UK / West End Theater Reviews Page 3

Review: MISS JULIE, Park Theatre
by Cindy Marcolina - June 12, 2024

Max Harrison’s production is a beautiful textbook revival that, while leaning into the comic side of the text (translated here by Michael Meyer) accordingly tips into the opposite range of emotional distress. This Miss Julie is funny one second, horrid the immediate next. ...

Review: CIRQUE: THE GREATEST SHOW, Leicester Curve
by Franco Milazzo - June 11, 2024

With its live singers, superb clowning and disappointing vaudeville acts, The Entertainers’ Cirque: The Greatest Show is bringing its dazzling show around the country....

Review: MEDEA ON THE MIC, Oran Mor
by Natalie O'Donoghue - June 11, 2024

Join everyone’s favourite princess-sorceress for one hell of a good time as she shares stories of when she was Scottish and swaggered into the wonderlands of Berlin, Tehran and New York. Other guests on the mic include her bitter ex Jason (of the Argonauts) and old pal the Chariot Queen....

Review: BEING MR WICKHAM, Jermyn Street Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - June 12, 2024

Written and performed by Adrian Lukis and directed by Guy Unsworth, Being Mr Wickham brings us into the world of the infamous Pride & Prejudice character after his 60th birthday, having withdrawn from the festivities to a quiet space. But, suddenly, Wickham looks into the audience, acknowledging us ...

Review: JAZZ EMU: KNIGHT FEVER, Soho Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - June 12, 2024

Knight Fever sees the return of the narcissistic pop star character, Jazz Emu, this time vying for a Knighthood at the Royal Variety Show. The character, created and played by Archie Henderson, has done several shows in the past and has gone viral on social media for his hilarious and catchy songs....

Review: BABIES A NEW (BORN) MUSICAL, The Other Palace
by Cindy Marcolina - June 13, 2024

Real life is looming right after the end of Year 11. Entrusted with a robotic newborn, a group of students need to survive a week in their new roles as parents while their GCSEs get closer and closer. The school is trying to teach them responsibility and warn off any unwanted pregnancies - but the t...

Review: MOFFIE, Riverside Studios
by Alice Cope - June 10, 2024

The powerful story of a tender and gentle human forced into a brutal environment filled with hate and toxic masculinity....

Review: SARASOTA BALLET GALA - ASHTON WORLDWIDE, Royal Opera House
by Matthew Paluch - June 10, 2024

The final Ashton Worldwide bill at the Royal Opera House (23-24 season) was a Gala programme performed by the Sarasota Ballet in the Linbury Theatre...

Review: MY FAIR LADY, Leeds Playhouse
by Gary Naylor - June 08, 2024

Two terrific leads will delight audiences, but the source material's misogyny proves too much to simply sweep aside...

Review: ASHTON CELEBRATED - PROGRAMME 2, Royal Opera House
by Matthew Paluch - June 10, 2024

We're back for more Ashton, with a variation on the initial Royal Ballet programme...

Review: MARIE CURIE, Charing Cross Theatre
by Cindy Marcolina - June 08, 2024

She was exceptional, but the musical written about her is anything but. It tends to be old-fashioned and traditional in structure, willing itself to be a majestic epic, but never reaching that stage. Her life story feels rushed and vague, the songs are run-of-the-mill, standardised, lacking that big...

Review: CLOSER TO HEAVEN, Turbine Theatre
by Mica Blackwell - June 10, 2024

The talented cast and creatives can only do so much to elevate the musical’s inherent camp, but Jonathan Harvey and the Pet Shop Boys' script and songs feel underbaked with characters who aren’t able to be fleshed out. With this in mind, it feels closer to hell....

Review: IVO GRAHAM: CAROUSEL, Park Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - June 10, 2024

Ivo Graham: Carousel is a step in a new direction for Graham, who is most well-known for his standup comedy, having been performing since the young age of eighteen. In this show, he “invites you onto his own carousel,” bringing you into his world through an hour of remembrance....

