All stories by Michael Billington on BroadwayStars

Friday, February 25, 2011

Ruby Wax: Losing It – review by Michael Billington

Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonTheatre can offer many things: entertainment, enlightenment, ecstasy. But this strange show is something else: theatre as therapy. In the first half Ruby Wax,…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:34PM
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Frankenstein - review by Michael Billington

Olivier Theatre, LondonForget Boris Karloff with a bolt through his neck. Forget even Peter Boyle as the new, improved monster singing Puttin' On The Ritz in the Mel Brooks pastiche. What yo…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:46PM

Frankenstein - review by Michael Billington

Olivier Theatre, London Continue reading...

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:46PM

Michael Billington on reviewers who join in the play by Michael Billington

'Keep off the stage when you're on duty'"Imprisoned in every fat man," Cyril Connolly once wrote, "a thin man is wildly signalling to be let out." And inside every critic, it seems, lurks a …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:15PM
Monday, February 21, 2011

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - review by Michael Billington

Donmar, LondonGiven the Donmar's exemplary musical track record, it is a bit of a shock to find them importing this flimsy, vacuous diversion. Like Grease and Legally Blonde, it has a vaguel…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:09PM

Our Private Life – review by Michael Billington

Royal Court, LondonOne of the virtues of the Royal Court's International Playwrights Season is that it brings us news from abroad. And this intriguing 90-minute play by Pedro Miguel Rozo, se…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:00PM
Friday, February 18, 2011

Blue Dragon - review by Michael Billington

Barbican, LondonRobert Lepage made his name internationally with The Dragons' Trilogy, created in 1985. Now he returns to the subject of the cultural collision of east and west in what he ca…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:26PM
Thursday, February 17, 2011

Racing Demon – review by Michael Billington

Crucible, SheffieldDavid Hare's play gets richer with time. Acclaimed in 1990 for its accurate portrait of a Church of England in crisis, it now seems a perfect metaphor for British ins…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:06PM
Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The Young Idea – review by Michael Billington

Jerwood Vanbrugh, LondonA special fascination attaches to the early work of celebrated dramatists: you invariably get a first sketch of their lifelong obsessions. This youthful Noël Co…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:17PM
Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Snake in the Grass – review by Michael Billington

Print Room, London"Can't a ghost story reveal insights into human nature?" Alan Ayckbourn asked before this play's 2002 Scarborough premiere. The answer is that of course it can: one has onl…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:44PM
Monday, February 14, 2011

Reading Hebron – review by Michael Billington

Orange Tree, RichmondNo one could accuse this theatre of ducking the Arab-Israeli conflict. A year ago it staged an absorbing play, Ben Brown's The Promise, about the Balfour Declaration of …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:56AM
Thursday, February 10, 2011

The Heretic - review by Michael Billington

Royal Court, LondonClimate change drama is the new growth industry. But, while the National's Greenland is entirely issue-driven, Richard Bean's new play uses characters to explore ideas. Th…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:20PM
Wednesday, February 9, 2011

The Children's Hour - review by Michael Billington

Comedy Theatre, LondonThere's only one question to which everyone wants the answer: can Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss cut the mustard? The short answer is that they prove as potent a co…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54PM

Plenty – review by Michael Billington

Crucible Studio, SheffieldA three-play David Hare season kicks off with a revival of his 1978 study of the lies and disappointments of the postwar world. And, even if I'd like to see the pla…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:15PM
Monday, February 7, 2011

Vernon God Little - review by Michael Billington

Young Vic, LondonWhen it first appeared in 2007 Tanya Ronder's adaptation of DBC Pierre's prize-winning novel was somewhat overshadowed by a shooting on a Virginia campus which eerily echoed…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:34PM

Olivier award nominees: year of the great performance by Michael Billington

List of contenders accurately reflects the dominance last year of acting and directing over new writingNo great shocks in the list of this year's Olivier award nominees: it reflects, pretty …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:26AM
Thursday, February 3, 2011

