Five heroic women and two instrumentalists go Hellenic, with panache This is the show that launched a thousand puns, mostly ancient-Greek-oriented, and just as many corny rhymes, all deliver…
Roald Dahl adaptation is busy to a fault but lacks emotion The National Theatre these days seems to be going from hit-to-hit, with transfers aplenty and full houses at home. And there's eve…
Christopher Eccleston is a Scrooge for the ages Familiarity has bred something quite fantastic with the Old Vic Christmas Carol, which is back for a seventh season and merits ringing all av…
★★★ OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Joan Littlewood invents devised theatre with satirical wit and righteous anger centre stage Blackeyed Theatre's touring produc…
Hattie Morahan returns to Ibsen, for another round of unhappy families Henrik Ibsen may well have wanted to shake things up, to rile against the social mores of his time. But his visionary c…
A familiar comedy provides Jeeves-and-Wooster period Christmas fun Oliver Goldsmith was a literary all-rounder - novelist, poet and playwright - remembered chiefly for one example of each di…
★★★★★ THE MONGOL KHAN, LONDON COLISEUM Cirque du Soleil meets Game of Thrones Take its limitations on trust and this Mongolian epic proves the best value in tow…
A British-Indian family celebrate their first Diwali, with mixed results "It's nothing like Christmas," Rachel (Amy-Leigh Hickman) hisses at her brother David (Kishore Walker). She's trying…
Samuel Barnett performs a sizzling monologue about sex and fatal attraction The Comedian runs, bounces even, onto the stage. The audience immediately applauds. He seizes the mic and makes se…
 Speculation and facts woven into a compelling portrait of a singular man Four centuries on from the publication of the First Folio, is there anything new to be said about William Shake…
★★★ THE TIME TRAVELLER'S WIFE, APOLLO THEATRE If Doctor Who did musical romcoms... Powerhouse performances and visual effects let down by unambitious book and lacklustre so…
★★★★★ NINETEEN GARDENS, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE DOWNSTAIRS Black comedy about transgressive love gone sour proves an accomplished English language debut for prize-win…
New comedy about toffs and tycoons is disappointingly juvenile and weak As Christmas looms, 'tis the season for comedy. And even the traditionally austere Royal Court feels obliged to join i…
The West End gets a much-needed shot in the arm Rarely has a play's opening been so opportune. Just when it looked as if the West End was slipping into decline, along comes the smart, shrewd…
Richard Bean's new comedy about old age occasionally glows, but stays lukewarm There's only a couple of things you need to know about playwright Richard Bean: he started out as a stand-up c…
Princess Diana's BBC soul-searching makes for a slender docu-drama Journalism is a despised profession. And when you consider the story behind the interview that Diana, Princess of Wales, g…
A Faustian fable of online influence crackles with energy and attitude You can almost feel the energy blazing off the stage in this fast, furious and fiercely funny two-hander from writer Ra…
Shakespeare meets Game of Thrones in an efficient but emotionally stilted production Few would have imagined that Kenneth Branagh's return to the West End would see him garbed in fur-lined, …
The immersive experience makes us both victims of, and perpetrators in, an all too familiar perversion of truth The day after I saw the show, as went about the mundanities of domestic life,…
Simon Stephens' take on Max Frisch's classic play can hit and miss, but when it hits, it hits hard A dystopian present. Sirens ring out across the city. Firefighters rush to the wrong locat…
New adaptation of Eliza Clark's highly praised novel lacks a genuine heart of darkness We've all heard of the male gaze, but what about its subversion? Overturning masculine dominance is on…
★★★ MANIC STREET CREATURE, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Songs in the key of a traumatised life Maimuna Memon sings of the pain mental illness brings, and not just to the person it a…
Lynn Nottage and Lynette Linton reunite to deliver a rollicking evening Lynn Nottage's second London opening this year, the Donmar premiere of Clyde's, is a comedy about a sandwich, the p…
Kristin Scott Thomas and Lily James star in misfiring drama involving divas, film execs and dead parrots Penelope Skinner's new play is one of the most eccentric things I've seen in a long t…
Alexander Zeldin creates a complex portrait of a woman's struggle for self-esteem How to describe Alexander Zeldin's latest, The Confessions? It is almost a kitchen-sink drama, but also a pi…