The sheer mixture of styles and content in the plays that comprise Tonight at 8.30 (there was a time, not within my living memory, when shows went up at 8:30pm, which explains other theatrical terms and phrases like ‘eleven o’clock number’) is such that it is almost a pity the audience wasn’t … [Read more...]
London Theatre Reviews
If you are planning to visit London to see a classic musical or play in one of the West End theatres, or a production in one of the many Off West End or Fringe venues, then maybe our review section can be of help? Our featured reviews are here...
Jane Austen’s Persuasion at the Playground Theatre | Review
With an increasingly solid reputation for good work and solid material selections, Theatre6 continue this trend with their new adaptation of Jane Austen's final novel Persuasion. Celebrating 200 years since its publication, Stephanie Dale has done a great job of adapting the text, condensing a story … [Read more...]
The Gulf at Tristan Bates Theatre | Review
About two-thirds of the way through The Gulf, it suddenly struck me that there hasn’t been a critical incident yet in the show - one of those all-encompassing sudden events in the narrative that changes everything and blows the worlds of the show’s characters apart, irreparably and in perpetuity. … [Read more...]
Rasheeda Speaking by Joel Drake Johnson at Trafalgar Studios | Review
Plays have come under fire for being particularly ‘preachy’ recently. There are apparently ‘too many voices’ saying the same thing in this ‘woke’ era and productions can sometimes not get the balance of ‘the message’ and ‘the entertainment’ correct thus putting off audiences or boring them. First … [Read more...]
The Comedy About a Bank Robbery Review | Criterion Theatre
Between 1950 and 1966 actor-manager Brian Rix ran a series of plays in the West End. Because of their location and the type of play they were, they soon became known as the ‘Whitehall Farces’. Now, since those days, the Whitehall Theatre has changed its name to the Trafalgar Studio and, whilst there … [Read more...]
Eleanor Marx: The Jewess of Jews Walk | Sydenham Centre | Review
It’s sometimes the welcome lot of parents to be upstaged by the lives and work of their children. When the parent in question is the founder of a world-changing system of political philosophy which then bears his name, the child may vanish beneath the presence of such a virtual sibling. There are … [Read more...]
Much Ado About Nothing at Theatro Technis | Review
I suppose, when you think about it, much of A Midsummer Night’s Dream could be mistaken for a drug-fuelled hallucination, and setting this production in the context of a modern musical festival certainly added weight to this idea - everything from the incessant giggling of the four lovers to the … [Read more...]