UK / West End Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 13

Review: LADY DEALER, Bush Theatre
by Aliya Al-Hassan - May 23, 2024

After a successful run at the Fringe, Martha Watson Allpress’ lyrically poignant show Lady Dealer now comes to the Bush theatre. Dealing with loneliness, loss and mental health, it's a captivating and immersive watch....

Review: JERRY'S GIRLS, Menier Chocolate Factory
by Louise Penn - May 23, 2024

Deeply mining the scores of four musicals Jerry Herman is best known for (Hello, Dolly, Mame, Mack & Mabel, La Cage Aux Folles), with a handful from others like Dear World and Parade, this will appeal to Herman devotees and musical generalists alike....

Review: RICHARD III, Shakespeare's Globe
by Alexander Cohen - May 22, 2024

Terry’s Richard is a hyper masculine misogynist grunting, lumbering, and bruising his way to the throne....

Review: MAY B - COMPAGNIE MAGUY MARIN, Sadler's Wells
by Matthew Paluch - May 22, 2024

Marin is regarded as a major force in French modern dance, and one can understand why when appreciating the work's overall accomplished structuring…but that doesn't mean it will be an unequivocally enjoyable experience for all....

Review: THE BOOK OF GRACE, Arcola Theatre
by Abbie Grundy - May 21, 2024

Political and punchy, the Book Grace is an incredibly powerful piece of theatre....

Review: THE COLOUR OF DINOSAURS, Polka Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - May 20, 2024

The Colour of Dinosaurs, devised and performed by Dom Coyote, Lloyd Coleman, Jakob Vinther, Victoria Oruwari, Harry Miller and Roxana Vilk, has arrived at the Polka Theatre. The show explores how a palaeontologist, Dr. Jakob Vinther, used melanin to discover what the colours of dinosaurs actually we...

Review: NOW, I SEE, Stratford East
by Olivia Woods - May 17, 2024

In this second installment of Lanre Malaolu’s trilogy (following SAMSKARA, The Yard Theatre), Now, I  See shines a light on how the physical body holds grief and the ways in which this manifests in the lives of black British men. As two brothers reunite at their late sibling’s celebration of remembr...

Review: DAVE HILL: CAVEMAN IN A SPACESHIP, Soho Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - May 20, 2024

Dave Hill: Caveman in a Spaceship begins with Hill bursting through the door of Soho Theatre Upstairs on a bicycle, circling around the stage as music blasts and the audience cheers. A smoke machine goes off, covering the stage in fog, as another machine blows out snow-like confetti, with Hill going...

Review: AVITAL ASH: WORKSHOPS HER SUICIDE NOTE, Soho Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - May 17, 2024

The story of Avital Ash: Workshops Her Suicide Note begins with some context for the audience. Ash’s mother committed suicide when Ash was only an infant and her father remarried, never telling his daughter that her mother was not actually her birth mother. ...

Review: FAWLTY TOWERS THE PLAY, Apollo Theatre
by Aliya Al-Hassan - May 16, 2024

For a sitcom that only lasted for 12 episodes, Fawlty Towers left an indelible mark on British comedy. Discourteous hotel owner Basil Fawlty and his shrewish wife Sybil became legends, along with long-suffering chambermaid Polly and hapless waiter Manuel. Previously staged in Australia, this nostalg...

Review: BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY, Hampstead Theatre
by Franco Milazzo - May 14, 2024

Walter Washington is stuck. Stuck in his recently deceased wife’s wheelchair. Stuck in “a rent-controlled palace ruled by a grieving despot king” that he can ill afford. Stuck waiting for City Hall to pay him what he considers his due after a thirty year-long cop career ended in a shooting incident....

Review: L'OLIMPIADE, Royal Opera House
by Gary Naylor - May 14, 2024

Irish National Opera bring a touring production to London in what might prove to be a show for the purists...

