sat 03/05/2025

theatre reviews, news & interviews

Krapp's Last Tape, Barbican review - playing with the lighter side of Beckett's gloom

Helen Hawkins

In the Stygian darkness of a bare room, a table on a low platform with a light hanging overhead starts to emerge. Then a door briefly opens at the back of the space and the figure that has entered and sat down at the table also begins to emerge. When the stage lighting goes on, this tableau out of a Bacon painting sharpens and we can properly scrutinise the man. 

My Master Builder, Wyndham's Theatre review - Ewan McGregor headlines stillborn Ibsen riff

Matt Wolf

It's both brave and bracing to welcome new voices to the West End, but sometimes one wonders if such exposure necessarily works to the benefit of those involved.

Dealer's Choice, Donmar Warehouse review -...

Helen Hawkins

Patrick Marber’s powerful debut about gambling men is 30 years old, born as the Eighties entrepreneurial boom was starting to sour but before poker...

Much Ado About Nothing, RSC, Stratford - Messina...

Gary Naylor

Fragile egos abound. An older person (usually a man) has to bring the best out of the stars, but mustn’t neglect the team ethic. Picking the right...

Ben and Imo, Orange Tree Theatre review - vibrant...

David Nice

Back in 2009, there were Ben and Wystan on stage (Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art). Last year came Ben and Master David Hemmings (Kevin Kelly's...

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The Great Gatsby, London Coliseum review - lavish and lively production fails to capture the novel's tortured soul

Rachel Halliburton

The production gets stronger in the second half as the shadows of tragedy begin to loom

The Inseparables, Finborough Theatre review - uneven portrait of a close female friendship

Helen Hawkins

De Beauvoir's novel gets an often charming but undemanding staging

Personal Values, Hampstead Theatre review - deep grief that's too brief

Aleks Sierz

New play about two sisters, death and hoarding is well written, but feels incomplete

Ghosts, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre - turns out, they do fuck you up

Gary Naylor

Ten years on, Gary Owen and Rachel O'Riordan top their triumphant Iphigenia in Splott

All the Happy Things, Soho Theatre review - deep feelings, but little drama

Aleks Sierz

New play about a sibling’s death is well imagined and deeply felt, but a bit slender

Shanghai Dolls, Kiln Theatre review - fascinating slice of history inadequately told

Helen Hawkins

Amy Ng's take on two Chinese titans needs more dramatic ballast

Manhunt, Royal Court review - terrifyingly toxic masculinity

Aleks Sierz

After his Olivier Award win for Oedipus, Robert Icke turns to a modern “monster”

Midnight Cowboy, Southwark Playhouse - new musical cannot escape the movie's long shadow

Gary Naylor

Two misfits misfire in misconceived show

Thanks for Having Me, Riverside Studios review - snappily performed comedy with a lightweight core

Helen Hawkins

Writer-actor Keelan Kember floods the stage with a torrent of gags but few ideas

Rhinoceros, Almeida Theatre review - joyously absurd and absurdly joyful

Aleks Sierz

Ionesco classic gets an entertainingly vivid and contemporary update

The Importance of Being Oscar, Jermyn Street Theatre review - Wilde, still burning bright

Gary Naylor

Alastair Whatley honours his subject in a quietly powerful performance

Stiletto, Charing Cross Theatre review - new musical excess

Gary Naylor

Quirky, operatic show won't please everyone, but will delight many

Apex Predator, Hampstead Theatre review - poor writing turns horror into silliness

Aleks Sierz

New play about motherhood and vampirism is disappointingly incoherent

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Musical, Theatre Royal Bath review - not a screaming success

Gary Naylor

1950s America feels a lot like 2020s America in this portmanteau show

Wilko: Love and Death and Rock'n'Roll, Southwark Playhouse review - charismatic reincarnation of a rock legend

Helen Hawkins

Johnson Willis captures the anarchic energy and wit of the late guitarist

Playhouse Creatures, Orange Tree Theatre review - jokes, shiny costumes and quarrels, but little drama

Aleks Sierz

April De Angelis’s 1993 play is a delightful if sketchy account of Restoration female actors

Dear England, National Theatre review - extra time for stirring soccer classic

Demetrios Matheou

James Graham adds a neat coda to his ode to decency in sport

Weather Girl, Soho Theatre review - the apocalypse as surreal black comedy

Helen Hawkins

A Californian weather girl copes with fires inside and outside her head

Clueless: The Musical, Trafalgar Studios review - a perfectly manicured update

Rachel Halliburton

KT Tunstall's new score brings bite and momentum to a high octane evening

The Habits, Hampstead Theatre review - who knows what adventures await?

Aleks Sierz

New play about the game of Dungeons & Dragons explores fact and fantasy

Farewell Mister Haffmann, Park Theatre review - French hit of confusing genre, with a real historical villain

Helen Hawkins

Jean-Philippe Daguerre tries to mix a farcical comedy of manners with the Holocaust

Edward II, RSC, Swan Theatre, Stratford review - monarchs, murder and mayhem from Marlowe

Gary Naylor

Putsch in the palace brings down a king who chose the wrong person to love

One Day When We Were Young, Park Theatre review - mini-marvel with a poignant punch

Helen Hawkins

Perfectly judged performances enhance a subtle staging of Nick Payne's two-hander

Alterations, National Theatre review - high emotional costs of ambition

Aleks Sierz

The Guyanese migrant experience of 1970s London gets the big-stage treatment

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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