disturbingly pertinent with every revival
“Every now and then the country goes a little wrong”: so goes one of the many lyrics from the Stephen Sondheim-Jo…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:06AM 
