Producer Danielle Tarento and director Thom Southerland have created another Off-West End mega-hit musical. In fact, Grey Gardens has broken all box office records at Southwark Playhouse whe…
For years Guys and Dolls has been all but ruined for me: that’s what happens when you are lucky enough to see a definitive production and performance. I speak, of course, of Richard Ey…
The 2016 West End season got off to a rollicking start this week with Wednesday’s opening of Guys and Dolls, the latest Chichester Festival transfer to the Savoy Theatre, which follows…
After rounding up various publications' #theatre2015 highlights yesterday, it's time to reflect on my own year in the stalls (well, mainly in the stalls, occasionally in the dress circle). I…
If you know me at all well, you’ll know that I’m a Twitter addict – which includes a love for all sorts of nerdy things to do with Twitter management and monitoring. And th…
After my two-week Christmas roadtrip in the US, I'm finally back at my desk and able to catch up on all the 2015 UK theatrical year round. Have you been keeping up in my absence? Fear not ei…
After Anna Francolini on Monday and the Judy Garlands yesterday, I'm going for a hat trick of blogs about amazing women today so that I can tell you this: if you haven't yet seen Linda at th…
Take your pick of Judy Garlands. On the London stage this week alone, you've got a choice of three " Helen Sheals, Belinda Wollaston and Lucy Penrose – in Ray Rackham's brilliant new p…
"Who are you?" It's the only real question, according to wonder.land via Lewis Carroll. But the main question that kept running through my mind while watching the Damon Albarn musical at the…
I have tried as much as possible to ignore the press around Jeremy Corbyn's attendance of the Stop the War organisation's Christmas do this week. Frankly, I just didn't want to get myself wo…
When wonder.land premiered at the Manchester International Festival in July, reviews were decidedly mixed. National press who made the trip north were underwhelmed, bestowing a raft of three…
On Friday night, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn emailed me and other grassroots members of the Labour Party asking what I think Britain should do about the civil war in Syria, our national secu…
I usually prefer to spend Sunday nights in winter holed up at home, but I was glad to make an exception – especially thanks to the considerately early start time of 5.30pm – last…
I've been thinking a lot about new musicals recently. That's not meant to be a blatant plug for my new website Stage Faves. Apart from the small detail that #StageFaves' covers revivals and …
People who see me in the theatre no doubt assume I'm always armed with my little notebook and scrambling for the pen that always seems to have fallen to the bottom of my bag because I'm a cr…
There's nothing like a major theatre event to warm the cockles on a winter's day. And the opening of Kenneth Branagh's return to the West End with a year-long season as actor-manager was und…
Maybe I'm just an old softie. Okay, yes, let's admit it, I am. I'm also a lifelong believer in the restorative power of Christmas music which, like Katrina and the Waves' “Walkin' on S…
Belarus Free Theatre (BFT), the underground theatre group routinely censored and persecuted in its state-controlled homeland, is celebrating its tenth birthday this month. Founded by human r…
The play Pig Farm, which is currently receiving its UK premiere at London's St James Theatre, is written by American Greg Kotis, who also wrote the book for the Urinetown, the musical which …
Regular readers of this blog will know that, a few weeks ago, I was blown away by Tooting Arts Club’s revival of Barbarians, Barrie Keeffe‘s 1977 modern classic about disaffec…
What an honour! Last night I had the privilege of helping to open the third annual From Page to Stage season of new musicals. From Page to Stage is the brainchild of Katy Lipson of Aria Ente…
Obviously I go to the theatre a lot: but last night truly was special. I had the huge privilege of attending a premiere, at the White Bear Theatre, that marked the playwriting debut of a …
The new play’s the thing, even when it’s very old…. Here are four I’ve seen over the past few weeks, three of which I haven’t managed to squeeze yet into …
Richard, one of the central characters in Daniel Dingsdale's debut play Dark Tourism (like me) has a thing for quotations. The irony is that he's a peddler of lowest common denominator cultu…
Tonight should have been the night that Rebecca Lenkiewicz's new Out of Joint play Jane Wenham: The Witch of Walkern, inspired by the last woman in England to be charged with witchcraft in t…