Theatre
Measure for Measure to musicWednesday, 18 November 2015
West Side Story, Kiss Me Kate, even The Lion King – all have shown us how Shakespeare’s stories can translate into musical form. It’s not hard to see why: the plots provide strong frameworks for adaptation, with central problems to be resolved... Read more... |
10 Questions for playwright Patrick BarlowMonday, 16 November 2015
Patrick Barlow’s last play was parked in the West End for nine years. The 39 Steps finally closed this autumn, but not before travelling all over the world, most prestigiously to Broadway but also, among other destinations, to Russia, Japan,... Read more... |
Henry V, RSC, Barbican TheatreFriday, 13 November 2015
Pro patria mori. Now there’s the test for Henry V - perform it on Remembrance Day. The “band of brothers” shtick relies on an idea of patriotism from an age when there was no need to define something so heartfelt, and an idea that kings and... Read more... |
Four Minutes Twelve Seconds, Trafalgar StudiosFriday, 13 November 2015
Teenagers lie – that’s nothing new. But are the activities they’re concealing from anxious parents in this oversharing digital age more extreme, more likely to define their lives and those of the people around them? James Fritz’s 90-minute debut,... Read more... |
The Session, Soho TheatreThursday, 12 November 2015
One of the quiet joys of contemporary British theatre is the small play. You know the kind of thing: a boy-meets-girl story, told with sharp dialogue and quirky humour. Usually with a cast of two, this type of play is fast-moving, full of small... Read more... |
Waste, National TheatreWednesday, 11 November 2015
Do scandals have a sell-by date? When it comes to sex and politicians, the answer is no. The tabloids, and the news-hungry public, still seem to relish a good story about a powerful man who is caught with his trousers around his ankles. So Harley... Read more... |
The Winter's Tale, Harlequinade/All On Her Own, Garrick TheatreMonday, 09 November 2015
What exactly is the level of Kenneth Branagh’s self-awareness? He’s certainly conscious of inviting comparison with Olivier once again by presenting a year-long season of plays at the refurbished Garrick under the auspices of the Kenneth Branagh... Read more... |
Thomas Tallis, Sam Wanamaker PlayhouseSunday, 08 November 2015
Jessica Swale’s Thomas Tallis is the first new play commissioned for the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse – the beginning, hopefully, of the same relationship the Globe itself has always had with new writing. In concept, it’s everything this unique space... Read more... |
Elf, Dominion TheatreFriday, 06 November 2015
This new family musical, based on the popular 2003 Will Ferrell film, has rightly been censured for its extortionate seating prices, hosting the West End’s most expensive top-end tickets at £267.50 a pop – and that’s without the drinks, ice cream... Read more... |
Pig Farm, St James TheatreThursday, 05 November 2015
How wonderful it would be if Greg Kotis's play was a rapid response to David Cameron's alleged interest in porcine affairs. Not only wonderful to those still laughing about the imaginary high jinks at Oxford 20-odd years ago (the story will never... Read more... |
As You Like It, National TheatreWednesday, 04 November 2015
Rosalind’s “working-day world” takes an unexpectedly literal turn in Polly Findlay’s sparky new As You Like It for the National Theatre. An opening sequence, set in a windowless trading-floor, opens out in one of the year’s most bewitching set... Read more... |
Xanadu, Southwark PlayhouseTuesday, 03 November 2015
It trashed Olivia Newton-John’s film career, halted the movie-musical revival, and was so critically reviled it led to the creation of the Razzies. How, then, could the stage version of hubristic 1980 flop Xanadu become a 2007 Broadway hit? The... Read more... |
