192 stories from The Tyro Theatre Critic
"Manon" is always a favourite of mine and with Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg in the lead roles this performance was up with the best I've ever seen. I haven't see nearly enough of the pai…
Sit in the front row at your peril: prepare to be ruffled, prodded and generally gawked at. Still, one might describe it as being brushed by greatness. For Kathryn Hunter's Monkey is somethi…
The Rattigan revival has been one of my theatre highlights for the last year or so and "Flare Path" fits right in. Though I wouldn't rank it with either "After the Dance" or "Cause Célèbre…
Unintentional hilarity is not how I really see Macbeth. Reviving Phyllida Lloyd's comically po-faced production seems like one of the dafter choices of the Royal Opera's season. As an entire…
After Glyndebourne's first Wagnerian effort with their monumental "Tristan und Isolde", high expectations met the start of this year's festival and their new staging of Wagner's "Die Meister…
Reaching the interval of Christopher Alden's new production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" I realised I had spent the previous two hours entirely enthralled but not really enjoying a minute …
The Royal Ballet's latest effort is a dynamic, varied triple bill but one that exposes what the company lack in Wayne McGregor. A true company choreographer. The resident choreographer's new…
"Clemency" is James Macmillan's follow-up to his iffy "Parthenogenesis". Laudably it is a large step-up in just about every respect. A simple tale, that of Sarah and Abraham, given an operat…
Like watching water dry, literally. "I Am The Wind" has quite astonishing international provenence, directed by Patrice Chéreau no less, and yet it is one of the most miserably empty pieces…
Well I'll be damned (figuratively at least). The English National Opera, after a recent spate of disasters with novice opera directors have hit the nail on the head with Terry Gilliam. He of…
The principal excitement of the Royal Opera's latest revival of Massenet's "Werther" has been the will he/won't he of Rolando Villazón. When I last heard him his career looked bleak, but …
It's always the unexpected ones that impress me the most. I only ventured to the English Touring Theatre's production of "Great Expectations" because I happened to have a free evening at the…
"The Tsar's Bride" represents another Russian novelty from the Royal Opera and if it isn't likely to be entering my favourites list any time soon it's a massive step up from last year's "Tsa…
Deary me. I can't recall a more disappointing melange of gimmick and pretension. A solid orchestral performance of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" ruined by dodgy, vacuous choreography who…
"Cause Célèbre" marks another piece within this quite delightful Terence Rattigan centenary. Thea Sharrock, who worked such magic with the magnificent "After the Dance", provides more of t…
There are many excellent things about "Frankenstein" but I fear the overwhelmingly brilliant light fixture above the stage might linger longer in the memory than the play itself. This isn't …
As regular readers may have noticed, I've been in the theatrical wilderness for the past few weeks (hence the lack of posts) but I'll be throwing myself back into things with as much energy …
