wed 03/09/2025

Theatre Reviews

The Girl on the Train, Duke of York's Theatre review - boozy psycho-thriller rolls clunkily into town

Heather Neill

It may help if you love the book. It was a runaway bestseller, so fans must be legion, but a suspenseful story which depends on memories being obscured by prodigious boozing, and featuring a trio of women best described as "flaky", all defining themselves too much by their relationships with unreliable men, is not to everyone's taste.

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Peter Pan, Troubadour White City review - off to a flying start

Tom Birchenough

London’s Troubadour White City theatre has got off to a, literally, flying start.

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Barber Shop Chronicles, Roundhouse review - riotous theatre at its best

Katherine Waters

Emmanuel (Anthony Ofoegbu) runs Three Kings Barbers in London. His assistant, Samuel (Mohammed Mansaray), is the son of his erstwhile business partner, who is currently in jail. Emmanuel is boss, surrogate father and — occasionally — verbal punching bag: Sam is a whizz with the shears and just as cutting with his tongue. 

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Blues in the Night, Kiln Theatre review - hard times, hot tunes

Marianka Swain

It’s too darn hot, BoJo is in Downing Street, and we’re all going to Brexit hell – so we might as well sing the blues.

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The View UpStairs, Soho Theatre review - well-intentioned but needs a rewrite

Matt Wolf

If good intentions were all, The View UpStairs would be Gypsy.

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The Bridges of Madison County, Menier Chocolate Factory review - Iowan romance fizzles

Marianka Swain

Robert James Waller’s bestselling, though critically panned, 1992 romance novel was reincarnated in the Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep-starring film, and then again in Jason Robert Brown and Marsha Norman’s Tony-winning 2013 musical – both adaptations wisely sloughing off some of the original’s schmaltz and sappiness.

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The Night of the Iguana, Noël Coward Theatre review - Clive Owen and Lia Williams burn bright

aleks Sierz

One of the glories of contemporary London theatre is its revivals of classic American drama. Year after year, audiences are able to revisit and enjoy the great landmarks of postwar American playwriting from greats such as Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Sam Shepard and David Mamet (recently joined by the likes of Lynn Nottage).

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Equus, Trafalgar Studios review - passionate intensity

Tom Birchenough

When he gave Martin Dysart, the troubled psychiatrist protagonist of Equus, a line in which he speaks about “moments of experience” being “magnetised”, Peter Shaffer might almost have been talking about theatre itself.

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Tao of Glass, Royal Exchange, Manchester review - brilliant, enchanting tales fascinate

Robert Beale

Who would have thought that a one-narrator show, mainly about projects that never got off the ground, would turn out to be such a satisfying evening’s entertainment?

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Whitewash, Soho Theatre review - a wild-at-heart linguistic joy-ride

Rachel Halliburton

This witty street-smart play about a white-skinned boy born to a mixed-race mother deploys its narrative with the dexterity of a dance.

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Advertising feature

★★★★★

A compulsive, involving, emotionally stirring evening – theatre’s answer to a page-turner.
The Observer, Kate Kellaway

 

Direct from a sold-out season at Kiln Theatre the five star, hit play, The Son, is now playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre for a strictly limited season.

 

★★★★★

This final part of Florian Zeller’s trilogy is the most powerful of all.
The Times, Ann Treneman

 

Written by the internationally acclaimed Florian Zeller (The Father, The Mother), lauded by The Guardian as ‘the most exciting playwright of our time’, The Son is directed by the award-winning Michael Longhurst.

 

Book by 30 September and get tickets from £15*
with no booking fee.


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