All stories by Tom Bolton on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

‘An excellent group of actors convincingly play off one another’: FARM HALL – Jermyn Street Theatre by Tom Bolton

This scenario is a ready-made play, a situation where some of the greatest scientific minds of their time are confronted with the consequences of their personal and political actions. The tr…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM
Monday, March 20, 2023

‘Visceral, animalistic & strange’: MACBETH – Southwark Playhouse by Tom Bolton

It is an unusual Macbeth that comes to life with the Porter’s scene, the play’s disconcerting post-murder comic interlude – even more so when it is performed without words. Dale Wylde�…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 08:00AM
Sunday, March 12, 2023

‘As a metaphor, the idea is powerful’: Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons – Harold Pinter Theatre by Tom Bolton

Sam Steiner’s play Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons at the Harold Pinter Theatre has followed a well-documented path from student drama to West End, thanks partly to the simplicity of it…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 12:00PM
Thursday, March 2, 2023

‘Ludicrous, funny, then sinister’: THE WALWORTH FARCE – Southwark Playhouse Elephant by Tom Bolton

It is more than 15 years since Enda Walsh’s play The Walworth Farce arrived in London and, like many big hits, the scale of its popularity then has been matched by the speed with which it …

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AM
Monday, February 6, 2023

‘Energetic, clever & questioning production’: TITUS ANDRONICUS – Shakespeare’s Globe by Tom Bolton

Jude Christian’s new production of Shakespeare’s least reputable play, Titus Andronicus, has an all-female cast telling us immediately that perceptions of power will be tested to destruc…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM
Sunday, January 22, 2023

‘Original & fascinating’: HAMLET – Southwark Playhouse by Tom Bolton

Lazarus’ production of Hamlet at the Southwark Playhouse (Borough Road branch) strips the older generation from the play, leaving us with only the younger characters. Battered, used and co…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM
Monday, January 16, 2023

‘Everyone is set free’: AS YOU LIKE IT – @Soho Place by Tom Bolton

Plenty of productions search fruitlessly for the magic in As You Like It, but Josie Rourke’s version at the new @sohoplace theatre makes it seems effortless. This is greatly helped by the …

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM
Friday, November 25, 2022

‘Flawed but fascinating show’: SARAH – Coronet Theatre by Tom Bolton

Sarah at the Coronet Theatre is an authentic alcoholic’s tale, sentimental and entirely self-centred, but transformed in the telling if, just for a moment, we can buy into the drinker’s …

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM
Monday, October 3, 2022

‘Adds little to our understanding of the play’: ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL – Stratford-upon-Avon by Tom Bolton

All’s Well is the definition of a tricky play, with its combination of the fantastical and the emotionally brutal, its historically specific yet confusingly vague setting and its hard-nose…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AM
Saturday, August 27, 2022

‘Ludicrous & surprisingly moving’: THE REST OF OUR LIVES – Edinburgh Festival Fringe by Tom Bolton

The Rest Of Our Lives at Summerhall, Edinburgh ends in a remarkable moment of mass dancing as the audience descends on the stage, suddenly finding themselves at full emotional stretch thanks…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AM
Thursday, August 25, 2022

‘Exceptional & thrilling dance’: ANTIGONE, INTERRUPTED – Edinburgh Festival Fringe by Tom Bolton

Antigone, Interrupted is exceptional and thrilling dance and, like several productions at this year’s Fringe, reverts to Greek myth to provide stories for our trouble times, with remarkabl…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AM
Tuesday, August 23, 2022

‘Remarkably revealing & painfully honest’: THE SILENT TREATMENT – Edinburgh Festival Fringe by Tom Bolton

Sarah-Louise Young is brisk, charming and authoritative, engaging the audience in vocal warm-ups as they take their seats. Her confident stage demeanour sets the scene for one-woman show The…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AM
Saturday, August 20, 2022

‘Carefully choreographed & absorbing’: THE LAST RETURN – Edinburgh Festival Fringe by Tom Bolton

Sara Joyce’s production of The Last Return for Druid Theatre at the Traverse is carefully choreographed and absorbing. Sonya Kelly has re-imagined Ionesco for the post-colonial era, and le…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AM
Friday, August 12, 2022

‘Elements of the story connect in ways that surprise’: PATRIOTS – Almeida Theatre by Tom Bolton

Peter Morgan’s new play Patriots at the Almeida Theatre is a history lesson, filling in the gaps in our understanding of how we ended up where we are now. Specifically, it connects events …

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM
Tuesday, July 19, 2022

‘It is definitely the kind of theatre we need’: THE DANCE OF DEATH – Arcola Theatre by Tom Bolton

Lindsay Duncan and Hilton McRae reveal the full depths of The Dance of Death’s ambiguity in production that is funny and strangely touching. Directed by the Arcola’s own Mehmet Ergen, th…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM
Thursday, July 14, 2022

‘Tightly choreographed & highly absorbing’: THE LESSON – Southwark Playhouse by Tom Bolton

