Emmy & SAG Award winner Megan Mullally (Will & Grace) will make her West End musical debut as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes opposite Tony, Olivier & BAFTA Award winner Robert Lindsay as Moonface Martin, running from 8 May 2021 (press night is 20 May) until 22 August at London’s Barbican Theatre.
‘A powerfully resonant, relevant & riveting watch’: It’s True, It’s True, It’s True – Breach Theatre (Online review)
The BBC film version of a Renaissance rape trial is powerfully resonant, relevant and a riveting watch.
20 shows to look forward to in 2020
Looking ahead to some of 2020’s exciting shows, most with an emphasis away from the West End and instead focusing at the London Fringe and across the UK.
‘Peake guides us expertly through worlds of pain’: AVALANCHE – Barbican Theatre
Maxine Peake is magisterial at the Barbican in this heart-breaking monologue Avalanche; A Love Story.
NEWS: RSC returns to the Barbican with three new Shakespeare productions
Later this year, the three Shakespeare productions from the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) summer 2019 Stratford season transfer to the Barbican from 26 October 2019.
‘A sobering, haunting journey’: AVALANCHE – Barbican Theatre ★★★★
Avalanche is a sobering, haunting journey that carries as much warning as it does perhaps solace to those thinking of having IVF or have had it as well as a kind of delight in the sheer beauty and bravura of Maxine Peake’s performance.
‘It is a play that requires you to feel rather than to understand’: GRIEF IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS – Barbican Theatre
Grief on stage and in popular culture is rarely considered as a psychological state of its own but as a means or driver for other behaviour.
‘Combines bravura acting with a battery of visual effects’: GRIEF IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS – Barbican Theatre
Enda Walsh’s adaptation of Max Porter’s contemporary classic gets the big-stage treatment, starring Cillian Murphy. With mixed results.
Twenty shows to look forward to in 2019
So many of the recommendations for shows to see next year focus on the West End. And for sure, I’m excited to catch big ticket numbers like All About Eve, Come From Away and Waitress, but I wanted to cast my eye a little further afield.
‘Modern & moving’: ROMEO & JULIET – Barbican Theatre
It’s sometimes a little difficult to take seriously how old everyone is meant to be in Romeo & Juliet but Erica Whyman’s modern-day production for the RSC, playing in rep now at the Barbican, never lets you forget.
NEWS: Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s Jesus Christ Superstar transfers to the Barbican Theatre in 2019
Following its sell-out success in 2016 and 2017 at the Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park, the multi-award-winning production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Chris Superstar transfers to the Barbican Theatre for just 60 performances in 2019, running from 4 July to 24 August).
‘Lacks clarity & intent’: MACBETH – Barbican Theatre
Despite a cast including Christopher Eccleston and Niamh Cusack, this proves another disappointment of a Macbeth as the RSC starts is autumn residency at the Barbican.
NEWS: Cillian Murphy will star in premiere of Grief is the Thing with Feathers at the Barbican Theatre
Cillian Murphy will star in Wayward Productions’ inaugural production, Enda Walsh’s adaptation of Max Porter’s award-winning novel Grief is the Thing with Feathers, playing at the Barbican Theatre from 25 March to 13 April 2019.
‘A great night out for music lovers’: BARRY HUMPHRIES’ WEIMAR CABARET – Barbican Theatre
Barry Humphries appears in this tribute to Weimar era composers in his most daring character yet – himself – along fellow Melbournian Meow Meow for the ride along with Aurora Chamber Orchestra.
‘Beautiful, dedicated piece of craftsmanship’: THE TOWN HALL AFFAIR – Barbican Theatre ★★★★
The Wooster Group’s Town Hall Affair is a beautiful, dedicated piece of craftsmanship, highly technically and artistically accomplished but in comparison with material in earlier years, it seemed to me, less dangerous, more controlled.
What’s made Victoria’s Top Ten shows for April 2018?
Spring is here (finally) and with any luck, we’ve seen the last of the snow so time to think about venturing out in our evenings, such as going to see some cracking theatre.
‘Curiously admirable’: PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK – Barbican Theatre ★★★
Victoria’s Malthouse Theatre and Black Swan Theatre’s joint production of Picnic at Hanging Rock does have its moments of scariness and there are fine, spirited performances from its quintet of female actors.
CORIOLANUS – Barbican Centre (RSC) ★★★★
Coriolanus may not be the most frequently staged of Shakespeare’s political Roman dramas although it nearly always gets included when a series of them are run together as here with the latest RSC season, under the banner title of Rome MMXVII.
MACBETH – Barbican Theatre & touring ★★★★★
It is now a little over a year since director Yukio Ninagawa died and this revival of his Macbeth, arguably his greatest hit, certainly brought an extra emotional tug to the Barbican.
AFTER THE REHEARSAL/PERSONA – Barbican Theatre ★★★
Having excavated Visconti (Ossessione), Ivo van Hove has now moved on to Ingmar Bergman. Much as I admire van Hove – and I do – I am a little perplexed as to why he’s involved himself quite so much in transferring the inscrutable into the literal.
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