Interview at Riverside Studios promises sharp conflict but delivers mixed rewards. Adapted and directed by Teunkie Van Der Sluijs from Theo van Gogh’s original film, this two-hander pits Robert Sean Leonard’s Pierre, a jaded political journalist, against Paten Hughes’s Katya, an actor-influencer living in a fashionable Brooklyn loft. What begins as a perfunctory profile spirals […]
The current production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is not one to miss. A combination of humour, an Edwardian playroom setting, and the use of all the characters being played by ‘children’, makes for an entertaining 90 minutes for all ages, and particularly younger audiences. This production is one of Shakespeare’s most well known […]
Griff Rhys Jones arrives on stage with the easy authority of someone who has been performing for decades. He has built his career on charm, improvisation and comic authority, but Cat’s Pyjamas exposes the limits of that formula when the material is weak. Billed as an evening of stories, observations and reflections, the show is […]
The West End has no shortage of spectacle-heavy musicals, but few lean on technical wizardry as nakedly as Back to the Future. This stage adaptation of the 1985 film is a noisy, restless machine whose strongest asset is its special effects. The DeLorean roars, the clock tower trembles, and the stage seems to liquefy into […]
This raw, one-act drama delivers more confusion than clarity at first, but eventually develops sharp energy as it carves a modest but memorable path through youth, class, and survival. It’s a gritty drama by writer-co-director Sam Edmunds, co-directed with Vikesh Godhwani, staged at Southwark Playhouse Borough. The central performance is by Nathaniel Christian as ‘The […]
It’s rare to see a play that doesn’t shy away from discomfort, and this one certainly doesn’t. Inter Alia is a drama written by Suzie Miller, directed by Justin Martin, starring Rosamund Pike as Crown Court Judge Jessica Parks, with Jamie Glover as her husband Michael and Jasper Talbot as their son Harry. On the […]
This one-person, interactive comedy-drama originates in the playwright-co-director Duncan Macmillan (with Jonny Donahoe) and co-direction also by Jeremy Herrin. The West End London production sees a rotating cast of Lenny Henry, Jonny Donahoe, Ambika Mod, Sue Perkins, and Minnie Driver (performing in turn across the season). A young child, burdened by a mother’s deep despair, […]
You don’t just watch I Wish My Life Were Like a Musical. You grin, you clap, and you recognise your own theatre-going habits reflected back at you with razor-sharp wit. It is, quite simply, the standout musical comedy of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Written and composed by Alexander S. Bermange, and directed and choreographed with […]
You’re watching a musical fantasy where two Second World War fighter pilots, Tommy Albright (Louis Gaunt) and Jeff Douglas (Cavan Clarke), crash into a Highland village that appears only once in a century. Directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie with a new adaptation by Rona Munro, this version sings Lerner and Loewe’s familiar songs – […]
The Other Palace’s latest offering, Saving Mozart, arrives with ambitious intentions and a stellar cast but ultimately delivers a superficial exploration of one of history’s greatest composers. While the production boasts incredible performances and impressive choreography within the venue’s notably tiny space, it struggles to create the emotional resonance that great musical theatre demands. The […]