2,446 stories by "Michael Billington"
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-on-AvonWhat to do with this endlessly problematic play? Directors such as Peter Zadek and David Thacker set it in the stock exchange. But Rupert Goold, a…
Minerva, ChichesterJohn Galsworthy's play about industrial action at a Welsh tinplating firm, directed by Bertie Carvel in his debut, is more than a century old, and as relevant and vivid as…
Finborough, LondonThe award-winning playwright uses YouTube as a medium to explore body anxiety and racial tension in this punchy two-handerBola Agbaje has written a number of very good play…
Old Vic, LondonThe team behind Matilda the Musical reunite for a clever, eye-catching show based on the Bill Murray movieMusicals based on hit movies are two-a-penny, but this one comes with…
Southwark Playhouse, LondonThom Southerland directs the European premiere of this musical about an Everyman's dilemma, but it's too detached from the wider story of AmericaIt is a shock to r…
This year's crop of Dreams " taking in Blitz spirit and colonial India " shows how Shakespeare's comedy is fertile ground for infinite interpretation. But it is Benjamin Britten's opera vers…
Traverse theatre, EdinburghRoss Dunsmore's play is strong on compassion, but it raises questions that it fails to answer about a society that drives people to the brink Related: Edinburgh fe…
Traverse, EdinburghRochelle Bright's 'play with songs' starts out as a promising love story but despite vigorous performances and a lively band it never quite bloomsSubtitled "a play with so…
King's theatre, EdinburghJohn Tiffany's superb production stars Cherry Jones as a woman who clings tenaciously to the memory of her aristocratic past Related: From Black Watch to Harry Potte…
★★★★/★★The Lyceum, EdinburghWe're Peeping Toms for Vanishing Point's riveting but disastrous dinner party, but the company's media critique, The Destroyed…
Young Vic, LondonIn a bravura display, Piper lays bare the soul of a woman who is unable to have children " even if Simon Stone's update is less powerful than Lorca's original playThe Austra…
David Hare's versions of Platonov, Ivanov and The Seagull, now at the National Theatre in a superb production by Jonathan Kent, leave you exhilaratedI have spent many all-day sessions in the…
St James theatre, LondonA snapper falls under the spell of a Mephistophelian PR man in Mike Dyer's energetic story, which takes a turn for the absurd despite some decent songsThe Faust legen…
Theatre Royal Haymarket, London The pop singer brings verve and musicality to the glamorous enigma, with admirably conflicted support from Matt Barber " it's Truman Capote's story itself tha…
Lyttelton, LondonThe women are exceptionally strong in this production of O'Casey's great Easter Rising drama, which draws out the complex humanity of its charactersI found it took time to g…
Palace theatre, LondonIt's convoluted, but the latest expansion of the Potter universe is thrillingly staged, with time travel and age-old quests given a dash of post-Freudian guilt"Keep the…
Ireland's international festival has shown the merits of merging different art forms while reawakening enthusiasm for a much-reprised Beckett classicThey were dancing in the streets last wee…
Leisureland, Salthill, GalwayThe playwright embraces a new form of category-defying theatre in a story of love and oppression that echoes Orwell's 1984No Galway international arts festival s…
Minerva, ChichesterAnne Reid and James Bolam star in Beaton's dark comedy about fracking that becomes an outright plea for direct actionAlistair Beaton's forte is topical satire. His most re…
Park theatre, London Anne Archer plays the actor and activist in a drama that revisits the consequences of Fonda's visit to North Vietnam in 1972Terry Jastrow's play speculates on what happe…
Southwark Playhouse, LondonRay Rackham's musical brings us three Garlands at different periods of her life and deals with the causes and the symptoms of the star's declineI once said that I'…
Producer Cameron Mackintosh turned the West End musical into a global franchise. And he's not finished yet. New shows are opening round the world, new theatres are being purchased ... the em…
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonFiasco's inventive, vigorous version of Stephen Sondheim's modern fairytale doesn't entirely mask the problems of James Lapin's convoluted bookFiasco Theater'…
Arcola, LondonHicks confirms his gift for exploring unbalanced minds in this riveting adaptation of the Russian author's novella, directed by John TerryWhen Nancy Harris's adaptation of Tols…
Royal Court, London Matt Smith gives a fine performance but this movie industry satire is unbalanced by one character's eruptionThere is a long history of theatrical satires on the movie bus…
