London Theatre Reviews - West End & Off West End

The return of the musical theatre version of David Walliams Billionaire Boy to London’s West End provoked much debate between my eight-year-old co-critics about this production’s merits versus RSC/Tim Minchin’s Matilda (to which they unanimously bestowed 5 stars). I shall skip to the end as the adult adjudicator: Neal Foster’s Walliams adaptation cannot touch Matilda but the very fact that two siblings on the last day of Year 4 even had the argument is a fine endorsement of the newer show’s … [Read more...]

I don’t watch a lot of television but even I have some familiarity with the Up documentary film series, following the lives of fourteen people (it’s less than that now, for various reasons) since the first film in the series, Seven Up! In 1964. This play, every seven years, doesn’t quite go as far as 63 Up – which would have been a bit much for a show without an interval – but nonetheless provides some interesting snapshots of the lives of Polly (Laura Hannawin) and Marcus (Jack Cameron). It is, … [Read more...]

DRIVE THRU by Blink Dance Theatre is an immersive, multi-sensory dance theatre show, onboard a minibus. What’s not to like? Written, co-directed and performed by artists with learning disabilities, it is aimed at neurodiverse adults. The minibus is not incidental to the story, nor to the staging. The performers remain outside, conjuring up the world beyond the windows, as we travel past ambiguous scenes of a car wash, (really quite cute) monsters, into a tornado, space, through the ocean … [Read more...]

I am slightly confused as I walk up the hill to Racks Close, I can hear German 1930s music playing, I thought it was As You Like It tonight, not Cabaret! The confusion is cleared up when I sit down with my programme. Director Caroline Devlin has chosen to set this production in 1930s Europe, aligning the banished Duke Senior’s court with the liberal ideas of the Weimar Republic and the ruling Duke Frederick’s court with the fascists that sought to control individual ideals. The play … [Read more...]

A couple of weeks ago I interviewed the creatives behind Chewboy Productions. As part of the interview, they were telling me about the new show they were working on. The show is called Tethered, and I have just been to see it at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre. Unusually, I’m not going to tell you any more about the plot of the show than was in the press release. I’ll explain why in a moment. "Sans (Hal Darling) and Moins (Georgie Bailey) are getting saved, after a lifetime of being tethered … [Read more...]