Influenced by Ingmar Bergman, Shakespeare, Chekhov and even Noël Coward, Stephen Sondheim's wistful, wonderful musical with a book by Hugh Wheeler is still one of a kind. Last seen in London on the National's epic Olivier stage, it is here...
Dreyfuss, last seen as Dick Cheney in Oliver Stone's Dubya bio-pic 'W', treads the London boards for the world premiere of Sutton's new political drama, directed – in-the-round – by Spacey.
Like some barbed offspring of Struwwelpeter and Wednesday Addams (conceived in Grandmother’s...
Given that this production rounds off Michael Grandage’s brilliant year, it’s hardly surprising that...
Cutting David Hare down to size has been a fashionable cause in recent years. The attacks largely boil down to being...
The spirit of the London Hippodrome in its heyday lives on, in aptly scuzzy form, in 'La Clique'. This burlesque variety show is impressively eclectic, from exceptional rubber man Captain Frodo down to the raddled comedy of Miss Behave. Thanks to...
Time Out's theatre critics look back at a cracking year on the London stage, and share their tips on who to watch in...
Herman and Fierstein's musical is a celebration of homosexuality in which the most unappealing character is Edouard Dindon who stands up for family values. Actually, so does the musical, since Albin and Georges have lived together as a couple for...
Last week proved a challenging one for actors. In Austria, Daniel Hoevels slumped to the floor after slashing his...
There is surely no other country that sentimentalises the idea of family so fervently as America, and nowhere...
Anyone who has yawned their way through the inanities of too many jukebox musicals is likely to wonder how...
Cash-for-honours, bargaining over the minimum wage: there are more than a few contemporary resonances in this 1913 comedy set among the political elite in a middling manufacturing town. Despite a long and successful career as a dramatist, Jones...
With the sad news of the death of one of British theatre's most iconic figures, Harold Pinter, we take a look back at...
Taking their cue from the all-conquering 1991 hit show ‘Stomp’, ‘Lost and Found Orchestra’ is...
Taking their cue from the all-conquering 1991 hit show ‘Stomp’, ‘Lost and Found Orchestra’ is...
Following the 'X-Factor'-style auditions in November, the much-hyped Michael Jackson musical moonwalks into the West End.
This gleefully camp romp of dastardly Muslim plots brewing against the Empire, tearing through the fourth form of an antique boy's school, was hailed in Edinburgh as a rare fringe find. The winning aura of illustrated boys' adventure book is...
It's the time where the good, the bad, and the almost famous don nylons for your seasonal pleasure. Plays, pantos,...
‘Zorro’ is hot stuff. And I’m not just talking about the sweaty effects of a giant flaming...
While Tracy Letts is tearing the family apart at the National Theatre, Neil LaBute is doing something similar at the...
This humans-meet-puppets musical starts out like 'Sesame Street' meets 'South Park', displaying its sharp, unsentimental credentials in song after song: 'If You Were Gay', 'The Internet Is For Porn', and one in which a Japanese woman memorably...
'This is America,' one closeted gay man tells another, 'you're still defined by what you do with your dick.' If you hadn't guessed it already, all ten gay characters in Joe Di Pietro's new play do pretty much the same thing with their dicks. This...
Craig Revel Horwood's small-scale revival is a distinct improvement on the original, mainly because he has the actors play the score as well as sing it and so presents the story theatrically in a way that could never work on the big screen. That...
There’s nothing remotely traditional about this pantomimic riff from Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. A...
Cynics will note the resolutely untheatrical digitally animated backdrop, the clumsy split-level design and the seemingly uninspired parroting of the movie script. But Baby Houseman's conversion from my-heart-belongs-to-daddy schoolgirl into sexy...
A confession: sometimes I lazily assume that all long-running West End musicals are soulless corporate juggernauts...
In the 22 years since its London premiere, Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical has become a cultural icon. Critics of 'Phantom' call it bland and tired, but it's a product of its time. Its lavish and bold set design is still awe-inspiring, and it's a...
I confess. I wanted to hate ‘Hairspray’. I’ve nothing against its loveably chubby heroine Tracy...
Gorgeously coiffured hangers on, a pent-up young heroine and an ageing dowager gather in a country house to await the...
Plenty of theatres will be trotting out the size 12 stilettos this season, but the Royal Court’s ‘Wig...
Basement: Multi-sensory production set in the murky underbelly of Victorian London which chronicles Dorian's desperate quest for the 'ultimate sensation'.
With Blackadder playing Fagin and a cast of 100 swelled with reality TV theatre stars, consider yourself at home in the latest Rupert Goold juggernaut to hit the West End.
Adaptor Barlow has continued the Hitchcock tradition of mucking around with Buchan's original, adding a whirligig of self-conscious theatrical effects. Four actors evoke everyone from lingerie salesmen to a housekeeper who screams like a...
Basement: Dickens would have had a field day with Ian Dury. Wrapped in a drape coat with a plastic fried egg pinned to the lapel, one arm and leg withered by polio, the post punk legend would huddle round the mic stand for support while swinging...
Having proved hugely popular earlier in the year, the Bush has revived its Latitude-commissioned, multi-authored...
Lisa Kron’s ‘Well’ is essentially a one-woman stand-up routine with a supporting cast of...
South Africa's spielgeltented theatrical dining experience – complete with contortionists, cabaret, comedy and four course dinner – pitches up in London.
Russell's gently political tale of Merseyside twins separated at birth remains astonishingly lively. But, now in its twenty-first year, 'Blood Brothers' sounds its age: it's packed with unconvincing synth strings and the voices reverb like King...
A high-octane look at the world of City traders from 'Whipping it Up' playwright Thompson.
There's a new irony to the show that's kept London’s bowler hat and black hosiery business afloat for...
There's no secret to the success of London's longest-running musical. First, there are the songs (ardent and gritty). And then there are the sets, which turntable convicts, prostitutes, urchins and giant tilting hulls of Parisian masonry...
Harold Pinter died on Christmas Eve after a long illness. The Nobel Prizewinner was a titanic figure in theatre, a...
There is nothing subtle about 'The Lion King', whose lurid colours and costumes would make a rainbow feel monochrome. But Simba's flight, and then his return to his rightful destiny as king of the pride is your archetypal adventure yarn,...
The National's imaginative and hugely popular adaptation of Morpurgo's novel returns. For ages 12 years and above.
Critics hated it: it rocks on.
Studio I: The Arcola kicks off its new season of Brazilian work with the UK's first-ever professional capoeira theatre production; a radical reworking of the Euripides tragedy, set against Brazilian folklore, music and dance.
Buoyed by the phenomenal success of the film, the stage musical continues.
Like the steam-powered fairground ride it takes its name from, Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1945 musical is a beautiful vintage machine. The harmonies are as clean and freshly pressed as the bloomers of the New England lasses who sing them. And the...
Now here’s a neat idea for injecting a little fraîcheur into a stale seasonal staple. In Ray...
Bourne's acclaimed adaptation of Tim Burton's gothic classic returns.
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