Review: DIVA: LIVE FROM HELL, King's Head Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - June 10, 2024

DIVA: Live From Hell has arrived at the King’s Head Theatre. With a book and characters by Nora Brigid Monahan and music/ lyrics by Alexander Sage Oyen, the one-man musical brings us into the eternal punishment of Desmond Channing, a high schooler from Florida who is forced to reenact the final few ...

Review: ASHTON CELEBRATED - PROGRAMME 1, Royal Opera House
by Matthew Paluch - June 07, 2024

The Ashton Worldwide (2024-2028) international festival continues at the Royal Opera House with the Royal Ballet on the mainstage in Ashton Celebrated. The company is performing two mixed bills with slight repertoire changes....

Review: WEDDING BAND, Lyric Hammersmith
by Cindy Marcolina - June 07, 2024

Interracial marriage has been legal in the United States for less than six decades. To put it into perspective, sliced bread was first sold forty years earlier. Set in 1918 South Carolina, Wedding Band is a blistering portrayal of unjust laws and discrimination, of conscious and unconscious bias, of...

Review: THE BARBER OF SEVILLE, Opera Holland Park
by Franco Milazzo - June 05, 2024

Even if the press night weather for this open air production suggested otherwise, this latest take on The Barber Of Seville is the perfect summer opera with its fluffy blend of humour and romance and some of the art form’s best known arias....

Review: HOUDINI'S GREATEST ESCAPE, King's Head Theatre
by Gary Naylor - June 05, 2024

New comedies are hard to get right and often land in a highly subjective space, but this one has to be called out as a bit of a dud...

Review: SARASOTA BALLET - PROGRAMME 1, Royal Opera House
by Matthew Paluch - June 05, 2024

'wit, charm and elegance' are the words used to describe the work of Royal Ballet founding choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton (1904-1988). English ballet, or rather style wouldn't exist without him, so The Frederick Ashton Foundation have understandably instigated the Ashton Worldwide (2024-2028) in...

Review: JAMIE FINN: NOBODY'S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE, Soho Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - June 10, 2024

Walking into the Soho Theatre Upstairs for Jamie Finn: Nobody’s Talking About Jamie, you are greeted by a bit of an unusual sight - an exercise bike. Finn enters wearing an outfit one might find someone wearing at the gym, with a Blondie t-shirt and bright green gym shorts, and the show begins with ...

Review: GANDINI JUGGLING'S SMASHED, Peacock Theatre
by Franco Milazzo - June 04, 2024

Juggling not only apples but comedy, dance and socio-sexual commentary, the troupe co-founded by Sean Gandini and Kati Ylä-Hokkala in 1992 bring back their signature production to London....

Review: VIOLA'S ROOM, One Cartridge Place
by Franco Milazzo - June 03, 2024

In a sudden lurch away from their epic 2022 creation The Burnt City, immersive specialists Punchdrunk’s next effort is a far more cosy affair. Small barefoot groups walk their way through the Nineties fairytale world of Viola’s Room with the story relayed over headphones by Helena Bonham Carte...

Review: A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, Theatre Royal Haymarket
by Louise Penn - June 05, 2024

The first major revival of Arthur Miller's A View From The Bridge in a decade plays on the downfall of the 'Everyman'. Eddie Carbone is a hard-worker, popular, a man's man. But something deep and dangerous is gnawing at his heart....

Review: FUN AT THE BEACH ROMP-BOMP-A-LOMP!!, Southwark Playhouse
by Franco Milazzo - June 02, 2024

Advertised as “Grease meets Squid Game”, Fun At The Beach Romp Bomp A Lomp!! manages to go from the ridiculous to the sublime, even if it does lose its way every now and then....

Review: THE BOYS FROM THE BLACKSTUFF, National Theatre
by Gary Naylor - May 30, 2024

It's not a seamless transition from screen to stage, but it works well enough and, sadly, it still resonates with a truth albeit in a very different world...