Lloyd Evans

Harriet Walter as King Henry

Donmar’s Henry IV: Phyllida Lloyd has nothing but contempt for her audience

18 October 2014 9:00 am

The age of ‘ladies first’ is back. Phyllida Lloyd reserves all the roles for the weaker sex, as I imagine…

Stage rage: Kristin Scott Thomas as Electra

Were the cast of the Old Vic’s Electra clothed by Oxfam?

11 October 2014 9:00 am

First, a bit of background. Conquering Agamemnon slew his daughter, Iphigenia, in return for a fair wind to Troy. This…

Will Marti Pellow attract enough tipsy hen parties to Evita to flog all 18,000 seats?

4 October 2014 9:00 am

Tim and Andy are back. Their monster hit Evita opens the fully refurbed and re-primped Dominion Theatre, which is built…

Doctor Scroggy’s War (Photo: Mark Douet)

Charles III is made for numbskulls by numbskulls

27 September 2014 8:00 am

Suppose Charles were to reign as a meddlesome, self-pitying, indecisive plonker. It’s a thought. It’s now a play, too, by…

The Play That Goes Wrong. Photo: Alastair Muir

If you have teenage boys who loathe the very idea of theatre, send them to The Play That Goes Wrong

20 September 2014 9:00 am

It’s taken a while but here it is. The Play That Goes Wrong is like Noises Off, but simpler. Michael…

Can the Scots really be as small-minded, mistrustful and chippy as Spoiling suggests?

13 September 2014 9:00 am

Referendum fever reaches Stratford East. Spoiling, by John McCann, takes us into the corridors of power in Holyrood shortly after…

A wizened Victor Mature: Matthew Kelly in Toast

Bent bureaucrats, ‘fake dykes’ and bad bakers — this week’s theatre

6 September 2014 9:00 am

Eye of a Needle, by newcomer Chris MacDonald, looks at homosexuality and asylum. Gays from the Third World, who’ve suppressed…

Dolts, Doormats and FGM: theatre to make you physically sick

30 August 2014 9:00 am

Wow. What an experience. A 1991 movie named Dogfight has spawned a romantic musical. We’re in San Francisco in 1963.…

Alex Salmond has already lost — if the Edinburgh Festival is anything to go by

23 August 2014 9:00 am

Lloyd Evans tours the Edinburgh Festival in search of clues about the outcome of the referendum

An innocent graduate of Operation Yewtree, Jim Davidson, dazzles in Edinburgh

23 August 2014 9:00 am

Let’s start with a nightmare. Wendy Wason, an Edinburgh comedienne, travelled to LA last year accompanied by her husband, who…

The best of the Edinburgh Fringe

16 August 2014 9:00 am

Rain whimpers from Edinburgh’s skies. The sodden tourists look like aliens in their steamed-up ponchos as they scurry and rustle…

Sorry, Gillian Anderson, but you've caught the wrong Streetcar

9 August 2014 9:00 am

Streetcar. One word is enough to conjure an icon. Tennessee Williams’s finest play, written in the 1940s, is about a…

3,000 acts and no quality control – why the Edinburgh Fringe is the greatest (and patchiest) arts festival in the world

9 August 2014 9:00 am

And they’re off. The mighty caravan of romantic desperadoes, radical egoists, stadium wannabes, struggling superstars and vanity crackheads is on…

Terribly, terribly English: Helen McCrory as Medea

Let’s face it, Greek tragedy is often earnest, obscure or boring. Not this Medea

2 August 2014 9:00 am

Carrie Cracknell’s new version of Medea strikes with overwhelming and rather puzzling force. The royal palace has been done up…

When Mr and Mrs Clever-Nasty-and-Rich met Mr and Mrs Thick-Sweet-and-Poor

26 July 2014 9:00 am

Torben Betts, head boy at Alan Ayckbourn’s unofficial school of apprentices, has written at least a dozen plays I’ve never…

Billie Piper as Paige Britain: gorgeous, stony-hearted news psycho

Richard Bean doesn’t believe in humans - just weasels, snakes, rats and vultures

19 July 2014 9:00 am

Mr Bean, one of our greatest comic exports, has an alter ego. The second Mr Bean, forename Richard, is the…

Isn’t it time we asked the National Theatre to support itself?

12 July 2014 9:00 am

Isn’t it time we asked the National Theatre to support itself? Lloyd Evans says yes

Decent and enjoyable production: Tom McKay (Brutus) and Anthony Howell (Cassius)

The sweating, dust-glazed saints at the Hampstead Theatre tells us nothing new about the miners’ strike

12 July 2014 9:00 am

Hampstead’s new play about the 1984 miners’ strike was nearly defeated by technical glitches. Centre stage in Ed Hall’s production…

A couple of stuck-up superbrats: Isabella Calthorpe and Claire Forlani

Fashion Victim – the Musical!: daft camp with a warm heart

5 July 2014 9:00 am

Fashion Victim — the Musical!. There’s a title that’s been waiting to be used for ages. The Cinema Museum is…

Mark Benton’s Hobson spares us nothing in his journey from rooftop to gutter

28 June 2014 9:00 am

Nice one, Roy. Across the West End secret toasts are being drunk to the England supremo for his exquisitely crafted…

Alex Jennings: still experimenting with the Wonka character

Alex Jennings interview: the new Willy Wonka on Roald Dahl’s ‘child killer’

21 June 2014 9:00 am

Alex Jennings, the new Willy Wonka, tells Lloyd Evans why Dahl’s ‘misanthropic world’ is fascinating to inhabit

Idealists and chums: Joshua James (Arkady) and Seth Numrich (Bazarov)

Did Turgenev foresee Russia’s Stalinist future?

21 June 2014 8:00 am

Fans of Chekhov have to endure both feast and famine. Feast because his works are revived everywhere. Famine because he…

The Globe's larf-a-minute Antony and Cleopatra

14 June 2014 8:00 am

It’s hilarious. It’s also annoying that it’s so hilarious. Jonathan Munby’s earthy and glamorous production of Antony and Cleopatra goes…

When the big-boobed whisky monster met the upper-class snoot

7 June 2014 9:00 am

Lionel is a king of the New York art scene. An internationally renowned connoisseur, he travels the world creating and…

Bang on the money: Gary Kemp and Stefan Booth in ‘Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be’

Joan Littlewood has a lot to answer for – but Fings Ain't With They Used T'Be' makes up for it

31 May 2014 9:00 am

Joan Littlewood’s greatest disservice to the theatre was to champion ‘the right to fail’, which encouraged writers and directors to…