All stories by Michael Billington on BroadwayStars

Sunday, January 29, 2017

John Hurt: an absolute master at portraying misfits by Michael Billington by Michael Billington

Hurt, who has died aged 77, was a superb, if too infrequent, stage actor. In plays by Beckett, Pinter and Stoppard, he had an intuitive understanding of outsidersI last saw John Hurt six mon…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18AM
Thursday, January 26, 2017

Dirty Great Love Story review – the ideal show for apprehensive first dates by Michael Billington

Arts theatre, LondonRichard Marsh and Katie Bonna’s verse romcom is a wry, sweet-natured account of a totally believable relationshipHaving started out as a 10-minute pub poetry duet in 20…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18AM
Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Dublin Oldschool review – DJ's wild weekend is a drug-fuelled odyssey by Michael Billington

Dorfman, London Emmet Kirwan stars in his play about rave-addicted Dublin youths, which displays a lust for language but offers little more than a sensory impressionWords, words, words. That…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:12AM

A Doll's House – review by Michael Billington

Young Vic, LondonCarrie Cracknell's production certainly puts a new spin on Ibsen's 1879 classic. As if to remind us that this is a play about domestic revolution, Ian MacNeil's design revol…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:24AM
Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Death Takes a Holiday review – smothered by prince's deadly charms by Michael Billington

Charing Cross theatre, LondonThom Southerland gracefully directs this strange musical, but the delightful songs and touching performances merely decorate a story that lacks biteLove is as st…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:18AM
Sunday, January 22, 2017

The Convert review – coming to grips with family and faith in a British colony by Michael Billington

Gate theatre, LondonChristopher Haydon ends his Gate reign on a high note with gripping story of a young African woman’s conversion to CatholicismChristopher Haydon’s final production at…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AM
Saturday, January 21, 2017

If You Don't Let Us Dream, We Won't Let You Sleep – review by Michael Billington

Royal Court, LondonAs someone who bemoans the dearth of political drama, I welcome the arrival of Anders Lustgarten's polemical bombshell. But while the play has bags of vigour and offers a …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:48PM
Thursday, January 19, 2017

Winter Solstice review – liberalism is no match for a history of extremism by Michael Billington

Orange Tree, LondonA middle-class family accept a stranger for Christmas, but is he what he seems? This radical, transfixing play is about Germany but has universal relevanceThe timing is pe…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:24AM

Adler and Gibb review – a high-concept satire on the cult of the artist by Michael Billington

Royal Court theatre, LondonTim Crouch's show explores our obsession with artists' lives, but occasionally lets the form get in the way of its message• Playwright Tim Crouch: 'Avoiding the …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:54AM
Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Promises, Promises review – Bacharach's musical makeover of Wilder's Apartment by Michael Billington

Southwark Playhouse, London A revival of Neil Simon’s adaptation of the Billy Wilder classic, with songs by Bacharach and Hal David, is well performed but gratingly anachronisticThis music…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18AM
Tuesday, January 17, 2017

The Lower Depths review – Gorky's down-and-outs lost in drink and dreams by Michael Billington

Arcola, London A cast of 18 bring the Russian writer’s drifters and derelicts vividly to life in a production that captures his blend of compassion and crueltyMaxim Gorky’s 1902 play is …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:12AM
Friday, January 13, 2017

Just an Ordinary Lawyer review – solo show honours Britain's first black judge by Michael Billington

Theatro Technis, LondonTayo Aluko’s tribute to Tunji Sowande mixes politics, music and cricket for a tuneful portrait of a legal pioneerTayo Aluko wrote and performed the remarkable Call M…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:33AM
Thursday, January 12, 2017

BU21 review – extraordinary drama imagines aftermath of a terror attack by Michael Billington

Trafalgar Studios, LondonStuart Slade’s play about a survivors’ group recalling a horrific incident is a thoughtful, arresting and blackly funny study of how we cope with tragedyHow woul…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18AM
Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Veterans Day review – prophetic tale of the horrors of war by Michael Billington

Finborough, LondonA Vietnam vet plots to kill the US president in a tense three-hander that trains a spotlight on human rights abuses and ex-soldiers’ mental healthDonald Freed’s play wa…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:12AM
Tuesday, January 10, 2017

The Kite Runner review – loses its grip on Khaled Hosseini’s engaging tale by Michael Billington

Wyndham’s, LondonMatthew Spangler’s workmanlike adaptation of the bestselling novel about Afghanistan does a decent job but reduces it to a series of chronological eventsIt’s an old pr…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18PM
Saturday, January 7, 2017

Theatre review: Scarborough / Royal Court, London by Michael Billington

Royal Court, LondonEcstatically received on the Edinburgh fringe, Fiona Evans's play has been expanded here. First, we get a close-up study of a female teacher-boy pupil relationship during …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:33PM

