All stories by Aleks Sierz on BroadwayStars

Friday, March 28, 2025

Chris Fung’s “The Society for New Cuisine” at Omnibus Theatre: Exceptionally Powerful Monologue About Grief And Mental Torment by Aleks Sierz

Anxiety. Apprehension. Angst even. Yes, that’s the feeling that rises in me as I come into the auditorium of Omnibus Theatre, in Clapham, south London, to watch Chris Fung perform in his o…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:48PM
Friday, March 21, 2025

Nikoletta Soumelidis’s Spent at the Old Red Lion Theatre: Intriguing And Suggestive Exploration Of Gender Roles by Aleks Sierz

One of the joys of contemporary playwriting is its openness to flexible casting. In Ruby Thomas’s 2019 play Either, for example, there are two lovers — denoted as A and B — whose story…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:30PM
Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Nick Payne’s One Day When We Were Young at Park Theatre: Time-Hopping Love Story Is Restrained By The Slenderness of the Plot by Aleks Sierz

How long would you wait for your soulmate? In “The Demon Lover”, a short story by Elizabeth Bowen, published in 1945, a young couple make a passionate vow during the first world war. Whe…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:44AM
Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Coral Wylie’s Lavender, Hyacinth, Violet, Yew at the Bush Theatre: Tender And Original Debut About The Black Queer Experience by Aleks Sierz

Diaries are dynamite — they hold secrets, and secrets can tear families apart. In Coral Wylie’s debut, Lavender, Hyacinth, Violet, Yew, currently at the Bush Theatre, written records are…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 06:10AM
Friday, February 21, 2025

Laura Horton’s Lynn Faces at the New Diorama Theatre: Surreal Gig Theatre Event Explores Coercive Control Through Comedy by Aleks Sierz

British people are socially awkward: this explains why we talk about the weather, queue compulsively and pretend to be polite. It is also at the heart of our television culture, anything fro…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:19AM
Monday, February 10, 2025

Eline Arbo’s The Years At The Harold Pinter Theatre: Nobel Prize Winner Annie Ernaux’s Book Gets A Problematic West-End Staging by Aleks Sierz

Marketing is the new real. For many years, in theatre as elsewhere in society, the most important thing is not creativity, or originality, or integrity, but hype. A good example is The Years…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 10:19AM
Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Philip Ridley’s Tarantula at the Arcola Theatre: Blazingly Emotive And Beautifully Poetic Account Of Trauma From A Master Penman by Aleks Sierz

Even the best streamed theatre can’t compete with the live version. It’s simple — with this art form you really have to be there. In person. Take the case of Tarantula, master storytel…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 10:27AM
Monday, January 20, 2025

Roy Williams’s The Lonely Londoners at the Kiln Theatre: Superb Stage Adaptation Of The Classic Sam Selvon Windrush Novel by Aleks Sierz

Is resilience the most powerful character trait? When you think about the suffering of the Windrush Generation, migrants to the UK in the 1950s, it is their sheer staying power that is immed…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:29AM
Friday, November 1, 2024

Ché Walker’s Burnt-Up Love at the Finborough Theatre: Crime and Redemption In A Shining Gem Of A Show by Aleks Sierz

Fringe venues perform a vital role on the ecology of London theatre. While many shows at these small venues are underfunded, and some are frankly rough as well as ready, you can occasionally…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 03:48PM
Sunday, October 20, 2024

Robert Icke’s Oedipus at Wyndham’s Theatre: Lots Of Stunning Acting Compensates For Some Questionable Writing by Aleks Sierz

The myth of Oedipus is so central to our psychic world that I was really surprised how many people in the audience for this revival were shocked by the revelation of the protagonist’s ince…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 02:04PM
Monday, October 7, 2024

Mark Rosenblatt’s Giant at the Royal Court: Provocative Drama About Anti-Semitism Is A Superb Play Of Ideas by Aleks Sierz

Roald Dahl evokes mixed feelings. He’s one of the greatest children’s storytellers, whose macabre books have sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide; he was also anti-Semitic, and …

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 03:39PM
Thursday, September 12, 2024

Timberlake Wertenbaker’s “Our Country’s Good” at the Lyric Hammersmith: Slightly Updated Classic Grounded by an Awkward Production by Aleks Sierz

Although the idea of deporting people to Rwanda as a punishment is now, following the defeat of the Tories in this year’s General Election, off the political agenda, the way we as a societ…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:57AM
Friday, September 6, 2024

Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing at the Old Vic: Spirited and Highly Enjoyable Revival of Semi-Autobiographical Love Drama by Aleks Sierz

Adultery is the great staple of modern British playwriting. The anguish of marriage, and the temptations of infidelity run like a red thread from John Osborrne’s Look Back in Anger, via Ha…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:24AM
Monday, June 10, 2024

Sanaz Toossi’s English at the Kiln Theatre: Pulitzer Prize-winning play shows the impacts of a second language on identity by Aleks Sierz

Sanaz Toossi’s English at the Kiln Theatre: Pulitzer Prize-winning play shows the impacts of a second language on identity The full version of the article Sanaz Toossi’s English at the …

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 03:34AM
Thursday, March 14, 2024

Tim Price’s “Nye” at the National Theatre: A Fun Life of the Creator of the National Health Service by Aleks Sierz

For me, this is the most emotional show on the London stage. Why’s that? Because it’s about Nye Bevan, who as Minister of Health in the postwar socialist Labour government set up the Nat…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 06:11PM
Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Lucy Kirkwood’s “The Human Body” at the Donmar Warehouse: Twin Tales of Illicit Love and the Founding of the National Health Service by Aleks Sierz

