The ‘2019 live action version’ of Aladdin (to distinguish from the 1992 animated motion picture), is not the first remake that the Walt Disney Company has embarked on, and the chances are they have yet more in the pipeline. A remake is, of course, an opportunity to revise, reshape and re-orchestrate, and they’ve done a pretty good job on those scores here. There will … [Read more...]
London Theatre Reviews - West End & Off West End
Latest London Theatre Reviews
Read our latest theatre reviews and find out what our team of reviewers thought of London's latest productions of plays, musicals and shows.
It’s Not Really the Apocalypse – A New Musical album review
There are probably more dystopian plays and musicals out there than there are utopian ones, or at least it feels that way. The possibilities seem more infinite in an apocalyptic narrative, even if there’s always a place for the musical theatre happy ending, and here, in this cast recording of It’s Not Really the Apocalypse, there’s a careful consideration of the … [Read more...]
The Light in the Piazza at the Royal Festival Hall | Review
There are people who prefer their operas sung in Italian rather than English. Then there are people like me who prefer operas sung in Italian because the chances are that there are English surtitles, thus retaining the intonations and verbal emphases of the original language whilst understanding in full precisely what’s going on. The Light in the Piazza is opera-esque … [Read more...]
Review of Strange Fruit at the Bush Theatre
Family relationships are never easy; tied together by blood, kinship, marriage or choice, family members can take one another for granted, disguise difficult truths, hold one another to account, and feel betrayal and loss keenly. In Caryl Phillips' Strange Fruit, set in 1980s Britain, Vivian and her two sons arguably experience greater obstacles than most, as they … [Read more...]
Guildford Shakespeare Company’s Twelfth Night – 14th Open-Air Season
Having attended many productions by Guildford Shakespeare Company in the last few years my overwhelming feeling is how imaginative the company are in finding unique and special places to put on their productions. The audience may come to watch a play but many like me will also have discovered how lovely this historic town is. This summer’s Twelfth Night is being … [Read more...]
Napoli, Brooklyn by Meghan Kennedy at Park Theatre
This powerful play, set in Brooklyn in 1960, attempts to tell the story of a family of Italian immigrants trying to assimilate and adapt to the change of culture and environment. The promise of the ‘American Dream’ has proved elusive, especially to the father of the family, Nic, passionately portrayed by Robert Cavanah. He has ended up with a dead-end job as a lowly … [Read more...]
I Know My Husband Loves Me at the Union Theatre | Review
“Trust no one,” so I was once told in school by a teacher who I subsequently refused to trust in any way, even when it came to mathematical equations, and therefore I found myself in detention quite regularly that year. Then I stubbornly refused to budge at the supposed end of the detention because I didn’t ‘trust’ that the time was what I was told it was and would … [Read more...]
Review of Three Sisters at Theatro Technis
One of these days, somebody somewhere will put on an adaptation of Three Sisters in which one of the sisters finds a way, however implausible, for them to go to Moscow after all. In the meantime, this version presented by the Acting Gymnasium has a running time considerably shorter than the two hours and fifty-five minutes the recent production at the Almeida Theatre … [Read more...]
Riot Act: Created and Performed by Alexis Gregory | Review
It’s Pride Month and that means that London is full of building flying rainbow flags and the theatre scene is gayer than ever with a plethora of LGBT+ themed shows hitting the stages of the capital. Some are just OK, some are good and a small number are absolutely awesome. I was lucky enough to get to experience the latter type of show as Alexis Gregory’s Riot Act … [Read more...]