The outspoken comic talks about directing a 'science comedy' on the female brain, overcoming her battle with co-dependency and the cult of celebrity griefAt only 34, Whitney Cummings has pac…
Our father, Peter Hahlo, who has died aged 90, arrived in the UK as a refugee from the Nazis in 1938. With a label round his neck, a little money and few possessions, he boarded a kindertran…
£110m Rem Koolhaas-designed centre seen by city council as 'genuine cultural counterbalance to London'Manchester's proposed £110m arts centre, the Factory, has moved a step closer to b…
Coliseum, LondonCojocaru brings exquisite precision to her performance in English National Ballet's atmospheric and richly picturesque productionThis is an inspired piece of curation. Englis…
Trafalgar Studios, LondonStuart Slade's play about a survivors' group recalling a horrific incident is a thoughtful, arresting and blackly funny study of how we cope with tragedyHow would we…
Does the mind rule the body? The dancer doesn't think so " and she's recruited scientists for her experimental new showWe're standing in a beautiful, airy dance studio, beneath a ceiling mad…
As funding for the arts looks increasingly uncertain, the challenge for theatres is to find the right financial model to secure their futureLast year, I visited a regional theatre whose work…
Finborough, LondonA Vietnam vet plots to kill the US president in a tense three-hander that trains a spotlight on human rights abuses and ex-soldiers' mental healthDonald Freed's play was la…
Beslan's 2004 school siege, in which more than 300 people died, is the subject of a playful, comic and desperately moving piece for young audiences'I'm always up for a bit of a challenge," s…
Wyndham's, LondonMatthew Spangler's workmanlike adaptation of the bestselling novel about Afghanistan does a decent job but reduces it to a series of chronological eventsIt's an old problem:…
Box office records are being broken a theater-goers flock to popular shows " but what's behind the sudden surge?In early January, just days after the Times Square ball had made its annual pl…
Jermyn Street theatre, LondonTom Jacobson's two-hander takes a situation heavy with dramatic promise " the entrapment of gay men in 1914 America " and sacrifices it to metatheatre In 1914, C…
From the role-reversal minstrels in The Scottsboro Boys to a post-apocalyptic take on The Simpsons, rising dramatists choose the plays they can't forgetChosen by Vinay Patel Continue reading…
Katherine Soper, winner of the Bruntwood prize, is at the head of a promising group bidding to break down barriersFor any British teenage girl hoping to become a playwright, the chances are …
For many reviewers it is Australian actor's performance as Anna Petrovna that helps carry Chekhov adaptationCate Blanchett's Broadway debut has been hailed as ferocious, commanding and glori…
As Roe, a stage production centered on the landmark abortion case of the 1970s, hits Washington DC, playwright Lisa Loomer discusses its presicenceIn a normal election year, without the doze…
In his play Winter Solstice, Roland Schimmelpfennig seeks to explore how rightwing rhetoric can ambush even the liberal-mindedAs Michael Rosen's poem insists, fascism doesn't come in fancy d…
London's International Mime festival throws up some special treats including Gandini Juggling's Smashed, and Cinderella is still having a ball in BoltonThe London International Mime festival…
Roslyn Packer theatre, Sydney festivalShakespeare in Russian might sound off-putting " but in this violent, visceral contemporary production, the spaces between words hold the most meaningTh…
Ethel Barrymore Theater, New YorkAndrew Upton's Platonov is set in 1990s Russia, a country between communism and oligarchy. Between them, its star and Richard Roxburgh bring it fully to life…
Katherine Soper awarded £16,000 and residency at Royal Exchange for 'first proper play' about mental health and changes to the benefits systemThe UK's biggest playwriting competition has …
Salisbury PlayhouseFour performers rustle up a bustling parlour show of songs, sketches and magicA Little of What You Fancy, as the queen of the saucy song, Marie Lloyd, used to suggest to h…
Grand theatre, LeedsDominique Larose's serene Beauty leads the way in David Nixon's timely take on the fairytaleNorthern Ballet's Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy story choreograp…
Dorfman, LondonThe shared indignities of life in temporary accommodation hit home in Alexander Zeldin's new play at the NationalLove is set in a hostel offering temporary accommodation for p…
Lyric theatre, SydneyMusical by Carolyn Burns and Tim Finn, based on Madeleine St John's 1993 novel, studies mid-century women working in fictional department storeMid-century Australia: a t…