London Theatre Reviews

Love and Money

I wince every time our prudent Chancellor boasts about growth. Producing more goods and services does not necessarily equate to 'being better off', or more importantly, to being happier. Growth also has a significant impact on global warming and increases the pressure on natural resources, and it's often fuelled by borrowing. More people than ever are now up to their consumerist eyeballs in debt, with record numbers seeking protection from creditors by filing for bankruptcy. It's a situation...

True West

This is a review of the 2014 production. For the 2018 production starring Kit Harington, click here. Originally premiered in 1980 in San Francisco and first produced in the UK at the National in 1981 with the late Bob Hoskins and Antony Sher, Sam Shepard's True West is now an established contemporary masterpiece, and much beloved of actors wanting to test their acting mettle. I saw the National's production, and have since seen the pairings of Mark Rylance and Michael Rudko (at the Donmar...

Ghost The Musical

Any production which focuses on a love story needs careful handling if it is not to become mawkish. With 'Ghost, The Musical', there's an added complication and that lies in the plot which asks the audience to believe in ghosts. Combine those two elements, and you could easily be looking at a recipe for total disaster. However, even though I had been expecting something overtly sentimental and possibly a little corny, this new musical turns out to be both interesting and impressive.Based on the...

Review - Equus

Call me an old cynic, but I can't help feeling that someone just couldn't resist the opportunity of making shed loads of cash by having Daniel Radcliffe - the young actor who's played the lead in all the Harry Potter films to date - get his kit off in this play. With the enormous media coverage the production has already received, I'm sure I could write about a totally different play here - as indeed every other reviewer and critic could too - and it wouldn't make even a minor dint in the...

Review - 'Jeeves and Wooster Perfect Nonsense' at the Duke of York's

NOTE: Cast changed since this reviewPG Wodehouse's most famous non-theatrical creation Jeeves has, of course, been in the West End before -- as a one-man show in 1980 by Edward Duke called Jeeves Takes Charge, and as a notorious Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alan Ayckbourn flop musical five years before that (called simply Jeeves) that returned more successfully to the Duke of York's in 1996, by then re-titled By Jeeves. Now the Duke of York's is home again for a new stage play called Perfect...

Seven Streams of the River Ota

Conceived by Robert Lepage, the play is in 7 acts covering the period from the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 to the present day. Lepage used video and images to great effect mixed in with opera singing and some very bizarre scenes.The first four acts are simply superb and gripping . However it's down hill from then on. There were still some great theatre to be had but the last few acts were getting a little off subject and a little harder to understand. I thought all the acts would be connected...

The Book of Mormon London Review

Note: Cast has changed since this reviewIf you follow proceedings in the entertainment arena, you may well know as much if not far more than I do about this much-anticipated show. 'The Book of Mormon' has already been in residence on Broadway for the past two years, where it has been a huge success, and advance publicity for the show means there can't be many people in the UK who do not know about it already.Given the descriptive nature of the title, it is pretty clear that the show is about the...

The Phantom of the Opera review from 2000

Next Review by Sven Verlinden Nov 2000 Last week, Scott was off so Richard Halton did all the shows and of course now was the time to see this wonderful actor as the Phantom ! I had been waiting so long for this to happen, and Saturday's matinee I sat dead center Front Row. WONDERFUL seat !!! (B10) Anyway, it turned out to be an "understudies only" day, coz Charlotte, Matt, Scott of course, Shan Cothi, Lee David Bowen and Donald Francke were all off. The 2nd cover Chirstine was on (Ana Marina)....

The Pillowman

Profoundly disturbing and intensely macabre, Martin McDonagh's new play provokes an ambivalent response. On the one hand his inventive imagination and ear for naturalistic dialogue is as sharp as ever, commanding both respect and attention but the sheer intensity of the horrors related will curdle all but the strongest of stomachs.As the play opens a young writer sits blindfolded in a cell, clearly awaiting interrogation. A detective (Jim Broadbent) enters and asks the prisoner Katurian (David...

Blood Brothers

Note: These are old reviews and the cast has now changed!! The cast I saw consisted of Lyn Paul, Keith Burns, Andy Snowden and Mark Hutchinson. Lyn Paul, as Mrs Johnstone, has joined after playing the role in the national tour, and she is perfect in the part. Her singing voice is just right, and all the emotion she put into the show seemed real. Her laugh when Mickey and Eddie went off to see "Nymphomaniac Nights" and "Swedish Au-pairs" could have been genuine, and if it wasn't, her tears during...