"Sawyer, you're going out a youngster but you've got to come back a star." So Ruby Keeler was famously told by Warner Baxter in the movie of 42nd Street. And that classic line about understu…
Hampstead theatre, LondonThere are shades of Neil LaBute's In the Company of Men in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' merciless modern satire, set in the offices of a Manhattan magazineNothing can qui…
Courtyard, Stratford-upon-AvonAs a director Lucy Bailey is clearly at home in ancient Rome: she gave us a blackly sardonic Titus Andronicus at Shakespeare's Globe; now she comes up with a vi…
The Kids Company inquiry becomes a musical, Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams star as sisters, Sienna Miller and Jack O'Connell hit the roof and rhinoceroses rampage through Edinburgh' Summe…
Minerva, ChichesterO'Brien has revised her 2011 stage adaptation of her evocative novel about two friends who move from rural Ireland to DublinRitually burned in the grounds of her local par…
Cottesloe, LondonHaving written plays about the Suez crisis and Thatcher's childhood, James Graham now turns his attention to the Labour government's precarious ability to survive a hung par…
Jermyn Street theatre, LondonAnthony Biggs directs the British premiere of Maxim Gorky's chaotic and overloaded 1907 play with a bullying Russian patriarch at its centre Written in 1907 in t…
Two US companies have pulled their sponsorship from a New York production of Julius Caesar because it depicts a Trump-like character " grisly ending and all. But the bard has other character…
Royal Court, LondonAlice Birch's radically experimental play, directed by Katie Mitchell, tests the theory that trauma can pass across three generations of womenWhat determines our character…
Chichester Festival theatreHarden is excellent in a sprawling yet skilful production of Tennessee Williams's Gulf Coast melodramaThis is a strange play to find on the sprawling Chichester st…
The Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonOwen Horsley's inventive production sheds little light on what it means to be gay today, but highlights Wilde's passionate, transgressive textEveryone currently …
Dorfman theatre, LondonInua Ellams's invigorating and richly enjoyable drama, set in six hairdressers in two continents, offers sharp debate on family, politics, race and sportBijan Sheibani…
Olivier, LondonAnne-Marie Duff shines in a rich, strange and often baffling drama that shows the privatisation of land as a pivotal moment in our nation's history'We are not here for reasons…
Piccadilly theatre, LondonAn ingenious jigsaw-like design and strong performances lift this revival, but the main draw, Miranda Hart, is just too likable and the politics seem datedAt the cu…
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonThis, of all Shakespeare's plays, badly needs a shot in the arm " and it receives a powerful one in this production by Gregory Doran, the RSC's …
Finborough, LondonAn Iranian teacher is confronted by one of her former pupils in Matt Parvin's claustrophobic two-hander about social and racial prejudiceMatt Parvin is a young, Dorset-born…
Orange Tree, RichmondBranden Jacobs-Jenkins's extraordinary play is both an adaptation of a 19th-century melodrama and a dazzling postmodernist critique of itIf I say that this bizarrely bri…
Shakespeare's Globe, London Sailor-suited dancers and a disco soundtrack add a party atmosphere to Shakespeare's comedy but drown out its melancholyThe peremptory treatment of Emma Rice by t…
Old Vic, LondonWhereas Georg Büchner's original masterpiece allows audience to fill in the blanks, Thorne's adaptation piles the pressure on the title characterThis production has a lot goi…
Attenborough Centre, BrightonRichard Nelson prophetically captures sense of unease as early as first play when character asks: "Do you feel like something really bad is about to happen?"What…
The Swan, Stratford-upon-AvonPhil Porter's take on Plautus's bombastic farce is a crowdpleasing show that reminds us of the ancient playwright's immense influence on modern comedyThe Roman c…
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonMaureen Lipman's brisk bureaucrat is a perfect complement to Felicity Kendal's gutsy exhibitionist in a revival of Peter Shaffer's heritage satireYou might ha…
Young Vic, LondonThe Atonement director presents the story of the astronomer with a kaleidoscopic theatricality that increasingly detracts from Brecht's textIt is a sign of Bertolt Brecht's …
Swan, Stratford-on-AvonA reactionary pope dies, only to be succeeded by a seeming liberal who soon reverts to institutional conservatism. You could hardly have a more topical play than this.…
Octagon, Bolton Cathy Tyson stars in Timberlake Wertenbaker's ambitious play which debates the choices politicised women face, from ancient Athens to modern BritainTimberlake Wertenbaker's n…