Friday, 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 07:00AMThursday, February 27, 2014
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London This boisterous production brings Francis Beaumont's 1607 burlesque of citizen drama and chivalric romance to lifeThis dashing new theatre has already proved …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:58AMTuesday, February 25, 2014
Noel Coward Theatre, LondonSimon Beaufoy's stage version of the iconic film is well directed but feels like a missed opportunity to address any of the degradation of unemploymentIn the end, …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:10PMSouthwark Playhouse, LondonIsy Suttie is perkily determined, but this musical about the woman who mapped London lacks dramatic tensionIt is rare to find a new British musical that is not by …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:45AMAudiences struggled to relate to the 50-year-old Profumo scandal. Lloyd Webber needs to focus on passionate love• Matt Trueman: Stephen Ward to close after four months• Xan Brooks: Steph…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:10AMMonday, February 24, 2014
Odeon theatre, Paris Luc Bondy's stylish, modern-dress production of Marivaux's comedy is a compelling portrait of a woman poleaxed by passionIsabelle Huppert, a veteran of some 90 films, is…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:52AMFriday, February 21, 2014
Soho theatre, LondonThis story of a couple's escape to the countryside finds a visceral intensity as it explores the symptoms of drug addictionAddiction lies at the heart of this short, shar…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36AMWednesday, February 19, 2014
Lyttelton, London This revival of Shelagh Delaney's portrait of sexuality, working-class life and mothers and daughters in the 1950s has the same emotional bite as the originalAlthough much …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:38AMDystopian plays are rare, but from Samuel Beckett's Happy Days to Caryl Churchill's Far Away, there have been some standout original stage creationsThe arrival of 1984 at the Almeida theatre…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:00AMTuesday, February 18, 2014
Southwark Playhouse, LondonAuthentic acting makes up for a slightly nostalgic script by Tracy Letts about an ailing Chicago doughnut storeAs you enter the theatre, a sign warns you of "mild …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AMMonday, February 17, 2014
Joan Littlewood's pioneering 1963 musical about the first world war not only changed attitudes towards the conflict, it remade British theatre. As the show gets a loving revival, Michael Bil…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00AMThursday, February 13, 2014
The Langham, LondonA trio of plays by Tennessee Williams benefit from their plush hotel setting: there is angst and politics as well as sex in the airA lot of theatre these days takes the au…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:15AMWednesday, February 12, 2014
He may not look like a showman, but Lan has a Diaghilev-like talent for bringing artists togetherIt comes as no surprise to learn that David Lan has been appointed as a consulting artistic d…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03PMTheatre Royal Stratford East, LondonTerry Johnson's revival of Joan Littlewood's iconic musical restores a classic for a new generationIf ever a show deserved to be called "iconic" it was Jo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03AMTuesday, February 11, 2014
Orange Tree, RichmondFrom art to politics, consumerism and climate change, this is a play that is not afraid to address big ideasI instinctively warm to plays on big issues and they don't co…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:06AM 
