wed 25/12/2024

theatre reviews, news & interviews

Twelfth Night, Royal Shakespeare Theatre review - comic energy dissipates in too large a space

Gary Naylor

It is not just Twelfth Night, it’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will in The Folio, a signpost of the choices the inhabitants, old and new, of Illyria must make. Perhaps it’s also an allusion to Will’s own choices as an actor/playwright in the all-male company who cross-dressed (and maybe more) as women and girls without batting an eyelid.

You Me Bum Bum Train, secret location review - a joyful multiverse of anarchic creativity

Rachel Halliburton

This feels like the theatrical equivalent of being in a centrifuge – a wild, spinning ride through different forms of reality that deftly separates out the different layers of who you think you are. It’s a multiverse that’s like a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Everything Everywhere All At Once – both liberating and challenging as you hurtle from one situation to another.

The Tempest, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane review -...

Heather Neill

Shakespeare must have relished the opportunities brought by the indoor Blackfriars Theatre in 1611: sound magnified in a way impossible outdoors,...

Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,...

Gary Naylor

Broadway shows sometimes hit the West End like, well, like a comet, burning brightly but briefly (Spring Awakening, for example), while others settle...

The Invention of Love, Hampstead Theatre review...

Aleks Sierz

Can men really love each other – without sex? Or, to put it another way, how many different forms of male love can you name? These questions loiter...

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Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, New Adventures, Sadler's Wells review - 30 years on, as bold and brilliant as ever

Helen Hawkins

A masterly reinvention has become a classic itself

The Little Foxes, Young Vic review - timeshifted production blurs the play's focus

Helen Hawkins

Lillian Hellman’s family feud set in 1900 Alabama doesn’t survive a confused updating

The Legends of Them, Royal Court review - reaching out for serenity

Aleks Sierz

Gig theatre piece about the pain and redemption of a pioneer reggae artist

The Producers, Menier Chocolate Factory review - liberating taboo-busting fun for grown-ups

Helen Hawkins

Director Patrick Marber does Mel Brooks's musical proud

A Midsummer Night's Dream, RSC, Barbican review - visually ravishing with an undercurrent of violence

Rachel Halliburton

This psychedelic mashup conveys a sci-fi-style alternate reality

The Devil Wears Prada, Dominion Theatre review - efficient but rarely inspired

Matt Wolf

Relaunch of Elton John musical needs further tinkering still

Hansel and Gretel, Shakespeare's Globe review - too saccharine a retelling for our times

Gary Naylor

Songs and sweeties, but insufficient sourness and sadism for fans of fairytales

The Importance of Being Earnest, National Theatre review - no shortage of acid-tipped delight

Rachel Halliburton

Oscar Wilde speaks just as strongly to the 21st century as he did to his own

Twelfth Night, Orange Tree Theatre review - perfectly pitched sad and merry musical mayhem

Heather Neill

Shakespeare's comedy of identity confusion benefits from a 1940s setting

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, The Other Palace - all Greek to me

Gary Naylor

Myths and monsters make for a curiously bland and bloodless musical

Expendable, Royal Court review - intensely felt family drama

Aleks Sierz

New play about a paedophile ring foregrounds the voices of British-Pakistani women

The Purists, Kiln Theatre review - warm, witty, thoughtful and un-woke

Helen Hawkins

Dan McCabe's play about ageing hiphop stars makes a winning European debut

The Dead, ANU, Landmark Productions, MoLI Dublin review - vital life, love and death in perfect equilibrium

David Nice

Joyce’s great short story fully realised for ‘invited guests’ by a perfect ensemble

All's Well That Ends Well, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - Shakespeare at his least likeable

