All stories by David Nice on BroadwayStars

Thursday, March 21, 2024

WAKE, National Stadium, Dublin review - a rainbow river of dance, song, and so much else by David Nice

THISISPOPBABY serves up a joyous tapestry of Ireland contemporary and traditional In what feels like the beginning, or at least the Old Testament, there was Riverdance. Now, ready to flow th…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:48AM
Monday, March 4, 2024

The Duchess of Malfi, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse review - the good end badly, but act best by David Nice

Francesca Mills' protagonist is the vivacious, truthful heart of this fascinating production “All discord without this circumference,” the Duchess of Malfi tells the good man she’s jus…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:32AM
Saturday, February 17, 2024

Turning the Screw, King’s Head Theatre review - Britten and the not-so-innocent by David Nice

Real-life triangle around the composer’s darkest masterpiece yields fitfully strong drama David Hemmings was, by his own later admission, a knowing and bumptious boy when Britten cast him …

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:36AM
Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Odyssey: A Heroic Pantomime, Charles Court Opera, Jermyn Street Theatre review - topsy-turvy Homer by David Nice

Five heroic women and two instrumentalists go Hellenic, with panache This is the show that launched a thousand puns, mostly ancient-Greek-oriented, and just as many corny rhymes, all deliver…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:36AM
Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Pygmalion, Old Vic review - zappy wit and emotional intelligence by David Nice

Patsy Ferran's vibrant Eliza Doolittle sparks Bertie Carvel's Henry Higgins into human life Many of us have perhaps grown too accustomed to the friendly face of My Fair Lady. George Bernard …

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:25AM
Sunday, July 16, 2023

theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival - invisible cities and possible dreams by David Nice

Teatro delle Albe's Don Quixote drama rivals Riccardo Muti's Paths of Friendship concert Came for the music, returned for the theatre. I oversimplify: Riccardo Muti’s Roads of Friendship e…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:13PM
Monday, June 19, 2023

Happy Days, Landmark Productions, Cork Opera House - to the end of the earth by David Nice

Siobhán McSweeney goes way beyond the expected in a transfixing performance Siobhán McSweeney is to be loved as a person for her speech when she received a BAFTA for Best Female Performanc…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:07AM
Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Ghosts, Abbey Theatre, Dublin review - creating tension from desolation by David Nice

Cathy Belton’s devastating economy steers Mark O’Rowe’s quietly stunning Ibsen Church and law are enemies of promise in Ibsen’s tragedy-without-catharis. You can see why this devasta…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:06AM
Saturday, April 15, 2023

Life is a Dream, Cheek by Jowl, Barbican Theatre review - savouring the Spanish of a singular masterpiece by David Nice

A suitably phantasmagoical vision in strong teamwork by Calderón's compatriots Dream versus reality, fate and free will, love and death, nature versus nurture: they’re all here in Calder�…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:12AM
Monday, March 20, 2023

Dance of Death, National Theatre of Norway, Coronet Theatre - straight for the jugular by David Nice

White-heat Strindberg from Norwegian actors undeterred by technical hitches You don’t have to be Scandinavian to act out Strindberg’s fantastical extremes at the highest level, but I’v…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:01AM
Thursday, March 9, 2023

The New Electric Ballroom, Gate Theatre, Dublin review - fantasy and memory hauntingly interwoven by David Nice

Enda Walsh's second drama on now about ritualised isolation is mesmerising Commuting between London and Dublin has its fascinations.10 days ago, I saw for the first time at the Southwark Pla…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:40AM
Monday, February 27, 2023

The Walworth Farce, Southwark Playhouse Elephant review - dysfunctional Irish myth-making by David Nice

Four spot-on performances confirm that Enda Walsh's queasy thriller is here to stay The farce in question is fast and furious, but not often hilariously funny; that’s because it’s the in…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:44AM
Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Only an Octave Apart, Wilton's Music Hall review - instant charm, infinite variety by David Nice

Justin Vivian Bond and Anthony Roth Costanzo in an absolutely fabulous double act You know you’re in good company the minute these two appear on stage: they are so splendidly what they are…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:55AM
Thursday, August 18, 2022

theartsdesk at the Kilkenny Arts Festival 2022 - a safe space to reflect on horrors by David Nice

Masha Gessen, Shostakovich and Shakespeare’s Prospero wrestle order from chaos Essay-writing can be a great art, at least when executed by Hubert Butler of Kilkenny, on a par - whether you…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:25AM
Wednesday, July 13, 2022

theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival 2022 - body and soul in perfect balance by David Nice

Completion of the city’s big Dante project with 'Paradiso' is only one of three wonders For once, a festival theme has meaning. “Tra la carne e il cielo”, “Between flesh and heaven�…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:54AM
Friday, June 17, 2022

Ulysses, Abbey Theatre / The Tin Soldier, Gate Theatre, Dublin review - peerless Joyce marathon, Andersen squashed by David Nice

