Love London Love Culture round up the reviews for this eagerly-anticipated production of Shakespeare’s tragedy starring Ian McKellen.
‘Dazzling’: QUENTIN CRISP: NAKED HOPE – Stream Theatre (Online review)
Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope is a fitting tribute to a complex and elegant man who celebrated his own brand of queerness. “I am notorious,” is the cry of this survivor.
‘You are here, at the start of a moment’: Welcoming back Come From Away
‘You are here, at the start of a moment’. Those words in Come From Away never felt more true. Four hundred and 95 days after last being in a West End theatre, 495 days after last seeing a musical, 495 days without theatre. And ‘You are here…’
‘Not just great entertainment but also incredibly relatable’: FROM HERE – Chiswick Playhouse
The impossible “five years” question is posed to each of the characters in Ben Barrow and Lucy Ireland’s excellent new musical From Here – and each has a different answer.
‘Happens to hit some nicely topical nerves’: GIN CRAZE – Royal & Derngate, Northampton
Hats off to James Dacre’s Royal & Derngate for bravely slapping on brand new musical Gin Craze in the very week Lloyd Webber and four other London shows got abruptly pinged-off by test ’n’ trace (more like trick-or-treat, frankly: isolation blackmail).
‘Uncannily accurate’: QUENTIN CRISP: NAKED HOPE – Stream Theatre (Online review)
The fourth and final Cultural Recovery Fund funded show from production company Seabright has been, like its predecessors, filmed at Wilton’s Music Hall before a live audience and is being streamed via stream.theatre. This is Mark Farrelly’s homage to wilful eccentricity and outré lifestyle Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope.
‘It is an experiment which OTC should consider repeating’: A COLD SUPPER BEHIND HARRODS – Original Theatre Company (Online review)
In what I think may be a first, Original Theatre Company has released a filmed-as-live, onstage rehearsed reading in the shape of A Cold Supper Behind Harrods.
‘Filled with live music, laughter & just a few surprises’: WHAT THE LADYBIRD HEARD – Palace Theatre
With the summer holidays just around the corner, the stage adaptation of the Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks’ picture book What the Ladybird Heard has just flown into the West End for a summer stint ahead of a UK tour.
‘Ian McKellen scales new heights’: HAMLET – Theatre Royal, Windsor
Ian McKellen has never been an actor to shirk a challenge — or do things by halves. Having first played the title role of Hamlet fully 50 years ago, aged 31 — the age that Hamlet is at the end of the play — he has now returned to it, aged 82.
‘Gleefully brings the comedy of the piece to life’: THE GAME OF LOVE & CHANCE – Arcola Outside ★★★★
This brand new English version of Pierre de Marivaux’s classic comedy The Game of Love and Chance, adapted by Quentin Beroud and Jack Gamble, takes great delight in modernising this almost 300-year-old French play. There is a knowingness to the adaptation that adds yet more comic layers to the wonderfully silly piece.
‘Murphy is a master of his craft’: Friend (The One With Gunther) – Stream.Theatre (Online review)
Definitely a bold valley to travel down, Friends fans should explore Friend (The One With Gunther), a nugget of not-so-guilty pleasure watching.
‘There’s an appealing openness to much of the music’: DORIAN: A ROCK MUSICAL – Stream.Theatre (Online review)
A strong lead performance from Bart Lambert impresses in this streaming Oscar Wilde adaptation, but Dorian A Rock Musical lacks a real sense of identity.
‘A fierce West End debut’: ANNA X – Harold Pinter Theatre
Who are we and who are the people we meet? These rather profound questions have, in one way or another, been at the heart of Sonia Friedman’s brief Re:Emerge season at the Harold Pinter Theatre which concludes with Anna X.
‘The writing is gripping’: …cake – Theatre Peckham
Theatre Peckham’s artistic director Suzann McLean hits the target as she notes that …cake is a bold new play which honours intersectionality.
‘Valuable additions to the expanded series’: QUEERS – Old Vic (Online review)
The first new piece for Queers references a moment in history while the second takes a broader more contemporary sweep of recent events but what unites them is that they present the experiences of wider elements of the LGBTQ+ community who also happen to be black; the original series was rather under representative in this area.
‘Witty, weighted & lyrical’: LAVA – Bush Theatre ★★★★
Last year a critic described a dramatic response to the Black Lives Matter protests, to which Benedict Lombe contributed, as ‘more lecture than theatre’. The quote is projected onto the set of her debut play, Lava, at the Bush Theatre.
FROM DOWN UNDER: Frozen in Melbourne
While its title may match the chill of Melbourne winter, the arrival of Frozen brings welcome warmth and theatrical magic as the first major musical to debut locally since March 2020.
‘Very funny & wickedly affectionate’: Friend (The One With Gunther) – Stream.Theatre (Online review)
Friend rushes through ten series in an hour bringing you the highlights, the lowlights, the supporting cast, the big storylines, and more. It is very funny, wickedly affectionate, and utterly 90s.
‘An interesting take on the Oscar Wilde classic’: DORIAN: A ROCK MUSICAL – Stream.Theatre (Online review)
Dorian: A Rock Musical is an interesting take on the Oscar Wilde classic, probably better suited to live & in-person shows – Bart Lambert gives an arresting performance as Dorian Gray.
‘In itself a celebration’: SOUTH PACIFIC – Chichester Festival Theatre ★★★★★
Almost the most magnificent part of Daniel Evans’ production of South Pacific is that it’s happening at all: despite the distanced glimmer of blue paper masks, Chichester affirms that big musical theatre is back with almost insane defiance: