For the hour-long Coq Tales & Conversation event on Thursday 13 October 2016 at 5.00pm, I'll be chatting to two incredible West End leading ladies, Anna-Jane Casey and Emma Hatton, both…
I experienced frequent flashbacks while watching The Libertine last night at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Here’s another Restoration-set comedy to hit the West End in which much …
Critic Matt Trueman described Elinor Cook‘s Pilgrims, about a pair of young mountain climbers, as the “peak of playwriting”. I got to talk mountain climbing, metaphors a…
Are you in a happy relationship? An unhappy one? Or just a normal one with standard-fare ups and downs? Ever thought about cheating on your partner? Owen McCafferty's play Unfaithful, now in…
That Man musical had two performances only at London’s Hippodrome Casino yesterday (20 September 2016) and, after the first one, I chaired a post-show discussion in front of an audienc…
After a run in New York and a short UK regional tour, Sean Mathias‘ much-anticipated production of Harold Pinter‘s 1975 play No Man’s Land officially opened in the West End…
Is it pure coincidence that many of the plays I've seen recently feature actors as characters? And, consequently, a range of views on the life of actors and the nature of acting, which go…
What if everything you're ever known was thrown into question? And everything you ever trusted was subjected to doubt? When San Diego housewife Karen Ruiz's husband is accused of being a ter…
I made my HighTide Festival debut this weekend and what a privilege. Over the course of the weekend at this ten-day annual event, held in the beautiful Suffolk coast town of Aldeburgh and no…
A New York artistic commune in the early 1940s – occupied by British exiles Benjamin Britten, WH Auden, American novelist Carson McCullers (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter) and stripper G…
Starting out as cheerleaders: Lauren Samuels, Ashleigh Gray and Lizzy Connolly in Vanities at Trafalgar Studios. © Pamela Raith Cheerleaders generally get a bad rap. When I went back to t…
This instalment of my theatregoing recommendations could be called not just my musicals diary but my musicals-on-my-doorstep diary. All three shows " Children of Eden, Allegro and Groundhog …
Two hapless understudies on a production of Waiting for Godot occupy their time backstage, trying to understand art, life, theatre and their precarious existence within it. Dave Hanson‘…
Are there any stage taboos left? John Ford‘s 17th-century romantic thriller ‘TIS PITY SHE’S A WHORE, centring on an incestuous relationship between brother and sister Gi…
If the line “Laughter through tears is my favourite emotion” makes you nod your head, then you must see the play from which it comes: Robert Harling‘s Steel Magnolias, now …
Could the dream team behind multi award-winning, all-over-the-globe hit Matilda " director Matthew Warchus, composer and lyricist Tim Minchin, choreographer Peter Darling and designer Rob Ho…
July was a big month for Q&As for me so I’ve been a little pre-occupied by follow-up blogs on those. But in addition to musicals I’ve hosted events at – I’m Getti…
What a treat it was to not only see Jon Brittain‘s Rotterdam again last night, but to be able to question this hugely talented young writer about his bittersweet comedy, which ra…
Ahead of the double-show gala day at the West End’s Palace Theatre this Saturday, a galaxy of stars have already turned out for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. And I’m not jus…
I first – and last – saw Neil LaBute‘s Some Girl(s) in its world premiere in the West End in 2005, in a production that starred Friends‘ David Schwimmer along with &#…
What does The Trial of Jane Fonda, concerning the actor-activist’s controversial protests during the Vietnam War (in which the UK did not support our US allies), have to tell us abo…
I first saw – and adored – Through the Mill when it premiered at the London Theatre Workshop (then above a pub in Fulham) last year. I was delighted when the show, which revolves…
Last seen in London in 1981, when its premiere production ran at the West End’s Apollo Theatre after success Off-Broadway, I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road h…
Most theatregoers will have only learned about Carl Peter Værnet from watching Claudio Macor‘s new play Savage, now running upstairs at the Arts Theatre. But the Nazi doctor from…
Has anyone else had difficulty getting back into their theatregoing after the results of the EU Referendum? The two – excellent – plays I have managed to see since the UK vo…