Christopher Biggins is back in gorgeous frocksIt's always good news when Christopher Biggins announces he's going to don false bosoms again to play a panto Dame, and Aladdin offers lots of f…
New play about refugee camp life in Calais is a grueling docu-dramaRefugees, it is said, have no nationality " they are all individuals. This new docu-drama, deftly put together by theatre-m…
Imogen Poots and James Norton in terrific form as American expats living on the edge The city of love provides a backdrop for marital discord and worse in Belleville, Amy Herzog's celebrated…
Look no strings: long-nosed cartoon character is humanised by a magical stagingFrom Nicholas Hytner and Alan Bennett's wonderfully nostalgic version of The Wind in the Willows through Coram …
Less than the sum of its partsIt raised some eyebrows when Al Murray announced he was to make his pantomime debut " top comics rarely make that crossover these days " but, considering his al…
Bernard Shaw curio gets its first major London revival in 30 yearsIf this play really were "A Debate in One Sitting" as its author called it in 1909, it would have sunk without trace. "Talk,…
Angus Jackson's traditional staging opens the the Rome MMXVII season Even more than some of Shakespeare's other histories, Julius Caesar inevitably offers itself to "topical interpretat…
Coquetry and tragic command not quite balanced, but this steady RSC production reaches gloryIs there a key to "infinite variety"? The challenge of Cleopatra is to convey the sheer fullness o…
Perfectly modulated ensemble and production vary the strains of a classic TV seriesDirector Richard Jones watched all 156 episodes of The Twilight Zone as research for this Almeida productio…
Simon Gray play is better served by its cast this time round The play that famously got away when one of its stars (quite literally) jumped ship is back. In 1995, Stephen Fry abandoned the W…
A fresh and inventive reworkingPantomime may be a very old art form, but the Lyric Hammersmith has been injecting some freshness into it each year since 2009, and this year's production, wri…
Matthew Kelly and Josefina Gabrielle provide double the value in John Masefield classicTheatreland is currently awash with pantomimes and rehashes of A Christmas Carol, so all credit to this…
New York refugee drama confronts anti-semitism with humour and heartIsrael Zangwill's 1908 play The Melting Pot characterises Europe as an old and worn-out continent racked by violence an…
The West End run of the cabaret variety show has everything but variety La Soirée is on the up-and-up. Beginning life as an after-hours show at the fringes of the Fringe in 2004, it won an …
Energetic retelling of the showman's storyYou have to hand it to Menier Chocolate Factory, a venue that doesn't let size matter as it stages an all-singing, all-dancing new production o…
New drama about political extremism is brilliantly written " mostlyThe political story of our time is the upsurge in support for Jeremy Corbyn, leftwing leader of the Labour Party, mainly by…
Barrie's grown-up fantasy gets a welcome centenary revivalConfused people, some of whom may have made the wrong choices in life and love, find themselves in an enchanted wood at Midsummer. D…
Edwardian rediscovery verges towards the sentimental, but satisfyingly soEven by the standards of theatrical archaeology that the Finborough has made its own, The Passing of the Third Floor …
New play about Syria is upstaged by its animal performersThe civil war in Syria spawns image after image of hell on earth. Staging the stories of that conflict presents a challenge to playwr…
Superb staging resurrects Dickens' morality tale Fresh from the success of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Jack Thorne now gives us his exuberant adaptation of another much-loved tex…
Promenade piece makes hyperactive theatrical weather of some important themes You say you want a revolution? Good luck locating one amidst the tonally muddled Inside Pussy Riot, the immersiv…
Two more versions of Wilkie Collins's thriller on stage and screen join a long rollcallThe Woman in White insists on being told and retold. Wilkie Collins's much loved thriller is perha…
The playwright introduces his new version of A Christmas Carol for the RSCSince mid-August, I've been doing something I swore I'd never do again. I've been rehearsing a new adaptation of a n…
Finally, a new play worthy of the Globe's Wanamaker PlayhouseThe Globe's Sam Wanamaker Playhouse may be a historical recreation, but the same shouldn't be true of the plays staged with…
International season continues with savage Ukrainian war playWar is morally acidic: it dissolves social rules, loosens inhibitions and gives permission to men to behave like animals. And the…