It says something about national cultures that the French equivalent of The Mousetrap is Eugène Ionesco’s short play, The Lesson. It has been running at Théâtre de la Huchette in Paris …

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM
Friday, June 24, 2022

‘Kirkwood’s ambition is admirable’: THAT IS NOT WHO I AM – Royal Court Theatre by Tom Bolton

That Is Not Who I Am by Dave Davidson – Royal Court Theatre, London (This review consists almost entirely of spoilers) The nudge-nudge cover story for this play – that it’s the debut…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AM
Monday, June 13, 2022

‘An exceptional piece of theatre’: GIRL ON AN ALTAR – Kiln Theatre by Tom Bolton

An exceptional piece of theatre, Girl on an Altar at the Kiln Theatre remakes a story that is part of Western cultural heritage, with deceptive ease, as though it could have happened yesterd…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM
Thursday, June 2, 2022

‘An alarmingly current piece of work’: THE FATHER & THE ASSASSIN – National Theatre by Tom Bolton

Anupama Chandrasekhar’s new play The Father And The Assassin about Nathuram Godse, the man who murdered – assassinated – Mohandas Gandhi in 1948, is an alarmingly current piece of work…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM
Thursday, May 19, 2022

‘Judged just right’: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING – Globe Theatre by Tom Bolton

The Globe’s main, outdoor theatre has not staged shows with a full audience since the summer of 2019, so the opening of its summer season with Lucy Bailey’s production of Much Ado About …

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 12:00PM
Wednesday, May 11, 2022

‘The real reason to see the play is for Walker’: THE CORN IS GREEN – National Theatre by Tom Bolton

However, Dominic Cooke’s production of Emlyn Williams’ play The Corn Is Green makes a good case for reviving it but the real reason to see the drama is for Nicola Walker.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM
Sunday, April 17, 2022

‘Ralph Fiennes is in his element as a man whose tragic flaw will clearly be his downfall’: STRAIGHT LINE CRAZY – Bridge Theatre by Tom Bolton

David Hare’s new play is a history lesson. New York city planner Robert Moses shaped the modern city by supplying it with expressways and parkways.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AM
Thursday, March 31, 2022

‘Sets a new standard for future productions of Shakespeare’s problematic play’: THE MERCHANT OF VENICE – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse by Tom Bolton

The Merchant of Venice is seen as a problematic play but, increasingly, it seems that the problems are with us, as much as they are with Shakespeare.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM
Wednesday, March 23, 2022

‘Lyndsey Turner’s production is expertly crafted’: AFTER THE END – Theatre Royal Stratford East by Tom Bolton

Dennis Kelly’s 2005 play After The End is set inside a nuclear fallout shelter, so it is not surprising that it deals with situations beyond the boundaries of what passes for normality.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 08:00AM
Sunday, March 20, 2022

‘A spirited combination of personal & global histories’: MUGABE, MY DAD & ME – Touring by Tom Bolton

Tonderai Munyevi is a charming performer. His experiences include different types of marginalisation, growing up as a gay man and a Zimbabwean immigrant in London.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 08:00AM
Saturday, March 12, 2022

‘An intellectually rigorous re-examination of a tale taken for granted’: A TALE OF TWO CITIES – Touring by Tom Bolton

There are very few companies who do what Lost Dog does so well – seamlessly combining theatre and contemporary dance, as though this was an obvious way to tell a story.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AM
Sunday, February 27, 2022

‘A confused approach manifests itself in a very uneven set of performances’: HAMLET – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse by Tom Bolton

Sean Holmes’ new production of Hamlet in the Globe’s indoor space opens with a snatch of “Oh mother I can feel the soil falling over my head”, from The Smiths’ song ‘I Know It’…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM
Friday, February 18, 2022

‘The kind of work that, in ten years’ time, people will still be wondering at’: THE GLOW – Royal Court Theatre by Tom Bolton

The concept is like a Doctor Who plot opened up beyond the confines of a genre, to encompass limitless possibilities. It is both enthralling and disturbing.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AM
Wednesday, January 19, 2022

‘Dynamic, energetic & paced like an 800m race’: FAIR PLAY – Bush Theatre by Tom Bolton

Ella Road’s new two-hander is set in the world of track athletics, but the two characters, Ann (NicK King) and Sophie (Charlotte Beaumont) are not just any runners.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM
Saturday, January 1, 2022

‘Director Michael Longhurst brings ski slopes to Covent Garden’: FORCE MAJEURE – Donmar Warehouse by Tom Bolton

Adapted from Ruben Östlund’s film, Force Majeure is an exercise in family breakdown set among a group of well-off Swedes on a skiing holiday.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 09:00AM
Wednesday, December 22, 2021

‘Always compelling to watch’: MEASURE FOR MEASURE – Shakespeare’s Globe by Tom Bolton

For her last production at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Blanche McIntyre expertly conjured the life of a city onto a tiny stage. Her Measure for Measure is another city play, but of a very diffe…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 09:00AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards