Clive Owen and Lia Williams do justice to the wild lush text of The Night Of The Iguana at the Noel Coward Theatre, rich in wonder and filth, corruption and beauty.
‘Pure pleasure, in energy and design’: JOSEPH & THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT – West End ★★★★
We love a starry debut, especially on opening night in a huge theatre: a 21-year-old not yet through drama school making a stonking, belting first professional appearance in a title role. So Laurence Connor knew what he was doing when he cast young Jac Yarrow in Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
‘Bonkers in a wonderful way’: PETER GYNT – National Theatre ★★★★
David Hare has made as much sense of Ibsen’s sprawling masterpiece Peer Gynt as seems possible.
‘It’s all done superbly’: MEASURE FOR MEASURE – Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon ★★★★★
What Gregory Doran frames most brilliantly in Measure For Measure at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon is the is the central confusion of morality.
‘We believe in the individual reality of this family’: THE END OF HISTORY – Royal Court Theatre ★★★★
Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany are the Harry Potter team. They know how not to bore. But they’ve been here before too in a Royal Court state-of-the-nation mood, and they can make pieces like The End of History just as gripping.
‘Several people were actually rendered helpless’: NOISES OFF – Lyric Hammersmith ★★★★★
It felt like a pilgrimage, homage to pay. Thirty-seven years ago Michael Frayn’s greatest of comedies, Noises Off, a wicked love-song to the great age of touring rep, premiered in this very theatre.
‘Good fun, irresistible really’: The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ The Musical – West End ★★★★
The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ The Musical is the result of Jake Brunger and Pippa Cleary badgering the late Sue Townsend to be allowed to do it, and with poppy tunes and a high-spirited cast under Luke Sheppard, it works surprisingly well.
‘Superb production of Coward’s self-revealing comedy’: PRESENT LAUGHTER – The Old Vic ★★★★
First of all let’s say that Andrew Scott is a marvel in Present Laughter, a 21st century Ur-Coward hero, who manages to do it without either the matey crassness lately inflicted on the part by Rufus Hound, or that retro, clipped Cowardspeak which echoes the Master too much.
‘A roisteringly absurd tale of London life’: AFTER DARK – Finborough Theatre ★★★★
What the hell more do you want of a night out over a pub? Hurry to After Dark at the Finborough Theatre. It’ll take your mind off Boris…
‘If only the text had such dramatic grammar as the juicy lighting’: EUROPE – Donmar Warehouse
This 25th anniversary revival of David Greig’s play Europe is, for the most part, a long chin scratch about home, belonging and division.
‘A troubled play for our troubled times’: THE HUNT – Almeida Theatre ★★★★
Rupert Goold gives his production of The Hunt enough thriller-like pacing and intensity to keep us hooked.
‘Handsomely staged production’: PICTURES OF DORIAN GRAY – Jermyn Street Theatre ★★★
This production of Pictures of Dorian Gray at Jermyn Street Theatre is intriguing, and offers chances to see the parts played differently, but there are inevitable losses.
‘Elevated to realms of unexpected glee’: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM – Bridge Theatre ★★★★★
A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre is a dream of a Dream. One expected fun from the combination of Nicholas Hytner, a roiling mass of promenaders in the pit and a Bunny Christie design which makes the most of this fresh big theatre’s technical tricks.
‘I fervently hope this lovely quirky show goes on & upward’: THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Southwark Playhouse
I fervently hope the lovely quirky The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at Southwark Playhouse goes on and upward, and especially on tour.
‘It’s hard not to love Broderick’s performance’: THE STARRY MESSENGER – West End ★★★
When I left I thought I was disappointed in The Starry Messenger, but this morning I can’t help thinking about Matthew Broderick’s character Mark, and his wife, and the sadness of all our middle years as they shade towards nightfall..
‘A new-century’s howl of irritated perception at the imprisoning absurdities of society’: RUTHERFORD & SON – National Theatre ★★★★★
Psychology, social rage, human sadness and betrayal move in an elegant circle in Rutherford & Son at the National Theatre and Findlay’s direction doesn’t miss a beat of it.
‘It could have been a piece of theatre magic & wasn’t’: DIDO – Unicorn Theatre
Musically Dido is okay, especially Eyra Norman’s Belinda and the spirited chorales. But it could have been a piece of theatre magic, and wasn’t.
‘A sort of McBurney-meets-le Carré mini-thriller’: ANNA – National Theatre ★★★★
After the querulous, inward-looking tedium of her feminist polemic The Writer, Ella Hickson returns to interesting form with this curiosity, Anna.
‘Pure & thoughtful pleasure’: SMALL ISLAND – National Theatre ★★★★★
Small Island is a terrific yarn, both romantic and tough, about history and Empire and sex and frustration, escape and hope and love and racism: about promises turned to dross and the great seas of misunderstanding that roll between people.
‘Mischievous satirical blast’: WHITE PEARL – Royal Court Theatre ★★★★★
Five mice for White Pearl at the Royal Court Theatre because it’s different and clever and useful, and horribly good fun.