All stories by Jessica Handscomb on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Review: Present Laughter, The Old Vic by Jessica Handscomb

Review: Present Laughter, The Old Vic5.0starsEmbarrassingly, I had never seen a production of a Noël Coward play before Present Laughter. I had of course read some of his work, and heard of…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 07:03AM
Saturday, June 22, 2019

Review: Brooklyn, Napoli, Park Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

Review: Brooklyn, Napoli, Park Theatre4.0starsOn 16 December 1960, two planes collided above New York. One landed in Staten Island, the other in Brooklyn. The latter became known as the Park…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 09:42AM
Monday, June 17, 2019

Review: Citysong, Soho Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

Review: Citysong, Soho Theatre3.0starsI think it’s fair to say that the Irish are famed for their musical and literary prowess almost as much as they are for their drinking habits and four…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 08:12AM
Monday, June 3, 2019

Review: The Starry Messenger, Wyndham’s Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

Review: The Starry Messenger, Wyndham's Theatre3.0starsIf I have learned anything from The Starry Messenger, it’s that watching someone else’s mid-life crisis unfold is really quite bori…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 09:12AM
Friday, May 31, 2019

Review: Beneath the Blue Rinse, Park Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

Review: Beneath the Blue Rinse, Park Theatre3.0starsRaise your hand if you’ve ever had a grandparent be taken advantage of by some sort of salesperson. My hand is raised, and yours probabl…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 06:54AM
Monday, May 13, 2019

Review: Don’t Look Away, Pleasance Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

Review: Don't Look Away, Pleasance Theatre 3.0stars Since the Syrian civil war officially began in 2011, we’ve become increasingly aware of the scale of the subsequent refugee crisis. 5.6 …

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 06:48AM
Friday, May 3, 2019

Review, Avalanche: A Love Story, The Barbican by Jessica Handscomb

Review, Avalanche: A Love Story, The Barbican4.0starsIt’s mad to think that the first IVF baby was born just over forty years ago. Before then, couples who failed to conceive naturally jus…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 07:24AM
Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Review: Shit-Faced Shakespeare: The Taming of the Shrew, Leicester Square Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

Review: Shit-Faced Shakespeare: The Taming of the Shrew, Leicester Square Theatre3.0starsShit-Faced Shakespeare has been absolutely destroying the sanctity of Shakespeare for almost a decade…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 11:33AM
Friday, April 5, 2019

Review: Top Girls, Lyttleton, National Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

Review: Top Girls, Lyttleton, National Theatre 3.0stars In the programme, playwright Caryl Churchill writes “When I wrote Top Girls I imagined 16 women in a play, though I knew I’d be un…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 06:47AM
Sunday, March 24, 2019

Review: Downstate, National Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

Review: Downstate, National Theatre5.0starsDownstate, Bruce Norris’ new play, takes place in a group home in Illinois. The residents are Fred (Francis Guinan), Dee (K Todd Freeman), Gio (G…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 10:00PM
Monday, February 18, 2019

Review: All About Eve, Noël Coward Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

Review: All About Eve, Noël Coward Theatre5.0starsAll About Eve is, somewhat predictably, all about Eve. Eve Harrington (Lily James), in particular – a down and out war widow with a l…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 10:54AM
Sunday, February 10, 2019

Review: My Dad’s Gap Year, Park Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

Review: My Dad’s Gap Year, Park Theatre3.0starsMy Dad’s Gap Year – already the title sounds like my idea of a nightmare. Would I want my father to go on a gap year at his ripe old age?…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 08:04AM
Monday, January 14, 2019

Review: Songs For Nobodies, Ambassadors Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

Review: Songs For Nobodies, Ambassadors Theatre4.0starsJudy Garland, Patsy Cline, Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday and Maria Callas. How could it be possible that one woman may play all of these i…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 07:42AM
Monday, December 24, 2018

Review: Sweat, Donmar Warehouse by Jessica Handscomb

Written in 2015, Sweat is Lyndsey Nottage’s second Pulitzer Prize winning play, preceded by Ruined, written in 2009. The story is set in Reading, Pennsylvania, an industrial town in which …

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 02:32PM
Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Review: Dandelion, King’s Head Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

“Children are being taught they have an inalienable right to be gay. All of those children are being cheated of a sound start in life.” I was, ignorantly, shocked to hear a recording of …