Review: PEOPLE, PLACES & THINGS, Trafalgar Theatre
by Aliya Al-Hassan - May 15, 2024

It’s nearly a decade since Denise Gough set the stage alight in Duncan MacMillan’s starkly raw study of addiction. She now reprises her Olivier and Critics' Circle Theatre Award-winning role as Emma for this harrowing and completely absorbing new production of People, Places & Things. ...

Review: A SONG OF SONGS, Park Theatre
by Louise Penn - May 15, 2024

A Song of Songs has been placed within a traditional Middle Eastern beat by Ofra Daniel, writer, composer, director, and lead actor as Tirzah, unfulfilled wife. Whether through the stamps and flowing skirts of flamenco or thumping percussive beats, the physicality of the piece takes centre stage. Wh...

Review: FOOL'S MOON, Soho Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - May 16, 2024

Fool’s Moon is “an anarchic, genre-bending cabaret night where the mischievous come out and play. Expect extravagant costumes, elaborate props and multiple left feet that may alleviate, if only momentarily, your existential crisis.” The cabaret, hosted by Paulina Lenoir as Puella Eterna, has a diffe...

Review: THE DEEP BLUE SEA, Theatre Royal Bath
by Cheryl Markosky - May 14, 2024

Tamsin Greig is a marvel as Hester Collyer in Lindsay Posner's new revival of Terence Rattigan's 1950s classic, The Deep Blue Sea, at Theatre Royal Bath's intimate, 126-seater Ustinov Studio....

Review: WITHNAIL AND I, Birmingham Rep
by Debbie Gilpin - May 15, 2024

“What we need is harmony, fresh air, stuff like that.” Almost 40 years after it first graced the big screen, cult classic film Withnail and I has been adapted for the stage – and it is currently in the middle of a limited engagement at the Birmingham Rep....

Review: THE HOUSE PARTY, Chichester Festival Theatre
by Gary Naylor - May 12, 2024

Superb performances anchor a hurtling rollercoaster of a play that will live long in the memory of anyone who sees it....

Review: MARY SAID WHAT SHE SAID, Barbican
by Alexander Cohen - May 11, 2024

Theatre at it's most ruthlessly elusive....

Review: PHIL ELLIS'S EXCELLENT COMEDY SHOW, Soho Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - May 13, 2024

Phil Ellis’s Excellent Comedy Show begins with a man, dressed in a tight black spandex costume and wearing a bin bag over his head, struggling to make his way to the microphone. Once he removes the bag and reveals himself to be the man of the hour, we discover that Ellis is dressed as a cat, with Sh...

Review: MASTERCLASS, Southbank Centre
by Alice Cope - May 13, 2024

Masterclass is a powerful production which provides some genuine discussion on privilege and opportunity within theatre and arts....

Book Review: A SENSE OF THEATRE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF BRITAIN'S NATIONAL THEATRE, by Richard Pilbrow
by Cheryl Markosky - May 13, 2024

In the summer of 1962, Sir Laurence Olivier invited lighting designer Richard Pilbrow to 'sort out the bloody awful lighting' at Chichester Theatre two days before it opened. Pilbrow replied there was nothing he could do in so short a time. 'Well, you're no bloody use, are you?' Olivier quipped....

Review: TWELFTH NIGHT, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
by Debbie Gilpin - May 10, 2024

“More matter for a May morning.” Given that the majority of Shakespeare’s plays began with outdoor performances of one kind or another, it’s a perfect fit for the leafy surroundings of Regent’s Park – which has made it all the more conspicuous for its absence from the programming over the past few s...

Review: WHAT THE BUTLER SAW, Theatre Royal Windsor
by Gary Naylor - May 09, 2024

Landmark show creaks at the edges, but gets its share of laughs in this highly accomplished touring show...

Review: BETWEEN THE LINES, New Diorama Theatre
by Alexander Cohen - May 09, 2024

Sparks fly in this plucky grime infused play, but it doesn't quite catch fire...