It is a cheap trick for a stand-up comic to tell the audience that they are great, but of course it works every time. Cheaper still for an audience member to declare this. But at CULT at the Pleasance Theatre we were a great audience. The secret, of course, to a successful immersive, interactive show like this one is that it's down to the clever work of the cast to … [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.
Mischief Theatre’s Groan Ups at the Vaudeville Theatre
The trouble with a franchise - and Mischief Theatre is now on it’s 6th (or is it 7th?) show - is that - if you are not careful - it grows a bit stale. Groan Ups has all the accoutrements of the Mischief Theatre brand that we have come to know and love but, honestly, the joke and, yes they are all basically based on the one elongated joke, is wearing a bit thin. The … [Read more...]
The Girl on the Train at the Churchill Theatre Bromley | Review
Paula Hawkins thriller is a contemporary phenomenon and I was intrigued to see how the story would be adapted for stage, the novel feels so reflective and the film so visual that it was hard to envisage how it could be bought to life. But both the stage adaptation by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel is incredibly tightly constructed, and Antony Banks’ direction keeps … [Read more...]
Dangerous Liaisons an original dance adaptation | Review
This dance production of Dangerous Liaisons is set both at the time of writing and into the near future - perhaps a year or two leading up to the 92nd Academy Awards, not to take place until 9th February 2020, and then its aftermath. To set all the dancing in context, a relatively brief preamble in the form of a news magazine programme called ‘All Access Hollywood’ … [Read more...]
Graceland Live: With Josh Turner as Paul Simon | Review
Graceland Live would do well to follow in the footsteps of The Simon & Garfunkel Story (different show, same production company) and get into a West End theatre for a few dates. The original live event, Graceland: The African Concert, was held in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1987, and featured several South African musicians, most notably Miriam Makeba (1932-2008), Hugh … [Read more...]
Prism starring Robert Lindsay and Tara Fitzgerald | Review
It is one thing to be a visually literate playwright; quite another to create a full-length drama which appropriates the techniques of the cinema as whole-heartedly as Terry Johnson has done in his latest play. Obeying the old principle of showing rather than telling, Johnson lays before us the life of the late and undoubtedly great cinematographer Jack Cardiff, … [Read more...]
Out Of Order by Forced Entertainment – Southbank Centre
Formed from a bare stage consisting of a few chairs and a table, some tartan clown suits, and plenty of white face paint, Out of Order is far more than its constituent parts, producing a largely compelling political allegory as the actors repeatedly bicker, fight, form temporary allegiances, break them, and fight again. Clearly intended to evoke the stealthy … [Read more...]
Gutted by Sharon Byrne at the Irish Cultural Centre | Review
Combining slags and slang, sex and swearing, comedy and tragedy, Gutted by Sharon Byrne is a compelling play about three working class women factory workers in 1980s Dublin. It does for Dublin what Trainspotting did for Edinburgh. A big difference is that Gutted tells the story through the voices of three young women who work in a fish factory. They spend 8 hours a … [Read more...]
Singin’ in the Rain – Showtime Challenge 48-Hour Musicals
Occasionally one sees a show which is totally uplifting! This describes the performance of Singin' In The Rain which was mounted by Showtime Challenge 48-Hour Musicals at the Adelphi Theatre in aid of the Lewy Body Society, a charity dedicated to research into the diagnosis and treatment of this type of dementia which affects over 15% of sufferers. Everyone involved … [Read more...]