It is still a relatively rare experience to see a working class drama that invests its characters with a profound and complex, even a poetic interior, life, but from the first moments of Richard Hawley and Chris Bush’s Standing At the Sky’s Edge when a workman stops to greet the beauty of the dawn and the sound of birdsong, it is clear that this is no ordinary representation of
‘What does Williams think is the root of this reaction?’ KING HAMLIN – Park Theatre
Gloria Williams takes a more decided position on good and evil in the world premiere of her play King Hamlin at the Park Theatre in which an almost inevitable decline into crime is born out of poverty, desperation and class as the protagonist becomes an all-too-aware if unwilling participant in his own destruction.
‘Sometimes you should just leave things alone’: MOULIN ROUGE! The Musical – West End ★★
If you’ve seen Moulin Rouge! The Musical and loved it, I’d advise you to read no further – this is not going to be pleasant.
‘This is easily Kit Harington’s finest career performance on stage or screen’: HENRY V – Donmar Warehouse
Henry V is the greatest war play ever written and is the template for all literary responses to conflict since produced.
‘What could be a very clinical piece can also be deeply human’: A NUMBER – Old Vic Theatre
It may be the second time in as many years that Caryl Churchill’s A Number has been performed in London, but it is a play that bears restaging, yielding greater insights every time you see it.
‘Elizabeth McGovern captures the mercurial complexities of Ava Gardner’: AVA: THE SECRET CONVERSATIONS – Riverside Studios
Beautiful, sexy and luminous are words most associated with Hollywood starlets of the 1940s, 50s and 60s, and indeed they were, but they were also talented and savvy movie actors who commanded the screen.
‘Tamsin Greig is exceptionally funny, candid & cutting in equal measure’: PEGGY FOR YOU – Hampstead Theatre
What is a play? A message to the future, a fart in your face or a pain in the arse?
What is a play? A message to the future, a fart in your face or a pain in the arse? Just a few of the suggestions that the writer clients of agent Peggy Ramsay offer up when a young ingenue asks that fatal question in her office one otherwise ordi…
New work, new voices, hybrid approaches: How theatre changed in 2021
It has been another complicated year for theatres with venues unable to welcome in-person audiences for more than five months of 2021 and the tail end of the year returning to enforced closure and performance cancellations.
‘A theatrical experience that you will never forget’: CABARET – West End ★★★★★
A theatrical experience that you will never forget – Eddie Redmayne revels in the role of the Emcee, but Jessie Buckley steals the show in Cabaret.
‘It’s thrilling to see working-class Bob given some agency’: CRATCHIT – Park Theatre ★★★★
Marley was dead to begin with – and what of it? There’s still work to be done, and Bob Cratchit has to bear the brunt of his remaining master’s foul moods whilst remaining industrious.
‘You may as well hand this company a truckload of Oliviers right now’: CABARET – West End
We’ve all spent far too long sitting alone in our rooms so the cabaret is exactly where we need to be. What emerged as a delicious theatre rumour a few months ago has not only become a real production but a dream come true experience. Theatre closu…
‘Each number is sensationally staged’: THE DRIFTERS’ GIRL – West End
The nostalgia musical is back in full force with crowd-pleasing easy listening stories that looks back to the 1950s and 60s for their inspiration.
NEWS: Lucie Jones stars as West End’s new Elphaba in Wicked from 1 Feb
Lucie Jones will lead the cast in Wicked from 1 February 2022.
NEWS: National Theatre announces new productions including Nicola Walker in The Corn is Green
The National Theatre has published on-sale dates and further details of its next new tranche of productions, opening from now until May 2022 with tickets on sale to the public from 2 December 2021.
NEWS: Hope Mill’s Zorro The Musical transfers to London’s Charing Cross Theatre in March
Aria Entertainment’s reimagined revival of Zorro The Musical, which closed after just two previews at Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre due to the pandemic in March 2020, will transfer to London in the new year.
‘The choreography of the piece is exquisite’: SKIN TIGHT – Hope Theatre ★★★★★
From the opening moments, Skin Tight bursts with passion and energy. The physicality of the opening sequence seduces and intrigues, creating a disarming sense of disorientation when the actors finally speak.
‘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.
Is ‘Zoom in the flesh’ the way to wake up producers’ creativity post-pandemic?
I recently tried a technical experiment with Zoom and believe we may have found a way to harness the power of distance connection with the desire for getting back in a room.
‘Entertaining, ambitious and educational ‘: TOKYO ROSE — Southwark Playhouse (UK Tour) ★★★★
Burnt Lemon Theatre’s Tokyo Rose shows that you don’t need a big budget to stage a compelling musical.
‘This incredible play’: THE NORMAL HEART – National Theatre
Creating socio-political change and even recognition doesn’t just happen, somewhere, sometime, someone has to fight for it, and history is full of organisations who since the end of absolute monarchies (and arguably even before) have tried to make their voices heard.