A ripping production with plenty of laughs: Guys and Dolls, at the Bridge Theatre, reviewed
Further than the Furthest Thing is an allegorical play set on a remote island populated by English-speakers from all over…
Jeremy Hunt’s crafty Budget spells trouble for Labour
Jeremy Hunt was designed to exclude unnecessary body movements. Tall and gaunt, his demeanour faintly bird-like, he worked through his…
Cumbersome muddle: Women, Beware the Devil, at the Almeida Theatre, reviewed
Rupert Goold’s new show, Women, Beware the Devil, has great costumes, sumptuous sets and an intriguing chessboard stage like a…
Approaches perfection: Medea, @sohoplace, reviewed
Winner’s Curse is a hybrid drama by Dan Patterson and Daniel Taub which opens as a lecture by a fictional…
The secret truth about Dom: The Play
‘Who wrote it?’ asks the Times, of Dom: The Play. I’ll let you in on a secret: it was me.…
How has it escaped being cancelled? The Lehman Trilogy, at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, reviewed
Standing at the Sky’s Edge is an ode to a monstrous carbuncle. The atrocity in question is a concrete gulag,…
Small boats are Rishi’s big problem
Small boats are becoming a big problem for Rishi. Four Tory backbenchers raised the issue at PMQs. Andrew Selous asked…
A sex farce reminiscent of Alan Clark’s diaries: Phaedra, at the Lyttelton Theatre, reviewed
Simon Stone claims that his new comedy, Phaedra, draws on the work of Euripides, Seneca and Racine. In fact, the…
Chatterbox crackdown
A romcom with an irritating title, Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, has opened at the HP Theatre starring Jenna Coleman…
These drag queens haven’t a clue how banal their problems are: Sound of the Underground, at the Royal Court, reviewed
Sound of the Underground is a drag show involving a handful of cross-dressers who spend the opening 15 minutes telling…
Pure, heavenly escapism: The Unfriend, at the Criterion Theatre, reviewed
The Unfriend is a smart new family comedy which opens on the sunlit deck of a cruise ship. Peter and…
PMQs gets worse every week
Gruesome rhetoric at PMQs. The horror began with Sir Keir Starmer revealing that he can tell the time. ‘It’s three…
Comes close to perfection: Watch on the Rhine, at the Donmar Warehouse, reviewed
Watch on the Rhine is the curiously misleading title chosen by Lillian Hellman for a wartime family drama that became…
Clever and witty state-of-the-nation play: Kerry Jackson, at the Dorfman Theatre, reviewed
The National’s new comedy by April De Angelis is a clever and amusing attempt to deliver that most elusive artefact,…
Harry’s interview is an explosive, flame-throwing spectacle
Bombs away! Prince Harry’s mission to dump ordnance on his nearest and dearest continued last night in a riveting interview…
Eccentric triviality aimed at 1970s feminists: Orlando, at the Garrick Theatre, reviewed
Orlando opens with a pack of Virginia Woolfs on stage. All wear the same costume of horn-rimmed spectacles, long tweed…
Cruel but shamefully enjoyable: Vardy v Rooney – the Wagatha Christie Trial reviewed
The Wagatha Christie affair began in 2019 when Coleen Rooney accused Rebekah Vardy of selling stories from her private Instagram…
The acting rescues it: National Theatre’s Othello reviewed
Crude eccentricities damage the potential brilliance of Othello at the National. Some of the visual gestures seem to have been…
An unexpected heartbreaker: Elf the Musical, at the Dominion Theatre, reviewed
Elf opens with an unbelievable premise. Buddy was abandoned as a baby and adopted by Santa’s elves and he spent…
Wordy, overwritten flop – perfect for the BBC: Noor, at Southwark Playhouse, reviewed
A heroic Asian woman parachutes into occupied France to work for the resistance and help overthrow the Nazis. This sounds…
Rebecca Humphries is dynamite – pity about the play: Blackout Songs, at Hampstead Theatre, reviewed
Viewers watching a good romcom need to fall in love with three things. The boy, the girl and the affair…
The UK Drill Project, at The Pit, reviewed
The UK Drill Project is a cabaret show that celebrates greed, criminality and drug-taking among black males in London. It…
Matt Hancock: Star of the ‘I’m a Celeb’ jungle
Has Matt Hancock gone mad? Maybe not. His appearance in ‘I’m A Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here’ is…
Who will be next week’s ministerial exit?
For the past fortnight, it was Suella Braverman. Now it’s Sir Gavin Williamson. The media aims to destroy two careers…
The National Theatre deserves to have its budget cut
The arts cuts have arrived. The biggest loser is English National Opera whose annual award of £12.6 million will be…
