London Theatre Reviews

'A Christmas Carol' at the Dominion is a sugary holiday treat

With no shortage of visitations by the spooky seasonal favourite this year, why the Dickens would you pick this one? If it's political punch you're after, there's Jack Thorne's Old Vic adaptation (online, thanks to Covid). And for stripped-back storytelling and virtuoso acting, the Bridge's three-hander is the obvious choice. But if you've been missing large-scale spectacle, and you crave the heart-soaring joy of song and dance, then this might be just the ticket.It's a lavish concert version of...

'SIX' brings the girl power party back to the West End

The queens are back, and they're beautiful. Since their creation by Cambridge University students Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss in 2017, when they first sashayed before audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, these ritzily reincarnated wives of Henry VIII have stomped their way into the theatre history books. The show - more rock revue than musical - transferred to the West End and became an international hit. Its Broadway opening was delayed by the Covid crisis, but doubtless its conquering of...

'Death Drop' is playful and delightfully silly, oozing with natural charisma

While not marketed directly as a Christmas show, there is more than a touch of pantomime to Death Drop. Written by Holly Stars, the self-described "Dragatha Christie Murder Mystery" is a glitzy, if somewhat straggly show.The premise is fairly simple — set in 1991, against a stage design which can only be described as what might happen if the set of The Mousetrap was put in a blender with The Pink Panther, a group of guests, ranging from the washed up 80s popstar Shazza (Courtney Act), the stuffy...

'Nine Lessons and Carols' at the Almeida is a mixed bag of vignettes

Add the Almeida to the gratifying list of London playhouses that are opening their doors this week for the first time since March, following directly on the heels of another Off-West End mainstay, the Hampstead. But whereas that northwest London venue is currently looking towards the past by way of a Harold Pinter play (The Dumb Waiter) from 60 years ago, the Almeida has its eye on the here and now - specifically, a fragmentary play devised for our fraught times that draws its title from the...

'A Christmas Carol' at the Bridge Theatre is holiday magic

In this miserly year given over in so many cases to illness and isolation, the arrival of A Christmas Carol as the festive-season title of choice seems especially popular. Dickens's tale of gradually awakened generosity is cropping up at numerous addresses around town to remind us of the human and societal interconnectedness that has sometimes gone walkabout in our divisive and plague-ridden times. The time-honored story may be proliferating anew, or getting a fresh makeover courtesy Matthew...

'Death of England: Delroy' delivers an 'explosive exploration of Black British identity'

"Keep your social racial distance please" intones a robotic announcement repeatedly in the opening moments of this electrifying new monologue by Roy Williams and Clint Dyer. This is not a play about the pandemic, but it is thrillingly plugged in to our current extraordinary moment, with all its division, anger, and fear, all its ripping away of certainties and its fragile hope for the future. Opening night was also closing night, thanks to lockdown. For those who were there, it was...

'Nine Lives' serves as a reminder for empathy, compassion and kindness

When we are first introduced to Ishmael, he is urgently seeking to escape. He is illuminated by a solitary light bulb dangling from above and his only companion on the strikingly bare stage is his suitcase. It's clear that he is unsettled and is operating in survival mode.Ishmael, our central character in Nine Lives, is gently revealed to us in the one-man show staged at the Bridge Theatre. Following threats to his life for being gay, he's fled from Zimbabwe to seek asylum in the UK and finds...

‘The Great Gatsby’ is back as an art-deco ‘sensory overload’

Nearly a year into this decade and it's fair to say life isn't exactly as "roaring" as we may have wanted. So, to get gladrags on, clink glasses and be a guest of Jay Gatsby's latest party was a much-needed life tonic. But for all the loaded splendour and sophistication a title like The Great Gatsby carries in popular culture, its immersive theatre adaptation struggles to hit the aspirational high that it's striving to achieve.Stepping into the marvellous party, it's apparent that even Jay...

Yolanda Mercy shines in 'Quarter Life Crisis,' a charming coming-of-age story

Quarter Life Crisis, Yolanda Mercy's hit one woman show, initially staged at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 and now been remounted for the Bridge's current repertory season, is a charmingly performed, neon-streaked exploration of growing up and growing into one's self. It also operates as an inadvertent ode to London pre-Covid. Main character Alicia drifts through the city, from Camberwell to Streatham, from Peckham to the West End, popping into rammed house parties, sweaty clubs, raucous...

'The Last Five Years' at Southwark Playhouse soars even higher after shutdown

The last five years? Hell, what about the last seven months? That's how long it's been (give or take a week) since Jonathan O'Boyle's terrific Off-West End revival of Jason Robert Brown's musical theatre mainstay saw its original run truncated by Covid-driven lockdown. In fact, I was among the audience on that fateful Monday (March 16) when L5Y, as this show is famously known in shorthand, was one of the very few shows to perform that evening, the rest of London theatreland having gone dark in...