Theatre Reviews
Whitewash, Soho Theatre review - a wild-at-heart linguistic joy-rideTuesday, 16 July 2019
This witty street-smart play about a white-skinned boy born to a mixed-race mother deploys its narrative with the dexterity of a dance. Read more... |
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, London Palladium review - bright, brash, largely irresistibleFriday, 12 July 2019
Cheeky and broad and (for the most part) as entertaining as seems humanly possible, this embryonic entry from the collaborative pen of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber is back at its onetime London home, the Palladium. It's a production far surpassing any of the various London and Broadway Joseph... Read more... |
The Fountainhead, The Lowry, Salford review – marathon in ManclandFriday, 12 July 2019
Ivo van Hove’s reputation precedes his work as a rumble of thunder goes before a storm. Read more... |
Peter Gynt, National Theatre review - towering protagonist, middle-way productionThursday, 11 July 2019
Like Hamlet and both parts of Goethe's Faust, with which it shares the highest peak of poetic drama, Ibsen's Peer Gynt is very long, timeless... Read more... |
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Harold Pinter Theatre review - smart stagecraft, skimpy scriptThursday, 11 July 2019
Better than the 2001 film but likely to disappoint devotees of the book, Captain Corelli's Mandolin onstage works best as a reminder of the identifiable stagecraft of its director, Melly Still. Read more... |
Jellyfish, National Theatre review - Ben Weatherill's play hits the right notesThursday, 11 July 2019
The intense relationship between a single parent and a single child is ramped up to its highest level when it involves a mother whose daughter has learning disabilities. Read more... |
Jesus Christ Superstar, Barbican review - Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical lives againWednesday, 10 July 2019
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s 1970 musical had a heavenly resurrection at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre three years ago, with an encore run the following summer. Read more... |
Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner, Royal Court review - memes, memories and meaningsTuesday, 09 July 2019
Few theatres have done as much to promote new young talent as the Royal Court; few theatres have done as much to stage plays about the pains and pleasures of the digital world; few venues have tackled the themes of race and gender in contemporary society more effectively. Read more... |
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13-3/4, Ambassadors Theatre review - needs a chill pillSaturday, 06 July 2019
Time hasn't necessarily been kind to this slow-aborning West End transfer of a show first seen (and lauded) in its 2015 debut in Leicester and then again two years later for a summer run at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Read more... |
the end of history ..., Royal Court review - raises more questions than it answersThursday, 04 July 2019
An apocalyptic title proves somewhat of a red herring for a slight if intriguing play that returns the dream team behind Harry Potter and the Cursed Child to their erstwhile stomping ground at the Royal... Read more... |
Pages
Advertising feature
★★★★★
‘A compulsive, involving, emotionally stirring evening – theatre’s answer to a page-turner.’
The Observer, Kate Kellaway
Direct from a sold-out season at Kiln Theatre the five star, hit play, The Son, is now playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre for a strictly limited season.
★★★★★
‘This final part of Florian Zeller’s trilogy is the most powerful of all.’
The Times, Ann Treneman
Written by the internationally acclaimed Florian Zeller (The Father, The Mother), lauded by The Guardian as ‘the most exciting playwright of our time’, The Son is directed by the award-winning Michael Longhurst.
Book by 30 September and get tickets from £15*
with no booking fee.
latest in today
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
A Form of Exile: Edward Said and Late Style, CLS, Wood, QEH...
You could plan an entire concert season around the theme of “late style”, its paradoxes and variations. For this one-off, many of us expected a...
Edward II, RSC, Swan Theatre, Stratford review - monarchs, m...
“Don’t put your co-artistic director on the stage, Mrs Harvey,” as Noel Coward once (almost) sang.
Tamara...
BBC Philharmonic, Bihlmaier, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester re...
Anja Bihlmaier returned to the BBC Philharmonic – for the first time in the Bridgewater Hall as principal guest conductor – with a programme to...
Album: Reg Meuross, Fire & Dust: A Woody Guthrie Story
I come to this album from a week or so spent among the denizens of the New York and Boston...
Music Reissues Weekly: Liverpool Sunset - The City After Mer...
What happens after the spotlight is directed towards another target? In the case of Liverpool and the Merseybeat boom – which, in terms of chart...
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Czech Philharmonic, Bychkov, Barbican re...
Exactly half a century ago, Semyon Bychkov fled the USSR for the United States as he sought to swap tyranny for liberty. Last night, in a world...
Drive to Survive, Season 7, Netflix review - speed, scandal...
Last year’s sixth season of Drive to Survive radiated an air of diminishing returns. It was as though the novelty of its spy-in-the-...
Bonhoeffer review - flawed biopic of a saintly man of courag...
The German theologian, pastor and anti-Nazi dissident Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a saintly, courageous figure, of major historical...
Matt Forde, Touring review - politics, poo and Viagra
Matt Forde gives a warning: “Don’t heckle the disabled – that’s a hate crime.” What an opener for his latest touring show, The End...