All stories by Susannah Clapp on BroadwayStars

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Theatre review: Jerusalem / Royal Court, London by Susannah Clapp

Royal Court, LondonAbout half a mile down from the Little Chef on the A14, a giant chats about building Stonehenge. In a Wiltshire glade at dawn, teenage girls tumble bug-eyed and doped-up f…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:21AM
Friday, May 13, 2016

Cats review – none of it is very catlike by Susannah Clapp

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s resurrected musical features terrific dancing and some truly hideous moggiesThere is nothing subdued and nothing rough about Cats. Nor is there much that looks theatr…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:10PM
Sunday, May 8, 2016

An Enemy of the People review – all society on a stage by Susannah Clapp

Chichester Festival theatreHugh Bonneville as a whistleblower driven by sibling rivalry shows how Ibsen’s play switches emphasis with every stagingHere is Hugh Bonneville, the amiably stuf…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:44AM

A Midsummer Night’s Dream review – the wildest of dreams by Susannah Clapp

Shakespeare’s Globe, LondonEmma Rice’s first production as artistic director at Shakespeare’s Globe is a glittering, unnerving comic triumphA sitar player sends music pulsing through t…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:44AM
Sunday, May 1, 2016

Doctor Faustus review – where’s the soul? by Susannah Clapp

Duke of York’s, London Kit Harington gets his kit off and Jenna Russell sings Bat out of Hell… but no one profits from this deal with the devilEveryone applauds Jamie Lloyd’s determina…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:15AM

Elegy review – a fine dilemma by Susannah Clapp

Donmar, London Zoë Wanamaker must choose whether to lose her life or her lover in Nick Payne’s thought-provoking follow-up to ConstellationsFour years ago Nick Payne shone new light on th…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:15AM

Kings of War review – Shakespeare to the power of three by Susannah Clapp

Barbican, LondonIvo van Hove takes Henry V, Henry VI and Richard II and mashes them up into a wonderful study of the modern ruling classThe most immediately surprising feature of Kings of Wa…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:15AM
Sunday, April 24, 2016

The Flick; Another World: Losing Our Children to Islamic State; The Suicide – review by Susannah Clapp

Dorfman; Temporary theatre; Lyttelton; all LondonRufus Norris’s National Theatre is in rude health, with Annie Baker’s remarkable The Flick and a verbatim drama about why children join I…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:25AM
Sunday, April 17, 2016

Boy review – see the city in a different light by Susannah Clapp

Almeida, LondonLeo Butler’s fine new play brings teeming London on to the stage, with help from a set design that’s practically installation artLondon in 2016 has made it on to the stage…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:14AM

Cyprus Avenue review – bigotry laid absurdly bare by Susannah Clapp

Royal Court theatre, LondonDavid Ireland’s shocking new play balances humour and horror, with Stephen Rea superb as an Ulster loyalist suspicious of his ‘Fenian’ baby granddaughterSome…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:14AM

Appreciation: Arnold Wesker, 1932-2016 by Susannah Clapp

The Observer’s theatre critic remembers one of Britain’s most influential playwrights of the postwar yearsArnold Wesker, who died on 12 April at the age of 83, was one of the male playwr…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:14AM
Sunday, April 10, 2016

Sunset Boulevard review – ready again for her close-up by Susannah Clapp

Coliseum, LondonGlenn Close plays Norma Desmond with as much panache as she did more than 20 years agoIt is more than 20 years since Glenn Close first starred in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Suns…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:58AM

The Caretaker review – star turns but no terror by Susannah Clapp

Old Vic, LondonCompelling performances from Timothy Spall, Daniel Mays and George MacKay fail to elevate Matthew Warchus’s production of the Pinter classicHere is an idea about The Caretak…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:58AM

X review – a jittery dystopia by Susannah Clapp

Royal Court, LondonJessica Raine proves herself a stage natural in Alistair McDowall’s ingenious but taxing tale of future humanity adrift in despairX is another of Alistair McDowall’s d…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:58AM
Sunday, April 3, 2016

Bug review – horror and despair at close quarters by Susannah Clapp

Found111, LondonKate Fleetwood’s magnetic performance in this paranoia play continues this tiny pop-up space’s run of terrific performancesEvery now and then a particular theatre turns i…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:33AM

