Take a look at what critics have had to say about the West End transfer of Steven Moffat’s comedy The Unfriend at the Criterion Theatre.
‘Worth the wait’: THE UNFRIEND – Chichester
Delayed two years by the pandemic, one of the most hotly anticipated shows of 2020 finally makes it to the stage in 2022. The combination of TV writer and former Dr Who showrunner Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith proves irresistible as The Unfriend finally premieres in Chichester’s Minerva Theatre and it has been worth the wait.
NEWS: Sherlock creators Steven Moffat & Mark Gatiss collaborate in Chichester Festival Season packed with world premieres
World premieres in Chichester Festival Theatre’s Festival 2020 include first plays by Steven Moffat and Kate Mosse and new work by Suhayla El-Bushra and Christopher Shinn.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: A Very Expensive Poison at the Old Vic Theatre
We round up the reviews for the world premiere production of A Very Expensive Poison, Lucy Prebble’s reimagining of Luke Harding’s exposé of the events behind the notorious death of ex-FSB Officer Alexander Litvinenko.
‘Prefers buffoonery over analysis’: A VERY EXPENSIVE POISON – Old Vic
Lucy Prebble’s latest tells the story of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in A Very Expensive Poison, but prefers buffoonery over analysis.
‘Some of us will just not know what to think’: A VERY EXPENSIVE POISON – Old Vic
In A Very Expensive Poison Lucy Prebble has serious arguments to outlay about the relationship between international governments and narrative misdirection, but the broadly comic approach to presentation feels at odds with the meaning of the play.
‘Using theatre to entertain & appal’: A VERY EXPENSIVE POISON – Old Vic Theatre ★★★★★
Marina Litvinenko’s final address in A Very Expensive Poison, reminding us of our political cowardice and idly greedy tolerance of crooked Russian money in our capital city, will bring theatres to their feet in admiration for her and shame at our shabbiness. It needed telling.
‘Deadpan, dirty & exhilarating’: LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN LIVE AGAIN – Touring ★★★★
After years of individual successes Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton (sometimes with the writer Jeremy Dyson) are back in League of Gentleman Live Again: every character is greeted by whoops of joyful recognition.
Theatre Podcast: The Dresser, Half a Sixpence, One Night in Miami
This week, the London theatre bloggers discuss the West End transfer of flash-bang-wallop musical Half a Sixpence, the revival of Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser starring Ken Stott and Reece Shearsmith, and the recent UK premiere of One Night in Miami.
What are the Top 15 hottest tickets on the site right NOW?
we’re looking backwards and forwards for our final list today. These are our current Top 15 Ticket Recommendations – broken down into five musicals, five plays and five ‘star attractions’ (in other words, there are famous faces in the cast) – based on both best-sellers over the past month as well as our predictions on the hottest of upcoming openings…
REVIEW ROUND-UP: The Dresser at the Duke of York’s Theatre
Ken Stott and Reece Shearsmith star in Ronald Harwood’s play about two men reluctantly co-dependent. After touring, the production officially opened last week at the West End’s Duke of York’s Theatre, where it’s booking until 14 January 2016. What have critics been saying about it?
THE DRESSER – West End
Any opinion I might have had about Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser inevitably comes tainted with his apparent inability to open his mouth without spouting some kind of crap or other.
THE DRESSER – West End
Great work from Ken Stott and Reece Shearsmith saves a nostalgic drama from wallowing in its own Britishness.
THE DRESSER – West End
Witty and heartfelt, Ken Stott and Reece Shearsmith’s evocation of this classic play about theatre life is moving and impressive. The house darkens, the curtain lifts and bombs shake plaster from the ceiling. We are in the middle of a ‘tatty tour of the provinces’, marooned in the dressing room of a theatre battered by German shelling in the 1940s.
THE DRESSER – West End
There’s a timeless nostalgia to Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser that captures a particular snapshot of England during the Second World War. With the country’s fit young men called up to fight, it’s left to the “cripples, old men and Nancy boys” to tread the boards.
THE DRESSER – West End
But under Sean Foley’s direction, and with a particularly fine and sensitive cast, this time the play speaks clearly of wider human truths as well as sparking and stabbling with irresistible wit (Foley admits surprise on re-reading it at how much he laughed). Reece Shearsmith is perfection as Norman the dresser.
What we’re looking forward to in Chichester Festival’s winter season
We’re confirmed fans of Chichester Festival Theatre here, and for us their announcement of a new season is a bit like Christmas! The Winter 2016 season has a great range of entertainment and there’s sure to be something for everyone’s tastes! Edward Fox, Liza Goddard, Amanda Holden, Felicity Kendal, Robert Powell, Reece Shearsmith, Ken Stott and Imogen Stubbs are among the stars appearing in plays by writers from Alan Ayckbourn to Ronald Harwood, alongside contemporary work from Frantic Assembly and Spymonkey
NEWS: Selina Cadell & Harriet Thorpe join The Dresser, First images released
The first images of Ken Stott and Reece Shearsmith in a new production of Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser were released today, along with two new cast members: Selina Cadell and Harriet Thorpe. The Dresser, directed by Sean Foley, will play at the West End’s Duke of York’s Theatre from 5 October 2016 to 14 January 2017
NEWS: Ken Stott & Reece Shearsmith in The Dresser, Griff Rhys Jones in The Miser
Director Sean Foley who has recently enjoyed sell-out success adapting and directing The Painkiller, with Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon in the Branagh Theatre Company season of Plays at the Garrick will, starting this autumn, under producer Mark Goucher, direct two new star-studded productions in the West End: Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser with Ken Stott and Reece Shearsmith, and The Miser with Griff Rhys Jones.
HANGMEN – West End
Let’s get it off our chests now: it will have you ‘in suspense’, it ‘goes with a swing’ there’s plenty of ‘gallows humour’, it’s a plot that ‘leaves you dangling’, jerking with ‘twists and turns’ and ‘a play with legs’ that moves at ‘breakneck’ speed and would be ‘criminal’ if you missed it …
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