3,497 stories from The Arts Desk
Sally Cookson brilliantly reinvents a Christmas favourite to hook in all agesThe cry "Let's pretend" must have been heard often when J M Barrie played with the Llewelyn Davies boys in Kensin…
Ed Harris gives a masterclass in Sam Shepard's gothic family dramaWhat stroke of prescience brought two Sam Shepard plays to London in the very month America voted for Trump? The kind o…
Sharp Seventies political farce comes suddenly bang up to dateThis House arrives in the West End with magic timing - a comedy about the farcical horrors of being a government with a wafer-th…
Hans Christian Andersen made contemporary, infused with Emma Rice's trademark brioFor anyone disposed to treat the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse as hallowed ground " and such issues have had …
As her touring Hamlet reaches London, director Kelly Hunter reflects on packing Elsinore into a suitcase"I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, Were it n…
Mark Rylance is waiting for cod-ot in this absurdist trifleMark Rylance was once renowned for skipping thank yous to agents, friends and everyone he's ever met in award speeches and instead …
New drama about generational tension and nuclear disaster is metaphor-heavy and lacks energyOver the past decade, one new theme in particular has emerged in contemporary British new writing:…
'Tempest' time: Phyllida Lloyd's ambitious Shakespeare cycle reaches completion with his final playIf you are new to the Donmar Warehouse all-female stagings of Shakespeare's …
We recommend the top shows in musical theatreTHE BEST MUSICALS IN LONDON Aladdin, Prince Edward Theatre ★★★ Disney's latest blockbuster film-turned-stage show remains ai…
A star is born but the show still creaksThat old saw about a star being born really is on view at the Noel Coward Theatre, where newcomer Charlie Stemp justifies and then some, the fuss bein…
Antony Sher runs the full delivery gamut in Gregory Doran's distinguished production At the conclusion of a year in which Britishness has come so resoundingly to the fore of the nationa…
Stephen Daldry's makeover of the JB Priestley classic is back, and misses its markSo, the Inspector has come calling yet again. Twenty-four years have passed since Stephen Daldry's grap…
New drama about our desire for a simpler life is intriguing, but flawedThe beauty of the past is that it's a foreign country, and you don't need a visa to visit it. With the free movement of…
Andrew Lloyd Webber's trans-Atlantic transfer is a blast When's the last time you heard an Andrew Lloyd Webber show described as a gas, a hoot, an unpretentious delight? All those quali…
EV Crowe introduces The Sewing Group, her new Royal Court play set just before the Industrial RevolutionIt's a strange time to be alive. Has it always felt like this? When else was there a t…
Tight, nervous tragicomedy with an original take on immigration issuesIf you thought that a contemporary drama about forcible repatriation, set in an Immigration Removal Centre, would be abo…
The RSC stalwart, Gloucester in Gregory Doran's production of King Lear, talks politics, blinding and cricketDavid Troughton (b.1950), a familiar face on television and a Royal Shakespe…
David Bowie musical crosses the Atlantic, its intrigue intact When David Bowie first met with the producer Robert Fox to discuss Lazarus back in 2013, you now have to wonder if he was seriou…
Welcome return of boxing drama, which is thrilling if a bit hard to followWith the Bush Theatre's main building undergoing renovations, this company's shows are being staged in a selection o…
New Brexit tones gave new direction to Shakespeake's late romance "Britain is a world by itself." It could be the slogan of the year " or longer " but the phrase comes from Shakespeare'…
Miller's morality play fights to be relevant in the Trump eraWhat would a Trump follower make of a successful businessman who grew his company on the proceeds of a negligent decision, a…
Glenda Jackson returns to the stage as an authoritative Lear, gender irrelevantThe signs were there early in Glenda Jackson's career that she would one day have what it takes to "ascend the …
Joe DiPietro's cult hit is enjoyable, but rather predictable in form and contentFollowing no less than three smash-hit, sell-out runs in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe, the King's Head T…
HARROGATE, ROYAL COURT THEATRE Al Smith's play about love, perversion and memory is electrifyingAl Smith's play about love, perversion and memory is electrifying What's incest got to do…
10 QUESTIONS FOR LUCY BAILEY Is Milton's Comus such a far cry from her Globe shocker Titus Andronicus?Is Milton's rarity Comus such a far cry from her shocking Globe hit Titus Andronicu…
