Sleepless
September 12, 2020
Kimberley Walsh and Jay McGuiness lead this amiable stage version of Sleepless in Seattle at the Troubadour Wembley Park.
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Leopoldstadt
February 20, 2020
Tom Stoppard’s deeply personal play at Wyndham’s Theatre has a cumulative and moving power.
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Ravens: Spassky vs Fischer
December 12, 2019
Tom Morton-Smith’s Cold War chess drama at Hampstead Theatre is a stalemate of confusion and disconnect.
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Fleabag
August 29, 2019
Phoebe Waller-Bridge dazzles in the encore run of her one-woman show at Wyndham’s Theatre.
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The Doctor
August 22, 2019
Juliet Stevenson is the wounded soul of Robert Icke’s examination of identity at the Almeida Theatre.
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Interview: Dael Orlandersmith
August 15, 2019
The actress and playwright discusses powerful piece Until The Flood at the Arcola Theatre.
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Evita
August 15, 2019
Jamie Lloyd’s contemporary revamp of the classic musical wows at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.
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Blues in the Night
August 1, 2019
The mighty Sharon D Clarke leads a jubilant jazz revue at the Kiln Theatre.
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Cash Cow
June 27, 2019
Oli Forsyth’s tennis prodigy play at Hampstead Theatre is an imperfect but provocative lob.
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Betrayal
March 19, 2019
Tom Hiddleston wows in Jamie Lloyd’s stylish Pinter revival at Harold Pinter Theatre.
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I and You
November 1, 2018
Maisie Williams and Zach Wyatt make impressive stage debuts in Lauren Gunderson’s play at Hampstead Theatre.
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Dance Nation
September 6, 2018
Clare Barron’s electrifying play at Almeida Theatre is a defiantly and candidly female coming-of-age tale.
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Pericles
August 30, 2018
The National’s Public Acts initiative produces a joyfully diverse production that welcomes non-professionals and makes theatre home to all.
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Overstuffed but passionate plea for the NHS
July 26, 2018
Alan Bennett’s Allelujah! at the Bridge Theatre is funny and fiery, yet lapses into polemic.
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Absolute Hell
May 3, 2018
Rockney Ackland’s provocative but imperfect play, revived at the National, is a sharp rejoinder to false nostalgia.
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The Birthday Party
January 25, 2018
Ian Rickson’s starry 60th-anniversary Pinter revival, at Harold Pinter Theatre, proves the play still has the power to unsettle.
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Hamilton
January 4, 2018
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop musical, now at Victoria Palace Theatre, more than lives up to the hype.
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Spy farce never comes in from the cold
December 14, 2017
Simon Gray’s play, revived at the Hampstead, is more theatrical curio than lost masterpiece.
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The Slaves of Solitude
November 9, 2017
Patrick Hamilton’s novel comes to stage at Hampstead Theatre in an evocative but uneven drama.
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Loss, loneliness and love in Crouch End
October 19, 2017
David Eldridge’s Beginning at National Theatre is a meticulously crafted, real-time gem of a romcom.
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Follies, National Theatre
September 14, 2017
In Dominic Cooke’s revival, Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s musical is thrilling, heartrending, spectacular.
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A rich, timely piece but tonally uneven
August 24, 2017
Ben Whishaw ably anchors Christopher Shinn’s well-intentioned but unwieldy Against at Almeida Theatre.
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Common, National Theatre
June 15, 2017
DC Moore’s historic epic, starring Anne-Marie Duff and Cush Jumbo, is ambitious but wilfully bewildering.
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Riot Club still has bite but lacks real danger
April 6, 2017
The all-female version of Laura Wade’s Posh at Pleasance Theatre needs a clearer purpose.
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Honours Stoppard’s dazzling intellect
February 23, 2017
Patrick Marber helms an impressive revival of Travesties at Apollo Theatre.
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Such thrilling stuff as dreams are made on
December 1, 2016
Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female Shakespeare Trilogy at King’s Cross Theatre is a kinetic portrait of wide-ranging humanity.
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At worst, a Kushner seminar, but engaging
November 3, 2016
The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide… at Hampstead Theatre bows under the weight of lengthily explored ideas.
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Anne-Marie Duff is magnificently complex
October 20, 2016
Ella Hickson’s sprawling odyssey Oil at Almeida Theatre is vivid and unsettling.
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Spellbinding story of Selassie
September 15, 2016
Chameleonic Kathryn Hunter gets an extraordinary showcase in Colin Teevan’s The Emperor at the Young Vic.
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A financial thriller to get the blood pumping
September 15, 2016
Beth Steel returns to Hampstead Theatre with ambitious but unwieldy Labyrinth.
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Branagh is assured but lacks true desperation
September 8, 2016
The Entertainer finishes his Garrick residency with a flourish, but doesn’t dig deep enough.
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Unconvincing Greek political drama
June 9, 2016
Alexi Kaye Campbell’s morality tale/history lesson Sunset at the Villa Thalia at the National skirts contemporary crises.
