Almeida, LondonElla Hickson's riveting play about a writer exploring the sexual revolution boasts a shining performance from Romola GaraiElla Hickson struck gold with her last play, Oil (201…
Piccadilly, LondonWill Young entertains in a sequined catsuit but this laborious version of the charming film is a step in the wrong directionI don't know if it's been spotted already, but B…
National, LondonThe easy word to describe Brian Friel's Aristocrats is "Chekhovian". The decay of a great Georgian house, the decline of a once-powerful Catholic family, the eventual expulsi…
Print Room at the Coronet, LondonThis shattering revival draws out the playwright's sexual candour and grim humour " and deserves a far longer runIt is the fashion these days to strip Ibsen …
Rose theatre, KingstonThe star plays Beatrice opposite John Hopkins as Benedick in a lively production set in a luxury Sicilian spa full of mafiosiThe Rose theatre marks its 10th anniversary…
Aldwych theatre, LondonPhyllida Lloyd's musical is a heady celebration of triumph over adversity, with an astonishing turn by Adrienne WarrenThis terrific show is billed as the "untold" stor…
Royal Court, LondonBonnar and Horrocks are excellent as parents attempting to replace their dead son with another straight from the box in Thomas Eccleshare's quirky dystopian dramaThomas Ec…
Duke of Yorks, LondonThis is a rich, funny, touching play about the opera house and the extraordinary marriage of its co-founders, John Christie and Audrey MildmayIt has taken two and a half…
Phoenix theatre, LondonKander and Ebb's show about crime and celebrity is faithfully recreated but is beginning to resemble an animated corpseIf this Kander and Ebb musical feels as if it ha…
Barbican, London There are shades of Casualty as Cheek By Jowl's briskly ingenious production confines the entire action to a hospitalHow do you give unity to Pericles? It has a rambling nar…
Old Red Lion, LondonKenneth Emson's fascinating play has its characters speaking in jagged rhyme, but it rests on some questionable assumptions about its settingThis curious 70-minute play b…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonJames Macdonald's revival offers clarity and hilarity, with Haydn Gwynne on brilliant form as an amorous widowThis is the kind of production one had almost given up h…
Southwark Playhouse, LondonThere are good moments in Luke Fredericks's revival " but relocating the action to the 1920s is an unnecessary, frustrating fiddleLuke Fredericks prefaces this pro…
The Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonMary Pix's 1700 comedy about a rich widow's wayward social ascent becomes theatrical gold in Jo Davies's scintillating productionMary Pix is hardly a name to con…
Finborough, London Two white couples lock horns over their prejudices in Bruce Graham's powerful tale of racial dividesPlays about race often exude a liberal optimism. This pungent, abrasive…
Arts theatre, LondonAn over-the-top paean to stage ambition ends up in thrall to the world it tries to parodyCamp, says one of the gay men in Matthew Lopez's new play, The Inheritance, is li…
Young Vic, LondonStephen Daldry directs a stellar cast, including Vanessa Redgrave, in a rollercoaster epic about gay men in New YorkThis is quite something: a two-part, seven-hour play by M…
Silk Street theatre, LondonGuildhall School of Music and Drama students deliver a stirring revival of Odets' forgotten state-of-the-union storySpurned by the New York critics in 1935, Cliffo…
Bush, LondonArinzé Kene's one-man show rejects the urban jungle cliches in a heartfelt but too playful exploration of the role of the artistAs we know from One Night in Miami and Girl from …
Royal Court, LondonMixing poetry and politics, Yorkshire-based rapper Testament has created a witty, innovative piece that says a lot about British identity and racial historyThis is that ra…
Northern Stage, NewcastleWith rousing anthems and purposeful politics, this tale of Thatcher-era shipbuilders launches anew in home watersHaving bombed on Broadway, this musical by Sting abo…
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonChristopher Eccleston and Niamh Cusack star in an RSC production that moves at a lick but sometimes lacks subtletyProductions of Macbeth come th…
He took the shonky British musical and made it a global phenomenon. As the composer celebrates his birthday with a new memoir, our theatre critic looks back at the hits " and flopsI first be…
Dorfman, LondonFrancis Turnly's drama drills to the heart of the harsh politics and complex emotions surrounding a series of historic abductions of young Japanese peopleSometimes a play grip…
Hampstead theatre, LondonAmy Ng's second play is given a crisp, clear and well-acted production, but it tries to compress a few too many big issuesThere are few topical concerns that don't s…