Little Amal stirred hearts, Chaucer hit Willesden, Cush Jumbo was a perfect prince, and once again James Graham said it all Read the Observer critics’ review of 2021 in full here It was a …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:54AMPlayhouse; Young Vic; National Theatre, LondonRebecca Frecknall’s Weimar glamfest with Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley goes big and nails it (nearly); James Graham brilliantly revives a …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:42AMBridge; Wyndham’s; Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonThe familiar and the fantastic are as one in the Bridge’s Philip Pullman spectacular; more puppet magic powers Life of Pi; and a coolly …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18AMFinborough, LondonThis crackling production of David Ireland’s caustic portrait of a troubled former gunman is close up and in your face Hurrah for the first London staging of this play by…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36AMLyttelton; Garrick; Criterion, LondonRising tides and clunking dialogue overwhelm Moira Buffini’s new play; Beverley Knight and co excel in the latest jukebox musical. Plus, the joys of ka…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18AMKiln; Royal Court, LondonThe Wife of Bath is wonderfully at home in 21st-century Brent in Zadie Smith’s inspired reworking of Chaucer. Meanwhile, the troubles of the Royal Court’s big ne…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:18PMRoyal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; Soho theatre, Hampstead theatre, LondonThe RSC’s Christmas spectacular lacks a little magic touch, while two maternally themed plays offer v…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:06AMVarious venues, London; Bristol Old VicLittle Amal makes human hearts beat faster, while compassion fuels Emma Rice’s great whirl of a Brontë adaptation In Arabic, Amal means “hope”. …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24AMLyric; Tabernacle; Donmar Warehouse LondonMagnetic Arinzé Kene as Bob Marley powers the West End’s latest jukebox musical. And a verbatim play drawn from the Grenfell inquiry bears unstin…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AMRoyal Court Upstairs; Almeida; Bridge, LondonLucy Kirkwood’s raw response to the murders of Sabina Nessa and Sarah Everard captures a moment of terrible rage. And Saoirse Ronan commands as…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36AMYoung Vic; Gielgud; Royal Court, LondonCush Jumbo is a perfect prince, Ben Miles bows out as Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell, while Caryl Churchill gets to the heart of love and loss in under 20 …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:06AMOlivier; Theatre Royal Stratford East, LondonLarry Kramer’s 1985 response to the Aids crisis resonates with new force. And Dublin ghost stories unfurl slowly in a fine Conor McPherson revi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:24AMTheatre Royal Drury Lane; Dorfman, LondonWill the West End ever let go of this glinting new adaptation of the beloved Disney film. Back in the real world, a telling historical mashup from Wi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AMAlmeida, LondonMirth and menace fight it out in Josh Azouz’s play of shifting alliances, with Adrian Edmondson on fine form as a knitting Nazi officer The action is tragic; the dialogue fr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36AMRoyal Court Upstairs, LondonAs delivered by the Dutch singer Wende, the diffuse nature of assorted words that “can only be sung” take on the force of nature I often wish I had been in Pa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:06AMGillian Lynne theatre; Regent’s Park Open Air theatre, LondonAndrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical, sparkily scripted by Emerald Fennell, goes to the ball at last. And Carousel gets a salty …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:54AMOlivier; Noël Coward theatre, LondonLesley Sharp is magnetic in Kae Tempest’s ferocious reworking of Sophocles, while Lily Allen makes a spookily quiet West End debut It is rare for an au…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AMOld Vic, LondonWarm, wily and gloriously playful, Emma Rice’s adaptation of the 1987 film is another motel-and-ballad show triumph for the Old Vic It is, says director Emma Rice, a story t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36AMTheatre Royal Windsor; Harold Pinter theatre; Bush, LondonIan McKellen’s wonderfully assured Prince of Denmark is a double-edged sword; The Crown’s Emma Corrin can do far more than Diana…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AMChichester Festival theatreDaniel Evans’s production bursts with energy as it foregrounds an anti-racist message in the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic I have always flinched from the sedu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:03AMVaudeville; Theatre Royal Stratford East, LondonThe first two of four new casts work their magic differently in Nick Payne’s irresistible multiple realities play. And April De Angelis make…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18AMBridge; Lyric Hammersmith, LondonSimon Russell Beale is Bach to his fingertips in Nina Raine’s intermittently brilliant tale of the great composer’s domestic labours. And a fine triple b…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:48AMNotting Hill carnival and Dylan Thomas’s radio masterpiece come to the stage, while no one does lockdown like Beckett It is an unlikely phenomenon in the West End. Women slamming their arg…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:54AMHampstead theatre, LondonThe ingenious struggle of a new generation of entrepreneurs is charted in Dawn Walton’s bright revival of Alfred Fagon’s prescient 1975 play Alfred Fagon’s pla…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AMDorfman; Theatre Royal Stratford East, LondonGhosts confront bureaucracy and memory; and a murdered man’s spirit inspires his twin sister to tackle racial injustice Here are ghosts bringin…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:18AMPinter; Kiln; Old Vic/online Gemma Arterton’s failed astronaut confronts her overachieving sister in Amy Berryman’s debut play; wheelchair user Amy Trigg transfixes with her witty monolo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:03AMShakespeare’s Globe; Duchess theatre, LondonSeated groundlings make history at the Globe’s carnivalesque Dream. And Jack Holden conjures memories of the onslaught of Aids As if by magic,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42AMAvailable onlineJulie Hesmondalgh as a food bank volunteer and Frances de la Tour in glinting Alan Bennett headline this sharp set of five plays filmed in and around the city As theatres reo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:03AMPitlochry Festival theatre, onlineJohn Byrne revisits the terrain of his 1977 hit spoof Writer’s Cramp to follow the fortunes of artist Pamela Crichton Capers in this dizzy audio drama Pel…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:33AMAvailable onlineBen Brown’s new play imagining the author’s Moscow meeting with his former MI6 colleague fails to truly chill The theatre is rich in dramas about the Cambridge spies. Ala…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:42AMNational Theatre/Sky ArtsBuckley and O’Connor head a terrific cast in this imaginatively pared down, made-for-TV production What an accomplished example of pandemic-style drama: a sleek fu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:06AM
