2,441 stories by "Michael Billington"
Theatre in the Park, ChichesterChichester has acquired a 25-metre-high big top to stand in for the temporarily closed Festival theatre. It would seem appropriate that it opens with a revival…
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonMost theatre falls into familiar categories. This, however, is a piece that gloriously defies definition. It can best be described as a series of short plays by Sa…
Bush, LondonCountless artists, from Diana Ross to Beyoncé, have been inspired by the story of the legendary dancer and singer Josephine Baker, who was born in St Louis and became the toast …
Park theatre, LondonHow much should one reveal? That is the critic's eternal dilemma. It's especially acute in a play such as Oliver Cotton's Daytona, which deals with deception and depends …
Actor Paul Bhattacharjee, who has died, was better known for his role in EastEnders but he was most impressive on stageThe disappearance, and possible death, of Paul Bhattacharjee gave me, l…
31 London Street, London W2The problem with an immersive company like Punchdrunk is that people tend to take fixed attitudes: either they are a signpost to the theatrical future or they take…
Young Vic, LondonThe turbulence following Congolese independence partly inspired John Arden to write the unjustly forgotten Armstrong's Last Goodnight in 1964. Two years later, the Martiniqu…
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonI am sometimes accused of failing to report audience reactions. So let me say unequivocally that this musical version of Alice Walker's 1982 novel was greeted…
Campfield Market Hall/Albert Hall, Manchester International festival★★★/★★★★★Like all the best festivals, the one in Manchester opens up the c…
Rose Lipman Building, LondonAnnie Baker's much-lauded play takes place in a windowless studio in a community-centre in Vermont; and the Royal Court, as part of its "theatre local" project, h…
Theatre Royal, BathGeorge Bernard Shaw's Candida used to be a stock rep piece, but today is rarely seen. That's a pity because, as Simon Godwin's nifty revival shows, this 1895 play still ha…
Vaudeville, LondonI warmed greatly to Graham Linehan's version of this classic Ealing comedy when I first saw it in 2011. But, while the script is still funny, this revival has a f…
Regent's Park theatre, LondonThe only Shakespeare at the Open Air theatre this summer is this late play, "reimagined for everyone aged six and over". What this amounts to is an utterly begui…
St Peter's Church, ManchesterThis is more like it. After a lightweight Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe, we now get a production that gets closer to the heart of the play's mystery. Staged in …
Palace, ManchesterThe Manchester International festival is nothing if not daring. As proof, it kicks off its theatrical programme with Robert Wilson's visualisation of a surreal novella writ…
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonThe last Macbeth we saw at this venue was a pop-culture Polish production in which the transvestite witches assiduously fellated the hero. No such excesses ta…
White Bear, LondonWhen the maverick playwright and director Charles Marowitz ran the Open Space theatre in London he did a fascinating adaptation of Wilde's The Critic as Artist. In this new…
By 'adapting' and updating historical texts " as the Royal Shakespeare Company is currently doing " aren't we just writing off the past?Do we need to rewrite the classics? Increasingly, peop…
Palace theatre, LondonDerren Brown begs us all, journalists included, not to reveal anything he has done in the course of two-and-a-half hours. Seeing him for the first time, however, I feel…
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Duchess, LondonLenny Henry has won his spurs as a Shakespearean actor in Othello and The Comedy of Errors. Now he takes on the titanic role of Troy Maxson in August Wilson's Fences which won…
Regent's Park, LondonFollowing stage versions of works by William Golding, EL Doctorow and Harper Lee, this novel-hungry venue now brings us a new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in time f…
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London Reviews roundup: what the other papers thought In pictures: behind the scenes at Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Interview: Director Sam Mendes talks to E…
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, LondonChocs away! At last, we get to see the much touted stage musical based on Roald Dahl's children's classic. Although there's been much talk of the technical c…
Crucible, SheffieldTim Firth's first play, 1992's Neville's Island, showed four men stranded in the Lake District during a disastrous team-building exercise. This new musical comedy, for whi…