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 04:48PM
Sunday, December 9, 2018

Review: A Christmas Carol, The Old Vic by Jessica Handscomb

“Christmas time is a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of when men and women open their shut-up hearts freely, and think of people below them as…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 06:18AM
Friday, December 7, 2018

Review: The Crumple Zone, The Kings Head Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

The crumple zone, for those who may not know, is the part of a car designed to take the full force of the impact if and when a collision occurs. It’s also the title of Lambco productions�…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 10:06AM
Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Review: Redefining Juliet, The Pit at the Barbican by Jessica Handscomb

Juliet Capulet of Shakespeare’s world-renowned Romeo & Juliet might be one of, if not the most famous female character ever written for the stage. Countless big names have played her i…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 05:12AM
Monday, December 3, 2018

Review: Paid Fantasist, Camden People’s Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

The Camden People’s Theatre never ceases to amaze me with the sheer range of productions they put on. The bizarre and avant-garde can often be found here, and Paid Fantasist is no exceptio…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 02:54PM
Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Review: Pinter Four: Moonlight/Night School, Harold Pinter Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

Harold Pinter is considered one of the greatest British playwrights of all time. Producing much of his work in the twentieth century, he wrote 29 full plays alongside poetry and doing plenty…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 10:24AM
Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Review: Beauty and the Beast, King’s Head Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

Beauty and the Beast is a tale as old as time, almost quite literally, as the famous story of the girl locked away in a tower by a ferocious and unforgiving beast is thought to be about 4,00…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 03:48PM

Review: Momma Golda, King’s Head Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

Thelma Ruby is a commendable 93 years old. She’s starred in countless West End Productions, worked with Judi Dench and Orson Welles, done everything from Shakespeare to Panto, and worked o…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 05:48AM
Saturday, November 3, 2018

Review: Honour, Park Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

After premiering here at the National Theatre in 2003, then being revived at the Wyndham’s Theatre in 2006, Honour has found its way back to us at the Park Theatre, over a decade later. Jo…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 05:33AM
Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Review: Romeo & Juliet, Rose Playhouse by Jessica Handscomb

Romeo & Juliet is possibly the most over-told story of all time. At almost any given time in London, there is someone, somewhere, producing this play. At the moment, it’s BoxLit theatr…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 03:48PM
Saturday, October 20, 2018

Review: Stories, Dorfman Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

After her critically acclaimed Consent last year, which went on to transfer to the West End, Nina Raine has returned to the National Theatre with her new play, Stories. It follows Anna (Clau…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 09:18AM
Saturday, October 13, 2018

Review: I’m Not Running, Lyttleton Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

If the phrase “I’m not running”, or anything similar to it ever falls from a politician’s lips, we can usually safely assume that they will be doing just that, and they’re just wai…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 06:04AM
Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Review: Timeless, Theatre N16 by Jessica Handscomb

I don’t think any of us particularly enjoy the dentist, but the situation mostly plays out like this: we dread it for a little while, we attend our appointment, we’re uncomfortable for a…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 04:33AM
Thursday, September 20, 2018

Review: Six Attempts to Swallow a Scream, Theatre N16 by Jessica Handscomb

Far, far away, out in the treacherous zone 3, is Styx. Open both day and night, it boasts chilled out seating areas, a bar, a pizza joint, and Theatre N16. It’s tucked away down a road; ju…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 03:06PM
Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Review: An Execution (By Invitation Only), Camden People’s Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

Allegedly inspired by the writings of Vladimir Nabokov, Gemma Brockis’ revisited play An Execution (By Invitation Only) is a surreal piece that explores the mortality and opacity in a huma…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 06:18AM
Saturday, September 15, 2018

Review: The Woods, The Royal Court Theatre by Jessica Handscomb

We enter, treading on bark and wood chippings to take our seats, walking through a dark and damp wood, weaving past tall, spindling tree trunks. Naomi Dawson’s set design is eerie and imme…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 08:12AM
Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Review: Earth Makes No Sound, The Place by Jessica Handscomb

Self-described as a “provocation about our planet and how we look after it,” Filament Theatre Group bring Earth Makes No The post Review: Earth Makes No Sound, The Place appeared first o…

SOURCE: A Younger Theatre at 06:43AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards