Ionesco classic gets an entertainingly vivid and contemporary update Is the theatre of the absurd dead? In today's world, when cruel and crazy events happen almost daily, the idea that you …
★★★★ THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING OSCAR, JERMYN STREET THEATRE One man play from 1960 given a compelling revival Alastair Whatley honours his subject in a quietly powerful…
★★★★ STILETTO, CHARING CROSS THEATRE Castrato finds comfort by the canals Quirky, operatic show won't please everyone, but will delight many That friend you have wh…
New play about motherhood and vampirism is disappointingly incoherent Motherhood is a high stress job. Ask any woman and they will tell you the same: sleepless nights, feeding problems and …
★★★ ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS - THE MUSICAL, THEATRE ROYAL BATH Ambitious new musical isn't slaying 'em in the aisles 1950s America feels a lot like 2020s America in…
Johnson Willis captures the anarchic energy and wit of the late guitarist Resurrecting the origins of old rock stars is becoming quite the thing, After cinema's Elton John, Freddie Mercury…
April De Angelis's 1993 play is a delightful if sketchy account of Restoration female actors Creatives " or creatures? In the 1660s, women " having been banned from working as actors in pre…
James Graham adds a neat coda to his ode to decency in sport With qualifying about to begin for the soccer World Cup, and England sporting a brand new manager, it's fitting that James Graham…
KT Tunstall's new score brings bite and momentum to a high octane evening Before there was Barbie: The Movie, before there was Legally Blonde, there was Clueless, the Valley Girl movie that …
Julia McDermott triumphs as a Californian weather girl coping with fires inside and outside her head Can Francesca Moody do it again? Fleabag's producer has brought Weather Girl to London, a…
New play about the game of Dungeons & Dragons explores fact and fantasy "The exercise of fantasy is to imagine other ways of life," says one of the role-players during a Dungeons & …
Jean-Philippe Daguerre tries to mix a farcical comedy of manners with the holocaust When Yasmina Reza's cerebral play Art arrived in London in 1996, we applauded it as a comedy. Now another…
★★★★ EDWARD II, SWAN THEATRE Rapid and racy adaptation draws on its writer's legend Putsch in the palace brings down a king who chose the wrong person to love "Do…
Perfectly judged performances enhance a subtle staging of Nick Payne's two-hander Nick Payne, the writer of Constellations, has created another 90-minute zinger for two actors. This one is m…
The Guyanese migrant experience of 1970s London gets the big-stage treatment Plays about the Windrush Generation are no longer a rarity, but it's still unusual for revivals of black British…
Missed opportunity to create a rich drama from this intriguing historical encounter Why is it so hard to write a decent play about Bach? Maybe, in part, because there are no words that can e…
Gaza play is both surreally humorous and finally devastating The war in Gaza has been going since 7 October 2023 " that's about 15 months. But it's strangely absent from British stages. Of …
Variable ensemble yields some gripping scenes and monologues Dublin theatregoers have been inundated with Irish family gatherings concealing secrets or half-buried sorrows, mixing "bog gothi…
Jonathan Bailey makes a petulant stage return in Shakespeare's most luxuriant play Screen stardom is generally anointed at the box office so it's a very real delight to find the fast-rising…
Tamsin Greig and Celia Imrie shine in a multifaceted portrait of motherhood The theatre director Anna Mackmin has written and directed an extraordinary play about a mother and daughter relat…
Bush's writing is as fresh as a sea breeze and as lyrical as birdsong "Who'd be a woman?... Who in their right mind would choose all that?" The question comes towards the end of a conversat…
Diamond-sharp banter and an endorphin fizz make this one of the best parties in town Over the last few months, celebrity-driven West End productions have suffered some inglorious crashes - n…
★★★★★ HAMLET, ROYAL SHAKESPEARE THEATRE Rupert Goold's staging lends a gnawing, troubling, transatlantic relevance The iceberg cometh The date, projected be…
House of Cards writer tackles AI and religion, but without the necessary clarity Our humanity is defined not only by our use of language, but also by our sense of the spiritual. Whether you…
New West End drama about spicing up marriage is oddly lacking in passion Since when has new writing become so passionless? Mike Bartlett is one of the country's premiere playwrights and his…