Tuesday, June 27, 2023
★★★★ STUMPED, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE A smart, funny, and beautifully staged new play
An hour zips by in the company of two playwrights bickering on the boundary edge
Much of cricket comp…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:43AMMonday, June 26, 2023
★ ROBIN HOOD. THE LEGEND. RE-WRITTEN. REGENT'S PARK OPEN AIR THEATRE Play with music lost in a forest of competing genres and tones
New version of old story wastes talent and resources in …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 11:04AMThursday, June 15, 2023
★★★★★ 42nd STREET, SADLER'S WELLS THEATRE Glorious entertainment led by a star in the making
Old show sparkles in astonishing new production that dazzles from first to last
There…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:07AMThursday, May 25, 2023
★★★ A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE - Hot button issues douse fiery passions
MIchelle Terry steals the show as a Puck who brings a malevolent undertow to the comic roman…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:24AMSaturday, May 20, 2023
★★★★ A BRIEF LIST OF EVERYONE WHO DIED, FINBOROUGH THEATRE New play that mines the bittersweet moments of a long life
Jacob Marx Rice's new play mines the bittersweet moments of a …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:06AMFriday, May 12, 2023
★★★★ THE CIRCLE, ORANGE TREE THEATRE Acerbic reflections on the price paid for love
Jane Asher leads an ensemble cast in Somerset Maugham's comedy of manners
Tom Littler opens his a…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:18AMMonday, May 1, 2023
FlawBored's meta-theatrical show comforts and then goes in for the kill
Just when you’ve relaxed a little, privileged duly checked and confident that you won’t be guilt-tripped for nippi…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:48AMThursday, April 27, 2023
Classy new stage adaptation of 1950s French novel proves intellectually rewarding
It’s apt that this new play, with characters moving in and out of Paris either side of World War I, is st…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:42AMMonday, April 24, 2023
Frenetic take on Brecht's tale of doing good in a bad world loses focus
As the UK undergoes yet another political convulsion, this time concerning the threshold for ministers being shitty to…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:54AMSaturday, April 22, 2023
American show is lost in the West End with only the hits to save it
Ain’t Too Proud? Ain’t too good either I’m afraid. Which is a shame as there’s plenty of the raw material here tha…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:06AMFriday, April 7, 2023
New production of the West End show based on the Alan Bennett film is perhaps near its sell-by date
People can’t find the food they want in the shops. Nobody has enough money. Public servi…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:24AMFriday, March 31, 2023
A reprehensible man treats women badly, but the political magic is left entirely unexplored
One wonders if Ricky Simmonds and Simon Vaughan pondered long over their debut musical’s title.…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:42AMTuesday, March 7, 2023
Evanna Lynch heads up wan troubles-themed dark comedy
“Darkly comic thrillers” (as they like to say) set in Ireland tracking how families, or quasi-families, fall apart under pressure ar…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:24AMWednesday, March 1, 2023
Ambitious but misconceived take on musical theatre landmark outstays its welcome
It is, perhaps, important to note that this production was first staged in London at the Young Vic, a venue …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:40AMMonday, February 20, 2023
★★★★ STANDING AT THE SKY'S EDGE, NT 60 years in one Sheffield flat tells our nation's story
Chris Bush and Richard Hawley write a love letter to a friendly and flawed hometown
Buil…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:07PMFriday, February 17, 2023
★★★★ SYLVIA, THE OLD VIC Beverley Knight is compelling and complex in suffragette musical
Sylvia Pankhurst suffers for her commitment to votes for women and to socialism
For many ye…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:16AMSunday, February 5, 2023
★★★★★ SMOKE, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Kim Davies' 2014 play has only grown in relevance for the post #MeToo world
The perils of navigating power relations when sexual tension is all …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:49AMFriday, February 3, 2023
★★ TITUS ANDRONICUS, SAM WANAMAKER PLAYHOUSE Gory play full of murders played with neither gore nor murders
Tricksy staging distracts and disappoints
If All's Well That Ends Well, …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:26AMFriday, January 27, 2023
★★★★ NOISES OFF, PHOENIX THEATRE Michael Frayn's farce about a farce still jars the funny bone
Sure it's overly familiar, but, 40 years on, the laughs keep coming
There’s a chance…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:04AMFriday, January 20, 2023
★★★★ ALLEGIANCE, CHARING CROSS THEATRE Beautifully sung show shines light into a dark corner of American history
Star Trek's Mr Sulu honours fellow Japanese-American survivors o…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:31AMFriday, January 13, 2023
★★★★ A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, ALMEIDA THEATRE Torment, toxicity and trauma in New Orleans
Torment, toxicity and trauma in New Orleans
It’s a long way from the dank chill of…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:20AMWednesday, January 11, 2023
★★★★ WATCH ON THE RHINE, DONMAR Country house comedy transforms into call to arms
In wartime, when tough actions are needed to back up easy words, what do you do?
We’re reminded, …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:15AMThursday, December 15, 2022
★★★ DOLLY PARTON'S SMOKY MOUNTAIN CHRISTMAS CAROL, SOUTHBANK CENTRE Great songs, but a sanitised book declaws Yuletide parable
Dolly and Dickens team up for dreams and deliverance …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:42AMWednesday, December 7, 2022
Victoria Hamilton-Barritt brings superstar quality and emotional depth to villainous ogre
Hovering way, way above us, three aptly named high fairies, in voluminous chiffon, open a show that …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:06AMSaturday, November 26, 2022
★★★★ ELF, DOMINION THEATRE Plenty of presents for all the family in a spectacular show based on the much loved film
Buddy the Elf charms everyone on either side of the fourth wall…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:36AMSaturday, November 19, 2022
★★★★ A CHRISTMAS CAROL, RSC Old favourite finds contemporary relevance in sanitised staging
The RSC Christmas show delivers exactly what it promises
Life is full of coincidences and…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 11:24AMThursday, November 17, 2022
★ HERE, Southwark Playhouse Characters drown in a surfeit of issues
The prestige of the Papatango Prize cannot rescue a play that fails to transcend its inexplicable limitations
The kitch…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:54AMWednesday, November 9, 2022
Super songs can't quite rescue an ill-focused story and sparse staging
Whorehouses, gay prostitution and suicide – you can see why James Jones’ bestselling 1951 novel was bowdlerised by …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:06AMThursday, October 27, 2022
★★★★ TAMMY FAYE, ALMEIDA THEATRE The rise and fall of a iconic figure whose reach stretched across late 20th century American culture
Plenty of heart and bite in a show illuminated …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:03PMFriday, October 7, 2022
★★ THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE, ROSE THEATRE Uncompromising adaptation of Brecht outstays its welcome
Carrie Hope Fletcher one of few bright sparks on a tough evening for the audience
Bre…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:37AMSaturday, October 1, 2022
★★★ IPHIGENIA IN SPLOTT, LYRIC HAMMERSMITH THEATRE Howl of protest at the cost of austerity leads to a different conclusion seven years on
Timely revival of Gary Owen's solo play
It�…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:37AM 
