All stories by Ds on BroadwayStars

Sunday, March 24, 2019

AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’         Mercury, Colchester then Southwark by Libby Purves and Friends

I’M GONNA SIT RIGHT DOWN AND WRITE MYSELF A REVIEW…   So dress up sassy, shake your chassis, get some mesh on your flesh like the ladies who sing with the band. Sell your vocals to the …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 02:01PM
Friday, March 22, 2019

PRIVATE LIVES Avenue, Ipswich by Libby Purves and Friends

NOT AT ALL FLAT, SUFFOLK…         Exuberantly funny,  elegant as a Deauville  hotel balcony and  sharp as the crack of a 78rpm record over a lover’s head,  Joanna Carrick’s wit…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 10:39AM
Thursday, March 21, 2019

BETRAYAL Harold Pinter Theatre, WC1 by Libby Purves and Friends

POISONED LOVE   I sometimes wish Harold Pinter had written more plays  like this:  decadent, agonized, helplessly sensitive to the nuances of friendship and treachery.  More praise has a…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:00AM
Wednesday, March 20, 2019

THE RUBENSTEIN KISS              Southwark Playhouse, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

 MARTYRS OF THE MCCARTHY YEARS          Ideological hostilities across the world,   fake news and paranoia, a resurgent deep left,  uneasy relations with Russia, antisemites question…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:58AM
Friday, March 8, 2019

What to see this week in the UK by Andrew Pulver, Michael Cragg, John Fordham, Andrew Clements, Jonathan Jones, Miriam Gillinson and Lyndsey Winship

From Captain Marvel to Henry Moore, here’s our pick of the best films, concerts, exhibitions, theatre and dance over the next seven days Continue reading...

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:00AM
Friday, February 15, 2019

What to see this week in the UK by Andrew Pulver, Michael Cragg, John Fordham, Andrew Clements, Jonathan Jones, Miriam Gillinson and Lyndsey Winship

From Notting Hill to Fatboy Slim, here’s our pick of the best films, concerts, exhibitions, theatre and dance over the next seven days Continue reading...

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:04PM
Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Decadence and dystopia: the unmissable theatre, dance and comedy of 2019 by Michael Billington, Lyndsey Winship and Brian Logan

Blanchett and Hiddleston get sexual, there are chills in a Glasgow tower block, Matthew Bourne takes on the star-crossed lovers, plus Catherine Tate, Tim Minchin and Ben Elton return to the …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42AM
Thursday, December 27, 2018

THEATRECAT TAKES A BREAK by Libby Purves and Friends

NOT YET DEAD CAT BUT…  Since I stopped being The Times Chief Theatre Critic  it has been five years:  on this site there have been  930 posts,  over half a million words, all stil…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:22PM

The Belle Vue Circus opens for Christmas – archive, 27 Dec. 1938 by Ds

27 December 1938: The final dress rehearsal is a free Christmas treat for children and old folks Related: Welfare of circus animals at Westminster: from the archive, 17 February 1965 The ten…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:18AM
Friday, December 21, 2018

THE TRAGEDY OF KING RICHARD THE SECOND Almeida, N1 by Libby Purves and Friends

A HOLLOW CROWN IN MUD AND BLOOD   The clue is in the paper hat, worn by a dour-faced Simon Russell Beale on the programme cover.    This is not stately, sacred, shockingly regicidal S…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:32AM

NINE NIGHT Trafalgar Studios, SW1 by Libby Purves and Friends

JAMAICA BREEZES UP WEST, WITH GRIEF AND GUSTO          Jamaican mourning tradition, longer than the Irish wake and noisier than the Jewish shiva, involves –  we learn  ̵…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:43AM
Monday, December 17, 2018

Top 10 dance shows of 2018 by Judith Mackrell and Lyndsey Winship

Romeo and Juliet muddled into middle age, Akram Khan suffered shell-shock, Rambert2 lost control – and William Forsythe gave ballet a stratospheric street shakeupMore best culture 2018 Ove…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:54PM
Friday, December 14, 2018

THE CANE                Royal Court, SW1 by Libby Purves and Friends

PSYCHOPATHIC LIBERAL MEETS DINOSAUR PARENTS       Can we, I wonder, ever  learn to deplore past attitudes without being vengeful about it?  Hot on the heels of Mike Bartlett’s heartfe…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:22AM
Thursday, December 13, 2018

A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Arts theatre WC 1 by Libby Purves and Friends

  ONE MORE TIME, WITH FEELING   .   After two other full cast renderings in a fortnight -David Edgar’s socially angry take at the RSC and Jack Thorne’s warm spectacular at the…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:46PM
Wednesday, December 12, 2018

      THE TELL TALE HEART. Dorfman, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

A GOTHIC EYEFUL   In this troublous nation,  2018 seems to be the Christmas of Aaargh! and Eughhh! and hahahahaaa! , as a gross-out  gigglefest sweeps London theatre.  There’s the …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:40PM

