3,495 stories from The Arts Desk
The TV and theatre star charts her route from 'EastEnders' and 'Toast of London' to 'Fiddler on the Roof'What do you call a woman who murdered Dirty Den, is the…
Kenneth Grahame-inspired musical starring Rufus Hound is at once overly perky and dramatically weightlessAn enormous amount rides on a musical's opening number. Without explicitly expressing…
Goodbye Mr Chips, hello theatrical buried treasureLabels have their uses but they can also be a blight. The works of the Scottish playwright James Bridie " with their regional accents and do…
Audra McDonald's long-awaited West End debut deserves to take the town Broadway so frequently fetes its visiting Brits that it's nice when the honour is repaid.
The makers of quintessentially English musicals on heading back to the Edwardian era for The Wind in the Willows at the PalladiumGeorge Stiles and Anthony Drewe " Stiles and Drewe, as the so…
Rupert Murdoch saga by 'This House' playwright is too detailed and overblownThe recent general election result proves that the power of rightwing press has diminished considerably in the dig…
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's Off Broadway hit makes a vibrant crossing to London starring Colin MorganAs with life, so it is in art: in the same way that one can't predict the curve balls t…
Audience participation cannot save a trial that suffocates in abstractionCan the theatre be a courtroom? A good public place to debate morality and to arrive at profound decisions. You could…
It's opera, but not as we know itOpera-lovers coming to St Martins Lane may feel confused to be confronted by an unrecognisable Coliseum, which now has huge girder-like structures adorn…
New American satire about families only rarely hits the markDonald Trump's electoral success was, we have been told, fueled by the anger of the American working class. But how do you show th…
Onetime National Theatre hit-maker offers a decided change-of-pace Hampstead Theatre Downstairs' habit of sending shows southward to Trafalgar Studios continues with Richard Bean's Kiss Me. …
Robert Icke finds new truths in old words in this captivating productionMidway through Hamlet a troupe of actors arrives at Elsinore. Coaching them for his own ends, the prince turns directo…
Emma Rice bows out in riotous style " Shakespeare would have cheered herThis show feels like an end-of-the-exams party, and in a way that's exactly what it is. If the fruits of Emma Rice's s…
Katie Mitchell returns with a powerful account of depression and despairDorothy Parker's take on suicide is called "Resumé": it goes, "Razors pain you; Rivers are damp; Acids stain you; And…
New play about fatherhood and masculinity has an enjoyably global reachThe strapline for this joyful show is: "One day; six cities; a thousand stories". Allowing for hyperbole, this is just …
Epic new play about the Enclosures gets bogged down in obscurityHistory is a tricky harlot. She is bought and sold, fought for and thrown over, seduced and betrayed " and always at the mercy…
Joseph Houston and William Whelton found a storage space on Gumtree and turned it into a musical theatre. Here's howThe Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester is an irresistible example of the…
A cautious Miranda Hart cedes centre-stage to an enchanting young newcomer Forty years after Annie swept on to Broadway, brimming with shining-faced optimism amidst wearying times, along com…
Hugh Whitemore's skillful highlights reel over-eggs a complex poet's charmBard of Metroland and scourge of Slough, John Betjeman is, alongside Philip Larkin on parenthood, still on…
Lively song and movement, but the special pathos of the film is smotheredHitting the essence of a Fellini masterpiece in a different medium is no easy task. Try and reproduce his elusive bra…
Glorious reimagining of Broadway rarity at Regent's Park Open Air TheatreOn 8 April 1952, screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green were chatting to Charlie Chaplin at a party when he…
Three monologues brilliantly summon up a punchy world of pain and violenceThe monologue is a terrific theatre form. Using this narrative device, you can cover huge amounts of storytelling te…
Debut play about teaching and the unteachable hits a nerveWhen TV drama tackles Britain's class divide, the go-to working-class type is the northerner: gritty, blunt of vowel and partial to …
A major work of new American drama receives its European premiere at Richmond's Orange Tree TheatreMake no mistake about it, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a playwright to watch. London receives …
Hampstead studio space downstairs unveils a quiet corker Matt Hartley's personal take on London's housing crisis returns to the Hampstead Theatre's studio space downstairs and is sure to hit…
