All stories by Stephen Collins on BroadwayStars

Saturday, November 14, 2015

REVIEW: The Station Master, Tristan Bates Theatre ✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins Connor's score owes a considerable debt to Sondheim, but, that said, it treads in very interesting paths. Complex and intricate, the melodies and harmonies reward careful …

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 11:12AM
Thursday, November 12, 2015

REVIEW: Waste, National Theatre ✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins Barker's play is extraordinary, especially given that it was written over a century ago and revised by him in the late 20’s, the original having been banned from perform…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 06:49AM
Saturday, November 7, 2015

REVIEW: All On Her Own – Harlequinade, Garrick Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins The revival of Harlequinade, directed by Branagh and Ashford, now playing at the Garrick Theatre (in a 100 minute experience that includes All On Her Own and no intervals)…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 05:00PM

REVIEW: The Winter’s Tale, Garrick Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins Dench's verse speaking is unrivalled. She picks each word and gives it full, accurate weight, landing the sense, purpose and exact emotion of every glittering phrase. She …

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 05:00PM
Friday, November 6, 2015

REVIEW: Madame Butterfly Returns, Landor Theatre ✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins The three-piece orchestra plays Finnissy's score with exacting skill, quite beautifully. Unfortunately, their efforts are largely wasted as the score is lamentably irritat…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 12:06PM
Wednesday, November 4, 2015

REVIEW: The Father, Wyndhams Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins In the early stages of the play, this approach is both confronting and disarming. I found myself consulting the programme to check who was who before catching on to Zeller…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 01:31PM
Tuesday, November 3, 2015

CRITICS CHOICE: Top 10 Plays November 2015 by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins What play should you see first in London? We have compiled this list to save you the trouble of working it out! It’s just our view – and everyone has one ̵…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 06:12AM
Monday, November 2, 2015

REVIEW: Piaf, Bridewell Theatre ✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins Given its inherent flaws, the play cannot hope to succeed without a powerhouse performance from its star and here Laasko has struck gold. Leigh is outstanding in every res…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 07:28AM
Friday, October 30, 2015

CRITICS CHOICE: Top 10 Long Running Shows in London – November 2015 by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins What long running show should you see first in London? We have compiled this list to save you the trouble of working it out! It’s just our view – and everyone …

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 01:08PM

CRITICS CHOICE: The Top 10 New Musicals in London – November 2015 by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins What Musical should you see first in London? Here is out list of London’s Top 10 New Musicals. We have compiled this list to save you the trouble of working it out! …

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 10:40AM

REVIEW: The Moderate Soprano, Hampstead Theatre ✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins What pleasure the play offers comes in the characters Hare has carved from fragments of history. Roger Allam, almost unrecognisable as John Christie, does a superb job, to…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 05:36AM
Thursday, October 29, 2015

REVIEW : Thérèse Raquin, Studio 54 ✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins Cabnet's clear and perceptive direction is sound for the most part, and there is an emphasis on visual aspects of the production which make it something special. Thérèse…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 06:47PM

REVIEW: The Hairy Ape, Old Vic Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins O’Neill’s play has lost none of its power or resonance. It still feels as shocking and new today as no doubt it did in 1922. Jones’ revelatory and evocative producti…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 05:30PM
Wednesday, October 28, 2015

REVIEW: The Wars Of The Roses, Rose Theatre ✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins This is a perfectly serviceable production, much along the lines of the fare mostly served up by the RSC or the National these days. Indeed, taken as a whole, it is better…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 09:14AM

REVIEW: Sylvia, Cort Theatre ✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins There are many ways to read the play, but the most obvious is probably correct. Sylvia is a metaphor for a trophy girlfriend; she is someone Greg can use to make himself f…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 07:23AM
Tuesday, October 27, 2015

REVIEW: The Seagull, Chichester Festival Theatre ✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins Hare's adaptation, the best of the three in the Season, is crisp, charming and comical, thereby magnifying the effect of the more tragic aspects. It's a markedly short ver…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 06:02AM
Monday, October 26, 2015