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Smart dialogue, but too much millennial self-analysis
June 9, 2016
Jesse Eisenberg writes and stars in cynical sitcom The Spoils at Trafalgar Studios.
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Style over substance but Lily shines
June 2, 2016
Kenneth Branagh’s starry Romeo and Juliet at Garrick Theatre is more great beauty than great tragedy.
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All aboard for a fleet revival
May 5, 2016
Daniel Evans’s Show Boat at New London Theatre is a lush, intimate epic.
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A nostalgic, gentle gem
April 15, 2016
Mikel Murfi mightily impresses in one-man show The Man in the Woman’s Shoes at Tricycle Theatre.
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Hard to invest in tale of altruistic formula
April 8, 2016
Laura Farmworth and Lydia Adetunji’s Calculating Kindness at Camden People’s Theatre is overstuffed.
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Stylish, witty and lurid tale
March 4, 2016
Jamie Lloyd’s unflinching revival of Genet’s The Maids at Trafalgar Studios benefits from a resonant casting choice.
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Brash but glib puppet tale
February 26, 2016
Robert Askins’ semi-autobiographical farce Hand to God at Vaudeville Theatre is heartfelt, but too scattershot.
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Modern passion in a revitalised Chekhov
February 19, 2016
Robert Icke puts his contemporary spin on Uncle Vanya at Almeida Theatre.
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‘Good theatre should be provocative’
February 19, 2016
Hand to God actress Jemima Rooper talks puppetry, repression and blind casting.
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Gripping slick revival of tricky spy thriller
December 18, 2015
Tom Stoppard’s Hapgood comes in from the cold in Howard Davies’ excellent Hampstead Theatre production.
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Musing on death; you’ll lose the will to live
December 11, 2015
Caryl Churchill’s Here We Go at National Theatre is fascinatingly elliptical, but seems lost in the Lyttelton.
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Pertinent politics but sterile play of ideas
December 4, 2015
Harley Granville Barker’s Waste at the National Theatre is more interesting than truly stirring.
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Women triumph in Branagh’s starry rep
November 12, 2015
Dame Judi Dench and Zoe Wanamaker elevate a flawed opening to Kenneth Branagh’s Garrick season.
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Moderate Soprano is a moderate success
November 5, 2015
David Hare’s Glyndebourne origin story at Hampstead Theatre is more about a place than a driving idea.
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Pit drama is grim but rich
November 5, 2015
Husbands & Sons, Ben Power’s inspired melding of three DH Lawrence mining plays at the National Theatre, is an intimate epic.
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A schmaltzy sizzling hit
October 22, 2015
In the Heights at King’s Cross Theatre has a weak book, but is elevated by choreography and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s propulsive score.
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Unsubtle Tartuffe update misses target
October 22, 2015
Marcus Gardley’s broadly farcical A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes at Tricycle Theatre sells Molière short.
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A whimsical star vehicle
October 16, 2015
Claire van Kampen’s Farinelli and the King at Duke of York’s is a featherweight showcase for Mark Rylance.
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Obvious, unfunny satire finds nothing new on Brand furore
October 9, 2015
Daniel Dingsdale’s Dark Tourism at Park Theatre is as mean-spirited and vacuous as the celebrity culture it’s trying to satirise.
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Dystopian vision thrills
September 25, 2015
Alistair McDowall’s Pomona brings brilliant and brutal contemporary urban horror to the National’s Temporary space.
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Shattering soliloquy of grief and isolation
September 11, 2015
Simon Stephens’ Song from Far Away at the Young Vic, directed by Ivo van Hove, lingers long after the event.
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Clumsy look at Jewish Broadway history is toe-tapping nostalgia
September 3, 2015
Revue You Won’t Succeed On Broadway If You Don’t Have Any Jews at St James Theatre is dubiously framed.
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An engaging study of love
August 7, 2015
Three Days in the Country, Patrick Marber’s adaptation of Turgenev at the National Theatre, is a hazily erotic hit.
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Family affair feels oddly conventional
July 31, 2015
Andrew Keatley’s family drama The Gathered Leaves is a curiously old-fashioned choice for Park Theatre.
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Love and physics in a parallel universe
July 24, 2015
Nick Payne’s ingenious theoretical physics romcom Constellations tracks the roads not taken in a strong Trafalgar Studios revival.
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Bold Chekhov for our times
July 3, 2015
Torben Betts’s sparky free adaptation of The Seagull and a memorably striking design give the Open Air another hit.
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Savagely powerful play takes us inside dementia
May 21, 2015
Florian Zeller’s The Father at Tricycle Theatre is an extraordinary immersive experience.
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Clichéd take on closeted star misfires
April 23, 2015
Golden Age Hollywood’s repression gets a rote revisiting in Dylan Costello’s The Glass Protégé at Park Theatre.
