This week the president of the United States Donald Trump said (or rather tweeted) that those who participated in protests against his administration fell into one of three categories: "p…
A year ago when blogging about the annual Critics' Circle Theatre Awards, my headline was "Critics' Circle Award winners: Are they the only ones that make sense anymore?" I didn't know then …
The best antidote to hopelessness has got to be action. That’s what IÂ have kept reminding myself over the past few months, and what I recited almost mantra-like on Friday afternoon …
Stage shows based on Joseph Moncure March's 1928 narrative poem The Wild Party are like buses. Ahead of next month's much-anticipated UK premiere of the Michael John LaChiusa's musical versi…
Last week I was more on schedule with rounding up lists of critics’ tips for the best theatre coming up this year. But in truth, as I’ve been organising the Critics’ Circle…
What are the hottest shows coming up this year? Based on the ones that are most likely to appear on top picks’ lists in my round-up of commentators’ round-ups, they are: Li…
Ahead of rounding up various publications #theatre2016 highlights, I'm taking a moment to reflect on my own theatregoing year and my favourite plays, musicals, performances and other events.…
The National Theatre used to be one of my favourite theatregoing destinations, but I’ve only been a handful of times in recent years. This hasn’t been an intentional omission on …
What’s most absurd about absurdist comedy LUV? That it’s virtually unknown in this country – despite an incredible pedigree. Long before he wrote the screenplay for the …
It’s taken 35 years, but Broadway hit Dreamgirls, inspired by the story of The Supremes, finally received its West End premiere last night (14 December) at the Savoy Theatre. Was it wo…
I have become even more spoilt for choice for theatre on my doorstep with the arrival of my SE1 neighborhood's newest venue, The Bunker. This subterranean black box is so close to another on…
I saw two two-hander musical gems this past weekend: Her Aching Heart at the Hope Theatre in Islington and, on the opposite side of town, Another Night Before Christmas at the Bridge Hous…
What does Sam Shepard's 1978 play Buried Child have to tell us about America after the presidential election of Donald Trump? The West End transfer of the New Group's production, first seen …
A new musical " especially one not based on a film and/or arrived from Broadway trailing Tony Awards " is always a risky proposition. One received way of establishing a level of recognition …
What a treat to pay my first visit to London’s newest venue – The Bunker, carved out of a carpark beneath the Menier Chocolate Factory – to host this post-show Q&A for …
There’s something in the water with The Beggar’s Opera at the moment. Lazarus Theatre’s new, modern-dress, 80-minute version at Brockley Jack Studio Theatre is the th…
Here’s everything you need to know about last night’s West End premiere of School of Rock: The Musical in a nutshell: Andrew Lloyd Webber has a monster hit on his hands; the s…
In the days before this year’s US presidential election, Donald Trump predicted that the result would be “Brexit-plus-plus-plus”. Â For me personally, “Brexit-plus-…
Everyone’s on drugs at the Park Theatre, I tweeted last Monday night. For a theatre that consistently impresses with the diversity of its received productions, it’s interesting t…
As I prepared to head to the St James Theatre last night to catch Jason Robert Brown‘s own production of his painfully semi-autobiographical two-hander The Last Five Years, I sent out …
The (new) Union Theatre and Southwark Playhouse are always a pleasure to visit " not least because both venues are practically on my doorstep, within a ten-minute walk. At the moment, they'r…
What an astonishing way to make your playwriting debut. Theresa Ikoko‘s first full-length play GIRLS was a Verity Bargate finalist and winner of both the Alfred Fagon Award (for …
Two rarely seen short plays by Steven Berkoff are professionally performed together for the first time in this much-anticipated West End premiere. LUNCH and, written 20 years later, its sequ…
If you have to work on your birthday, this is just the kind of work you want. After watching the wonderful Amanda Muggleton rip through her 90-minute one-woman comedy The Book Club on Friday…
I'm delighted to be able to deputise for my friend and My Theatre Mates co-founder Mark Shenton for two dates of his weekly West End chat show in October. Coq-Tales and Conversations takes p…