For her swansong, departing Donmar Artistic Director Josie Rourke goes Swinging Sixties in this stylish but flawed revival of the Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields and Neil Simon musical. From the numerous Andy Warhol homages to Charity’s silver minidress and the cigarette haze, it’s a period … Continue reading
Following Caroline, or Change and Fun Home, the UK is blessed with another work from American composer Jeanine Tesori – this the British premiere of her 1997 musical Violet, which had a Sutton Foster-starring Broadway production in 2014. If not as refined as that exquisite duo, it’s … Continue reading
Back in 2009, Alexi Kaye Campbell followed up his bold first play The Pride with Apologia, which takes the well-trodden path of a fraught family reunion where past grievances stalk the present. If more conventional, it’s still an enjoyable combination of big ideas, sharp … Continue reading
Just what constitutes reasonable behaviour in an enlightened society? Not long ago, the death penalty fell under that umbrella in Britain, and state-sanctioned killing as punishment for the crime of, well, killing is just the kind of twisted irony that … Continue reading
Welcome to the hellmouth. In Jamie Lloyd’s startling 50th anniversary revival, the seething, primal hinterland of Pinter’s domestic conflict is made flesh: the metal cage surrounding an innocuous living room glows a devilish red, sulphur-like smoke belches from the ether, … Continue reading
The “femmepersonators” of Harvey Fierstein’s 1962-set drama would be flabbergasted by today’s level of trans visibility, from Grayson Perry and Caitlyn Jenner to Transparent and Eddie Redmayne’s new film The Danish Girl. Yet it’s the still pertinent issue of private … Continue reading
If you didn’t know the Kinks hailed from Muswell Hill, you certainly will by the end of the Hampstead Theatre’s first musical, which basks in the glory of the local boys made good. It’s also an apt venue in which … Continue reading
