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Read the latest London theatre reviews on the newest openings across the West End and beyond. Discover more about the latest must-see West End shows, Off-West End productions, and why you need to see shows in London. Scroll through our full theatre reviews listings of London musicals, plays, and live events from our London Theatre critics.
If you're feeling anxious about returning to the theatre, Shakespeare's Globe is really the perfect compromise: outdoors and socially distanced, the only conspicuous difference from the usual configuration, roped-off rows aside, is the presence of seating in the area normally packed with standing groundlings. But the Globe Touring Company is back outdoors, with two outdoor-set plays. The Tempest and As You Like It share a cast and a costume-trunk aesthetic (excellently versatile costumes...
Why do we tell stories? Lyndsey Turner's emotive staging of Dylan Thomas's 1953 play for voices proffers some profound ideas: to heal familial bonds, to find lucidity in the murkiness of dementia, and to reach much-needed catharsis after a long period of suffering.Of course, for audiences returning to theatre — albeit with social distancing, meaning the Olivier is still in the round and with restricted capacity — there is joy simply in the process: seeing a world conjured live before us. So, I...
Specificity yields universality, and Amanda Wilkin's intimate one-woman show about a 30something woman staring over and trying to find herself proves this concept. I'll be honest: I was a bit nervous to review Shedding a Skin. Who am I — a white, American woman — to weigh in on this stunning story by a Black, British female playwright? But watching Wilkin radically embody Myah (single, broke, unemployed) as she navigates unknown waters, I realized this is exactly why plays like Wilkin's are...
Groundbreaking, one assumes, at the time of its 1966 Royal Shakespeare Company premiere, this two-hander from Charles Dyer (who died at the start of this year, age 92) is best seen as a theatrical curiosity. Written a year prior to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England, Dyer's two-hander feels in Tricia Thorns' production like something of a precursor to Vicious, the British sitcom that locked Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen as an elderly couple locked in a cycle of perpetual...
What an electrifying explosion of joy J'Ouvert is, incandescent with rich colour, fiery passion, and coruscating wit. It's the debut play of Yasmin Joseph, first seen pre-Covid at the brilliant, future-forging fringe venue Theatre 503, then on TV as part of the BBC's recent Lights Up strand, and now, triumphantly, storming the West End stage in Sonia Friedman's Re:Emerge season of new work. It's not a perfect piece, but it displays the kind of fresh talent that makes theatregoing truly exciting....
What would Romeo and Juliet be like if it were set in a deserted world ravaged by an earthquake, director Kimberley Sykes seems to ask with her conceptual-yet-concise production of the Bard's classic romance-come-tragedy at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. However, said earthquake — probably a reference to the Nurse's line in Act 1 Scene III "'Tis since the earthquake now 11 years" — seems to have jumbled more than just the Montagues and the Capulets, leaving this production a bit disjointed and...
TL; DR: OMG, seven methods of killing kylie jenner is the must-see play of the summer. IMO, you should go see this show RN. (Please read, though. You'll want to know more about this achingly powerful show.)Jasmine Lee-Jones's searing social commentary of a play weaves the language of the Internet (see above) with the topical-yet-timeless topics like appropriation, cancel culture, and the monetization of fame. The play is framed and structured as a Twitter thread after the titular Jenner was...
Three world premieres assembled under a single title, Out West looks set to be one of the most exciting surprises of the year: a portmanteau evening of monologues each of which acknowledges the area of west London where the Lyric Hammersmith itself is set while providing a rich array of performance opportunities that are seized, and then some, by their expert casts.Although strikingly different on the surface, the plays all confront familial and social dynamics to varying degrees. Tanika Gupta's...
"Another heavenly day," trills Winnie, the inexhaustibly chatty - not to mention seemingly inexhaustible - heroine of Beckett's Happy Days, which is marking its 60th birthday this year with a heavenly Riverside Studios revival from the director Trevor Nunn. Perhaps it takes the wisdom accrued over a life to bring to this Irishman's seminal two-hander the forcefulness and clarity imparted here by Nunn, who is himself an indefatigable 81. Whatever the reason, this is the most powerful Happy Days...
We never see the title character in Raya, Deborah Bruce's intriguing, beautifully acted new play that continues a strong return for the Hampstead Theatre. Hot on the heels of its vivid reclamation on the mainstage of Alfred Fagon's A Death of a Black Man, dating from 1975 at this address, comes Bruce's world premiere in the intimate Theatre Downstairs. (Socially distanced, a compact space does at least for now allow room for the audience to spread out.) The result, under the careful eye of the...