148 stories by "David Nice"
An immortal lyricist and composer leaves us plenty to be joyful about
How is it that, in the nearly 900 pages of Sondheim's collected lyrics with extensive comments Finishing the Hat and Loo…
Four complex novels squeezed into a big, bold show with strong performances
It took no time for Elena Ferrante's two Neapolitan friends to join the ranks of great literary creations: Lenù…
Close-knit company keeps the York and Lancaster clashes as clear and lively as it can
No Joan of Arc means no Henry VI Part One. France, where we left the victorious Henry V - the superb Sar…
Multimedia haunting from Norwegian company De Utvalgte in Jon Fosse's theatre-poem
In a flowering branch of London theatre, Norway comes to Notting Hill with what's becoming revelatory regul…
A young carer and her mother movingly portrayed in Sean Mathias's 1985 drama
When Sean Mathias wrote A Prayer for Wings 35 years ago, the subject of young carers devoting their lives to pare…
A dramatic tour from the tomb of Italy's greatest poet and music among the mosaics
Two years ago Ermanno Montanari and Marco Martinelli, the visionary partners who have powered Ravenna's rev…
James McArdle's lead, strong ensemble and David Hare's Ibsen adaptation compel
Like Hamlet and both parts of Goethe's Faust, with which it shares the highest peak of poetic drama, Ibsen's Pe…
Ivo van Hove reinvents Visconti's fable about a 1930s German House of Atreus
Is the terrifying past of Germany in 1933 also our future? Having had nightmares about the brilliant dystopian TV…
1930s setting for Falstaff's escapades wins out only in song and dance
Need Shakespeare's Falstaff charm to be funny? Those warm, indulgent feelings won by Mrisho Mpoto in the amazing Glo…
Compelling fantasia about black South Africans drowned in a World War 1 disaster
While Bach's and Handel's Passions have been driving thousands to contemplate suffering, mortality and grace,…
Simon Stone's homage to Euripides is faultless, while Marieke Heebink tears at the soul
Hallucinatory theatre has struck quite a few times in the Barbican's international seasons. On an epic…
Martin Sherman has the excellent Jonathan Hyde telling true talesRipeness is sometimes all. Martin Sherman's new play, receiving its UK premiere at canny Park Theatre, says more about gay hi…
Musically strong, if persistent, this production has a star protagonist"In our country the capable man needs luck," belts out Shen Te, the Good Person of Szechwan in the most powerful song o…
Poignant take on Captain Marlene in the Second World WarGetting the look right is half the battle: in that, Peter Groom's one-time-Captain Marlene Dietrich is a winner from the start. The lo…
A virtuoso ensemble justifies this youthful baggy monster's West End transferIts roots are in truth: 15-year-old Matthew Lopez saw the film, then read the book, of Howards End and 11 ye…
Just a tad short on Broadway charisma, but this sophisticated production glides alongFirst palpable hit of the evening: a full orchestra in the pit under hyper-alert Opera North stalwart Jam…
Harriet Walter and Jade Anouka are the superlative opposite poles in a perfect ensembleWho would have thought, when Phyllida Lloyd's Donmar Julius Caesar opened to justified fanfare, that tw…
Stunning detail from Lev Dodin's company in desperate tragedy and human comedyTowards the end of the Maly Drama Theatre of St Petersburg's Life and Fate, a long scene in director Lev Do…
Roger Allam and Nancy Carroll serve David Hare's iron fist in velvet glove to perfection"What could be more serious than married life?" asked Richard Strauss, whose operas became a surp…
★★★ FANNY AND ALEXANDER, OLD VIC Agile but shallow Bergman adaptationThree strong performances weakened by miscasting elsewhere and restless soundtrackCould an epic cinemat…
Nobody said that a 70-minute audience with the undead was going to be easy. You can read Samuel Beckett's Texts for Nothing in your own time, pausing for thought, leaving off, coming back. W…
What's in a name? Imogen has a softer music to it than Cymbeline, the only one of Shakespeare's plays in which the title character is marginal - even if Hal and Falstaff just outshine Henry …
She gave us the most moving of King Lears years before the news broke that Glenda Jackson would be playing the role. Only Mark Rylance has recently matched the malicious wit of her Globe Ric…
Southwark's golden triangle " the Menier, the Playhouse and the Union " has given us so many "lost" musicals which only a decade or so ago would have been lucky to get in-concert airings.rea…
Britten fathomed Phaedra's passion for her stepson in a shattering quarter of an hour's dramatic cantata. Euripides' Hippolytus takes about 90 minutes in the playing. Director Kryz…
