THE COMEDY ABOUT SPIES by Libby Purves and Friends

WELL WORTH THE MONEYPENNY        This is glorious: just what we all needed.   In the company’s spirit of never wasting a terrible joke, I absolutely Bond-ed to it.   Following Mischi…

George Clooney and Denzel Washington Power Broadway to Prepandemic Heights by Michael Paulson and Sara Krulwich

Elphaba helped too. But the good news comes with caveats.

THE BRIGHTENING AIR Old Vic SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

HOME AND FAMILY, BEAUTY AND SADNESS  Few days late to the party with this , poor old theatrecat having seemed to fall off the press list;  but very well worth the ticket (Old Vic pricing i…

To Play Betty Boop, Jasmine Amy Rogers Had to Transform by Elisabeth Vincentelli and Dana Golan

The Broadway rookie has a Tony nomination and star power, but inside she’s still this “weird little girl.”

In ‘Operation Mincemeat,’ the Crack Timing Required to Put on a Show by Brian Seibert and George Etheredge

In the Tony-nominated musical “Operation Mincemeat,” five performers play a slew of roles. The choreography onstage and off is fast, elaborate and exacting.

HERE WE ARE Lyttelton, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

AFFLUENZA APOCALYPSE       As Aubrey de Mandeville puts it in the great Antrobus books, “God, here’s a strange lozenge-shaped affair!”   Buñuel meets Monty Python,  courtesy of …

NOISES OFF New Wolsey, Ipswich & touring by Libby Purves and Friends

 A MODERN CLASSIC DONE WITH VIGOUR   Michael Frayn’s play-about-actors is always welcome: a comic masterpiece and loving study in theatre’s own absurdity. The first act shows a final l…

Axis Dance Explores New Frontiers With Mobility Technology by Margaret Fuhrer and Aaron Wojack

A new work by Axis Dance Company, “Kinematic/Kinesthetic,” uses mobility technologies to reshape ideas about moving and about the devices themselves.

Ragtime, Starring Caissie Levy, Joshua Henry and Brandon Uranowitz, Is Coming to Broadway by Darryn King and Hayley Levitt

The New York City Center production of Ragtime, mounted in 2024 in a two-week gala presentation, will transfer to Lincoln Center Theater's Vivian Beaumont Theater. Tony nominee Joshua Henr…

An Actress of Many Passions, Now Making History in ‘Wicked’ by Salamishah Tillet and Dina Litovsky

“The place where Elphaba and I meet is empathy and advocacy for justice,” said Lencia Kebede, who is the first Black actress to play the role full time on Broadway.

The Young Virtuoso Roman Mejia Now Has the X Factor: Nobility by Gia Kourlas and Thea Traff

Roman Mejia, a New York City Ballet principal, shows how bravura and subtlety can exist side by side in a season that includes a sparkling “Apollo” debut.

THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR.          Chichester Festival Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

      A SATIRICAL WARNING FROM OLD UKRAINE       Not long ago a rompingly funny version of Gogol’s satire on official incompetence ran at Marylebone ( https://theatrecat.com/2024/05/…

Unpacking the 2025 Tony Nominations: Surprises, Standouts and Takeaways by Darryn King and Hayley Levitt

The countdown to the Tony Awards is officially on! New musicals Buena Vista Social Club, Death Becomes Her and Maybe Happy Ending lead the pack with 10 each. Close behind with seven are De…

Tony Nominations Snubs and Surprises: Denzel Washington Misses for ‘Othello’ and More by Jesse Green, Alexis Soloski and Scott Heller

Ensemble-driven plays like “Purpose” and “English” received a slew of nominations, while Denzel Washington, Jake Gyllenhaal and Idina Menzel were overlooked.

MY MASTER BUILDER Wyndham’s Theatre WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

MATHILDE AND THE BUILDER (can he fix it? Probably not)          The set is glassand towering, city-chic backed by reeds and seashore; the figures before us NYC glamorous,  even when th…

New York City’s Creative Churn: The View From the Dance Floor by Brian Seibert and Yuvraj Khanna

“Urban Stomp” at the Museum of the City of New York chronicles the metropolis’s social dance. It also invites you to join the party.

