Is Kemi Badenoch too nice to be Tory leader?
Kemi Badenoch got tough with Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs. Not tough enough, but at least she led on a…
Sumptuous but musically unmemorable: Elton John’s The Devil Wears Prada musical reviewed
The Devil Wears Prada is a fairy tale about an aspiring female novelist, Andy, who receives a job offer from…
Don’t blame this man for interrupting David Tennant
The curse of Macbeth strikes again. David Tennant’s turn as the Scottish psychopath was interrupted this week by a kerfuffle…
Kemi Badenoch is bad at PMQs
Flunked it again, unfortunately. Kemi Badenoch chose poor tactics at PMQs. She made flabby speeches instead of hitting the PM…
This Muslim playwright believes Yorkshire is headed for civil war
Expendable, at the Royal Court, is an urgent bulletin from the front line of the grooming gang scandal in the…
Kemi let Starmer off the hook again
Labour thinks it can win on immigration. Their new strategy was road-tested today at PMQs as backbencher Olivia Bailey opened…
Wonderful comedy of manners: Kiln Theatre’s The Purists reviewed
A slice of the ghetto arrives at the Kiln Theatre in Kilburn. The Purists is set on the stoop of…
Kemi Badenoch must get better at PMQs
Third time lucky for Kemi Badenoch. The Tory leader’s first two attempts to crush Keir Starmer at PMQs failed. Today…
The uncomfortable truth about boozing
‘Good for you. Amazing. I should do the same.’ ‘You must feel great. Lucky you.’ This is what I hear…
Heart-warming but safe biographical drama: Going for Gold, at Park90, reviewed
Going for Gold is a biographical drama about a forgotten star of the 1970s. Frankie Lucas was a middleweight boxing…
Angela Rayner has lost her edge
It was deputies’ day at PMQs. Sir Keir Starmer is busy flying around the world yet again. This time he’s…
Why the farmers’ protest probably won’t work
Cold drizzle falling on tweed. That was the abiding image of today’s protest in Westminster which filled Whitehall with tens…
A flop: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, at Ambassadors Theatre, reviewed
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button carries a strap-line, ‘an unordinary musical’. Perhaps the word ‘extraordinary’ is simply too banal…
PMQs has become as bland as a Bible study class
PMQs under Sir Keir’s premiership is less entertaining and volatile than before. Blame the landslide. A huge government majority fills…
A riveting show crammed with the kind of risky gags rarely heard on stage these days
How To Survive Your Mother is a play based on a memoir by political dramatist Jonathan Maitland. He portrays himself…
Kemi’s childish PMQs debut left a lot to be desired
Slightly childish and she didn’t win. That’s how Kemi Badenoch fared during her first bust-up with Sir Keir Starmer at…
Is Coogan’s Dr Strangelove as good as Sellars’s? Of course not
Stanley Kubrick’s surreal movie Dr Strangelove is a response to the fear of nuclear annihilation which obsessed every citizen in…
Rachel Reeves sounded bored by her own Budget
The Tories lied! That was the thrust of Rachel Reeves’s first Budget today. She was very specific about the falsehoods.…
Revenge tragedy for kids: The Duchess [of Malfi], at Trafalgar Theatre, reviewed
The Duchess [of Malfi] has been partially updated by Zinnie Harris in a puzzling modern-dress production. The set by Tom…
Angela Rayner’s drama-queen habit at PMQs
‘The battle of the gingers.’ That’s how Angela Rayner described her tussle with Oliver Dowden at deputy prime minister’s questions…
Almeida’s Look Back in Anger is flawless
Strange title, Juno and the Paycock. Sean O’Casey’s family drama is about a hard-pressed Dublin matriarch, Juno, whose husband Jack…
Keir Starmer is full of bilge
Who runs Britain’s foreign policy? Not the government, that’s clear. At PMQs, Sir Keir Starmer got a monumental roasting from…
Confessions of a political gambler
What could be more exquisite than the life of the professional gambler? I began my career in 2016 with a…
How is Arnold Wesker’s Roots, which resembles an Archers episode, considered a classic?
The Almeida wants to examine the ‘Angry Young Man’ phenomenon of the 1950s but the term ‘man’ seems to create…
Rishi Sunak is the most effective opposition leader since Tony Blair
Rishi Sunak’s fleet-footed performance at Prime Minister’s Questions exposed many of Keir Starmer’s shortcomings as Prime Minister. Sunak is the…
