All stories by Libby Purves on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

8 HOTELS Minerva, Chichester by Libby Purves and Friends

A GRIPPING PIECE OF HISTORY              In 1944  the adventurous British director Peggy Webster cast the first black Othello in the USA,  where for a white woman even to walk with …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 11:34AM

REVIEW: The Doctor, Almeida Theatre ✭✭✭✭ by Libby Purves

By Libby Purves Libby Purves reviews The Doctor very freely adapted from Arthur Schnitzler's Professor Bernhardi by Robert Icke now playing at thew Almeida Theatre, London. This post REVIEW:…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 07:19AM

‘An updating perfect for our times’: THE DOCTOR – Almeida Theatre ★★★★ by Libby Purves

Arthur Schnitzler was, like Chekhov, a doctor; he was an Austrian Jew at a time when mistrust was rising. The Doctor belongs passionately to that time: but director Robert Icke’s very free…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM
Thursday, August 15, 2019

COUNT ORY Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI GETS INTO THE BLITZ SPIRIT WITH OPERA ALEGRIA AT GRIMEBORN Rossini’s Le Comte Ory is a flirtatious farce in which a naughty young Count drives everyone de…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:37AM
Friday, August 9, 2019

GO BANG YOUR TAMBOURINE Finborough, SE10 by Libby Purves and Friends

A YOUTHFUL HALLELUJAH          ANother fascinating London premiere for Two’s Company and the Finborough,  buried for nearly half a century after one brief 1970 tour .    As Philip …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:52AM
Thursday, August 8, 2019

DIE FLEDERMAUS Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI GOES BATS FOR BASELESS FABRIC’S SOCIAL MEDIA TAKE ON STRAUSS “I’m not saying I’m Batman. I’m just saying nobody has ever seen me and Batman in a roo…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:36AM
Saturday, August 3, 2019

DAS RHEINGOLD Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF GRIMEBORN’S GLITTERING TREASURE The Ring Cycle is opera’s biggest box set: a sixteen-hour binge of dwarves, nymphs, dragons, gods, h…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:18PM

ROMEO AND JULIET           Jimmy’s Farm, Wherstead Suffolk by Libby Purves and Friends

   ROCK ’N ROLL N’ ROMEO        Deep under the trees, beyond Jimmy’s meerkat and camel enclosures lies a 1960’s beach: shelter, deckchairs and lounging teens,  Mods and Rocker…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:00AM
Friday, August 2, 2019

MISS HAVISHAM’S WEDDING NIGHT /12 POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI GOES MAD FOR AMERICAN MONODRAMA A pairing of two American music dramas promised plenty of angsty feminist fun for a Friday night at Grimeborn; and I admit, in…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:39PM
Thursday, August 1, 2019

‘Feels remarkably outdated’: VIOLETTA – Arcola Theatre by Libby Purves

Violetta is a reduction of Verdi’s La traviata, using only three characters: the doomed courtesan Violetta, her idealistic yet immature lover Alfredo, and – surprise! Alfredo’s mother.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 07:00AM

SHACKLETON’S CARPENTER Jermyn St, SW1 by Libby Purves and Friends

HEROIC ENDURANCE            In the background a lecture in the old Home Service style, decorous and passionless,  finishes relating the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expedition: …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:03AM
Tuesday, July 23, 2019

OKLAHOMA                   Chichester Festival Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

COWBOYS WITHOUT INDIANS         I suppose it’s perverse to start at the end, but of all the aspects of Jeremy Sams’ handsome production of the Rodgers & Hammerstein crowd-pleaser…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 11:34AM
Wednesday, July 17, 2019

THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA       Noel Coward, WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

FALLEN ANGELS ENDURING THE STORM         You can feel the heat in Rae Smith’s design,  Mexican sun on the rock overhead, and the corrugated iron roofs of the rundown hotel. Somewher…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:30AM
Friday, July 12, 2019

   JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOUR DREAMCOAT                London Palladium W1 by Libby Purves and Friends

  IT’S BACK,  YOUNGER THAN EVER…     We love a starry debut, especially on opening night in a huge theatre:   a 21-year-old not yet through drama school making a stonking, belting …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 10:31AM
Wednesday, July 10, 2019

‘Bonkers in a wonderful way’: PETER GYNT – National Theatre ★★★★ by Libby Purves

David Hare has made as much sense of Ibsen’s sprawling masterpiece Peer Gynt as seems possible.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 08:00AM
Friday, July 5, 2019

MEASURE FOR MEASURE Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon by Libby Purves and Friends

DEVOTION , DISGUISE,  DECADENCE     What a strange and stirring play this is!    Set in convent, court and condemned-cell,  it is spiked with moral ambiguities and fuelled equally by s…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:03PM
Thursday, July 4, 2019

THE END OF HISTORY Royal Court SW1 by Libby Purves and Friends

BLAIR TO BREXIT – A FAMILY TALE         Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany,  are the Harry Potter team.  They know how not to bore.   But they’ve been here before too in a  R…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:29AM
Wednesday, July 3, 2019

NOISES OFF Lyric, Hammersmith by Libby Purves and Friends

FARCE AS LIFE, LIFE AS FARCE, FRAYN AGAIN TRIUMPHANS        It felt like a pilgrimage,  homage to pay.   37 years ago Michael Frayn’s greatest of comedies, a wicked love-song to the …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:01AM

‘Good fun, irresistible really’: The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ The Musical – West End ★★★★ by Libby Purves

The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ The Musical is the result of Jake Brunger and Pippa Cleary badgering the late Sue Townsend to be allowed to do it, and with poppy tunes and a high-s…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 06:00AM
Sunday, June 30, 2019

PRESENT LAUGHTER Old Vic SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

COMEDY SHADING TO MELANCHOLY: WHAT’S TO COME IS STILL UNSURE…     First of all  let’s say that  Andrew Scott is a marvel, a 21st century Ur-Coward hero,  who manages to do it with…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:06PM
Saturday, June 29, 2019

‘If only the text had such dramatic grammar as the juicy lighting’: EUROPE – Donmar Warehouse by Libby Purves

This 25th anniversary revival of David Greig’s play Europe is, for the most part, a long chin scratch about home, belonging and division.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 06:00AM

AFTER DARK – A DRAMA OF LONDON LIFE Finborough, SW10 by Libby Purves and Friends

A SHILLING SHOCKER IS A JOY FOREVER     To come clean:  one reason I dashed to catch this fresh back from holiday is  not only that the Finborough is always interesting,   but that  fa…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:40AM
Thursday, June 27, 2019

THE HUNT Almeida, N1 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST CRITIC BEN DOWELL SHIVERS – ADMIRINGLY – AT A TROUBLED TALE   In this hypersensitive age of MeToo accusations, anxieties about online pornography and even deeper-seated disquiet a…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:58AM
Thursday, June 13, 2019

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY    Jermyn St Theatre WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

RANCID LILIES, GORGEOUS WORDS       All the little Jermyn needs to complete this reimagination of Wildean epigrammatic decadence is to scent the auditorium overwhelmingly with lilies and …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:02AM
Tuesday, June 11, 2019

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Bridge, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

FLYING,   FUNNY,  FABULOUS     This is a dream of a Dream.  One expected fun from the  combination of Nicholas Hytner,  a roiling mass of promenaders in the pit  and a Bunny Christie…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:38PM
Sunday, June 2, 2019

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – a note Southwark, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

A NOTE ON A TREAT,  MOUSELESS BUT MELLOW    The film based on Scott Fitzgerald’s story of a life lived backwards, born old and ending in babyhood,  was pretty awful.  So I did not le…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:44AM
Thursday, May 30, 2019

‘It’s hard not to love Broderick’s performance’: THE STARRY MESSENGER – West End ★★★ by Libby Purves

When I left I thought I was disappointed in The Starry Messenger, but this morning I can’t help thinking about Matthew Broderick’s character Mark, and his wife, and the sadness of all ou…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 08:00AM
Wednesday, May 29, 2019

RUTHERFORD AND SON Lyttelton, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

BULLYING, BOMBAST,   BETRAYAL      The rediscovery of Githa Sowerby in the 1990s is very satisfying.     At its premiere in 1913 critics saw the quality of this one but were dismayed …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:46AM
Thursday, May 23, 2019

‘It could have been a piece of theatre magic & wasn’t’: DIDO – Unicorn Theatre by Libby Purves

Musically Dido is okay, especially Eyra Norman’s Belinda and the spirited chorales. But it could have been a piece of theatre magic, and wasn’t.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 10:00AM
Wednesday, May 22, 2019

‘A sort of McBurney-meets-le Carré mini-thriller’: ANNA – National Theatre ★★★★ by Libby Purves

After the querulous, inward-looking tedium of her feminist polemic The Writer, Ella Hickson returns to interesting form with this curiosity, Anna.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 03:53AM
Saturday, May 18, 2019

‘Mischievous satirical blast’: WHITE PEARL – Royal Court Theatre ★★★★★ by Libby Purves

Five mice for White Pearl at the Royal Court Theatre because it’s different and clever and useful, and horribly good fun.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 06:00AM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic
TBA: Ragtime