Centre stage: the best theatre of 2017 by Michael Billington

Hamilton comes to London, Sherlock villain Andrew Scott adds Hamlet to his CV, Damian Lewis falls in love with a goat, and Ivo van Hove directs Jude Law in a tale of lust, greed and murder M…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:18AM
Friday, January 6, 2017

Tennessee Williams: the quiet revolutionary | Michael Billington by Michael Billington

As Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire opens in the West End, we celebrate a writer with a strong social conscience who saw the human condition – especially his own – as faintl…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:04PM

The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus review – sing-along-a Sophocles by Michael Billington

Finborough, LondonTony Harrison’s collision of high and low art fashions a Greek satyr play into a barbed comment on the lack of imagination in contemporary cultureMy abiding memory of Ton…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24AM
Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Theatre review: Gaslight / Old Vic, London by Michael Billington

Old Vic, LondonBilled as a "Victorian thriller", Patrick Hamilton's Gaslight was written in 1938. But it is that rare thing: a re-creation of an old form which works in its own terms. And it…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:04AM
Friday, December 30, 2016

Art review – Finney, Stott and Courtenay are a blistering trio by Michael Billington

From the archive: The first night review, published on 16 October 1996, for Yasmina Reza’s play at Wyndham’s theatre in LondonYasmina Reza’s Art, translated from the French by Christop…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:54AM

Beyoncé to Black Mirror; the culture that defines 2016 by Archie Bland, Michael Billington, Peter Bradshaw, Daphne A Brooks, Tom Holland, Jonathan Jones, Justine Jordan, Brian Logan, Sean O'Hagan and Simon Parkin

How better to make sense of this turbulent year than through the art and literature it has produced? Our critics choose the works that sum up the last 12 monthsIf there is one film that hold…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:36AM
Tuesday, December 27, 2016

The Twits review – Enda Walsh monkeys with Roald Dahl's diabolical duo by Michael Billington

Royal Court, LondonEnda Walsh has invented a new cast of fairground misfits to stretch Dahl’s tale for the stage, but the titular couple are still the funniest thing in this anarchic farce…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:33PM
Monday, December 26, 2016

Warren Clarke had burly power, vulnerability and immense presence by Michael Billington

In plays by David Storey and Anthony Shaffer, Clarke was something special on stage. If only theatre had made more use of him…• Warren Clarke: a life in clipsWarren Clarke had a rich and…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:48PM
Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Art review – Rufus Sewell shines in finely shaded character study by Michael Billington

Old Vic, LondonTim Key and Paul Ritter are equally strong in a tale of shifting power alliances between a trio of men following the purchase of an extortionate paintingLife may sometimes be …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36AM
Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Saint Joan review – Gemma Arterton's feminist icon puts modern man in his place by Michael Billington

Donmar Warehouse, LondonJosie Rourke’s update of the Shaw classic sets Arterton’s determined spiritual warrior against a boardroom full of male bankers, warmongers and Daily Mail-reading…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:54AM
Monday, December 19, 2016

The Comedy of Errors, Olivier, London | Theatre review by Michael Billington

Olivier, LondonThe end crowns all. For much of its length I found this production of Shakespeare's early masterpiece slightly strenuous fun as if its director, Dominic Cooke, on his National…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:36PM
Sunday, December 18, 2016

Love’s Labour’s Lost / Much Ado About Nothing review – oh, what a lovely war by Michael Billington

Theatre Royal Haymarket, London Christopher Luscombe’s double dose of comedies begins elegantly, but when Lisa Dillon and Edward Bennett let fly in Much Ado, it becomes a festive romp3/5 …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:18PM
Friday, December 16, 2016

Mary Stuart review – Juliet Stevenson and Lia Williams are mirror-image monarchs by Michael Billington

Almeida, LondonSharing the roles of Elizabeth and her Scottish cousin, Stevenson and Williams are a pleasure to watch but Robert Icke’s production lacks subtlety elsewhereJuliet Stevenson …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:36AM
Thursday, December 15, 2016

Cinderella review – Julian Clary unleashes a tsunami of smut by Michael Billington

London PalladiumPaul O’Grady, Nigel Havers and Amanda Holden are among the stars in an outrageous and deeply knowing pantomimeWith Paul O’Grady and Julian Clary in the leads, pantomime p…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:54AM
Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Love review – engrossing homelessness drama leaves us enraged by Michael Billington

Dorfman theatre, LondonAlexander Zeldin’s devised piece depicts the endurance and needless suffering of two families living in temporary accommodationIn Beyond Caring, Alexander Zeldin cre…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42AM