Purists may quibble at circus-themed show When Qdos brought back pantomime to the Palladium three years ago after an absence of nearly 30 years, it set the bar high with superb production v…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:18PMDavid Baddiel's debut play tackles a big issue David Baddiel is a very fine comic, and over the past few years has become an acclaimed author of children's books. So I'm genuinely sad to sa…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:33AMJane Austen redux fizzes with ideas What a joy Laura Wade's latest play is. Transferring from its successful run at the Minerva Theatre at Chichester last year, The Watsons is developed from…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:24PMJacobean comedy gets a rare outing It was a bold choice by director Blanche McIntyre to stage Ben Jonson's seldom performed, sprawling slice-of-life play in the bijou Sam Wanamaker Playhouse…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:18PMFinal outing for Phoebe Waller-Bridge as her iconic creation We're saying goodbye to a much treasured friend. Fleabag will live on, of course – other actresses have and will inhabit the ro…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:54PMMore from the world's biggest and best arts festival The Red Pleasance Dome ★★★★ Comic Marcus Brigstocke has spoken in the past about his addictions and now he has written this two…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:06PMMore from the world's biggest and best arts festival On the Other Hand, We’re Happy Summerhall **** This affecting co-production between Paines Plough and Theatr Clywd of Daf James’s pl…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:42AMJeremy Herrin's production of modern classic feels leaden Michael Frayn's Noises Off is a modern classic, a backstage sex farce that pokes affectionate fun at a profession he loves. And now …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:42PMPenelope Skinner probes the men's rights movement Penelope's Skinner's monologue was a critical and audience hit at last year's Edinburgh Fringe, when its talking point found its moment. He…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:17PMDavid Ireland's dark, absurdist comedy about identityDavid Ireland is a playwright who likes to jolt his audience and Cyprus Avenue, a dark absurdist comedy about an Ulster unionist afr…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:32PMMartin Crimp's latest about a sex game is all talk and no actionWhen it was announced that Cate Blanchett was making her National Theatre debut with Martin's Crimp's new play, When We h…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:32PMWest End transfer for Tony Kushner's musical about race and povertyWith the politics of hate alive and well both sides of the Atlantic, this seems a good time to revive Tony Kushner and…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:04PMEnjoyable but underpoweredPaul Merton has a lot of strings to his bow – stand-up, improv artist, historian of silent-movie-era comedy, quiz-show panellist, to name a few – and now he add…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:54PMSusie McKenna creates fast-paced fun in a busy mixSusie McKenna and Steven Edis have been creating pantos for Hackney Empire for 20 years, and over that time its seasonal offering has become…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:32PMDick jokes in abundance told in urban street style pantomimeIn 2009 Sean Holmes, then Lyric Hammersmith's artistic director, made a bold move by reintroducing panto at the lovely Frank Match…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:54AMTwo-hander with a Walt Whitman poem and a clever twistHere's a good pub quiz question: after Shakespeare, who was the most performed playwright in America last year? Arthur Miller? Tennessee…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:06PMRose Matafeo’s take on twentysomething life is toast of the FringeNew Zealander Rose Matafeo has won the coveted best comedy show award at the Edinburgh festival fringe. Steve Coogan, one …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:18AMLes Dennis is superb as a washed-up comicLes Dennis was once a marquee name on Saturday night television as host of Family Fortunes, but since giving up the light entertainment lark he now p…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:06PMJames Graham tells of the "coughing major" who wanted to be a millionaireYou could be forgiven for not remembering the “coughing major” brouhaha in 2001, coming as it did the d…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:00AMJamie Campbell came out at 14, wore a dress to his school dance and dreamed of being a drag star. Throught it all, he was supported by his mother. Now, their lives are the subject of a music…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:54AMReginald D Hunter spurns good taste, Sara Pascoe goes solo, and Jan Ravens is everyone elseTop calls in this year’s fringe comedy bingo – where punters make a mental tick each time jokes…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:24AMKemp Powers’ play is set in a dingy motel room in Miami on the night of 25 February 1964, after Cassius Clay (as Muhammad Ali then was) had earlier beaten Sonny Liston to gain the world he…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:06PMMichael Head's new play is based on the book They Took the Lead by Stephen Jenkins, which tells the true story of events at Clapton Orient (now Leyton Orient) Football Club during the First …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:15PMAngel by Henry Naylor, Gilded Balloon ****Rehana tells us what her hometown Kobane in Syria, is like - “A small border town where nothing happens … like Berwick-on-Tweed,” she says –…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:02PMAlan Ayckbourn's How the Other Half Loves - first performed in 1969, in the round at the Library Theatre in Scarborough - was only his second play. Already, though, it has a few Ay…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:56PMThis is set in “a world midway between Elizabethan pageant and haute-couture catwalk”, a programme note for Scena Mundi's production says - and the initial signs certainly point to that.…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:55PMYou might think that the combination of a play about one of the funniest comics of the second half of the 20th century, written by his biographer and directed by a member of Monty Python wou…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:46PMWho could disagree that, ten years on, the Abba musical extravaganza Mamma Mia! is still unbelievably good?It's not often I arrive at the theatre in a grump, but a long and unexplained bus d…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:33AMDerren Brown calls himself a mentalist, but he's also a great showman, as his latest show, Miracle, attests. With its simple set, this is seemingly an evening of straightforward illusions. B…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:46PMHow wonderful it would be if Greg Kotis's play was a rapid response to David Cameron's alleged interest in porcine affairs. Not only wonderful to those still laughing about the imaginary hig…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:34PMPaul, Jan and Louis, three young men living in a gritty part of south London, are bored and broke and, for them, there are two kinds of Britain - one with money and power, and the one they l…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:46PM
