The fact that Terry Gilliam and Leah Hausman’s production of Into The Woods at Theatre Royal Bath is one of two high profile productions currently running on either side of the Atlantic is testament to the durability and timelessness of Sondheim and book writer James Lapine’s creation.
‘Interesting themes about human behaviour under extreme pressure’: FORCE MAJEURE – Donmar Warehouse
Force Majeure is a random act of God that cannot be predicted or measured that entirely disrupts planned activity, something we can all appreciate a little better in the past two years.
‘A spectacle that only the most hard-nosed sceptic would be unable to completely resist’: TREE – Young Vic Theatre ★★★★
To the credit of Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba – and maybe Tori Allen-Martin and Sarah Henley – you can feel the urge to find a healing of all sides in a conflict between black and white South Africans that persists to this day.
‘Turns it somewhat on its head’: CENDRILLON – Touring ★★★
Fiona Shaw takes the lead in directing Glyndebourne’s first production of Massenet’s ravishing fairytale, and turns it somewhat on its head.
‘Full of friendship, laughs, emotion & nostalgia’: THE BAND – Touring & West End ★★★★
Whether you’re an avid fan of Take That, or you just know a few of the hit songs, get yourself along to The Band for a show full of friendship, laughs, emotion and nostalgia.
‘Best new musical to hit theatres in years’: THE BAND – Touring ★★★★★
Heart-warming and bursting with pop songs, The Band perfectly captures teenage fandom as Take That’s songs shine in this brand new musical.
‘This isn’t the gentle hymn to theatricality many children knew’: PETER PAN – Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park
The Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park finally has a summer pantomime in Peter Pan they can revive with minor tweaks and cast changes forever if they so desire.
‘Like nothing else currently in the West End’: BAT OUT OF HELL – West End ★★★★★
From the audience reaction and instantaneous standing ovation when the last note was played, it’s clear that a lot of people love this Bat Out of Hell.
‘A rare & genuine theatre magic’: THE GRINNING MAN – West End
The Grinning Man may not be suitable for children (it has an age limit of 12 years), and it’s certainly not a Christmas show in any way, but within the grotesque world that Grose, Morris, Teitler and Phillips create there is a rare and genuine theatre magic.
THE SECRET THEATRE – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
The parallel is everywhere. There’s the sense that as new money and people flow to London, so do new heresies and threats; the way that spooks can spook governments into fresh paranoia, and the feeling that tricky populations can be quietened by “a royal wedding, and setting the poor against recent immigrants”.
BAT OUT OF HELL – West End
Let’s make one thing clear: this show is epically crazy. Jim Steinman’s rock musical is like nothing else currently on any West End stage. It feels like a rollercoaster ride where things are constantly being thrown at you from every direction: the great, the good, the bad and the ugly sides of rock music are all thrown together to create a show like no other.
SHOPPING & F***ING – Lyric Hammersmith
Twentieth-anniversary revival of 1990s zeitgeist play is flashy, loud and fun, but also lacks emotional connection
The post Shopping and F***ing, Lyric Hammersmith appeared first on Aleks Sierz.
THEY DRINK IT IN THE CONGO – Almeida Theatre
New play about Africa’s deadliest conflict is more of a heroic failure than a successful drama.
BUGSY MALONE – Lyric Hammersmith
In April last year, the delightful Lyric Hammersmith reopened with a commendably well-structured stage version of Bugsy Malone. Great production values, props, costumes, fight direction and orchestrations. Reviving it for the whole of this summer requires three very young actors to play each of the seven leads so to keep consistency between performances, some pretty stringent direction has been applied.
THE JAMES PLAYS – Touring
Eighteen months after their first outing, the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of the James Plays trilogy remains a theatrical event worth anybody’s time and money.
YOU FOR ME FOR YOU – Royal Court
North Korea is the kind of place that haunts the imagination of the West – and not in a good way. One of the last hardline Communist dictatorships, it is also a country of immense sadness, a landscape of food shortages and human-rights abuses. Yet its regime calls this dismal place the “Best Nation in the World”. To us, it’s a secret world, a strange culture difficult to comprehend, easy to fear. Small wonder that, in American playwright Mia Chung’s 2012 play, two hungry sisters fantasise about leaving it for good.
LORD OF THE FLIES – Touring
The sound of crickets chirping and the steady beat of tribal drums give way to shrieking and chanting. Boys with shredded school uniforms, ties wrapped around their heads and faces smeared with blood dart about the stage. Tumbling through foliage, climbing up mountains – they hold roughly sharpened sticks as they hunt down their prey.
LORD OF THE FLIES – Touring
I’d heard great things about the Regent’s Park Theatre production of Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The media and star ratings had led me to believe I was in for a great evening of theatre. So did it live up to my expectations?
NEWS: Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre Presents LORD OF THE FLIES Casting and Full Tour Announced
Casting and full tour dates are announced today for Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s critically acclaimed production of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, which will return following its 2011 sell-out premiere for a limited run from Thursday 3 to Saturday 12 September 2015 prior to a major UK tour.
hang – Royal Court Theatre
In a bleak neon office (design by Jon Bausor) a much awaited new play by debbie tucker green, always modishly lower-case in titles, takes no prisoners.Except that it is about one, unseen and awaiting a capital punishment decision by his victim in some unspecified but British dystopia. Directed by the author, it is a 75 minute study in unreconciled trauma and the awkward insensitivities of officialdom and protocol. And perhaps (to a sympathetic ear) a good evocation of the perennial inability of non-victims to understand the tearing ,incurable dislocation of personality involved in rape.
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