Gary Naylor

New production lands on shaky ground in 2024

Wicked review - overly busy if beautifully sung cliffhanger

Matt Wolf

Musical theatre behemoth becomes an outsized film - and this is just part one

King James, Hampstead Theatre review - UK premiere drains a three-pointer

Gary Naylor

LeBron James comes and goes, and comes back again to the Cavs

A Christmas Carol, Old Vic review - tidings of discomfort and noise

Aleks Sierz

This venue’s annual festive classic is joyous, but its writing is frankly patronising

[title of show], Southwark Playhouse review - two guys and two girls write about writing, delightfully

Gary Naylor

Revival of New York show lifts the spirits

ARK: United States V by Laurie Anderson, Aviva Studios, Manchester review - a vessel for the thoughts and imaginings of a lifetime

Sarah Kent

Despite anticipating disaster, this mesmerising voyage is full of hope

Wolves on Road, Bush Theatre review - exciting dialogue, but flawed plotting

Aleks Sierz

New play about young black men and cryptocurrency is sadly predictable

Burnt Up Love, Finborough Theatre review - scorching new play

Gary Naylor

Super writing and acting jolts us out of complacency

L’Addition, BAC review - top billing for physical comedy duo

Aleks Sierz

The latest in Forced Entertainment’s 40 years of experiment is a thought-tickling farce

Barcelona, Duke of York's Theatre review - Lily Collins migrates from France to Spain

Matt Wolf

The 'Emily in Paris' star surrenders to cliche - or does she?

Guards at the Taj, Orange Tree Theatre review - miniature marvel with rich resonances

Helen Hawkins

Rajiv Joseph’s play pitting beauty against duty gets an impressive staging

Footnote: a brief history of British theatre

London theatre is the oldest and most famous theatreland in the world, with more than 100 theatres offering shows ranging from new plays in the subsidised venues such as the National Theatre and Royal Court to mass popular hits such as The Lion King in the West End and influential experimental crucibles like the Bush and Almeida theatres. There's much cross-fertilisation with Broadway, with London productions transferring to New York, and leading Hollywood film actors coming to the West End to star in live theatre. In regional British theatre, the creative energy of theatres like Alan Ayckbourn's Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, the Bristol Old Vic and the Sheffield theatre hub add to the richness of the landscape, while the many town theatres host circling tours of popular farces, crime theatre and musicals.

lion_kingThe first permanent theatre, the Red Lion, was built in Queen Elizabeth I's time, in 1576 in Shoreditch; Shakespeare spent 20 years in London with the Lord Chamberlain's Men, mainly performing at The Theatre, also in Shoreditch. A century later under the merry Charles II the first "West End" theatre was built on what is now Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and Restoration theatre evolved with a strong injection of political wit from Irish playwrights Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Catering for more populist tastes, Sadler's Wells theatre went up in 1765, and a lively mix of drama, comedy and working-class music-hall ensued. But by the mid-19th century London theatre was deplored for its low taste, its burlesque productions unfavourably contrasted with the aristocratic French theatre. Calls for a national theatre to do justice to Shakespeare resulted in the first "Shakespeare Memorial" theatre built in Stratford in 1879.

The Forties and Fifties saw a golden age of classic theatre, with Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir Ralph Richardson and Sir John Gielgud starring in world-acclaimed productions in the Old Vic company, and new British plays by Harold Pinter, John Osborne, Beckett and others erupting at the English Stage Company in the Royal Court. This momentum led in 1961 to the establishing of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, and in 1963 the launch of the National Theatre at The Old Vic, led by Olivier. In the late Sixties Britain broke the American stranglehold on large-scale modern musicals when Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice launched their brilliant careers with first Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and then Jesus Christ Superstar in 1970, and never looked back. The British modern original musical tradition led on to Les Misérables, The Lion King and most recently Matilda.

The Arts Desk brings you the fastest overnight reviews and ticket booking links for last night's openings, as well as the most thoughtful close-up interviews with major creative figures, actors and playwrights. Our critics include Matt Wolf, Aleks Sierz, Alexandra Coghlan, Veronica Lee, Sam Marlowe, Hilary Whitney and James Woodall.

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