For its first hour, Miriam Battye’s new coming-of-age play is one of the funniest things you will see in London this year, raw, fizzing, and unnervingly accurate about what it feels like to be sixteen and convinced that everyone else has already figured it out. Then something shifts, the laughs dry up, and the play […]
There is no show in the West End that tries harder to make you forget you are watching a show, and for long stretches it succeeds magnificently. Arrive early, drink it in, and enjoy the spectacle while it lasts, because once the plot gets going, so does your patience. Moulin Rouge! is Alex Timbers’s stage […]
There is a moment in Oh, Mary! when Mason Alexander Park, crinoline swaying like a circus tent in a gale, simply cannot work out how to climb down from a desk. The audience falls apart. Whether that image strikes you as the most joyfully absurd thing you’ve seen all year, or as an elaborate exercise […]
The current production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the English National Opera is not one to miss. A combination of a bright fairground spectacle, quick humour and a very special aria from a hot air ballon, makes for an entertaining evening. The colourful staging and modern English translation make the opera accessible for anyone, […]
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is already a contender for my favourite musical of 2026. This folk musical, adapted by Rachel Joyce from her 2012 novel with songs by Passenger, arrives in the West End after selling out Chichester last summer, carrying with it hugely likeable characters and a willingness to find grace in […]
Already Perfect arrives at the King’s Head Theatre trailing clouds of Tony Award glory from its writer, but the show itself never quite earns the standing ovation its creator seems to expect. This autobiographical musical from Levi Kreis – who wrote the book, music and lyrics, and stars as himself, is a curiously flat affair, […]
Ballad Lines at Southwark Playhouse Elephant arrives with impressive vocal firepower and admirable ambition. The production falters, however, when its songs struggle to match the emotional weight its story demands. This folk musical from Finn Anderson and Tania Azevedo spans three centuries, connecting women through bloodlines and ballads. In present-day New York, Sarah receives a […]
Toussaint Douglass arrives at the Soho Theatre trailing acclaim from Edinburgh, where his debut hour earned a Best Newcomer nomination and sold-out audiences. The show that greets London, however, raises uncomfortable questions about where playful crowd work ends and aggressive confrontation begins.This is stand-up comedy that trades heavily on absurdist charm. Douglass, a Lewisham-born performer […]
Patrick Marber calls it a masterpiece, but Mel Brooks wrote a vaudeville act. When the curtain lifts at the Garrick Theatre on this gleeful revival of The Producers, you witness execution so precise it borders on ruthless: every gag, every gesture, every swastika-adorned pigeon lands exactly where intended. The problem is that Brooks’ musical comedy […]
This revival of J.B. Priestley’s When We Are Married at the Donmar Warehouse proves you don’t need a certificate to make a marriage work. Donmar artistic director Tim Sheader’s production finds real warmth and bite in a 1934 comedy that could easily have felt like a dusty period piece. Three Yorkshire couples gather to toast […]