Barry McGovern is odyssey master, while fine performers sag under awful script A pot plant on a stand, two tables with glasses of water, two chairs – one plush, one high – are all the pr…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:24AM
Monday, May 9, 2022

Age of Rage, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Barbican review - shattering assault on all the senses by David Nice

Happiest in home-territory epics, Ivo van Hove pulls off a Greek-tragedy stunner Hunger for the gruesome horrors and euphoric highs of Greek tragedy seems to be stronger than ever. Yet when …

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:42AM
Saturday, March 5, 2022

Henry V, Donmar Warehouse review - playing at war by David Nice

Good in parts, but Kit Harington’s king isn’t the best thing about this hard-working show Sharp suits swapped for combat fatigues, a people’s commander: you’d think that Max Webster�…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:18PM
Wednesday, March 2, 2022

When We Dead Awaken, The Norwegian Ibsen Company, Coronet Theatre review - living death, dying life by David Nice

Ibsen anticipates Beckett in his strange final play, austerely staged with dashes of wit In Ibsen's last and shortest play, further cut here, four people nominally climb a mountain, but actu…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:33AM
Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Force Majeure, Donmar Warehouse review - fissures in a marriage by David Nice

Skiing-resort trauma is played too much for easy laughs It sounds like the title of a play by Rattigan. No such luck: “Force Majeure” – a legal term with which all too few will be fami…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:24AM
Sunday, December 12, 2021

Cabaret, The Kit Kat Club at the Playhouse Theatre review – polymorphous, prodigious by David Nice

Jessie Buckley and Eddie Redmayne constantly surprise in multilayered production Turning a theatre into the Kit Kat Club, Berlin, early 1930s, is nothing new: the Edinburgh University Theatr…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:54PM
Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Royal Opera House lullabies for Little Amal by David Nice

Near the end of her long journey, our refugee gets a welcome her real-life kin are denied “I want to tell her that people will be good,” Tewodros Aregawe of Phosphoros Theatre confided t…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:03AM
Monday, July 5, 2021

Wonderful Town, Quick Fantastic, Opera Holland Park - everybody's swinging it by David Nice

Band and singers energise the brilliant entertainment of Bernstein, Comden and Green It’s a wonderful thing to hear a nine-piece Broadway-style band at full pelt, and to see real show danc…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:32AM
Friday, June 18, 2021

Happy Days, Riverside Studios review – memory, madness and melancholy by David Nice

Lisa Dwan’s infinite variety guides us through Beckett’s timeless masterpiece Just when you thought you couldn’t take any more one- or two-handers, online or in the theatre, along come…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:54AM
Saturday, September 12, 2020

The Shrine & Bed Among the Lentils, Bridge Theatre review - loneliness shared, with wit and melancholy by David Nice

Monica Dolan and Lesley Manville are peerless in this Alan Bennett double bill Monologues and duets rule the stage right now. We can only dream of the day when theatre steps up to the classi…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:18AM
Monday, May 4, 2020

Re:Creating Europe, MIF Rewind review - last year's burning issue semi-dramatized by David Nice

Ivo van Hove engages British and Dutch actors to debate the urgent question of 2019 Are we really past all this? From Ivo van Hove's 2019 polyphony of opinions and reflections down the centu…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:54AM
Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration, Broadway.com/YouTube review - slick, often sombre, but when funny, hilarious by David Nice

A host of Broadway stars varies the strain in classily done from-home gala Maybe you can't compare incomparables, but it was instructive to watch this Broadway lockdown gala feting nonagenar…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:42AM
Monday, March 23, 2020

Sondheim at 90 Songs: 2 - 'Epiphany'/'A Little Priest' by David Nice

Is there a better climax to a musical first act than the terror-plus-wit in 'Sweeney Todd'? Two numbers, one hair-raising slice of music-theatre. When Sondheim's paying homage to the older, …

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:54PM
Thursday, March 5, 2020

The Revenger's Tragedy, Piccolo Teatro di Milano/Cheek by Jowl, Barbican review - fun, but not enough by David Nice

Middleton's decimation of an Italian court needs more satirical thrust Vendetta, morte: what a lark to find those tools of 19th century Italian opera taken back to their mother tongue in a M…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 08:54AM
Thursday, February 20, 2020

La Cage aux Folles [The Play], Park Theatre review - half-cock farce by David Nice

Embarrassing period piece needs a lift from better comic timing than this Not the musical then, worst luck. How timely it would have been to mark Jerry Herman's passing with a celebration of…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:42AM
Friday, January 31, 2020

Persona, Riverside Studios review - Bergman masterpiece transformed into 'The Mumbling' by David Nice

One woman barely speaks, the other can't be heard and two men interfere A work of genius isn't sacred, copyrighted territory. A great film may become a play, a novel a film; the adaptation s…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:24AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards