Tuesday, July 7, 2020
Harry Gabriel, gatekeeper of London’s Shaftesbury theatre, recalls greeting the stars, his bond with Peter O’Toole and how the Harlem Globetrotters launched his West End career
The staff…
Linked From The Guardian at 10:32AMWednesday, June 10, 2020
What makes Wicked and Starlight Express so addictive? A new documentary, Repeat Attenders, chronicles the reasons superfans return to see their favourites
You might guess that the Australian…
Linked From The Guardian at 01:42AMSunday, May 3, 2020
The Remote ReadDavid Morrissey headed up a cast united on Zoom for a show that took on poignant new meaning and exuded theatrical joy
The countdown to the play beginning was on screen rather…
Linked From The Guardian at 06:42AMMonday, March 23, 2020
From a musical version of Only Fools and Horses to a stage show based on The Good Life, small-screen comedies are inspiring theatre-makers
During the social confinements caused by coronaviru…
Linked From The Guardian at 10:12AMThursday, March 5, 2020
Barbican, London Cheek By Jowl’s handsome Italian-language update of the cruel classic with Milan’s Piccolo Teatro delivers a harsh verdict on political corruption
When Chekhov is perfor…
Linked From The Guardian at 10:54AMMonday, February 17, 2020
Gielgud theatre, LondonDavid Mitchell is engaging and confident as Ben Elton brings his hit TV sitcom to the stage – it’s the definite article
Audiences unfamiliar with British TV will w…
Linked From The Guardian at 08:03PMFriday, February 14, 2020
Both the Donmar Warehouse and the Royal Court are staging plays that are under three-quarters of an hour long. Are theatregoers being short-changed?
People do a double take at the advisory n…
Linked From The Guardian at 01:03PMFriday, February 7, 2020
Hampstead theatre, LondonAl Blyth’s debut play explores how far into the lives of citizens a state can pry, and the effects on the snoopers themselves
After the movie Official Secrets, abo…
Linked From The Guardian at 08:36AMTuesday, February 4, 2020
Old Vic, LondonDeftly bringing out the humour in Samuel Beckett’s lines, the two actors bring fresh life to a tale of imminent doom
As a blind man and his valet swap evidence of personal a…
Linked From The Guardian at 07:54PMMonday, January 13, 2020
Dressed in pyjamas and wellies, the great actor talks about his astronaut training in Russia, the original Cats – and putting his might behind his daughter Rosalind’s very personal plays…
Linked From The Guardian at 10:48AMWednesday, December 18, 2019
Wyndham’s, LondonJason Manford is a charming, showtune-obsessed homicide cop in this fun companion to Chicago and Cabaret
Cabaret (1966) and Chicago (1975) became Broadway and West End per…
Linked From The Guardian at 09:18AMFriday, December 13, 2019
Bush House, King’s College LondonSimon Russell Beale, Mark Gatiss and Catherine Tate were on hilarious form in this new version of the state-of-the-nation comedy
How is it possible that an…
Linked From The Guardian at 10:48AMStoryhouse, ChesterSet against the never-never-land of present-day austerity, Gary Owen’s production broadens the play’s appeal
JM Barrie’s 1904 play about a boy who never ages gets ol…
Linked From The Guardian at 04:36AMWednesday, November 27, 2019
The theatre and opera director, television producer, presenter, writer, comic and doctor had a special interest in the human mind – and a special example of one, too
Sir Jonathan Miller d…
Linked From The Guardian at 05:18PMThursday, November 21, 2019
Royal & Derngate, NorthamptonElectrifying performances light up a glittering New York Christmas story in this warm-hearted, tuneful two-hander
On Christmas Eve, puppyish twentysomething…
Linked From The Guardian at 01:42PMThursday, October 24, 2019
In a rare interview, Baker explains why she hates commercial theatre (except Hello, Dolly!) and how she anticipated Trump and #MeToo in her new work at the National, The Antipodes
It is not …
Linked From The Guardian at 10:12AMSunday, October 13, 2019
Chichester Festival theatreSet in a London pub during an England v Germany football match, the topical take on racism and nationalism shows Roy Williams’s 2002 play hasn’t dated
It is un…
Linked From The Guardian at 10:03AMWednesday, September 18, 2019
Nottingham PlayhouseSet in a contemporary Norwegian town, the classic is reworked by Rebecca Lenkiewicz to chime with Brexit divisions
An accidental trilogy of updatings of Ibsen plays by fe…
Linked From The Guardian at 12:42PMFriday, September 6, 2019
Impressionist Jon Culshaw, playwright James Graham, comedian Bridget Christie and critic Mark Lawson on the prime minister’s opening week in Westminster
I’ve been doing Boris impressions…
Linked From The Guardian at 02:24PMWednesday, July 24, 2019
Chichester Festival theatreJosie Lawrence stars in a revival that perfectly delivers both the jolly and sombre elements of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical
Although it begins with someon…
Linked From The Guardian at 06:48AMMonday, June 24, 2019
Jessie Cave’s intimate standup, a beatbox Frankenstein and a twist on the star-crossed lovers are among the Edinburgh shows we’ve previously reviewed. Here’s what we said …
Pleasance…
Linked From The Guardian at 01:48AMWednesday, June 12, 2019
Nottingham PlayhousePitch-perfect performances enliven Kemp Powers’ impressive play, punchily debating racial tensions in 1960s America
The night he beat Sonny Liston in 1964 to become wor…
Linked From The Guardian at 02:48PMWednesday, May 15, 2019
Norman’s Coach & Horses, LondonRobert Bathurst stars in an hour-long version of the comedy, staged in the pub where Keith Waterhouse sought inspiration
In Keith Waterhouse’s 1989 com…
Linked From The Guardian at 02:42PMFriday, May 10, 2019
The performer – who died this week – found fame as a musician and an impressionist, but could never escape a notorious Sun front page
The career of the comedian and singer Freddie Starr,…
Linked From The Guardian at 12:03PMFriday, May 3, 2019
Chichester Festival theatreQuestions of faith and loss drive a masterly story of the Narnia author in Rachel Kavanaugh’s deeply poignant production
The first three speeches of Shadowlands …
Linked From The Guardian at 09:18AMTuesday, April 30, 2019
Minerva, ChichesterJames Nesbitt and Sheila Hancock star in Tim Firth’s touching comedy about a dysfunctional group of relatives
Musicals head inexorably towards big ensemble numbers, a c…
Linked From The Guardian at 10:48AMMonday, April 29, 2019
London PalladiumThis chatshow canter through the career and comedy loves of Humphries proved he is an unrepentant controversialist
The television chatshow spread to theatre as a way of getti…
Linked From The Guardian at 08:48AMSunday, March 17, 2019
King’s Head, LondonSkilfully combining play-that-goes-wrong antics with a potted history of the royals, this has fringe festival hit written all over it
From the National Theatre of Brent …
Linked From The Guardian at 07:37AMTuesday, February 19, 2019
Theatre Royal Haymarket, LondonAmid the delightful comic dialogue, some of the musical numbers can feel like padding The smooth transition from dialogue to songs in musicals is the genre’s…
Linked From The Guardian at 08:18PMMonday, February 18, 2019
His plays have shocked audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. Is David Ireland bothered about the walk-outs? Will he give in to demands for trigger warnings?Cradling his grandchild for the…
Linked From The Guardian at 01:32PMWednesday, February 6, 2019
The Lady From the Sea, a powerful drama about loss and longing, is being rehearsed at the very flat where Ibsen ended his years in exile. Our writer pops byOn Oslo’s Victoria Terrasse ther…
Linked From The Guardian at 01:54AM 