Accolade | Finborough, London | Theatre review by Michael Billington

Finborough, LondonThis is a rediscovery: a 1950 play by Emlyn Williams that provides an exciting suspense-drama, a portrait of the Jekyll-and-Hyde existence of a successful novelist and a me…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:15PM
Wednesday, February 2, 2011

The Shape of Things - review by Michael Billington

The Gallery Soho, LondonIt makes total sense to present Neil LaBute's 10-year-old play in a chic Charing Cross Road gallery. His theme is the nature of art and the moral responsibility of th…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:22PM
Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Greenland - review by Michael Billington

Lyttelton, LondonHow on earth do you dramatise climate change? The best answer so far was Steve Waters' double bill, The Contingency Plan, which approached the vast topic through personal re…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:52PM
Monday, January 31, 2011

Mogadishu - review by Michael Billington

Royal Exchange, ManchesterSchool plays are all the rage. Vivienne Franzmann's piece, joint winner of the 2008 Bruntwood Playwriting Competition, anticipated the vogue in its exploration of t…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:53PM

This West End theatre boom is not all good news | Michael Billington by Michael Billington

High ticket prices are fuelling this rise in box-office takings, and London theatre can't just rely on spin-offs and musicalsI'm always cheered when the theatre is doing well. And, on the su…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:59AM
Thursday, January 27, 2011

Miss Nightingale – review by Michael Billington

King's Head, LondonMatthew Bugg has written the book and lyrics, composed the score and also directed this late-night chamber musical. While I admire his energy, I wish he could have found a…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:15PM
Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Little Platoons – review by Michael Billington

Bush, LondonSteve Waters was the first dramatist to comprehensively tackle global warming with The Contingency Plan. He is now ahead of the pack in confronting the subject of so-called "free…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:30PM
Monday, January 24, 2011

Roald Dahl's Twisted Tales - review by Michael Billington

Lyric, HammersmithJeremy Dyson, who co-wrote the Lyric's long-running Ghost Stories, has now adapted five of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected. The result is something of a mixed bag. One…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:52PM

Less Than Kind by Michael Billington

Jermyn Street, LondonYou don't expect to find a Rattigan "world premiere" in the dramatist's centenary year. In fact, this is the original version of a play produced in 1944 under the title …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:09PM
Sunday, January 23, 2011

Into the Whirlwind - review by Michael Billington

Noel Coward, LondonSponsored by Roman Abramovich, Moscow's Sovremennik Theatre arrived in London for a brief nine-day residence. The largely Russian-speaking first-night audience also greete…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:59PM
Thursday, January 20, 2011

Review | Theatre | Becky Shaw | Almeida | Michael Billington by Michael Billington

Almeida LondonThe Almeida has a strong track-record in producing American plays. And it was of one of its favoured sons, Neil LaBute, that I was reminded watching this astute, acerbic and ri…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42PM

Tiger Country - review by Michael Billington

Hampstead Theatre, LondonWith the NHS facing its biggest revolution in 60 years, now is the time for a play about the realities of hospital life. But, while Nina Raine follows up her Tribes …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:43AM
Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Twelfth Night - review | Theatre | Michael Billington by Michael Billington

Cottesloe, National TheatreThis is Peter Hall's fourth production of Shakespeare's most beautiful, opal-like comedy. And, even if it cannot efface golden memories of the one he did at Stratf…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:40PM

Black Chiffon – review by Michael Billington

White Bear, LondonThe textbooks all tell us that postwar British theatre, prior to the Royal Court revolution of the mid-1950s, was as arid as the Gobi desert. But a popular myth, lately den…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:01PM
Monday, January 17, 2011

The Knowledge - review by Michael Billington

Bush, LondonThere is a long line of plays about educational no-hopers, from Barry Reckord's Skyvers to Nigel Williams's Class Enemy. While John Donnelly's new play, which kicks off a Bush sc…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18PM