1,481 stories by "Matt Wolf"
London's playhouses have been shuttered before, by plagues and war for instance, but they have always returned as strong as ever.
Beth Steel award-winner makes for muscular, eerily apposite fare
The talk is of an "economy in ruin [with] unemployment through the roof": a précis of Britain in lockdown? In fact, this is…
Stephen Rea rivets once again in David Ireland play
One of the most blistering stage performances in recent memory gets a renewed lease on life with the streaming of the 2019 screen version…
Mike Bartlett's 2016 play chimes with our topsy-turvy times
"The whole world is just tilting at the moment," we're told near the end of Wild, the Mike Bartlett play from summer 2016 that…
The composer-lyricist has left an indelible legacy
Here's an irony worthy of the work of Stephen Sondheim, an artist who clearly knows a thing or two about the multiple manifestations of th…
While the city's theaters were still open, several plays seemed to have relevant messages for our troubled times.
Mike Bartlett play remains as buoyant and biting as ever
The Beatles lyric that gives Mike Bartlett's terrific play its title dates to 1967, which also happens to be the year in which the f…
Sebastian Barry two-hander offers rich acting opportunities for two of Ireland's finest
Some wondrous acting is sacrificed on the altar of an increasingly wonky plot in On Blueberry Hill, t…
Daniel Monks electrified London at the end of 2019 playing the title role at the Donmar in Teenage Dick, Chinese-American writer Mike Lew's teasingly titled play that transposes Shakespeare'…
Popular film romcom looks fairly icky on stage
It's not so much that Pretty Woman: The Musical isn't much good, which it isn't. More to the point is that this West End replica of the …
The Woman in Black, the theatrical chiller adapted from the Susan Hill novel, celebrated 30 years in the West End last summer and has recently opened to acclaim at the McKittrick Hotel off-B…
Three plays consider the divisions wrought by Brexit, Britain's surveillance state and the terror of the news cycle, with varying levels of success.
American theatre phenomenon pushes buttons aplenty to diminishing effect
This latest musical theatre exercise in "geek chic" has been an American phenomenon: a show propelled by social medi…
Danny Mac dazzled followers on Strictly Come Dancing with his fancy footwork on the ever-popular BBC program, but the English performer has since made a separate name for himself in st…
Roger Allam and Colin Morgan refashion Caryl Churchill's contemporary classic
There are any number of ways to perform A Number, Caryl Churchill's bleak and beautiful play about a father and…
Lesley Manville rises above the prevailing muddle
Lesley Manville's thrilling career ascent continues apace with The Visit, which marks American playwright Tony Kushner's return to…
Noah Thomas was appearing in a drama school production of Guys and Dolls when he was tapped to become the third person to star as Jamie New, an aspiring drag queen, in the hit British musica…
The director Patrick Marber has knitted Tom Stoppard's putative swan song into a compelling whole
It's not uncommon for playwrights to begin their careers by writing what they know, to co-o…
Gavin Creel has both Tony and Olivier Awards to show for his effervescent talent, so it makes sense that the New York-based Ohioan should continue crossing the Atlantic to work in the West E…
Mike Bartlett's play has deepened in accordance with our divisive times
It's not been three years since Albion premiered at the Almeida Theatre, since which time Brexit has happened a…
Josh Williams has appeared across a range of London playhouses, from the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre to the Royal Court, but only now is he in the West End and in a starring role, no less…
In three London productions with great ensemble casts, all the actors receive their due.
Jon Robyns is no stranger to Les Misérables, the musical phenomenon now in its fourth decade on the London stage. The 37-year-old Englishman played Marius over 10 years ago in the West End …
Cormac McCarthy two-hander tries an audience's patience
Cormac McCarthy's two-hander, premiered at Chicago's mighty Steppenwolf Theatre in 2006, has by this point been everything short of a…
Overlong Sam Steiner play needs clarity to go with its compassion
Armageddon would appear to be at the gates in Sam Steiner's intriguing if ramshackle play, a co-production between Paines P…