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April de Angelis’s new work is bold but rigid
April 17, 2015
Motherhood, ageing and the right to die are explored in ambitious but uneven After Electra at Tricycle Theatre.
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Flawed but urgent look at British Islam
March 10, 2015
John Hollingworth’s Multitudes at Tricycle Theatre fires complex topical debate, but chaotic, overly busy plotting strains credulity.
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Kitchen drama fails to connect
February 27, 2015
Torben Betts explores modern malaise via the dinner party from hell in entertaining but limited Muswell Hill at Park Theatre.
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C
risp winters tale of family
December 12, 2014
Tena Štivičić’s terrifically impressive Croatian epic 3 Winters at the National Theatre puts female experience centre stage.
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Thriller asks big questions
November 21, 2014
Revival of David Edgar’s Iron Curtain Trilogy at the Cockpit Theatre offers shrewd contemporary provocation.
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Odd couple tale fails to satisfy
November 14, 2014
Robert Holman’s offbeat, existential Jonah and Otto at Park Theatre frustrates as much as it intrigues.
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Period piece stripped back to shed light on human truths
October 24, 2014
David Cromer’s revival of Wilder’s Our Town at the Almeida is startlingly profound in its seeming simplicity.
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A melodramatic production that needs more bite to really engage
October 17, 2014
Damien Tracey’s Warde Street at Park Theatre diminishes real tragedy – the 7/7 London bombings – with the addition of predictable sensationalism.
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A Lindsay Lohan vehicle that doesn’t really get into gear
October 17, 2014
Tabloid-baiting but fatally lethargic Speed-the-Plow revival at Playhouse Theatre has more drama offstage than on.
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The American nightmare
September 26, 2014
The savagery of blood bond is laid bare in this searing revival of Sam Shepard’s masterful True West at Tricycle Theatre.
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Comedy about lesbians’ quest for a child needs to be more daring
September 19, 2014
Ben Ockrent’s topical Breeders at St James Theatre is too nice to do its provocative subject matter justice.
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Horror of prostitution lurking close to home
September 12, 2014
Anna Jordan’s provocative Chicken Shop at Park Theatre conveys brutal loss of innocence, but is hamstrung by sluggish domestic scenes.
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Dourly funny insight into grind of factory life
September 6, 2014
Man of the moment Richard Bean adds to his 2014 tally with a strong production of early work Toast at Park Theatre.
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The messiness and painfulness of love examined
August 15, 2014
My Night With Reg, Kevin Elyot’s incisive study of deception and desire, gets a storming revival at Donmar Warehouse.
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McCrory magnetic in an electrifying production
August 1, 2014
Carrie Cracknell’s modern-dress Medea at the National is all the more horrifying for its empathetic reading and familiar setting.
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Compelling tale from the underrepresented
August 1, 2014
The Theatre Writers Workshop’s Lili at Etcetera Theatre, honouring the first transwoman with input from a trans team, is flawed but heartfelt.
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Theatre company defends culture in dark times
June 27, 2014
David Schneider’s Making Stalin Laugh at the new JW3 centre balances backstage squabbles with riveting history.
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Meeting of love rivals needs to be spikier
June 20, 2014
Amy Rosenthal’s Henna Night at the New Diorama Theatre is refreshingly perceptive about women, but needs to be spikier.
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Urban inter-generation relationships explored
June 6, 2014
Rachel De-lahay’s Circles at the Tricycle offers a unique and urgent perspective on inescapable cycles of violence.
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Thought-provoking encounter with a killer
June 6, 2014
Nicholas Wright’s A Human Being Died That Night at Hampstead Theatre examines the soul of South Africa’s Eugene de Kock.
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Solid Miller is lacking darkness
May 29, 2014
The necessary tension of Arthur Miller’s masterful All My Sons unfortunately dissipates in the open air of Regent’s Park.
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A dazzling debate about privacy
in the digital age
May 2, 2014
James Graham’s Privacy at Donmar Warehouse tackles urgent ideas with disarming lightness of touch.
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Verse drama about deception is incoherent
May 2, 2014
Peter Oswald’s Lucifer Saved at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre aims for Shakespearean epic, but comes up unwieldy Jeremy Kyle.
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Razzle-dazzle treatment leaves smile on your face
April 10, 2014
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the latest film-turned-West End musical, is a slick, sublimely silly jazz-hands throwback.
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Solid but unremarkable Lear does what it says on the tin
March 21, 2014
Darker Purpose produces a curiously muted King Lear that fails to take advantage of The Cockpit’s intimate setting.
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Wonderfully lucid Lear with licence to thrill
January 30, 2014
Sam Mendes’ gripping King Lear at the National Theatre features a revelatory performance from Simon Russell Beale.
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Killer one-liners but play only skims the surface
August 22, 2013
Nick Payne’s The Same Deep Water As Me at the Donmar Warehouse is a jocular dig at the ‘no win, no fees’ claims culture, but doesn’t get to the root of the issue.
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