All stories by Aleks Sierz on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

The Normal Heart, National Theatre by Aleks Sierz

Hypocrisy. Is this the right word? I don't mean the play, but the audience. Of course, in the middle of the current COVID-19 crisis, there's bound to be a certain amount of discomfort whe…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 07:27AM[SHARE]
Monday, November 8, 2021

'This is Shakespeare for the Netflix generation': MACBETH " Almeida Theatre by Aleks Sierz

Saoirse Ronan makes her UK stage debut in Yael Farber's testosterone-fest, which is vivid, but much too long.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, November 2, 2021

The Tragedy of Macbeth, Almeida Theatre by Aleks Sierz

Remembering the months of lockdown, I can't be the only person to thrill to this play's opening lines, "When shall we three meet again?", a phrase evocative enough to be borrowed for the fir…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 10:18AM[SHARE]
Monday, November 1, 2021

'Explores how belief can be a psychological & emotional journey': 10 NIGHTS " Bush Theatre by Aleks Sierz

This new coproduction between Graeae and Tamasha is not perfect, but it offers a moving insight into ritual and belief.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 12:00PM[SHARE]
Friday, October 29, 2021

'The general tone is that of history lite': THE MIRROR & THE LIGHT " West End by Aleks Sierz

This is a labour of love. Hilary Mantel has adapted The Mirror and the Light, the third novel of her Tudor trilogy, in collaboration with actor Ben Miles.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AM[SHARE]
Monday, October 25, 2021

Shahid Iqbal Khan's "10 Nights" at the Bush Theatre: moving insight into ritual and belief by Aleks Sierz

Since 9/11 there has been considerable interest in staging stories about British Muslims, and the best of these avoid the stereotypes of arranged marriage and terrorism. Although religious o…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 02:13AM[SHARE]
Friday, October 15, 2021

'Patsy Ferran & Luke Thallon perform with superb control': CAMP SIEGFRIED " Old Vic Theatre by Aleks Sierz

Bess Wohl's history play is an imaginatively-written, brilliantly chilling and resonant account of life at a Nazi summer camp, starring Patsy Ferran and Luke Thallon.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Sunday, October 10, 2021

Hilary Mantel and Ben Miles's The Mirror and the Light at the Gielgud Theatre: Engaging, but Rather Low Key by Aleks Sierz

This is a labor of love. Hilary Mantel has adapted The Mirror and the Light, the third novel of her Tudor trilogy, in collaboration with actor Ben Miles, who is the Royal Shakespeare Company…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 02:22AM[SHARE]
Monday, September 27, 2021

Bess Wohl's "Camp Siegfried" at the Old Vic: Powerfully Chilling and Resonant by Aleks Sierz

Are we too obsessed with Nazism? Apart from countless television programs which revisit that grim era, as fact or as fiction, in monochrome or in color, briefly or at length, there has recen…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:34PM[SHARE]
Monday, September 20, 2021

'The writing has a comic crackle & pop that sizzles & screeches': IS GOD IS " Royal Court Theatre by Aleks Sierz

American playwright Aleshea Harris' dazzlingly satirical 2018 extravaganza is about two women seeking justice and getting even, and it comes to the Royal Court from New York, trailing shouts…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 05:00AM[SHARE]
Saturday, September 18, 2021

'A good story well told': THE MEMORY OF WATER " Hampstead Theatre by Aleks Sierz

I remember seeing Shelagh Stephenson's contemporary classic at the Hampstead, when this venue was still an ageing prefab, and enjoying Terry Johnson's racy staging,

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Friday, September 17, 2021

Rockets and Blue Lights, National Theatre by Aleks Sierz

For more than three decades, playwright Winsome Pinnock has been at the forefront of new writing, often experimenting with form as well as documenting the lives of Black Britons. Her new pla…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:34PM[SHARE]
Monday, September 6, 2021

'I respected the gesture more than I admired the art': ROCKETS & BLUE LIGHTS " National Theatre by Aleks Sierz

At its best, the subjective and poetic image creation in Rockets and Blue Lights at the National Theatre is both audacious and striking. At its worst, it is over-complex, confusing and overl…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 05:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, August 18, 2021

"Oleanna," Arts Theatre by Aleks Sierz

Before seeing this play, I decided to eat a steak. I thought I needed some extra strength. And it seems exactly the right culinary equivalent to David Mamet, one of America's most provocativ…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 05:07AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, August 3, 2021

'Just a bit too educational to be truly pleasurable': CHANGING DESTINY " Young Vic Theatre by Aleks Sierz

