2,436 stories by "Michael Billington"
The broadcaster's play Keeping in Touch, aired on Radio 4, is a reply to the classic 1978 drama about the pair's clandestine seven-year relationship"Truth in drama is forever elusive," said …
Trafalgar Studios, LondonSimon Callow directs a starry young cast in a revival of Christopher Hampton's astonishing 70s play about academic havocChristopher Hampton's comedy of academic life…
The West End is becoming a Broadway-like shop window for musicals and spectaculars. Hytner and Starr's theatre devoted to new plays is to be welcomedWhat is instantly striking about the init…
Arcola, LondonNeil Bartlett asks what this 1947 allegory of Nazi occupation means today in a striking production as focused on optimism as on despairAlbert Camus' novel La Peste was publishe…
The 2001 staging at Shakespeare's Globe, with Mark Rylance tackling a trio of roles, gave clarity to this convoluted playNot a play for rationalists. Dr Johnson wrote of its "unresisting imb…
Ustinov studio, BathThe Homeland actor plays a tetchy older author clashing with a younger dramatist in Daniel Kehlmann's compelling study of creative anxietyThis show has the aura of an eve…
Wilton's Music Hall, LondonDerived from a mocking tome on how to lie and cheat your way to the top, this musical brings a welcome note of satire amid a daft plot with beguiling songsMusicals…
Bush, LondonHuman curiosity and the capriciousness of power are central to this story of two footmen forbidden to look on the splendour of the Taj Mahal in 1648 Related: Bush Theatre boss Ma…
Trafalgar Studios, LondonThis bedroom drama about a man who steers a gauche student towards sex misses its chance to explore the problems of nostalgia for a pre-Aids pastBill Rosenfield, a L…
Coliseum, LondonENO's semi-staged production, with a 42-piece orchestra conducted by David Charles Abell, is a memorable reminder of this show's adventurousnessAfter Sweeney Todd with Bryn T…
Barbican, LondonI've always thought there's a dodgy brilliance to Carousel. Musically it is far and away the most sophisticated of the Rodgers and Hammerstein operettas, yet lyrically it com…
Director and producer whose 60-year career spanned television, theatre and film " from The Jewel in the Crown to Pinter playsIn an age when it is fashionable for directors to be regarded as …
Dorfman Theatre, LondonPlaywright explores consciousness, morality and human behaviour in stimulating work that occasionally suffers from information overloadTom Stoppard famously uses drama…
Almeida theatre, LondonMike Bartlett has written a speculative play about the future of the monarchy that has the courage to ask serious questionsMike Bartlett has written a speculative play…
Finborough theatre, London Paul Bradley as a hopeless boozehound, Susan Penhaligon as a haughty mother and Rebecca Collingwood as a sparky sister light up TW Robertson's 1867 playIt is 150 y…
Theatre Royal Haymarket, LondonLewis plays an architect in love with a goat in Edward Albee's tragedy about uncontrollable sexuality " with Sophie Okonedo equally riveting as his wifeAs we k…
Orange Tree, Richmond Servants and employers swap places with a great deal of amorous confusion in a sparkling revival of Marivaux's classicIn the past, we've seen Marivaux's classic comedy …
Dorfman, London The audience become judge and jury in Nina Raine's intelligent play about a rape case full of opposing narratives, starring Anna Maxwell Martin and Ben ChaplinAside from John…
Theatre Royal Drury Lane, LondonSheena Easton brings poise and star quality to an energetic revival that suffers from its bloodless and out of date source materialIf you like musicals staged…
Salisbury PlayhouseA rural Wiltshire community during the first world war is depicted with quiet poetry in Barney Norris's play on childhood friendship and adult expectationBarney Norris is …
From West Side Story to Sweeney Todd, here are nine of my favourite musical moments. There's one space left " for a classic selected by youAll great musicals need a moment of ecstasy that de…
Southwark Playhouse, London This show about 42nd Street in the 1980s is imaginatively staged with the ever-magnificent Sharon D Clarke but it's a tough sellThe low-life musical has a long hi…
Wyndhams theatre, LondonTennant brings a beguiling, fleet-footed charm to Molière's libertine, reinvented as DJ in Patrick Marber's subversive updateDavid Tennant stars as the rutting rake …
Arts theatre, LondonHislop and Nick Newman's play explores the extraordinary real-life story of how a Punch-style publication was set up by troops during the first world warIan Hislop and Ni…
Storey, who has died at the age of 83, had a natural understanding of theatre and strived to resolve the tensions of his life through his playsDavid Storey, who has died aged 83, was a drama…