UK / West End Theater Reviews

Review: CYCLES, Barbican Centre
by Franco Milazzo - May 02, 2024

With their new work Cycles, it is clear that Boy Blue are at something of a crossroads....

Review: FROZEN, Greenwich Theatre
by Niamh Jones - April 30, 2024

Is serial killing ever a forgivable act? A controversial question certainly and the central premise of Bryony Lavery’s Frozen. Told from three points of view, this play explores the impacts of trauma and loss on very different members of society....

Review: A CHORUS OF DISAPPROVAL, Salisbury Playhouse
by Cheryl Markosky - May 01, 2024

What can be more cheering on a dreary, wet evening than seeing a jolly Alan Ayckbourn comedy?...

Review: PIPPIN - 50TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT, Theatre Royal Drury Lane
by Louise Penn - April 30, 2024

Stephen Schwartz's 70s musical Pippin makes a triumphant return with a note perfect casting at Drury Lane's concert version, with Fosse-inspired choreography and costumes given a disco pride vibe. Alex Newell's vocals do not disappoint, Jac Yarrow is a fine lead, while Patricia Hodge is a poignant B...

Review: LAUGHING BOY, Jermyn Street Theatre
by Cindy Marcolina - May 01, 2024

When Connor dies whilst in the care of the NHS, his mum, Sara, wants answers. Premiering under Stephen Unwin’s taut direction, Sara Ryan’s Laughing Boy is a bittersweet docu-play about brutal neglect and apathy. While it’s a damning inquiry into the shortcomings of public health, is it a good play o...

Review: MINORITY REPORT, Lyric Hammersmith
by Alexander Cohen - April 30, 2024

It ought to echo with eerie prescience in 2024 as an ever-closer prophecy for an age where AI and algorithms will dictate the minutiae of our lives. But David Haig's new stage adaption is more like a cyberpunk-themed orgy at Printworks....

Review: REMEMBRANCE MONDAY, Seven Dials Playhouse
by Niamh Jones - April 29, 2024

Many of us ask ourselves about the definition of love, what is the purest form perhaps, or what does it mean to make promises while in love. Michael Batten’s play Remembrance Monday asks these questions through the lens of a seventy minute psychological thriller....

Review: MACBETH IN CINEMAS, Filmed at Dock X
by Alice Cope - April 29, 2024

An intense and well filmed release of an atmospheric production of Macbeth. Showing in cinemas from 2 May....

Review: THIS IS MEMORIAL DEVICE, Riverside Studios
by Cheryl Markosky - April 29, 2024

If you've ever idolised a lesser-known band and endlessly reminisce about its utter brilliance through rose-tinted spectacles, then This Is Memorial Device at Riverside Studios is a must-see....

Review: DOCTOR BROWN: BETURNS, Soho Theatre
by Franco Milazzo - April 26, 2024

Coming on like some kind of sadistic Mr Bean, the scarier-than-Pennywise Doctor Brown has been terrorising audiences with his silent comedy since 2009 and returns to Soho Theatre with his first new show in over a decade....

Review: OLIVE JAR, Grand Junction
by Niamh Jones - April 26, 2024

What is theatre fundamentally about? Why do we create any form of literature or performance? Why do we tell stories? Stories are such a formative part of life, forging our knowledge of the world and helping to bring communities together....

Review: A SPECTACLE OF HERSELF, Battersea Arts Centre
by Franco Milazzo - April 26, 2024

In her PhD on “Deconstructing the Spectacle: Aerial Performance as Critical Practice”, Dr Laura Murphy had a singular mission: “to challenge normative ideas attached to and embedded in aerial work”. In A Spectacle Of Herself, she delivers on this challenge with style and conviction....

Review: MOBY DICK, Wilton's Music Hall
by Michael Higgs - April 26, 2024

A charming adaptation of Herman Melville’s masterpiece, Sebastian Armesto’s Moby Dick mixes music and drama in an effective, atmospheric production that never gets lost at sea, no matter how daunting a task it is to stage the novel....

Review: BOYS FROM THE BLACKSTUFF, Liverpool's Royal Court
by Sarah OHara - April 25, 2024

Following its sold out run in 2023, Boys from the Blackstuff has returned to Liverpool’s Royal Court, before the show transfers to the National Theatre in London and Garrick Theatre in the West End....

Review: WHAT (IS) A WOMAN?, Arcola Theatre
by Niamh Jones - April 26, 2024

A person’s life can be dictated by many things - career, relationships, decisions made… In the case of Andrée Bernard’s What (is) a Woman it seems that men have dictated the protagonist’s life....

Review: SHELF: TEENAGE MEN, Soho Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - April 26, 2024

Walking into Shelf: Teenage Men, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Based on the show’s description, there would be “anecdotes, songs, jokes about performing for kids, the Instagram algorithm, confronting your toxicity, and more.” How was all of this going to fit into an hour-long show? Luckily, I had no...

Review: TESTMATCH, Orange Tree Theatre
by Debbie Gilpin - April 25, 2024

“This way, you win, no matter what.” The Women’s Cricket World Cup Final in the present day, and eighteenth century Calcutta – on the face of it there’s the barest of connections, but when you drill down a bit deeper you can see how the relationship between England and India was first forged. Or, pe...

Review: THE SLEEPING BEAUTY, Sadler's Wells
by Matthew Paluch - April 25, 2024

Is there anything similar to The Sleeping Beauty overture? With Tchaikovsky filling the theatre with full-blown fairy tale drama - it's quite the opener. ...

Review: GHOST STORIES OF ANTIQUARY, Longfield Hall
by Kat Mokrynski - April 25, 2024

Ghost Stories of Antiquary, a “seated site-specific show with immersive elements” directed by Nicholas Benjamin and co-devised by Benjamin, Niamh Handley-Vaughan, Nadia Lamin and Miles Blanch, takes place in Longfield Hall, a building that survived the bombings of World War II, the very rads that th...

Review: YOU ARE GOING TO DIE, Southwark Playhouse
by Franco Milazzo - April 23, 2024

A show dripping in pretension performed by a naked man? An impenetrable work obsessed with having a sex toy deep inside one’s backside? A meditation on “existential anxiety” that does little of note with an hour of precious life? There’s enough irony in You Are Going To Die to power an Alanis Moriss...

Review: SILENCE, Birmingham Rep
by Laura Lott - April 24, 2024

“Old friends in the morning, then wanting us dead in the afternoon”, says one of the men in Silence, repeating the line over and over. Decades after the event, he still can’t understand the speed at which hate and violence ignited in the wake of the 1947 Partition of India....

Review: 1884, Shoreditch Town Hall
by Franco Milazzo - April 22, 2024

What is the difference between a house and a home? And who gets to write history? Interactive experience 1884 provokes challenging answers to these questions in the context of an almost-forgotten historical event that had significant consequences for two continents....

Review: CALENDAR GIRLS, The Mill at Sonning
by Mica Blackwell - April 22, 2024

Unlike Firth’s decision to stretch out the film’s first half for the musical, confusingly ending it on the long-awaited calendar photoshoot, his play adaptation allows the audience to see the impact the calendar has on the outside world and the women’s personal lives....

Review: BEATS, King's Head Theatre
by Olivia Woods - April 22, 2024

Returning to the brand new King’s Head Theatre, Ned Campbell takes on award-winning Scottish playwright Kieran Hurley’s Beats in an adaptation that champions our imaginations and emphasises the power of collective gathering....

Review: LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, Royal Opera House
by Alexander Cohen - April 22, 2024

Nadine Sierra’s enthralling central performance helms this nerve-jangling revival....