Sunday, February 8, 2026
This is an adapted version of a piece I wrote for The Times on 19 January. Following Joanna Carrick’s funeral on Friday, it seems right to put it up here, because theatre pioneers and proj…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:42PMTuesday, February 3, 2026
SLY USEFUL OBSERVATION…MARRIAGE OF EQUALS Noel Coward was a lad of 18 when he finished this very adult portrait of a marriage in trouble, invalided out of the army, nervous and tubercul…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:53AMSaturday, December 20, 2025
A VERY GREAT TALENT TO AMUSE Rival psychopathies emerge from the first moments of “Cornley Drama Society” as Chris (Daniel Fraser) and Robert (Henry Lewis) face off at audi…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:55AMFriday, December 19, 2025
OH DEAR… Event theatre! New from NY! It got Tony and Pulitzer nominations, and smart Broadway people called it “heartwarming: and “best crafted and exactingly directe…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:46AMThursday, December 18, 2025
UNDER AN ALIEN TREE The suffering and the pity of Gaza affects us all: bitter division on the streets, hysterical demonstrations feeding a violently rising antisemitism. And all acr…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:35AMFriday, December 12, 2025
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep…” – They certainly are when designed by Tom Scutt . And Jordan Fein’s glorious new production will, I think, convert many a …
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:29AMWednesday, December 10, 2025
DRINK DEEP OF GLORIUMPTIOUS FROBSCOTTLE The RSC holiday season show offers a rising generation some proper theatrical wonder, away from banal screen CGI and avatar gaming �…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:20AMTuesday, December 9, 2025
CINDERELLA AND THE MATZO BALL. JW3. , Finchley Rd L’CHAIM ! TO LIFE, AND PANTOMIME JOKES It’s not often that you get to hiss and boo Prince Charming, but Nic…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:48PMSaturday, December 6, 2025
JUST FOR KIDS? CONTRARIWISE! WE ARE ALL ALICE In a fleeting moment of meta-theatre when the monstrous crow (well, umbrella) had the house shouting “Behind you!”, Tweedleee gr…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:22PM HELLO AGAIN SAILORS This is one of ENO’s beloved triumphs, the one which got some of us through the latter Covid years in frivolous merriment. For back in gloryIn 2021 I saw C…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:54AMWednesday, December 3, 2025
A GHOSTLESS DICKENS TREAT FOR CHRISTMAS This is wonderful: a three-hander adaptation by Abigail Pickard Price, with the Guildford Shakespeare Company. They’re well up to the new-vaud…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:37AMLADIES WHO LURCH The Lord Chamberlain took a bit of handling to let this play’s louche presumptions of extramarital liaisons be flaunted onstage: and one public morality campaigner shout…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:00AMTuesday, December 2, 2025
A BEAR WHO DESERVES HIS STATION This could have been awful , a desecration of the children’s favourite which became a national icon of reassurance when he sat down to tea with t…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:13AMSaturday, November 22, 2025
GRIEF, GUILT, CONSCIENCE A great bright disc of moon overhangs the old tree in the storm, as it falls in the tumult of sound that could be war. It’s 1948: Arthur Miller’s Am…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:31AMThursday, November 20, 2025
ABSURD, TRANSCENDENT, JOYFUL Forget Ancient Greece and the films inspired by the suitors of royal Parthenope, this is Handel in comic-opera mood (one can’t always be writing Zad…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:26PMSaturday, November 15, 2025
A VERY CIVIL CRIME Meet Robert, a retired barrister, working in a charity shop as we meet him, cautiously sniffing trousers and appreciating candelabras. Nothing unusual there in a ru…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:13AMWednesday, November 12, 2025
AN INNOCENCE OF WITCHES A brand-new musical always stirs hope, especially when we’re promised voices like Gabrielle Brooks (magnetically magnificent as Rita in Get Up Stand…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:04AMFriday, November 7, 2025
NOT AT ALL A DRAG… Candy-coloured prettiness frames a 1890s world, of bored girls in flounces longing for escape from guardians, lovesick young men not averse to heiresses, and a po…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:46AMWednesday, November 5, 2025
INNOCENCE, WICKEDNESS , RAGE Ti Green’s set is ,at first, a gilded wonder of dignified curves and arches, palatially spectacular when filled with the red robes of the Duke and senato…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 02:56AMWednesday, October 29, 2025
EVERYONE’S CALIFORNIAN NOW.. When the Old Vic had Jonathan Spector’s play in 2022 it was the first time after lockdowns that I had the joy of beng in a space with a thousand othe…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:02PMEDWARDIANA FOR A FEMINIST AGE It looks wonderful. Designer Colin Richmond has been set loose, with Oliver Fenwick’s lighting, to create both the the raftered, big-windowed Edwardian…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:18AMFriday, October 24, 2025
A FAMILY SAGA , A MEMORABLE AUNT Bit early for an onstage Christmas-tree, but this comedy-drama by Richard Greenberg ran months on Broadway twelve years ago, and it suits a curren…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:24AMThursday, October 23, 2025
OLD FAITH IN A MODERN CITY Anna Ziegler’s play was an off-Broadway sellout, glimmering with insights into Jewish-American family conflicts, traditions and rebellions. It’s…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:50AMWednesday, October 22, 2025
CHAOS IN FRAYING CHINTZ Catching up after a break away I nipped in to check whether after 60 years Joe Orton can still get people gasping with shock. Peter McIntosh’s set alone is a d…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:52PMWednesday, October 15, 2025
A BRILLIANT ECHO Shouldn’t be surprised that this is a cracking play: Katherine Moar’s 90-minute debut FARM HALL , about 1940s nuclear scientists, sparked cheers and a West …
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:02AMTuesday, October 14, 2025
A DARK SERENISSIMA No pretty biscuit-tin Venice here, but rather its ancient darkness: Jess Curtis’ artful set offers stark steps, corners, slotted openings into which half-glimpse…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:12AMWednesday, September 24, 2025
TANGLED JUSTICE, MORAL SWAMPS There is no sure hero in Shakespeare’s ‘mystery play” , which can be exhilarating. Emily BUrns’ remarkably sure-footed, clear and well-trimmed p…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:09AMMonday, September 22, 2025
ANYTHING CAN WASH UP ON THE NORTH SEA COAST … Robin Brooks and director Fiona McAlpine mischievously bill this eccentric, enlivening short play as “a shocking sordid seasi…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:22PMFriday, September 19, 2025
RAIN, RAGE , REGRETS If you’re expecting the original Ibsen tale of a bored wife wondering whether to leave a dull husband and deciding not to, pause. This is “after Ibsen…
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:29AMThursday, September 18, 2025
HOLLYWOOD AND HYPOCRISY It’s a brilliant moment for this sharp bit of work from the American Michael McKeever to land at the Elephant with a bracing thump. We’ve got Trump …
SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:53AM 