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon by Libby Purves and Friends

ENERGY, ANGER, HOPE           It is 1842:  young Charles Dickens, thirty years old and with five novels under his belt, is ranting.    The Industrial Revolution is revving up nicely,…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:37AM
Monday, December 10, 2018

SNOWFLAKE Old Fire Station, Oxford by Libby Purves and Friends

  CHRISTMAS,  BREXIT,   GRIEF, HOPE      A few hours after Theresa May postponed the parliamentary vote and spun us down into another layer of Brexi-hell ,  the little OFS    –…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:52PM

DICK WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT Oxford Playhouse by Libby Purves and Friends

 I WENT TO THE PANTO.  O YES I DID.       The great thing about the proud tradition of Oxford Playhouse panto is that while cannily aware of the  audience’s likely cultural uplift, …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:42PM
Sunday, December 9, 2018

ALICE IN WONDERLAND Avenue Theatre, Ipswich by Libby Purves and Friends

A WONDERLAND WINNER           “Posh panto”,  for wincing parents fleeing the rackety showbiz ’n smut of the season, can be a bit chilly –  neither one thing nor the other…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:18AM
Friday, December 7, 2018

UNCLE VANYA Hampstead Theatre NW3 by Libby Purves and Friends

,  GEESE CACKLE, LIFE GOES ON        I have a friend of Russian heritage who boycotts any Chekhov production which lacks scabby birch-trees, a samovar and some parasols.   She’ll do …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:17AM
Thursday, December 6, 2018

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF Menier, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

L’CHAIM – TO LIFE!    A SPECIAL NIGHT           We are there, over a century ago, beyond the Caucasus.   Designer  Robert Jones  has wrapped us around in rustic planks and …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:33AM

TRUE WEST Vaudeville, WC1 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST CRITIC MICHAEL ADAIR EMPATHISES WITH DEADLINE FEVER.. Here is a tale of two brothers. First, Kit Harrington’s serious, intelligent and moustachioed Austin, Ivy League educated and wi…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:42AM
Wednesday, December 5, 2018

THE BOX OF DELIGHTS Wilton’s Music Hall E1 by Libby Purves and Friends

DARK MAGIC,  REAL THEATRE     Long, long before Harry Potter there was a gallant orphan, a boy dreamer sucked into a world of murderous magic, facing grief and responsibility alike.   Tw…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:32PM

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Old Vic SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

DICKENS UNCHAINED: A SCROOGE FOR OUR TIMES          It is , if possible, even finer and more heartfelt and gripping, tuneable and serious and moving than last year.   My  former r…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:31PM
Friday, November 30, 2018

BURKE AND HARE               Jermyn St Theatre SW1 by Libby Purves and Friends

DARK DOINGS AND DISSECTION     Oyez, Oyez.   Let it be known that this suspenseful yet dreary political season has become officially the Year Of Dark Panto.  Down at The Bridge we had Ma…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:25PM
Friday, November 23, 2018

AN HONOURABLE MAN                   White Bear, Kennington SE11 by Libby Purves and Friends

BREAKING THE MOULD….    Our politics is  partisan, quarrelsome, dated in its pattern of two-parties-plus-minnows.   A nest of weary careerists,  pointless betrayals and illogical loya…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:28PM
Monday, November 19, 2018

SWITZERLAND Ambassadors, WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

DEATH AND THE DIFFICULT WOMAN   Those who call Theresa May a ‘bloody difficult woman’ should pop in to the Ambassadors and realise that in the ranks of  of BDWs she is the merest d…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:22PM
Friday, November 16, 2018

What to see this week in the UK by Andrew Pulver, Michael Cragg, John Fordham, Andrew Clements, Jonathan Jones, Mark Cook and Lyndsey Winship

From The Ballad of Buster Scruggs to Unknown Mortal Orchestra, here’s our pick of the best films, concerts, exhibitions, theatre and dance over the next seven days Continue reading...

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:42AM
Thursday, November 15, 2018

MACBETH Wanamaker, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

THE EMPTY DARKNESS OF THE HEART     Third time  lucky:  after two glumly disappointing 2018 productions steeped in directorial gimmicks   – RSC and NT –  the candlelit cram…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:53AM
Wednesday, November 14, 2018

DON QUIXOTE Vaudeville, WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

THE KNIGHT WINS HIS SPURS AGAIN:  A NOBLE DELUSION      Need a Christmas outing? Quailing at panto, feel you and the kids need some Euro-culture to counteract Brexidepression? Trust the …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:37PM

HADESTOWN Olivier, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

A SWING AND SWIRL THROUGH HELL     It’s certainly not family-panto time along the glittering Thames riverbank:  what with Martin McDonagh’ grossout-silly Dark Matter downstream at the…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:16AM

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