It’s election year so the gaze of British theatre turns towards the National Health Service. But, no, this month’s plays do not examine the parlous state of doctors and hospitals today, …

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:36AM
Monday, March 4, 2024

Marius von Mayenburg’s Nachtland at the Young Vic: Satire on Art and Anti-Semitism Is Both Absurdist and Unsettling by Aleks Sierz

We’ve all heard of the metaphorical madwoman in the attic, but what about the symbolic unexploded bomb under the roof, tucked away among the junk, accumulating dust and lying quietly undis…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:12PM
Monday, February 26, 2024

Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People at the Duke of York’s Theatre: Thomas Ostermeier’s West End Debut Has Starry Cast And Punk Aesthetics by Aleks Sierz

It’s a sign of the times that German director Thomas Ostermeier’s West End debut is his production of An Enemy of the People, which has been rep at his Schaubühne theatre for over a dec…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:27AM
Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Sergio Blanco’s “When You Pass Over My Tomb” at the Arcola Theatre: Exquisite Meta-Theatrical Exploration Of Death and Necrophilia by Aleks Sierz

Nowadays it seems that it’s the fringe and Off-West End venues that are keeping the spirit of international theatre alive in London. Whereas much mainstream big-name theatre feels increasi…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 02:57AM
Sunday, February 11, 2024

Jez Butterworth’s “The Hills of California” at the Harold Pinter Theatre: Warm Evocation of 1950s Pop Culture Is Fun, But Lacks Dramatic Resolut by Aleks Sierz

In West End theatre, the cliché that nothing succeeds like success keeps the wheels of commerce turning merrily. But just because a show is selling lots of tickets, and has generated loads …

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:38AM
Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Zoe Cooper’s Northanger Abbey at the Orange Tree Theatre: High Energy and Queer-eyed Adaptation of Jane Austen Classic by Aleks Sierz

Jane Austen is not just a classic novelist — she’s a cultural institution and a national treasure. Since the 1990s there has been an avalanche not only of straight adaptations of her nov…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 07:07AM
Monday, January 1, 2024

Jack Thorne’s “The Motive and the Cue” at the Noël Coward Theatre: Jack Thorne’s History Play About Gielgud And Burton Transfers To The West by Aleks Sierz

This transfer of Jack Thorne’s hit National Theatre play to the West End has been hailed as meta-theatre on steroids. The St Martin’s Lane venue, which was once called the New Theatre, h…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 07:10AM
Thursday, December 7, 2023

Roxy Cook’s A Woman Walks into a Bank at Theatre 503: Sublimely Beguiling Account of Everyday Life in Twenty-First Century Moscow by Aleks Sierz

The recent news that Russia’s Supreme Court has banned the “international LGBT movement”, describing it as an “extremist organisation” and raiding nightclubs frequented by gay peop…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:11PM
Tuesday, October 3, 2023

“That Face” at Orange Tree Theatre by Aleks Sierz

Playwright Polly Stenham had a meteoric rise with this play, her award-winning 2007 debut which she wrote aged 19 and whose original Royal Court cast featured Lyndsay Duncan and Matt Smith,…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 07:32AM
Friday, September 22, 2023

Lauren Gunderson’s Anthropology at the Hampstead Theatre: Interesting Digital Thriller Falters On The Edge of Darkness by Aleks Sierz

Androids no longer dream of electric sheep — instead they inhabit our dreams. Whether it is novels such as Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun or Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me, or films…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:19AM
Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Anupama Chandrasekhar’s “The Father And The Assassin” At The National Theatre: Vastly Compelling And Darkly Comic History Play About Indian Inde by Aleks Sierz

Nobodies who kill somebodies: let’s make a list. Okay, there’s Lee Harvey Oswald (JFK), James Earl Ray (MLK) and Mark Chapman (John Lennon). But what about the man who shot Mahatma Gandh…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 03:52AM
Monday, September 11, 2023

Miriam Battye’s Strategic Love Play At The Soho Theatre: Mixture Of Laughter, Pain Ad Insight Into Contemporary Romance by Aleks Sierz

Remember what a first date feels like? Awkward. Exciting. Awkward. Intriguing. Awkward. Difficult. Yes, it’s a mixture of emotions, often between the desire to be liked and the frustration…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:15AM
Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Tim Fraser’s Candy At Park Theatre: Moving Account Of Gender Identity And Masculinity by Aleks Sierz

Okay, let’s start with a definition: it is said that sex is what you have between your legs, and gender is what you have between your ears. Certainly, the emotional experience of falling i…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:02AM
Monday, August 21, 2023

Lucy Prebble’s “The Effect” At The National Theatre: Non-White Cast Bring A New Energy To This Contemporary Classic by Aleks Sierz

Success always opens doors. Ever since the HBO drama Succession was lauded as a huge international hit, one of its writers and producers, Lucy Prebble, has been a hot property. Although I pe…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:54AM
Friday, August 4, 2023

“Beneatha’s Place,” Young Vic by Aleks Sierz

Trauma is the source of identity politics. In the case of African-Americans, the experience of brutal slavery, exploitative colonialism and violent racism are defining experiences in their h…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 06:28AM
Thursday, July 6, 2023

Sarah Middleton’s “Shewolves” at the Southwark Playhouse: Energetic Teen Fairy Tale by Aleks Sierz

Climate-change activist Greta Thunberg is great at doing two things: irritating complacent adults and inspiring idealistic teens. In Sarah Middleton’s debut comedy, Shewolves, which was fi…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 02:55PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Nov 17, 2024: Elf - Marquis Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre