London Theatre News

Katie Brayben and Tanya Moodie to star in Daddy at the Almeida Theatre

The UK premiere of Jeremy O. Harris' Daddy at the Almeida Theatre will include the Olivier Award-winning actress Katie Brayben, as the cast of nine has been announced, with performances starting next month.First performed in 2016, Daddy explores intimacy and identity as a young black artist meets an art collector, with a mother later trying to save her son who has found himself with a new father figure.Daddy is at the Almeida Theatre from 30th March, with an official opening night on 9th April...

Are audiences short-changed by short running times?

Like most of my drama critic colleagues who tend, by and large, to spend far too much of our time in darkened auditoriums, it comes as something of a relief to arrive at a theatre and find out that you're in for a short evening.But is it possible for a show to be too short to really make it an evening at the theatre? This week, by a curious coincidence, there have been three shows open on consecutive nights that have each been an hour or less long. At the Royal Court, all of it - a monologue...

Casting announced for Lucy Prebble's The Effect at the Boulevard Theatre

Casting has been announced for the upcoming revival of Lucy Prebble's The Effect, which is set to be directed by Anthony Nielson at the Boulevard Theatre next month.It is the first time the play - which premiered at the National Theatre in 2012 - has been revived in London, and sees two paid subjects of a psychology experiment who fall in love while they are closely monitored.The play will star Kate O'Flynn, who is currently starring in all of it at the Royal Court and is known for her...

David Tennant on stage: 20 years in the West End

Having performed in brand new plays, London revivals and adaptations of Shakespearean classics, it's no surprise that David Tennant is considered to be one of Britain's finest actors. David Tennant will star in Good at the Harold Pinter Theatre in autumn 2022. Ahead of seeing Tennant in Good on stage, we take a look back at Tennant's lengthy CV of West End appearances. Good runs at the Harold Pinter Theatre from 5 October to 24 December, so you'll want to get Good play tickets now. Book Good...

"Perfect" Sara Bareilles makes West End debut in her own musical Waitress

Sara Bareilles, the Tony-nominated songwriter behind the Broadway musical Waitress, is currently "Opening Up" and serving a West End debut performance at the Adelphi Theatre that's good enough to eat. Having already slipped into the waitress uniform of one Jenna Hunterson for three separate limited engagements over the pond, she's certainly no stranger to acting the role.Her performance is quietly understated and natural during the scenes of dialogue which then contrasts beautifully with her...

Andrew Scott, Juliet Stevenson and Sharon D. Clarke win at 2019 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards

A Very Expensive Poison and Come From Away have taken the awards for best new play and best new musical respectively, as the winners for the 2019 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards were announced at the Prince of Wales Theatre on 11th February 2020.Andrew Scott took home the award for best actor for his performance in Present Laughter at the Old Vic, with Juliet Stevenson and Sharon D. Clarke both receiving an award for best actress for starring in The Doctor and Death of a Salesman respectively.The...

Jamie Parker joins Juliet Stevenson in The Doctor full West End cast

Jamie Parker is among the new cast members joining Juliet Stevenson in the West End at the Duke of York's Theatre for the transfer of Robert Icke's The Doctor form the Almeida Theatre.Parker will join Stevenson who stars as the central character in the play, Professor Wolff who finds herself at the centre of a medical ethics row when she denies an individual access to a young girl's bedside. Earlier today, Stevenson won the Critics' Circle Award for best actress for her appearance in the...

David Tennant to return to West End in play Good at Playhouse Theatre

David Tennant is set to star in a new production of CP Taylor's play Good at the Playhouse Theatre this autumn, which will launch Dominic Cooke and Kate Horton's new production company.Taylor's play follows a literary professor John Halder in Germany in the 1930s, and demonstrates how seemingly good men were able to change at the hands of the Nazi regime. It has been described as the definitive piece written about the Holocaust in the English-speaking theatre.Tennant will star in the play as...

First look: Production images of Leopoldstadt world premiere released

Ahead of the official opening night of Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt at the Wyndham's Theatre later this week, production images have been released, allowing audiences to get a first glimpse at Stoppard's first play in five years.Considered to be his most personal play to date, Leopoldstadt sees a Jewish family rediscover their religious identity in twentieth-century Europe amidst pogroms, separation and war. A cast of 26 adults and 15 children star in Stoppard's latest play, whose West End...

Friday Briefing: When theatre begins to create its own narratives

Theatrical coincidences that create their own narrativeLife - and the theatre that it reflects - is full of coincidences. This week, Albion - Mike Bartlett's brilliant play that first premiered in 2017 and is full of premonitions of the dark shadows being cast by Brexit - returned to London's Almeida, opening mere days after the results of the referendum were finally implemented and Britain officially left the EU. The very next day, the National premiered Death of England, another stark and...