Les Blancs review – revolution so real you can smell it by Susannah Clapp

National theatre, LondonA new version of Lorraine Hansberry’s play about unrest in colonial Africa is a compelling mix of atmosphere and argumentAudiences at the National don’t often app…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:33AM

Long Day’s Journey Into Night review – volcanic excitement and breakneck pace by Susannah Clapp

Eugene O’Neill’s partly autobiographical play of family dysfunction careers towards its tragic outcome with terrific energyLong Day’s Journey Into Night? No. It is the speed of Richard…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:33AM
Sunday, March 27, 2016

The Painkiller review – a farce without force by Susannah Clapp

Garrick, LondonKenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon labour for laughs as hotel guests thrown together by circumstanceGradually the stage is picking to pieces accepted ideas about the 1960s. Martin…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:01AM

Hamlet review – a fresh prince makes his mark by Susannah Clapp

Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon Paapa Essiedu paints a young and striking Hamlet, torn by indecision in an African military state, in Simon Godwin’s stirring interpretationA…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:03AM
Sunday, March 6, 2016

The Maids review – TV star power can’t revive Genet’s murderous romp by Susannah Clapp

Trafalgar Studios, LondonUzo Aduba, Zawe Ashton and Laura Carmichael make a striking cast, but the declamatory dialogue is heavy-handedAt Trafalgar Studios, Uzo Aduba steams and storms: a ba…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:31AM

Welcome Home, Captain Fox! review – breezy cold war chortles by Susannah Clapp

Donmar Warehouse, LondonJean Anouilh’s slight tale of a amnesiac soldier claimed by a host of different families gets a colourful 1950s treatmentJean Anouilh’s 1937 comedy Le voyageur sa…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:31AM

The Solid Life of Sugar Water review – in bed with a catastrophe by Susannah Clapp

National Theatre, LondonJack Thorne’s play about a couple struggling to come to terms with tragedy is unflinchingI can’t remember when I last saw a play that was at once so forthright an…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:31AM
Sunday, February 28, 2016

The Tempest review – Dromgoole bows out beautifully by Susannah Clapp

Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonThe Globe director’s farewell production casts its spell in the candlelit space that crowns his time thereDominic Dromgoole says goodbye to the Globe with th…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:38AM

Cyrano de Bergerac review – a nose without a point by Susannah Clapp

Southwark Playhouse, LondonKathryn Hunter plays the lovelorn French nobleman in this all-female production, but nothing is gained by the gender swapWhat is the point of an all-female Cyrano …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:38AM

Cleansed review – the first cut was the deepest by Susannah Clapp

Dorfman, LondonIt may be too gruesome much for some, but Sarah Kane’s 1998 horror show feels depleted in Katie Mitchell’s protracted revivalTheatres love people walking out. Sometimes it…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:38AM
Sunday, February 21, 2016

Uncle Vanya review – Chekhov rewired by Susannah Clapp

Almeida, LondonUncle Vanya is snapped into focus in a fine-tuned new version by the remarkable writer-director Robert IckeRobert Icke has been giving the British stage electric shocks for th…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:27AM

Mrs Henderson Presents review – flash in the pan by Susannah Clapp

Noël Coward, LondonAn adorable heroine played by Emma Williams and a fine score from George Fenton and Simon Chamberlain are the only saving graces hereThere are two reasons for seeing Mrs …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:27AM

Nell Gwynn review – nudge-nudge feminism by Susannah Clapp

Apollo, LondonGemma Arterton’s megawatt charm lights up Jessica Swale’s brocaded romp-comArguments about the theatre are being put into period costume. Many of these arguments are accusa…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:27AM
Sunday, February 7, 2016

Red Velvet review – a definitive performance from Adrian Lester by Susannah Clapp

Garrick, LondonLolita Chakrabarti’s powerful play about the 19th-century African American actor Ira Aldridge is now where it should be…In 1833 the African American actor Ira Aldridge too…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:19AM

The Master Builder review – knotty intensity from Ralph Fiennes by Susannah Clapp

Old Vic, LondonFiennes gives lustre to Ibsen’s preposterous autobiographical tale of an ageing architect battling irrelevanceYou may catch Ralph Fiennes in an obscure play; never in an ins…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:19AM

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom review – a terrific August Wilson revival by Susannah Clapp

Lyttelton, LondonSharon D Clarke as the ‘mother of the blues’ leads a superb cast in Dominic Cooke’s knockout productionWhat are the great American plays of the late 20th and early 21s…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:19AM

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 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic