I voted in the inaugural West End Wilma Awards this morning " and experienced an intense feeling of déjà vu. My own awards past Fourteen years ago, I founded the WhatsOnStage Awards almo…
Forbidden Broadway was just what the doctor ordered for me the other night – I haven’t laughed so hard in ages. The renowned Broadway institution (going since 1982) has bee…
Knowing that my theatregoing " and overall mental and emotional bandwidth " would be going into tailspin this week, I packed in as many shows as I could over the past fortnight. Amongst them…
"Talk about handling a hot potato," Gabriel Quigley said to me after I chaired a post-show Q&A with her and her co-star Richard Clements following last Thursday's performance of Spoiling…
Four of the nine Festival Highlights shows I worked on in August were solo pieces. And over the years of visiting the Edinburgh Fringe, I estimate that at least 60% of all those shows I've s…
I'm excited to attend the gala opening tonight of Michael Flatley's revamped Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games. I got a sneak peek recently when a few extracts were performed at a preview e…
When the Daily Telegraph announced yesterday that Charles Spencer is retiring after 25 years as the newspaper's theatre critic, there was an outpouring of appreciation for Charlie on Twitter…
As I mentioned in my Theatre Diary today, I cannot recommend Benjamin Scheuer's The Lion highly enough. This is a beautiful one-man musical about a boy and his father and how that boy became…
Edinburgh aside, my August theatregoing has been sporadic, but here are a few shows I've seen recently that are worth catching if you can, especially now that the late summer sunshine seems …
When Mark Shenton was dismissed as critic from the Sunday Express last December, it was the talking point of the theatre industry, particularly after he blogged for The Stage about the sensa…
Any chance of dieting this month went out the window with the arrival of this beautiful care package of Sweet Theatre's Shakespeare's Leading Ladies chocolate bars. Sweet Theatre is the brai…
As part of my recent Festival Highlights Challenge, I had the pleasure of meeting " and, for 24 hours, effectively stalking " Sarah Quinney at the Edinburgh Fringe. Sarah is a Technical Stag…
What a turnout! After a Twitter RT frenzy with the cast of Therese Raquin yesterday, every single one of them joined me for a post-show Q&A after their sensational performance last night…
What chutzpah! Producer David Johnson’s reaction to a request from ATG, the UK’s largest theatre owning group, for complimentary tickets to his production of Fascinating Aida&…
I had photographer company in the form of other half Peter Jones for part of my Festival Highlights visit to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. If a photo is worth a thousand words, youR…
This year, I'm returning from Edinburgh just at the time I would normally be heading up… And that's not the only difference in my festival going. 2014 has been a year of many Fringe firsts…
In London, five shows a week is a serious haul. In Edinburgh, that's small fry. When I was reviewing in Edinburgh, I could easily do twice that in a day. This year, this week, I'm experienci…
I'm really doing well for play choices in July. Don't let the warm weather put you off catching these compelling productions, which scale great heights and depths of emotion. (Apart from the…
Have you lost count how many times a mobile has gone off when you're at the theatre? I have. And I marvel at the timing. Doesn't it always seem to be at a quiet, crucial moment of performanc…
When the production shots for Richard III were first released earlier this week, showing that director Jamie Lloyd had located the Bard's bloody history play in a 1970s office block, my inte…
I had a great time last night (3 July 2014) hosting the post-show Q&A at the hilarious new “two-woman comedy about putting on a one-woman show”, The Frida Kahlo of Penge West…
Despite the considerable distractions of the World Cup, Wimbledon and my own much-talked about (!) triathlon debut in Wales " I'm a sucker for a sporting spectacle " I have been lucky enough…
Clint Eastwood eat your heart out. While the Jersey Boys big screen release has received lukewarm reviews, I'm giving a massively big thumbs-up to a small screen release featuring the stage …
The News of the World phone hacking trial may have ended yesterday, but the drama continues at the National Theatre where, less than 24 hours after the end of the eight-month trial at the Ol…
Do you have a small, confident, South-East Asian-looking child? If so, Jo Hawes is looking for you. My interest was piqued when I attended Miss Saigon recently at the West End's Prince Edwar…