Thursday, April 10, 2014
This enchanting comedy has been revived many times yet the play gives constant pleasure. Peter Brook and Michael Boyd's versions both had a magical sensualityI sometimes feel sorry for direc…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:08AMMega-fame and limitless cash can turn a man into a monster, and Simon Stephens's new play excellently evokes its hero's spiritually shrunken worldNo one will be surprised to learn, from Simo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05AMWednesday, April 9, 2014
Shakespeare's poorly plotted tragedy turns on the shortcomings of the Veronese postal service and is eclipsed by West Side Story yet the best productions overcome these defectsI once anger…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:33AMOlivier, LondonNigel Lindsay hits the right note, but this production lacks the farce that unlocks the pain within Alan Ayckbourn's fable Ayckbourn: 'I've never been a political writer: I'm …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:23AMTuesday, April 8, 2014
David Tennant, Samuel West and Ian Richardson have all excelled in the role but Ben Whishaw's king was extraordinary part Jesus Christ and part Michael JacksonKenneth Tynan once referred to…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:23AMMonday, April 7, 2014
Park theatre, LondonWilliam Ivory's tribute to the men of RAF Bomber Command is a highly accomplished look at faith and wartime memories if overly contrivedThere's a patent sincerity to Wil…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:35AMSome take this story of the wavering king more seriously than others. Do you have a grudging affection for this unloved play?King John is an unloved play. Yet I have to admit to a grudging a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:47AMMickey Rooney, who has died aged 93, had a long stage career on both sides of the Atlantic. In this archive piece, originally published on 22 September 1988, Michael Billington can't help bu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:28AMSaturday, April 5, 2014
One of Shakespeare's most sublime comedies took Bernard Levin to the heights of ecstasy, apparently. How was it for you?Bernard Levin once said of a production of this play in Regent's Park …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:59AMFriday, April 4, 2014
Productions of Shakespeare's early play on love and rivalry should be commonplace: in practice, Crab the dog is the best thing in it. Help Michael Billington find the best productionsI reall…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AMThursday, April 3, 2014
Roy Williams has returned to the theatre where he started his career and produced a compelling dramaRoy Williams, who has written many fine plays, including Fallout and Sucker Punch, has ret…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PMIt's the 'barbaric, disgusting play' that Michael Billington once demanded never be performed again. But, as well as its characters, is there a chance of redemption for the play itself?I onc…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AMTuesday, March 25, 2014
Theatre Royal HaymarketThe actors do all they can within the script's limits, but a film that was at least a brutally effective psychological thriller has become a modern morality playThere …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:19PMOld Vic, LondonJon Robin Baitz's Christmas-set drama uses fractured nuclear families to examine the broken American psycheI was arguing with a friend the other day about whether plays should…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:37AMFriday, March 21, 2014
The Print Room, LondonJon Fosse's tale of one man's grief over the loss of his dog is well-acted, yet the play lacks dramatic tensionIn the past, I've eagerly championed the work of the Norw…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:18AMThursday, March 20, 2014
Menier Chocolate Factory, London Ray Cooney's production achieves the correct delirious momentum and gets good performances from everyone, including the playwrightWhen I first saw Ray Cooney…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:59AMTuesday, March 18, 2014
Gielgud, LondonAngela Lansbury is back on a London stage after nearly 40 years, but her presence has a faintly distorting effectGood as it is to see Angela Lansbury back on a London stage af…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:00PMSunday, March 16, 2014
Orange Tree, RichmondThis abrasive comedy about the UK's recent economic belt-tightening suggests writer Torben Betts should be a bigger nameClass is the engine driving much British drama. I…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:21AMFriday, March 14, 2014
Ustinov Studio, BathAll of life's big dramas take place around the dining table in Dan LeFranc's madcap look at love and marriageMichael Boyd, after a decade with the Royal Shakespeare Compa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:27AMStratford East's musical will be broadcast tonight, proving radio is still doing more for the stage than TVTonight Oh What a Lovely War could be said to be coming home. The current Theatre R…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:34AMThursday, March 13, 2014
Everyman, Liverpool The reborn theatre's first production boasts a superb Malvolio in Nicholas Woodeson and Matthew Kelly as Sir Toby Belch, but could do with speeding up a bit"We want to cr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:23AMTuesday, March 11, 2014
St James's, LondonA formidable cast saves this musical pastiche from undermining its own messageFlushed with success on Broadway, where it ran for three years, this bizarre show finally make…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:00PMMonday, March 10, 2014
Lucy Kirkwood's Chimerica stands head and shoulders above the other nominees. This year's lineup confirms that British theatre's current success lies more in interpretation than in original …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:42AMSunday, March 9, 2014
Playwright Barney Norris's first full-length work for the stage sensitively captures a married couple's descent into old ageBarney Norris is a young man in his mid‑20s. I mention this beca…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:16PMFriday, March 7, 2014
Park theatre, LondonThis Stephen Sondheim-Richard Rodgers holiday-romance musical isn't perfect, but is put across with convictionThe fiercest critic of this 1964 American musical is one of …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:17AMThursday, March 6, 2014
Hampstead theatre, LondonDavid Lindsay-Abaire's tale of a working-class single mum explores social mobility in the US with compelling resultsI sometimes fret at the Americanisation of Britis…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:47AMWhether too avant garde, too shocking or simply unlucky, sometimes a great play doesn't find favour with the public. I'd like to see these given another run – how about you?CE Montague, a …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AMWednesday, March 5, 2014
Bush, LondonArtifice and art overlap in this self-referential piece about a theatrical group trying to stage a show about an African genocideHow do you tackle a subject such as genocide in e…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PMMonday, March 3, 2014
Finborough, LondonPanned when it was first produced, this piece has no hint of the inequality of passion that normally drives Rattigan's playsCritically hammered on its debut in 1958, Terenc…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:29AMStephen Sondheim's serial-killing barber may be an unsavoury hero, but the musical skilfully mixes savagery, tragedy and comedy to create a work of art that leaves one in aweThere are musica…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:43AMFriday, February 28, 2014
Donmar Warehouse, LondonWelsh playwright Peter Gill tracks the damage done to the English middle classes by the first world war in this taut and passionate dissection of the doomed 1919 peac…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:00AM 