The Young Vic's main stage reopens with Booker Prize winner Ben Okri's short play Changing Destiny, directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 12:30PM[SHARE]
Saturday, July 31, 2021

'Fine attention to emotional detail': OLEANNA " Arts Theatre by Aleks Sierz

The great thing about Lucy Bailey's 80-minute production of Oleanna is its sense of balance. And I have to say that it changed my mind about the power balance in the drama.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, July 28, 2021

'Able to jump from silliness to seriousness in mid-sentence': LAST EASTER " Orange Tree Theatre by Aleks Sierz

By the end of Orange Tree Theatre's production of Bryony Lavery's Last Easter the certainty that friendship and love are life's true miracles is quietly and effectively realised.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 06:00AM[SHARE]
Sunday, July 25, 2021

'A gem of a two-hander': CONSTELLATIONS " Vaudeville Theatre by Aleks Sierz

I finally caught up with Michael Longhurst's restaging of his 2012 Royal Court production of Nick Payne's Constellations, a gem of a two-hander.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 06:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 29, 2021

About "Outside In" by Aleks Sierz

With many theatres now reopening again, it is surely a good moment to celebrate all those venues which managed to stage live shows in the past few months " often in very stressful circumstan…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:53PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 23, 2021

About "Sweatbox" and "Blis-ta" by Aleks Sierz

Although some theatres are tentatively reopening, the creative vigor of other companies is undimmed. Clean Break, which works with women in the criminal justice system, has recently released…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 10:47PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 22, 2021

"Harm" at The Bush Theatre by Aleks Sierz

After months (and months) of watching theatre on screens large, medium, small and tiny, I definitely feel great about going to see a live show again. Of course, it's not the usual theatre ex…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 10:07PM[SHARE]
Sunday, June 13, 2021

'Equally impressive': SWEATBOX / BLIS-TA " Clean Break (Online review) by Aleks Sierz

Although some theatres are tentatively reopening, the creative vigour of other companies like Clean Break is undimmed.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 06:00AM[SHARE]

About "The Elephant in the Room" by Aleks Sierz

Online performance, streamed instead of attended, has given theatre companies an immense amount of flexibility. Suddenly, the digital world offers all kinds of different freedoms. A good exa…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:23AM[SHARE]
Saturday, June 5, 2021

'It's good but unexceptional': WALDEN " Harold Pinter Theatre by Aleks Sierz

Amy Berryman's ambitious debut play Walden about siblings, climate change and space travel is full of ideas, but what happened to the emotions?

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Monday, May 31, 2021

"Tarantula" at the Southwark Playhouse by Aleks Sierz

I think I can safely say that polymath playwright Philip Ridley has had a good lockdown. In March last year, when The Beast of Blue Yonder, his new show for Southwark Playhouse, was closed d…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 10:33PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, May 26, 2021

'A smart & sassy study of loneliness & obsession': HARM " Bush Theatre by Aleks Sierz

Harm, which has already been screened on BBC Four with Leanne Best, is a new monologue by Bruntwood Prize-winning playwright Phoebe Eclair-Powell and now the one-woman show stars Kelly Gough…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, May 18, 2021

About "Saving Britney": Prologue by Aleks Sierz

Uncertainty can sometimes provoke creativity. When the opening of Shereen Roushbaiani's one-woman show, Saving Britney, at the Old Red Lion theatre was cancelled in January, its creators Dav…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:07PM[SHARE]
Monday, April 26, 2021

About "Mum. Can You Hear Me?" by Aleks Sierz

Over the past year we've become used to a variety of home theatre: recordings of live performances, streamed shows, online films. But I haven't really explored much sonic theatre, those play…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 10:57PM[SHARE]
Saturday, April 24, 2021

Mark Ravenhill's "Angela" on The Sound Stage by Aleks Sierz

Does a subjective theatre piece encourage a subjective critical response? I think it might, especially when it's a memory play about dementia, so here goes: First I turn off the lights, then…

SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:11PM[SHARE]
Thursday, April 22, 2021

'A dark masterpiece': THE SEPARATION " Living Record Productions (Online review) by Aleks Sierz

The camera can take you to places where the naked eye rarely goes. Like close. Very close. Close up. And then some. This is exemplified by Fraser Watson's brilliant filming of The Separation…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 06:00AM[SHARE]
Saturday, April 10, 2021

'Thoughtful, punky & fun': SAVING BRITNEY: PROLOGUE " Old Red Lion Theatre (Online review) by Aleks Sierz

Uncertainty can sometimes provoke creativity. When the opening of Shereen Roushbaiani's one-woman show, Saving Britney, at the Old Red Lion theatre was cancelled in January, its creators Dav…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 06:00AM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off