The ever-likable Mischief Theatre's latest stretches them in new if still-unfinished ways If ambition were all, Groan Ups would get an A*. Marking the first of a very welcome three-show res…
More manner than message in adaptation of Klaus Mann's 1930s novel You wonder about the title of French dramatist Sam Gallet's Mephisto [A Rhapsody], an adaptation for our days of Klaus Mann…
Sondheim's 1990 show gets more disturbingly pertinent with every revival "Every now and then the country goes a little wrong": so goes one of the many lyrics from the Stephen Sondheim-John W…
An Ealing comedy film becomes an intermittently entertaining play A hit comedy about a textile scientist? It might sound unlikely, but Ealing Studios' 1951 sci-fi satire, starring Alec Guinn…
A self-described "performative wokeness festival" doesn't quite hit sweet spot but gets close Shuck 'n' Jive is an hour-long two-hander about writing a play about being black in a white indu…
Questions of faith in Katori Hall's luminous meditation on belief, doubt and miracles The American dramatist Katori Hall has created a work of rare accomplishment in Our Lady of Kibeho, a pl…
The West End once again hosts one of the best comedies ever written "Doors and sardines. Getting on, getting off. Getting the sardines on, getting the sardines off. That's farce. That's t…
Communicator par excellence on a journey from Gandalf to Macbeth via panto, Coronation Street and gender politics Reviewing Ian McKellen's show is, in one sense, like appraising the Taj Maha…
Sharp revival of Peter Nichols's taboo-busting fantasia is magnificent Playwright Peter Nichols died aged 92 last month, just before the opening of this starry West End revival of his most c…
Athol Fugard's 1982 self-exorcism is searingly revived Time has been kind to Athol Fugard's "Master Harold"...and the Boys. It's a stealth bomb of a play that I saw in its world premiere pro…
Jane Austen redux fizzes with ideas What a joy Laura Wade's latest play is. Transferring from its successful run at the Minerva Theatre at Chichester last year, The Watsons is developed from…
John Simm is a strikingly intelligent Thane in a broadly theatrical production There's a fine balance between the cosmic and the closely crafted in director Paul Miller's Macbeth, his first …
Relationships, alliances and hatreds as a split-up rock group meet again 30 years on An all-girl rock group from the 1980s meet again, 30 years after an acrimonious break-up brought their sh…
Caryl Churchill's latest offering is wonderfully bright and incisively perceptive At the age of 81, Caryl Churchill, Britain's greatest living playwright, is still going strong. Her latest i…
The Spanish classic with an Irish accent Earthiness, lyricism, fatalism, the undeniable force of passion, of ecstatic attraction, known as "duende": these are the familiar ingredients of Lor…
Excellent acting in a play that tickles the senses by morphing from one genre to another Are first ladies second-class citizens? Do they always have to stand behind their husbands? What are …
Award-winning play starring Tracy-Ann Oberman centred on the mother of a teenage rapist Mother of Him was written a decade ago, but its most prescient moment happens in the first five minute…
Christopher Hampton adapts von Horváth's novel about the mindset of totalitarianism The only novel by the Hungarian dramatist Ödön von Horváth, Youth Without God was written in ex…
An original piece of theatre-making finds joyous exuberance, as well as sorrow, in the immigrant experience Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch's "refugee musical" " now there's a phrase y…
Incisive, intelligent and deeply moving The Permanent Way first roared its way into the national consciousness in 2003 when, after a triumphant opening in York, it toured the UK before tr…
Rich in empathy, dramatically raw, Alexander Zeldin's bleak study of society on the edge Alexander Zeldin continues his devastating analysis of modern Britain in this culminating play of…
Onetime Broadway flop has more charm in London but still needs work The work isn't finished on Big, if this stage musical of the beloved 1988 Tom Hanks film is ever to, um, make it big. A B…
A tongue-in-cheek take on the Jane Austen classic misfires It is a truth perhaps not quite but almost universally accepted that Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", beloved of GSCE English …
A potentially compelling play is done in by its structure and an unhelpful staging An excellent director makes a rare misstep with Amsterdam, in which a compelling if tricksy play is given …
New docu-drama about a distressing case of 1990s corruption and cover-up New artistic directors are popping up all over British theatre. Every week seems to usher in a refreshingly new talen…