Penn Station’s Not-So-Secret Other Life: The People’s Dance Studio by Rachel Sherman and Mohamed Sadek

Smooth floors. Public restrooms. A built-in audience: The lower level of Moynihan Hall doubles as a rehearsal space for a variety of dance groups, including K-pop, salsa and Brazilian Zouk.

Arts Council England a victim of ‘London-centric’ media coverage, CEO says by Lanre Bakare Arts and Culture Correspondent

Darren Henley says regional arts leaders do not have same newspaper coverage as those in the capital The chief executive of Arts Council England has launched an impassioned defence of the or…

Climate Activists Interrupt New York City Ballet Performance by Javier C. Hernández, Rachel Saltz and Amanda Webster

Protesters interrupted an all-Balanchine program on the company’s spring season opening night, which coincided this year with Earth Day.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING Royal Shakespeare Theatre , Stratford upon Avon by Libby Purves and Friends

WINNERS, WAGS AND WRONGS Well, here’s a summer romp.    Hot on the heels of Tom Hiddleston  in a disco version up Drury Lane, here’s the RSC take on one of the sunniest  Shakespeare …

It’s All Rhythm: A New Festival Embraces Percussive Dance by Brian Seibert and Mark Sommerfeld

The Uptown Rhythm Festival will mix styles, including tap, swing and flamenco, that are flourishing despite problems of rehearsal and performance space.

How ‘Stranger Things’ Scaled Up for Broadway by Erik Piepenburg and Graham Dickie

A big opening scene that took about two-and-a-half years to perfect plunges theatergoers into the sci-fi world of the hit Netflix series.

SHANGHAI DOLLS Kiln, NW6 by Libby Purves and Friends

TWO WOMEN, LONG YEARS ACROSS HALF A CONTINENT       1935: below projected headlines about Communists executed in Shanghai and the war between Japan and Red China comes an audition call fo…

THE PLAYS THE THING. wiltons music hall by Libby Purves and Friends

A HAMLET THAT STANDS ALONE “is it not monstrous that this player here,But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,Could force his soul so to his own conceitThat from her working all his visage…

PIAF          Watermill, near Newbury by Libby Purves and Friends

RIEN TO REGRET!   This is a terrific, impassioned production: not only does Kimberley Sykes’ direction  and Michele Meazza’ s movement work keep it watchably, startlingly vigorous,   …

The Best Classical Music Performances of March 2025 by Joshua Barone, Seth Colter Walls, Zachary Woolfe and Oussama Zahr

Watch and listen to recent highlights, including Nicole Scherzinger on Broadway, a pair of Janacek operas and Cécile McLorin Salvant.

MANHUNT Royal Court, SW1 by Libby Purves and Friends

TRAGEDY WITHOUT A MORAL     Raoul Moat used  steroids and bulking-powder to armour himself in muscle,  nourished a bottomless well of grievance and self-pity , and imposed his needy will…

At least 1,200 grants canceled as NEH cuts target humanities across U.S. by Janay Kingsberry and Anne Branigin / The Washington Post

The Snubs and Surprises of the 2025 Olivier Awards by Matt Wolf, Houman Barekat and Eleanor Stanford

Times critics discuss the big winners — a new play about Roald Dahl, a “Fiddler on the Roof” revival and a folk-rock “Benjamin Button”— at London’s theater awards.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING OSCAR jermyn st theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

THE DEPTHS BELOW THE WIT     The plays,  ever revived, we know well;  the wit is often cited,  the old injustice of his downfall recreated in plays and films: most recently we’ve seen…

STILETTO Charing Cross Theatre WC1 by Libby Purves and Friends

VENEZIANA !      Buongiorno to Venice 1730,  a city stage topped with the golden winged lion of St Mark, arched and curtained and lit with candelabras .  Overhead a twelve-piece orchest…