3,497 stories from The Arts Desk
New play about the cultivated face of fascism is fascinating if flawedA day or so after Theresa May's keynote speech about Brexit the words Europe and European carry an electric charge. For …
Terror of the brutal rawness of nature in Malthouse Theatre's masterful stage adaptationWe probably think we know the story. From Peter Weir's cult 1975 film, or even from the original …
New play about casual work is thinly written and lacks dramaYou could call it the Corbynisation of new writing. In the past couple of years, a series of plays have plumbed the lower depths, …
Adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's bestseller is not built to soarKhaled Hosseini's 2003 bestseller ticks all the boxes as an A-level text. A personal story with epic sweep, it interweaves…
Celebrating the great British actress who rules the waves (and the Golden Globes)It was a good night for British thespians at the 2016 Golden Globes. The stars of The Night Manager " Tom Hid…
Revival of Tony Harrison's satyr play remains virile, but shows its ageWhen a leading fringe theatre starts the year with a production whose gender ratio is 8:1 in favour of men, it had…
Several National Theatre knock-outs, a corker or three at the Court, and Billie Piper packed a wallop Life threw numerous, possibly irrevocable curveballs at us all during 2016, which in tur…
Ethan Mordden's latest opinionated guide has plenty of entertainment valueTinseltown's relationship to its more sophisticated, older New York brother is analogous to Ethan Mordden's eng…
Acerbic revival of Yasmina Reza's bitterly funny comedy exploring male friendshipI avoided seeing Art when it was first staged in 1996, even though Matthew Warchus' production created a…
Revival of Shaw classic is a tour de force for Gemma ArtertonHow's this for a Christmas-week story? Joan, a young peasant girl " played in this version by the charismatically attractive Gemm…
Juliet Stevenson and Lia Williams electrify as four Schiller queensTwo rich, full December Saturdays of unsurpassable theatre, four great plays that grow more meaningful with passing time, a…
In a divided nation, holiday season shows look back to harsher but more hopeful timesJust 22 years old, South Africa's national "Day of Reconciliation" on 16 December has shuffled into its p…
These sunny comedies are rich in delight but lacking in darkness"The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo." A sudden cold breeze blows through the endless summer afternoon of…
Sensational! It's been worth the long wait for the girl group musical to reach London It's taken almost four nail-biting decades for Dreamgirls to evolve from the germ of an idea to …
Welcome return of pantomime to this iconic venueWhat a joy it is to have pantomime back at the Palladium, the first at this glorious theatre in 29 years. And the producers of Cinderella have…
Family desperation simmers, then erupts in Alexander Zeldin's devastating social dramaFor a play that ends with 15 minutes of breath-stopping, jaw-dropping theatre that is surely as pow…
Top director Ivo van Hove makes an uneven National Theatre debutTheatre conventions are a funny thing. Today, it's actually quite difficult to see a modern classic dressed in the clothes and…
Early Chekhov begins strongly, then falls away This Chekhov-intensive year comes to a muted climax with a rare sighting of Wild Honey, Michael Frayn's reappraisal of the Russian master's unt…
Phoebe Waller-Bridge's television hit returns to the stage " and still rocksIt's television, not theatre, that has real power. Real cultural force. Cultural muscle. Take the case of Phoebe W…
Bijou Broadway title proves supremely winningThere are no cartwheels, and no one does the splits, in the new London revival of that most cherishable of Broadway musicals, She Loves Me, which…
Jonathan Larson died before his musical struck gold. Was there more to come?On January 25 1996, after Rent's final dress rehearsal at the off-off-Broadway New York Theater Workshop, its comp…
High on visual thrills, low on subtlety: Luhrmann's debut film returns to the stageBaz Lurhmann's Strictly Ballroom started life as a short stage play in 1984, drawing on its creator's …
Moving pictures and crisp talk as Richard Jones tackles a Broadway comedyAn amplified crunch in the dark, sound without vision, kicks off this take on Moss Hart and George S Kaufman's light …
The gifted master of ceremonies who is bringing his double bill of Shakespearean comedy to the West End  When Shakespeare visits the bearpit of the West End, it is usually in the company …
The great American playwright, back in the West End with 'Buried Child', spent three formative years in London. Those who were there rememberSam Shepard came to live in London in 1…
