London Theatre Reviews

'Manor' review — Moira Buffini's dark comedy wrestles with topical issues a little too bluntly

Moira Buffini's state-of-the-nation play is pegged to that irresistible trope: the dark and stormy night, with a group of strangers forced to seek shelter in a spooky manor house. Naturally it's a powder keg of personalities, and, with Chekhov's gun well established, a storm of violence is inevitable.However, Manor is a curious beast. It certainly nods to the eerie thriller: with the power out, the only light is flickering candles, and there's a ghostly presence upstairs - a possible remnant of...

'The Wife of Willesden' review — Zadie Smith's lively theatrical debut is a love letter to her home

When Brent won its bid to be the London Borough of Culture 2020, novelist Zadie Smith was asked to write something for her beloved district. After a period of panic, she alighted on a fun premise: a modern-day riff on The Wife of Bath from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It was originally intended as a short monologue, but, one misinterpreted press release later, instead became her first play - Kilburn represented in playful rhyming couplets.Some of that authorial whirlwind makes it into the...

'A Christmas Carol' at The Old Vic review — Stephen Mangan is definitive as Scrooge

How do you improve upon perfection? Here's one suggestion: hire Stephen Mangan. I've now seen Matthew Warchus's gloriously moving, riotously entertaining production of A Christmas Carol four times, including once virtually during the pandemic. So you can well imagine that I thought I knew everything that the production, and Jack Thorne's adaptation, had to offer. As if. Watching Mangan, a Tony-nominated alum of Warchus's remarkable revival of The Norman Conquests, is to witness an actor in such...

'Straight White Men' review — Young Jean Lee's play should spur conversation

The smaller of the two stages at Southwark Playhouse is turning into the buzziest place in town. Fast on the heels of the terrific Marek Horn play Yellowfin - a British play set in the U.S. - comes the local premiere of this 2018 Broadway entry from Young Jean Lee, who at the time made history as the first female Asian-American playwright to be produced on Broadway. I missed Straight White Men in New York, but I couldn't be happier belatedly to make its acquaintance, the odd structural...

'Little Women' review — Park Theatre's rag-tag production captures the story’s joy

It's hard not to fall for Little Women, Louisa May Alcott's seminal novel about four sisters coming of age in New England in the 1800's. The story has everything you want from a nostalgic tale: sisterhood, adventure, romance, sorrow, and the right amount of whimsy. Which is why it's so disappointing that the musical adaptation, from composer Jason Howland, lyricist Mindi Dickstein, and book writer Allan Knee, falls so flat. What leaps off the pages in the book becomes didactic and bland in the...

'Six' review — there’s no way you should miss the queens’ new home

Welcome back, Queens! Or rather welcome to your new home. After runs at the West End's Arts and Lyric Theatres, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss's girl-power hit is now happily installed in the Vaudeville, whose intimacy works like a charm for a production fuelled by its relationship with its devoted fans. But you don't have to be a lifelong member of the Queendom to lose your heart (or head) to Six.Four years on from its Edinburgh Fringe debut, the show still feels like a breath of fresh air. If...

'The Choir of Man' review — a drink-fueled evening of pop music favours song over substance

Home is where the pub is in the much-travelled The Choir of Man, the paean to sensitive blokes boozing and singing that is chancing a perch in the West End. Much of the rest of the world (Australia and America included) have already experienced this venture, which started at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017, and one can immediately see it as a perfect fit north of the border during festival season, its patrons fuelled by a pint or two or four.In the harsher glare of London's commercial...

'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' review - a coming-of-age tale that exemplifies magical realism

The monsters are back. Neil Gaiman's fantasy novel came to life at the National Theatre in 2019 and now, following a Covid delay, is weaving its magic over the West End. And this piece is magical in every sense: in the way that Gaiman delves into other worlds and locates the enchantments in our own, as well as the transformational power of theatre, on full display in Katy Rudd's spectacular production.Joel Horwood has deftly adapted the story for stage. It centres on the unnamed Boy, now an...

'Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of)' review - irreverent Austen adaptation makes for a fun night out

It is a truth universally acknowledged that there will always be yet another Jane Austen adaptation in our future. Entering a crowded field, as jam-packed as a society ball, is Isobel McArthur's karaoke-fuelled version of Pride and Prejudice, which premiered in Glasgow in 2018 and then toured before coming to London. Its irreverent merriness is definitely a welcome addition to the West End, and makes for a fun night out, but I'm less convinced that it has a unique take on a very familiar...

'Indecent Proposal' review - a musical misfire needs more work

It's back to the drawing board for Indecent Proposal, the bewildering new musical that has arrived at Southwark Playhouse in what would appear to be far from any sort of finished state. Many will know the title from the 1993 film, with Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson, and Robert Redford, in which a billionaire (Redford) pays $1 million to secure sex with Moore: largely derided at the time, the movie rode the coattails of Pretty Woman (itself now a stage musical) conjoining far-fetched fantasy with...