wed 20/08/2025

theatre reviews, news & interviews

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Ode Islands / Delusions and Grandeur / Shame Show

David Kettle

The Ode Islands, Pleasance at EICC ★★★★ 

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Ordinary Decent Criminal / Insiders

David Kettle

Ordinary Decent Criminal, Summerhall ★★★★★ 

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Kinder / Shunga...

David Kettle

Kinder, Underbelly, Cowgate ★★★ Drag artist Goody Prostate (yes, I know) receives a call from a local library. Garbed in lederhosen and sporting...

The Two Gentlemen of Verona, RSC, Stratford...

Gary Naylor

I have two guilty secrets about the theatre – okay, two I’m prepared to own up to right here, right now. I quite enjoy some jukebox musicals and I...

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Horse of Jenin...

David Kettle

The Horse of Jenin, Pleasance Dome ★★★★★ Alaa Shehada bounds onto the stage, all muscular energy and swaggering self-confidence, for what’s...

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Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Fit Prince / Undersigned

David Kettle

A joyful gay romance and an intimate one-to-one encounter in two strong Fringe shows

Tom at the Farm, Edinburgh Fringe 2025 review - desire and disgust

David Kettle

A visually stunning stage re-adaptation of a recent gay classic plunges the audience into blood and earth

Works and Days, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 review - jaw-dropping theatrical ambition

David Kettle

Nothing less than the history of human civilisation is the theme of FC Bergman's visually stunning show

Every Brilliant Thing, @sohoplace review - return of the comedy about suicide that lifts the spirits

Helen Hawkins

Lenny Henry is the ideal ringmaster for this exercise in audience participation

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Beautiful Future is Coming / She's Behind You

David Kettle

A deft, epoch-straddling climate six-hander and a celebration (and take-down) of the pantomime dame at the Traverse Theatre

Good Night, Oscar, Barbican review - sad story of a Hollywood great's meltdown, with a dazzling turn by Sean Hayes

Helen Hawkins

Oscar Levant is an ideal subject to refresh the debate about media freedom

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Monstering the Rocketman by Henry Naylor / Alex Berr

Veronica Lee

Tabloid excess in the 1980s; gallows humour in reflections on life and death

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Lost Lear / Consumed

David Kettle

Twists in the tail bring revelations in two fine shows at the Traverse Theatre

Make It Happen, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 review - tutting at naughtiness

David Kettle

James Graham's dazzling comedy-drama on the rise and fall of RBS fails to snarl

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: I'm Ready To Talk Now / RIFT

David Kettle

An intimate one-to-one encounter and an examination of brotherly love at the Traverse Theatre

Top Hat, Chichester Festival Theatre review - top spectacle but book tails off

Gary Naylor

Glitz and glamour in revived dance show based on Fred and Ginger's movie

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Alright Sunshine / K Mak at the Planetarium / PAINKILLERS

David Kettle

Three early Fringe theatre shows offer blissed-out beats, identity questions and powerful drama

The Daughter of Time, Charing Cross Theatre review - unfocused version of novel that cleared Richard III

Helen Hawkins

The writer did impressive research but shouldn't have fleshed out Josephine Tey’s story

Evita, London Palladium review - even more thrilling the second time round

Matt Wolf

Andrew Lloyd Webber's best musical gets a brave, biting makeover for the modern age

Maiden Voyage, Southwark Playhouse review - new musical runs aground

Gary Naylor

Pleasant tunes well sung and a good story, but not a good show

The Winter's Tale, RSC, Stratford review - problem play proves problematic

Gary Naylor

Strong women have the last laugh, but the play's bizarre structure overwhelms everything

Brixton Calling, Southwark Playhouse review - life-affirming entertainment, both then and now

Gary Naylor

Nostalgic, but the message is bang up to date

Inter Alia, National Theatre review - dazzling performance, questionable writing

Aleks Sierz

Suzie Miller’s follow up to her massive hit 'Prima Facie' stars Rosamund Pike

A Moon for the Misbegotten, Almeida Theatre review - Michael Shannon sears the night sky

Matt Wolf

Rebecca Frecknall shifts American gears to largely satisfying effect

Burlesque, Savoy Theatre review - exhaustingly vapid

Matt Wolf

Adaptation of 2010 film is busy, bustling - and bad

Don't Rock the Boat, The Mill at Sonning review - all aboard for some old-school comedy mishaps

Gary Naylor

Great fun, if more 20th century than 21st

The Estate, National Theatre review - hugely entertaining, but also unconvincing

Aleks Sierz

Comedy debut stars Adeel Akhtar, but is an awkward mix of the personal and the political

Poor Clare, Orange Tree Theatre review - saints cajole us sinners

Gary Naylor

Funny and clever show illuminated by a dazzling debut from Arsema Thomas

That Bastard, Puccini!, Park Theatre review - inventive comic staging of the battle of the Bohèmes

Helen Hawkins

James Inverne enjoyably reconstructs the rivalry between Puccini and Leoncavallo

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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