Park theatre, LondonVernon Vanriel's extraordinary battles with addiction, poverty and the Home Office are brought to life in a big-hearted if overlong show This play enacts a boxer's real-l…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonPatricia Hodge stars in Hellman's play about a liberal American family confronted by war in Europe and the dangers of inaction Lillian Hellman's 1941 play looks like…
Available onlineThree monologues, told from a Black British perspective, tackle subjects ranging from distrust of the medical system to the gentrification of Brixton These three audio dramas…
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonHannah Khalil's lo-fi retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's 1844 story cleverly weaves in humour, carols and a contemporary lesson on woodland conservation When t…
Available onlineTony award-winning musical about an ageing TV star trying to revive his career has a slow-burn power that brings serious drama to the zinging comedy Buddy Young Jnr was once …
Watford Palace theatreThis lacklustre reframing of the fairytale as a talent show veers into a pantomime version of Phantom of the Opera This is not Beauty or the Beast as we know them: Bell…
In a superb year for the stage, our chief critic gives 10 shows an extra round of applause. Plus, Guardian theatre reviewers each pick their 2022 standout ' More of the best culture of 2022 …
@sohoplace, LondonMartha Plimpton and the whole ensemble shine in Shakespeare's nuanced romance interwoven with sign language and song A piano, prominent on an otherwise empty stage, is a cl…
Southbank Centre, LondonParton's music is as warming as ever but a snowfall of schmaltz and minimal menace make this Dickens adaptation sickly sweet Here is Scrooge and his crew as we have n…
Hampstead theatre, LondonThere's some promising material in this tale of a struggling Lebanese American family " but too much story for the play to successfully contain A patron saint of pai…
Dramatising the latest watercooler story doesn't guarantee you box-office success. The stiffest competition may come from reality's own high drama Just before the curtain came up on Vardy v …
Rose theatre, Kingston upon ThamesCharles Dickens takes to the stage and Ebenezer Scrooge is a woman with a moving backstory in Morgan Lloyd Malcolm's adaptation As fine a festive treat as C…
Theatre Royal Brighton Panto finds dame and co-star John Bishop in need of a boost and better jokes, though song and dance performers give it unruly energy If you only come for Ian McKellen,…
Young Vic, LondonA strong cast cannot conceal the thinness of this superficial account of South Africa's great liberator This musical about the extraordinary life of the South African freedo…
Dorfman theatre, LondonApril De Angelis's comedy about a leave-voting entrepreneur in a gentrified area has echoes of Abigail's Party and Educating Rita " except all the characters are reduc…
Olivier theatre, LondonNo theatrical effect is spared in this emotional show, which returns to Charles Perrault's grisly and grief-ridden fairytale for inspiration This musical twist on Slee…
Sherman theatre, CardiffAs the characters in the classic tales revolt against their narrative bounds, a zesty cast make this imaginative rewrite very nearly brilliant It's fitting that a mu…
Park theatre, LondonSam Hoare's one-hour monologue, half of a double bill, is tense and engaging in its story about the dangers of eroding press freedoms A hustler stands by his pint and tel…
Park theatre, LondonOliver Yellop's East Berlin drama, half of a double bill, captures the claustrophobia of digging under the Wall, but never quite breaks free Two cousins are desperately t…
Lyttelton theatre, LondonGiles Terera stars in a thrilling production with a radical climax that explores the domestic violence in Shakespeare's play In 1964, the National Theatre Company st…
Noël Coward theatre, LondonThe 1968 debate between Gore Vidal and William F Buckley Jr is depicted with verve and feels uncomfortably up-to-date Could a grainy broadcast debate between tw…
As You Like It comes to London's new venue @sohoplace this winter. The play's director and the theatre's owner discuss arts cuts, the industry's gender balance and the pandemic Arifa Akbar: …
Royal Court, LondonA British Iraqi and her father re-enact his wartime memories under the direction of three ghoulish clowns in a daring if uneven debut There are searing moments in this tal…
Marylebone theatre, LondonThere's only one sleuth in Victorian London who can get to the bottom of the suspicious death of Ebenezer Scrooge, in this winning crossover mystery This is Sherloc…
Wyndham's theatre, LondonLaura Dos Santos and Lucy May Barker are excellent as the frenemies in a queasy verbatim drama From the moment Coleen Rooney dropped her Instagram post ("It's … Re…