REVIEW: Platonov, Chichester Festival Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins Another sumptuous production of a superb Hare adaptation of an unwieldy and slightly schizophrenic early Chekhov work, made just that much more glorious by a committed cas…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 02:17PM

REVIEW: Ivanov, Chichester Festival Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins Honesty, as David Hare points out, is the dominating theme of Ivanov. It is also the dominating principle adopted by Jonathan Kent as the guiding light for his revival of …

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 09:20AM

REVIEW: Hey Old Friends, Theatre Royal Drury Lane ✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins There was a charming mix of reverence and irreverence as well, making the audience feel specially entertained and complicit with the in-jokes. The warm up prelude, People …

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 08:26AM
Sunday, October 25, 2015

REVIEW: The Humans, Roundabout at Laura Pels Theatre ✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins There are two ways in which Karam's work steps up to the mark: the dialogue is believable and genuine, splendidly touching in places; the narrative is uncompromising, as f…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 06:58PM
Thursday, October 22, 2015

REVIEW: Dames At Sea, Helen Hayes Theatre ✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins Dames at Sea, the work of George Haimsohn and Robin Miller (Book and Lyrics) and Jim Wise (Score), is well known as the off-Broadway hit from 1968 which launched the star …

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 07:05PM

REVIEW: The Black Book, Sargent Theatre ✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins This is a dynamic, challenging and gripping piece of dramatic theatre. It's confronting in a number of ways, especially if you have known someone who took their own life. …

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 12:45PM

REVIEW: First Daughter Suite, Anspacher Theatre, The Public ✭✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins It would be unsurprising if First Daughter Suite constituted a significant hat-trick for the Public, following, as it does, in the footsteps of Fun Home (which won the Ton…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 10:35AM

REVIEW: Plaques and Tangles, Jerwood Theatre Upstairs ✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins As Young Megan, whom we first meet when she is recovering from the one-night-stand night before, is brought to complex, life-embracing realisation in a startlingly good pe…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 06:52AM
Wednesday, October 21, 2015

REVIEW: The Gin Game, Golden Theatre ✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins Both actors here are doing something quite different from a drawing room comedy. They are trying to make a point and, bravely, one that extends beyond the Caucasian commun…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 10:24AM

REVIEW: Ripcord, New York City Centre Stage 1 ✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins Holland Taylor is in exceptional form as the coiled, steely Abby. She manages to humanise a thoroughly inhuman creature, making her likeable despite Abby's more loathsome …

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 06:02AM
Tuesday, October 20, 2015

REVIEW: The Bandstand, Papermill Playhouse ✭✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins Director Andy Blankenbuehler has achieved something remarkable and electrifying here. Together with David Korins (Scenic design), Jeff Croiter (Lighting design) and Paloma…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 05:03PM
Thursday, October 15, 2015

REVIEW: Club Gelbe Stern, Laurie Beechman Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins Now playing at the Laurie Beecham Theatre is a remarkable piece of musical theatre, Club Gelbe Stern, written by Alexis Fishman and James Miller, and directed by Sharone H…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 05:54AM
Tuesday, October 13, 2015

REVIEW: Amazing Grace, Nederlander Theatre ✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins While the tunes and harmonies for the new material might not be memorable, the orchestrations and playing is first rate. Kenny Seymour and Joseph Church, together with the…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 08:56AM
Monday, October 12, 2015

REVIEW: Old Times, American Airlines Theatre ✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins Where Hodge does elect for difference is in the manner of playing. No low-key, slow boil quiet broiling here. No, the parts are played with vigour, brasher than you would …

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 09:32AM

REVIEW: Spring Awakening, Brooks Atkinson Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭ by Stephen Collins

By Stephen Collins Quite simply, it is one of the most perfectly conceived, cast and executed productions of a musical on any stage anywhere in the world. It's shocking, brutal, brilliant an…

SOURCE: britishtheatre.com at 08:45AM

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