UK / West End Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 8

Review: IL SEGRETO DI SUSANNA / PAGLIACCI, Opera Holland Park
by Gary Naylor - July 18, 2024

Opera Holland Park delivers two short pieces - an ideal introduction to the form's unique capacity to bring emotional weight to any story...

Review: AFTER SEX, Arcola Theatre
by Cindy Marcolina - July 18, 2024

Friends with benefits. Casual lovers. Non-romantic sexual partners. They’re all terms that Google feeds you if you’re trying to define a relationship where one will undoubtedly end up catching feelings. Him and Her are attempting to circumnavigate the exact same situation(ship). She likes that he’s ...

Review: THE BAKER'S WIFE, Menier Chocolate Factory
by Mica Blackwell - July 18, 2024

A gentler offering from Stephen Schwartz’s catalogue, this immersive show whisks you away to a time long past with a phenomenal ensemble who find the heart and soul in their characters. Perhaps the mistake made 50 years ago was attempting to bring The Baker’s Wife to a larger space. In the Menier’s ...

Review: HELLO, DOLLY!, The London Palladium
by Aliya Al-Hassan - July 19, 2024

Well, we got there in the end and thankfully, it was worth the wait. Initially due to open back in 2020, Dominic Cooke’s adaptation of Hello, Dolly! has finally arrived in the West End....

Review: THE LOST LIONESSES, The Space Arts Centre
by Gary Naylor - July 18, 2024

The struggle to establish women's football in the UK told through the eyes of those who defied the establishment to play in a world cup in Mexico...

Review: BEFORE I GO, Brixton House
by Matthew Paluch - July 18, 2024

Before I Go, first seen during the Brixton House's Housemates Festival in summer 2023, is a one hour work written by Tobi King Bakare that centres on Ajani, a young, black man who has issues with communication when it really matters....

Review: JACK TUCKER: COMEDY STAND UP HOUR, Soho Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - July 18, 2024

Created and performed by Zach Zucker of Stamptown fame, Jack Tucker: Comedy Stand Up Hour is a longer-than-an-hour stand up show in which Zucker takes on his character of Jack Tucker. For those unfamiliar with the character, Jack Tucker is the self-described “ultimate comedian’s comedian” who “will ...

Review: MADAMA BUTTERFLY, Royal Opera House
by Franco Milazzo - July 15, 2024

There’s a singular simplicity in Madama Butterfly that draws in audiences year after year, decade by decade like moths to a flame: a man loves and leaves a woman; she gives up everything for him. With a staging that mirrors that bare but powerful concept, Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier’s 2002 prod...

Review: I WISH MY LIFE WERE LIKE A MUSICAL, King's Head Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - July 16, 2024

Written by Alexander S. Bermange, I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical is a “comedic musical revue” that brings audiences into the world of musical theatre both onstage and off. Audience members experience the life of a performer, from the first nerve-wracking audition to the moment in which they can ...

Review: SISTERS OF MERSEY, Liverpool's Royal Court
by Sarah OHara - July 15, 2024

Following the success of A Thong for Europe at Liverpool’s Royal Court in 2023, writer Jonathan Harvey and director Stephen Fletcher are back with another five star comedy hit - Sisters of Mersey....

Review: NATIONAL YOUTH DANCE COMPANY: WALL - OONA DOHERTY, Sadler's Wells
by Matthew Paluch - July 15, 2024

National Youth Dance Company has been running since 2013, and acts as “England’s Flagship youth dance company”, the brainchild of, and run by Sadler’s Wells. The (Guest) Artistic Directors read like a who’s who of present day contemporary dance royalty, and 23/24 sees Oona Doherty take up the presti...

Review: FUERZA BRUTA: AVEN, The Roundhouse
by Franco Milazzo - July 12, 2024

Feeling like the wildest circus party in town, Fuerza Bruta (Spanish for “brute force”) return to the Roundhouse with their new show Aven....

