Monday, April 28, 2025
★★★★ MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, RSC, STRATFORD Medieval court's mores translates uncomfortably well to modern football
Garish and gossipy, this new production packs a…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:03PM[SHARE]Thursday, April 17, 2025
★★★★★ GHOSTS, LYRIC HAMMERSMITH - Ibsen screams into 2025 in this perfect reimagining
Ten years on, Gary Owen and Rachel O'Riordan top their triumphant Iphigeni…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:18PM[SHARE]Saturday, April 12, 2025
★ MIDNIGHT COWBOY, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Ambitious project overwhelmed by challengesÂ
Two misfits misfire in misconceived show
It seems a bizarre idea. Take a pivotal film in America…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:03PM[SHARE]Wednesday, April 2, 2025
★★★★ THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING OSCAR, JERMYN STREET THEATRE One man play from 1960 given a compelling revival
Alastair Whatley honours his subject in a quietly powerful…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 02:48PM[SHARE]Tuesday, April 1, 2025
★★★★ STILETTO, CHARING CROSS THEATRE Castrato finds comfort by the canals
Quirky, operatic show won't please everyone, but will delight many
That friend you have wh…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:42PM[SHARE]Friday, March 28, 2025
★★★ ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS - THE MUSICAL, THEATRE ROYAL BATH Ambitious new musical isn't slaying 'em in the aislesÂ
1950s America feels a lot like 2020s America in…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:54PM[SHARE]Sunday, March 9, 2025
★★★★ EDWARD II, SWAN THEATRE Rapid and racy adaptation draws on its writer's legend
Putsch in the palace brings down a king who chose the wrong person to love
"Do…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:06PM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 19, 2025
★★★★★ HAMLET, ROYAL SHAKESPEARE THEATRE Rupert Goold's staging lends a gnawing, troubling, transatlantic relevanceÂ
The iceberg cometh
The date, projected be…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:48PM[SHARE]Thursday, February 13, 2025
★★★★★ THREE SISTERS, SAM WANAMAKER PLAYHOUSE Souls dissected in brilliantly conceived and executed production
Russia - but also here, there and everywhere
Russi…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:48PM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 5, 2025
★ MRS PRESIDENT, CHARING CROSS THEATRE A widow, a photographer but no soul
Curious play that fails to mobilise theatre's unique ability to tell a story
The phenomenal global success o…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:42AM[SHARE]Tuesday, February 4, 2025
★★★ SECOND BEST, RIVERSIDE STUDIOS First-class performance in a second-class play
Martin is not Harry Potter in the movies, then might be in real life, but proves to be the…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:06PM[SHARE]Sunday, February 2, 2025
★★★★★ PLAY ON!, LYRIC HAMMERSMITH The Bard and The Duke in perfect harmony!
Super performances deliver magnificent entertainment
If you saw Upstart Crow on tele…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:54PM[SHARE]Friday, January 24, 2025
★★★ AN INTERROGATION, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE Detective gets her man, but at what cost?
Rosie Sheehy and Jamie Ballard shine in Edinburgh Festival import
In a dingy room with …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:42PM[SHARE]★★★ CYMBELINE, SAM WANAMAKER PLAYHOUSE Patriarchy defeated!
A new, if not as radical as once it were, take on Shakespeare's cross-dressing call to arms
There's not much…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 11:42AM[SHARE]Thursday, January 23, 2025
★★★★ THE LONELY LONDONERS, KILN THEATRE A beautifully realised stage adaptation
Memories, frustrations and hopes in a city emerging from post-war austerity
As som…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:18PM[SHARE]Sunday, January 12, 2025
★★★★ THE MAIDS, JERMYN STREET THEATRE Master and Servant, poison & procrastination
Class, in its 21st century manifestation, colours much performed play
There ar…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:18PM[SHARE]Thursday, January 9, 2025
★ TITANIQUE, CRITERION THEATRE Celine! Tina! Jack and Rose! But no wit at all
Affectionate piss-take set for cult status at best
This Celine Dion jukebox musical has been a big hit in …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:24PM[SHARE]Saturday, December 21, 2024
★★★ TWELFTH NIGHT The winter comedy provides more chills than chuckles despite a funny fool
Too much thinking; not enough laughing
It is not just Twelfth Night, it's Twe…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:42PM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 17, 2024
★★★★ NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812, DONMAR WAREHOUSE Broadway show takes eight years to traverse the Atlantic, but proves worth the wait
War and Pe…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:02PM[SHARE]Friday, December 6, 2024
★★★ HANSEL AND GRETEL, SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE More wicked witch, less sunny siblings please
Songs and sweeties, but insufficient sourness and sadism for fans of fairytales
…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:18PM[SHARE]Saturday, November 30, 2024
★★ THE LIGHTNING THIEF, THE OTHER PALACE One for fans of the franchise
Myths and monsters make for a curiously bland and bloodless musical
Percy Jackson is neither the missing…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:48AM[SHARE]Sunday, November 24, 2024
★★★ ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, SAM WANAMAKER PLAYHOUSE Despite its compansations, the play is hard to watch
New production lands on shaky ground in 2024
"All's well that…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:48PM[SHARE]Friday, November 22, 2024
★★★★ KING JAMES, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE Two Cleveland lads bond, break and bond again in perceptive dramedy
Beautifully crafted play tracks two men's relationship, as LeBr…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:31PM[SHARE]Tuesday, November 19, 2024
★★★★ [TITLE OF SHOW], SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Two decades on, this meta-musical retains its charm
Revival of New York show lifts the spirits
Not just a backstage musica…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:36PM[SHARE]Sunday, November 10, 2024
★★★★ BURNT-UP LOVE, FINBOROUGH THEATRE Ferocious three-hander finds love too hot to handle
Super writing and acting jolts us out of complacency
Mac is in prison for …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:06PM[SHARE]Wednesday, October 30, 2024
★★★ HOW TO SURVIVE YOUR MOTHER, KING'S HEAD THEATRE Jonathan Maitland writes of his mother, but should we laugh or cry?
Lots of heartache, but a strange void where the hear…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:42PM[SHARE]Friday, October 25, 2024
★★★★ THE FORSYTE SAGA PARTS 1 AND 2, PARK THEATRE Epic adaptation falls away a little, but still packs a punch
Joseph Millson leads a super cast in a classy produ…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:06PM[SHARE]Monday, October 21, 2024
★★★ AUTUMN, PARK THEATRE Adaptation of Ali Smith's acclaimed novel drifts when it should bite
Promising production, beautifully acted, slides into side plots and confusi…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 12:02AM[SHARE]Thursday, October 17, 2024
★★ LAND OF THE FREE, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Good timing, but clunky structure and plodding pace limits appeal
A president shot, as a divided country seeks political solutions
Str…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:06PM[SHARE]Wednesday, October 16, 2024
★★★ KNIFE ON THE TABLE, COCKPIT THEATRE London teenagers pulled into gang culture's world of drugs, knives and miseryÂ
This is exactly the kind of play that should be…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:54PM[SHARE]Thursday, October 10, 2024
★★★★ THE LEHMAN TRILOGY The rise and rise and rise of an iconic Wall Street institution - and its collapse Â
Sensational stagecraft elevates familiar tale o…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:12PM[SHARE] 
