Sunday, February 1, 2015
McEwan, who has died aged 82, excelled in an extraordinary range of roles, always displaying impeccable timingMy first sighting of Geraldine McEwan was as Olivia in Peter Hall’s 1958 Strat…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:22AMFriday, January 30, 2015
Vaudeville, LondonAmelia Bullmore’s sprightly play about three uni students and their lifelong alliance brings the best out of Tamzin Outhwaite and her co-stars Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:08AMThursday, January 29, 2015
Trafalgar Studios, London His bravura performance holds together an exuberant 60s period piece whose satire remains chillingly relevantPlays with fat star-parts tend to survive. Even if the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00AMWednesday, January 28, 2015
Dorfman Theatre, LondonTom Stoppard tackles momentous ideas about consciousness, morality and human behaviour in stimulating play Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:50PMNational Theatre, LondonThe fascinating story of a 17th-century power struggle in the Mughal empire feels like a slightly earnest history lesson Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:58AMFriday, January 23, 2015
The Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonTom Morton-Smith’s massively impressive play explores the moral chain reactions before and after the bombing of Hiroshima“Oppenheimer’s stature is not in q…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:01AMThursday, January 22, 2015
Unicorn, LondonThis production of Brecht’s political morality tale underlines his instinctive theatricality with heartstopping scenes and one of modern drama’s best comic figures Continu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:16AMWednesday, January 21, 2015
Established names such as Hare, Bennett and Frayn are absent from director’s opening year as he introduces a new team and a promising lineup. The big question concerns his ‘reimagined cl…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:39AMSam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonStar’s expert portrayal of a woman on the edge of neurosis is the highlight as this venue continues to grow in stature Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:35AMTuesday, January 20, 2015
Bush theatre, LondonCaroline Horton’s toothless, self-delighting show leaves its object of ridicule serenely untouchedNothing is more frustrating than seeing a satirist, or a footballer, m…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:19AMMonday, January 19, 2015
Southwark Playhouse, LondonJuliet Gilkes Romero’s fiery drama puts Labour in the dock for failing multicultural Britain Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:01AMSaturday, January 17, 2015
Tom Stoppard’s new play The Hard Problem opens on 21 January. Michael Billington, who first reviewed him in 1966, salutes a playwright who, at his best, achieves a perfect balance of intel…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:30AMFriday, January 16, 2015
Young Vic Maria, LondonThe audience become voyeuristic accomplices as two interviewees turn on a rival in Mike Bartlett’s gripping account of office politicsMike Bartlett’s plays veer be…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:20AMThursday, January 15, 2015
Lyric Hammersmith, LondonFrantic Assembly’s shredded version of Shakespeare’s tragedy, set among gangs in a Yorkshire pub, is worth seeing for its astonishing opening sequence alone• F…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:14AMWednesday, January 14, 2015
Royal Court, LondonDiana Nneka Atuona’s impressive play, about a teenage girl forced into fighting for Charles Taylor’s cause, opens our eyes to Liberia’s past Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:11AMTuesday, January 13, 2015
Gate, LondonAditi Brennan Kapil’s play about two schoolgirls’ adventures with an incarnation of the Hindu god, Vishnu, is baffling and rootless Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:35AMMonday, January 12, 2015
Playhouse, London Tamsin Greig gives a sparky performance as she skitters around Madrid in this knockabout, rueful farce based on Pedro Almodóvar’s filmWhy Almodóvar’s world is pure th…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:00PMSunday, January 11, 2015
Old Vic, LondonThere are serious questions about society and dissent underlying Daniel Kitson and Tim Key’s beguiling two-hander about a protester holding a ‘tree-squat’Daniel Kitson i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:14AMFriday, January 9, 2015
Jermyn Street Theatre, LondonJames Hogan’s study of the lost and lonely gives Lynne Miller the chance to play two women past the verge of desperationMature female actors rightly complain a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:35AMWednesday, January 7, 2015
Finborough, LondonJerry Herman’s tunes fail to save a justly neglected Broadway musical about a trio on the run during the fall of France Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:28AMWednesday, December 24, 2014
John Osborne died 20 years ago today. In this obituary, published in the Guardian in 1994, Michael Billington reflects on the playwright’s life and legacyOne of the most famous stories abo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00AMMonday, December 22, 2014
Orange Tree, RichmondMore than 120 years on, George Bernard Shaw’s powerful and invigorating attack on profiteering landlords is one of the few genuinely socialist plays on the current sta…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:13AMSunday, December 21, 2014
She starred in The Omen and Frenzy, but she will always be remembered for her powerful interpretations of Beckett’s playsFrank Lazarus: an existential night in Beckett’s Not I with Billi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:06PMFriday, December 19, 2014
The Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonThe RSC’s shrewdly intelligent take on Thomas Dekker’s Elizabethan drama is both sobering and comicOne tends to think of Thomas Dekker’s play as a jolly, r…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:39AMThursday, December 18, 2014
All Soul’s, LondonPeter Hutley’s nativity - with real sheep, real baby and Mary and Joseph walking across the Broadcasting House piazza - is simple and directIt’s not every day you see…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:53AMWednesday, December 17, 2014
Donmar Warehouse, LondonThis clever show about the travails of a crime writer – and his fictional shamus – ripples with wit and is immaculately presented• Why City of Angels is the mus…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:56AMTuesday, December 16, 2014
Almeida, LondonThe glitz of casino culture brilliantly illuminates a play about money lent, borrowed, stolen and investedRupert Goold’s revelatory production of this problematic play abrup…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:22AMMonday, December 15, 2014
Young Vic, LondonThough easy on the eye and undeniable witty, 1927’s ironic take on the modern obsession with technology is undermined by a lack of focus Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:58AMTrafalgar Studios, LondonA surprisingly sensuous evocation of Great Expectations’ jilted bride is paired with a blood-chilling portrait of the savage brute from Oliver TwistYou can do a lo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:52AMImelda Staunton was breathtaking and Sofie Gråbøl made a killing, but our future monarch took the crown. In the first of our Stage critics’ picks of the year, Michael Billington lists hi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AMFriday, December 12, 2014
London PalladiumA strong cast led by the former Pussycat Doll bring impressive verve to the song and dance spectacular, but the question remains whether the jukebox musical is Andrew Lloyd W…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:45AM 