Review: VISIT FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN, Hampstead Theatre
by Alexander Cohen - July 12, 2024

The lights flash on, a writer stumbles into his scantly decorated flat. A woman follows, champagne on her breath, flirtatious glances smuggled between them. It’s late at night and the inevitability of retiring to the bedroom looms. But it is not what it seems....

Review: THE W.I.G OF LIFE: A CONFERENCE, Riverside Studios
by Kat Mokrynski - July 12, 2024

Entering Riverside Studios, you are greeted by two performers dressed in grey bodysuits and bright blue bob wigs, speaking to you in monotonous tones. Going into the theatre itself, the set is nothing but wigs. Wigs worn by the performers, wigs hanging from the ceiling, wigs on mannequin heads on th...

Review: DR ADAM PERCHARD AND RICHARD THOMAS: INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMP, Soho Theatre
by Franco Milazzo - July 11, 2024

It would be difficult to describe Adam Perchard as some shy, self-effacing wallflower. They follow up Bunburying (The Importance of Being Dr Adam Perchard) with another autobiographical show, this time with composer Richard Thomas, co-creator of Jerry Springer: The Opera....

Review: DEUX GRANDES DAMES, The Crazy Coqs
by Matthew Paluch - July 11, 2024

Two for the price of one isn’t always a good deal, but Deux Grandes Dames with Melissa Errico & Isabelle Georges at Crazy Coqs - Brasserie Zedel is a dynamic vehicle for the two “tall” & “leading” ladies. ...

Review: SLAVE PLAY, Noël Coward Theatre
by Alexander Cohen - July 10, 2024

For a play that wears controversy as a badge of honour the last thing I expected to feel was slightly bored...

Review: DORIAN: THE MUSICAL, Southwark Playhouse
by Cindy Marcolina - July 11, 2024

However, penned by Joe Evans (score and lyrics) and Linnie Reedman (book and direction), Dorian is an awkward production that’s supposedly adapting the mores and morals of the time for a social media-obsessed audience. They reimagine the protagonist as a lonely rocker who gains overnight popularity ...

Review: BARNUM, Watermill Theatre
by Mica Blackwell - July 10, 2024

The Watermill’s dazzling production fully immerses the audience into the showman’s wondrous world in spite of its inherent script issues. With an all-round talented cast led by the ever charismatic Matt Rawle, you’d be justified if you wanted to run away and join the circus after watching this....

Review: GRUD, Hampstead Theatre
by Katie Kirkpatrick - July 09, 2024

Sarah Power’s Grud is a show about space – in more ways than one. When Bo joins an after school club mission to send a model robot into the stars, it causes the space between her home life and the rest of the world to narrow until it disappears completely. Grud follows sixth form student Bo (Catheri...

Review: NEW VIEWS FESTIVAL 2024, National Theatre
by Gary Naylor - July 09, 2024

Luke Fields and Emyr Strudwick take honours with plays set in Northern Ireland and South Wales...

Review: LONDON CLOWN FESTIVAL: OPENING CABARET, Soho Theatre
by Franco Milazzo - July 09, 2024

And here we go again: the London Clown Festival returns for another run of bizarre, brilliant and occasionally bonkers shows until 26 July....

Review: THE IMPROVISED SHAKESPEARE SHOW, The Other Palace
by Kat Mokrynski - July 11, 2024

The Improvised Shakespeare Show is a show that has a self-describing title - a group of actors improvises a show based on the style of Shakespeare. The cast rotates between members of the ShakeItUp Improv troupe, making multiple visits even more appealing as there may be an entirely different cast t...

Review: COSÌ FAN TUTTE, Royal Opera House
by Franco Milazzo - July 08, 2024

Has opera found its own Ivo van Hove? Jan Philipp Gloger’s radical production of Così fan tutte continues until 10 July....

Review Roundup: What Did the Critics Make of The Stage Adapatation of Naoshi Arakawa's YOUR LIE IN APRIL?
by Aliya Al-Hassan - July 08, 2024

After a record-breaking sell-out concert launch at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Your Lie in April is now open at the Harold Pinter Theatre for 12 weeks only....