Aliya Al-Hassan

Despite mince pies being spotted in supermarkets since September, for many, Christmas in London doesn't really begin until Jack Thorne's adaptation of A Christmas Carol opens at The Old Vic theatre.

And finally, the wait is over. The foot-stomping and award-winning musical, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, has arrived in London’s West End after capturing hearts and selling out at Southwark Playhouse.

After its excellent recent revival at Stratford East, there is clearly still public and creative appetite for Mike Leigh's savage suburban comedy, Abigail's Party, now ending another national tour at the Rose Theatre in some style.

I’m not sure F Scott Fitzgerald would recognise what Jethro Compton and Darren Clark have done with his intriguing short story about a man living his life, while aging in reverse.

Late night in Barcelona. An American tourist goes home with a handsome Spaniard. What begins as a carefree, one-night stand becomes an invitation to danger, as the personal and political catastrophically intertwine. With star turns from Lily Collins (Emily in Paris, To The Bone, Mank) and Álvaro Morte (Money Heist, Wheel of Time, Immaculate), Lynette Linton directs the West End premiere of Bess Wohl’s explosive play - running for 12 weeks only at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre.

Steve Coogan stars in the first ever adaption of Stanley Kubrick’s iconic Dr. Strangelove, as the world premiere stage production prepares for a strictly limited run at London’s Noël Coward Theatre. Check out what the critics are saying about the new show here!

Who owns beauty? How far would you go to obey orders? What is the ultimate price of friendship? Rajiv Joseph's thought-provoking and blackly comic play, Guards at the Taj, explores power, obediance, human curiosity and allegiance, beautifully directed by 2024’s recipient of the JMK Award, Adam Karim.

A couple crash through the door of a Barcelona apartment in a passionate embrace, but this ardour quickly cools as cultural and personal clashes take over. Collins and Morte are both impressively natural on stage, but without their billing, it is highly doubtful this play would have made it to the West End.

One of the seminal action comedies of the 1980s, Ghostbusters teamed up Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis in a story about three failed parapsychology professors in New York. After losing funding for their scientifically-debatable experiments, set themselves up as paranormal investigators catching and containing all manner of spectral ectoplasm across the Big Apple.

Starring the internationally renowned, multi award-winning Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, Sophocles’ epic tragedy is transformed into an essential, explosive human thriller.

Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun was the first play by a Black woman to appear on Broadway. Since its first performance in 1959, it remains as hard-hitting as ever. Exploring a domestic drama in its depiction of an everyday working class Black family, with ordinary desires, conflicts and aspirations; radical at the time of writing. 

The landmark National Theatre and Neal Street production of The Lehman Trilogy, directed by Academy Award, Tony Award, and Golden Globe winner Sam Mendes, has returned to the Gillian Lynne Theatre for a strictly limited encore season this autumn. Hailed by The New York Times as 'a genuinely epic production', The Lehman Trilogy is a sweeping story of a family spanning generations and a company that changed the world.

One of my biggest bugbears in theatre is a production that remains on stage well past its welcome. Overlong and flabby shows do neither the audience nor the show itself any favours. It is therefore a huge endorsement for me to state that a production of nearly three and a half hours really is worth every second of your time.

Tony award-nominee J. Smith-Cameron stars as Juno Boyle opposite Mark Rylance as ‘Captain’ Jack Boyle in a highly anticipated new production of Juno and the Paycock, Seán O’Casey's timeless masterpiece, directed by Tony and Olivier award-winner Matthew Warchus. So what did the critics think?

A cost of living crisis, people being fit to work but choosing not to, poverty, nationalism and women's control of their own bodies. Seán O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock may have first been performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1924, but a century later, his tragicomedy resonates more strongly than ever.

Experimental drama at its best. See what happens with no rehearsal, no director, a different actor each night and a script waiting in a sealed envelope on the stage. What did the critics think?

In a slightly disappointing end to the festival, short pieces and long pauses failed to live up to much of the wonder of the previous eight weeks.

From the writers of SIX, comes a brand-new British musical where the lonely little lives of two BFFs are transformed into an all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza about dates, mates, and celebrating love in all its forms.

Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss' new show Why Am I So Single? is billed as 'A big fancy musical'. Bright, bold and funny, it is unashamedly focused on the Gen-Z experience, but gets lost with indulgent in-jokes, repetition and an over-long running time.

The climax to the Proms' Choral Day could only be George Frideric Handel's majestic Messiah. This 1789 arrangement by Mozart was performed by The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, joined by an incredible six (yes six) choirs, conducted by an ebullient John Butt.