★★★★ A CHRISTMAS CAROL, RSC Old favourite finds contemporary relevance in sanitised staging The RSC Christmas show delivers exactly what it promises Life is full o…
Terry Johnson returns with a sex comedy that is neither sexy nor funny In the past, playwright Terry Johnson has mixed sex and comedy with hilarious results. His Freudian farce, Hysteria, a…
★ HERE, Southwark Playhouse Characters drown in a surfeit of issues The prestige of the Papatango Prize cannot rescue a play that fails to transcend its inexplicable limitations The k…
New play about a junior doctor on the edge is powerful and moving Every day there is bad news about the NHS " junior doctors are exhausted, nurses need foodbanks and the stats are hitting a…
Saying goodbye to the actor famous for saying hello Leslie Phillips would have known for half a century that at his death, which was announced yesterday, the obituaries would lead with one t…
Super songs can't quite rescue an ill-focused story and sparse staging Whorehouses, gay prostitution and suicide " you can see why James Jones' bestselling 1951 novel was bowdlerised by the …
★★★★ ELEPHANT, BUSH STUDIO Stirring solo show from rising star Anoushka Lucas A beguiling debut play with both charm and an angry message It lasts only an interval-fr…
New play about the Queen of Scots is a bit wordy, but well worth it Scottish playwright Rona Munro is both prolific and ambitious. After her trilogy of historical dramas, The James Plays, w…
The playwright talks about his latest play, Not One of These People, which he is performing himself, and about digital creativity and constraints on authorship The fictional world is our wo…
★★★★ TAMMY FAYE, ALMEIDA THEATRE The rise and fall of a iconic figure whose reach stretched across late 20th century American culture Plenty of heart and bite in a…
Peter Gill's new memory play is a wistful recreation of gay loves lost and found As its title suggests, Peter Gill's Something in the Air is an elusive piece " it's about catching at instinc…
New West End theatre opens with a bio-drama that is joyful silly - but a bit relentless Opening a theatre should be a celebration, says Nica Burns, the West End power behind this new theatre…
Pearl Cleage's play about thwarted dreams in Prohibition era Harlem gets a stellar production The cynical might think Pearl Cleage's play had been expressly written to address the over-ridin…
Jack Thorne's wickedly funny play offers plum roles to two riveting disabled actors This is not a play for the squeamish: here be blood and cum and unsavoury descriptions of genitalia, male …
Ingenious puppetry and music brings a classic 2-D animation to life on stage As 10-year-old Satsuki observes as she arrives in the countryside with her little sister Mei, "We're not in Tokyo…
David Tennant is a bone-chillingly affable Nazi in C P Taylor's uneven look at morality "The bands came in 1933." So begins C J Taylor's Good, a play that tries its hardest to resist being G…
Feted Broadway musical finds an apt London fit Not much happens but, in its way, everything does in The Band's Visit, the gentle, sweet-natured musical that rather unexpectedly storme…
Robert Icke's whip-smart adaptation puts identity politics on the dissection table Robert Icke is an expert in corporate tragedy. I don't mean that in a bad way - just that he has a penchant…
New play about therapy is powerfully emotional, but sadly predictable Therapy is inherently dramatic. After all, it's all about character " and it has the aim of producing a recognizable cha…
★★ THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE, ROSE THEATRE Uncompromising adaptation of Brecht outstays its welcome Carrie Hope Fletcher one of few bright sparks on a tough evening for the audi…
Engaging adaptation and sympathetic playing still leave viewers longing for more detail It's particularly poignant to watch this story in the knowledge that a little over a year after US-led…
Kingship, tolerance and the trappings of power are among the many themes of Rona Munro's passionate, timely new play "The poem is real," intones entertainer-turned-courtier Ellen solemnly as…
Justin Vivian Bond and Anthony Roth Costanzo in an absolutely fabulous double act You know you're in good company the minute these two appear on stage: they are so splendidly what they are, …
★★★ IPHIGENIA IN SPLOTT, LYRIC HAMMERSMITH THEATRE Howl of protest at the cost of austerity leads to a different conclusion seven years on Timely revival of Gary Owen's sol…
Lyndsey Turner paints this seminal drama with disturbing colours How can this beauty arise from such ugliness? The Crucible, Arthur Miller's 1953 drama about the Salem witch trials of 1692, …