It's a great song and dance evening, but the story is an empty one In a secret chamber somewhere, the producers of MJ the Musical may be keeping a portrait of the King of Pop that has acqu…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:12AMDirector Rachel O'Riordan finds lighter moments in a tale of grief Brian Friel’s Faith Healer isn’t noted for its laughs, but Rachel O’Riordan has found more than most directors do in…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:48AMLucy Kirkwood’s latest mixes the birth of the NHS with a Brief Encounter-ish romance Keeley Hawes onstage is something to look forward to, so rare are her appearances there. In Lucy Kirk…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:02AMThe rise of fascism in the 1930s East End is given a human face Hot on the heels of Brigid Larmour’s updating of The Merchant of Venice to the East End in 1936, a spirited new musical acr…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:48AMTracy-Ann Oberman turns Shylock into a heroic Jewish anti-fascist It’s an unhappy time to be staging Shakespeare’s problematic play, given its antisemitic content, so hats off to adaptor…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:48PMFelicity Huffman, heading a superb cast, is a force of nature In 2017, two years after Hir premiered, Taylor Mac was awarded a “Genius Grant” and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for drama…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:24AMSarah Snook gives a virtuoso performance amid a dazzling display of tech wizardry Oscar Wilde’s 1890 novella The Picture of Dorian Gray has given the world a trope built for flattery, alon…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:42PMAge has not withered one jot the FAs' fury at the absurdities of modern life You don’t expect a couple of septuagenarian contraltos, aided by a spring chicken of a soprano in her fifties,…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:32PMIngenious twists can't give Sam Holcroft's play a vital sense of danger Take dollops of Orwell and Kafka, with a sprinkling of Pirandello for a lighter texture, then bake. That could be the …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:06AMBartlett Sher's intelligent reading is gorgeously staged and winningly performed The giant crinolines are back, and the winsome little royal children with miniature temples on their heads, a…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:02PMZoe Cooper's queer reading is a tonic: clever, funny and seriously silly What Zoe Cooper has concocted in her loving rewiring of Jane Austen’s first completed novel looks at first sight li…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:06AMJonathan Spector is a Stoppard fan, but might Mamet have been better? How do you make a play out of Stalin’s defecting daughter Svetlana, the psycho-economic theories of Daniel Kahneman an…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:12AMLes Enfants Terribles can't work their usual magic at the QEH There are probably two distinct audiences for the latest adaptation from Les Enfants Terribles, The House with Chicken Legs: the…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:24PMMonsters of ego clash in David Ireland's demolition of posturing theatre types David Ireland’s Edinburgh Fringe hit Ulster American is essentially a play about a play that a Hollywood big…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:24PMBeautiful Elvis Costello songs and stirring music underpin a fine adaptation There’s a touch of Dr Zhivago about director Paweł Pawlikowski’s screenplay for his 2018 film Cold War. Its…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:24AMTerrific showcase for writer-director Kwame Owusu and his performer Kwame Owusu’s 55-minute one-hander does just what it says on the tin: it features a young student who dreams he is drow…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:36PMAnnie Baker delivers a richly satisfying piece about hungry women A sun deck with seven pale-green padded loungers is the latest setting for the latest National Theatre premiere from Ameri…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:24AMMischief Theatre’s sight gags are faultlessly timed, though the verbals need a trim Mischief Theatre set themselves a big challenge when they evolved their brand of knowing slapstick. And…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:18AMLynn Nottage and Lynette Linton reunite to deliver a rollicking evening Lynn Nottage’s second London opening this year, the Donmar premiere of Clyde’s, is a comedy about a sandwich, the…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:04AMAlexander Zeldin creates a complex portrait of a woman's struggle for self-esteem How to describe Alexander Zeldin’s latest, The Confessions? It is almost a kitchen-sink drama, but also a …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:37PMJames Graham's play works like a big joke that a whole nation is in on It was interesting, in the same week that the England football team trounced Italy 3-1 in a Euros qualifier, to see Dea…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:25PMMustapha Matura's 1981 play set in modern Trinidad is superbly served up Mustapha Matura’s 1981 play, Meetings, is still a knockout. Supply the characters with mobile phones and it could …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:33PMMaggie O'Farrell's inventive retelling of the Shakespeares' love story needs a more inventive production The RSC apparently has a hit on its hands with its West End transfer of Hamnet. Box o…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:49AMBig Broadway show with a pleasing British accent The Sondheim gala show Old Friends is a must for fans of the master, naturally, but its quality would knock anybody who loves musical theatre…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:25PMBen Elton has written an odd musical-documentary, part comic-strip, part lecture The Biba dresses are way too colourful, the shop’s interior about 10 times too bright… and did anybody re…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:55AMAdrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer have muddled aims for a tale of warring actors An impressive performance by Samuel West as one of two warring hams stuck on-set in a trailer over a not-so-d…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:55AMLynn Nottage’s 2018 play gets an exquisite staging with moving performances The work of the double Pulitzer-winning Black American dramatist Lynn Nottage has thankfully become a fixture in…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:49AMThe affable American humourist proves death becomes him Few comedians are such good company that you never want them to stop. The young Billy Connolly was one such; affable American Mike Bi…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:55AMYasmin Reza's savage study of the middle-classes becomes a farce lacking in danger Yasmin Reza’s God of Carnage (2008), like her British megahit, 1994’s ART, is not strictly a comedy. Th…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:19AMTwin miseries of bipolar disorder and grief are given an unusual treatment The journey from off-Broadway to central London has taken 15 years, but the multi-award-winning musical Next to N…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:19PMThe Public Acts project creates a model mix of high and low for a modern ensemble One of the great wonders of Western literary history is one of the earliest, Homer’s The Odyssey, an epic …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:55AM
