First staged in 1985, just before the AIDS epidemic had fully entered public consciousness, Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart rails against the refusal of US authorities to acknowledge anything was wrong.
‘This jukebox show earns its place in the West End’: GET UP! STAND UP!
Get Up! Stand Up! follows the standard tropes of the bio-musical, folding scenes from his life and work around some of Bob Marley’s most famous songs
‘A fun, frothy play in part carried by its status as a West End institution’: THE MOUSETRAP – West End
Are you allowed to call yourself a theatre fan if you haven’t seen The Mousetrap, the West End’s longest-running play? Possibly. But I’ve ticked that box now.
‘Surprisingly hilarious about a not-so-hilarious subject’: YELLOWFIN – Southwark Playhouse ★★★★
What would you do if all the fish suddenly vanished? It’s a question that would have sounded faintly ridiculous a few years ago, but as climate change grips the world, a mass extinction event doesn’t feel that far off.
‘Lots of fun!’ REVENGE: The Horror Cabaret – Pleasance Theatre
A fun-filled hour of horror-themed musical theatre numbers comes wonderfully unstuck as its creator can’t bring herself to share the spotlight with the other cast members.
‘What can a theatre production do? Ram it home, that’s what’: GRENFELL – VALUE ENGINEERING – London & Birmingham
There was a spate of criticism when Richard Norton Taylor’s dramatisation of the Grenfell Inquiry was announced, despite it being a not-for-profit enterprise, set in and for the neighbourhood which grieves the disaster.
Who might you meet in the selfie queue at Back to the Future?
In our social media age, selfies outside the theatre are de rigueur. Outside the Adelphi after Back to the Future, a man waited patiently for my friends and me to finish our group gurning in front of the show poster.
‘The denouement is among Agatha Christie’s finest’: WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION – County Hall
Lucy Bailey’s site-specific production of Agatha Christie’s courtroom drama has returned to London County Hall, after a lengthy, if unplanned adjournment, and remains one of the most effective theatrical settings in London.
‘The promenade performance offers a tour of the exciting new spaces’: RED – Polka Theatre
Polka Theatre has finally reopened its doors after two and a half years, following major refurbishment works which coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘Any actor that can purposely act badly deserves credit’: THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG – Touring ★★★★★
Since the play began in 2012 on the stage in the Off West End venue The Old Red Lion, The Play that Goes Wrong has gone from strength to strength and spent nine years in the West End and is currently back out on tour.
‘Heartbreaking & fascinatingly staged’: LOVE & OTHER ACTS OF VIOLENCE – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★
This fascinatingly powerful new play from Cordelia Lynn examines the vicious cycle of politics, history and discrimination through the eyes of one couple.
‘Sometimes entertaining in a despairing way, sometimes alarming’: WHITE NOISE – Bridge Theatre ★★★★
This feels like a howl of baffled frustration, from a millennial generation unable to deal with the emotional legacy of a long-ago slave trade.
Book Review: Hamilton & Me – by Giles Terera ★★★★
While working to bring the smash-hit musical Hamilton to the West End stage, Giles Terera kept a journal that chronicled the journey and now provides a wonderfully moving insight into the process that so few get to be part of.
‘An enjoyable evening, superbly acted’: HOW TO SURVIVE AN APOCALYPSE – Finborough Theatre ★★★
Jordan Hall’s multi-award-winning Canadian comedy, in a smart staging by Proud Haddock artistic director Jimmy Walters, is so engaging you don’t really need a glass of overpriced wine to enhance your experience.
‘Arinzé Kene is all Bob, wonderfully in the spirit & musically perfect’: GET UP, STAND UP! – West End ★★★★
Everything Bob Marley sings lifts the heart. This musical is a huge affirmation of that heart and humanity, and it’ll be hard to stop me buying another ticket.
‘A wonderful insight into how culturally diverse London is’: A PLACE FOR WE – Park Theatre
Through the decades, three families try to navigate their way through an ever-changing environment for Talawa Theatre in Archie Maddocks’ new play.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: White Noise at the Bridge Theatre
On LoveLondonLoveCulture, Emma Clarendon rounds up the reviews for Polly Findlay’s European premiere production of White Noise, by Pulitzer Prize-winning US playwright Suzan Lori-Parks.
‘A superb credit to the 19th-century Gothic novel’: THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW – Touring ★★★★★
Based on the American Gothic novel by Washington Irving, which was first published in 1819, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has been adapted for the stage by Tilted Wig Productions in this highly recommended production.
‘A reminder that the most toxic youthful masculinity might turn to heroism’: INTO BATTLE – Greenwich Theatre ★★★
Balliol College Oxford, 1910. In Into Battle, confident young Etonians are hurling crockery downstairs, yelling “I’m a bastard, I’m a bastard, rather be a bastard than a Trinity man”.
‘I can’t help but ask: is this humour we still want or need in theatre?’ THE BOOK OF MORMON – Touring
I want to start by saying how happy I am to be back reviewing musical theatre. How happy I am the big tours are back and how overjoyed I was to be back in my home turf of the Wales Millennium reviewing a show.