All stories by Susannah Clapp on BroadwayStars

Sunday, September 13, 2020

The Shrine & Bed Among the Lentils review – silent screams from Monica Dolan and Lesley Manville by Susannah Clapp

Bridge theatre, LondonThe wide-open space of the Bridge is commanded with riveting intimacy in one of four Talking Heads double bills The sheer success of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads mak…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:32AM
Sunday, September 6, 2020

The week in theatre: Beat the Devil; Sleepless: A Musical Romance – review by Susannah Clapp

Bridge, London; Troubadour, Wembley ParkDavid Hare’s explosive, first-hand coronavirus monologue, delivered by Ralph Fiennes, hits every target. And Kimberley Walsh and Jay McGuinness carr…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:36AM
Sunday, August 23, 2020

Out of the Woods review – bitten by the big bad wolf by Susannah Clapp

Alan Cumming puts his trademark drollery to diabolic effect in this exhilarating twist on Little Red Riding Hood Each week through these Covid months the National Theatre of Scotland has bee…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:32AM
Sunday, August 16, 2020

Blindness review – Juliet Stevenson rages between your ears by Susannah Clapp

Donmar Warehouse, LondonThere is no escape for a socially distanced audience all wearing headphones from Simon Stephens’s powerfully menacing adaptation of José Saramago Every now and the…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:54AM
Sunday, August 9, 2020

The week in theatre: Fanny and Stella; The House That Slipped; Alice: A Virtual Theme Park – review by Susannah Clapp

Garden theatre, London SE11; onlineTwo singing, dancing Victorian cross-dressers give the kiss of life to London’s fringe theatre. And by Zoom to 2070 and Wonderland Here are some chinks i…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AM
Sunday, July 26, 2020

The Week in Theatre: My White Best Friend; And So We Come Forth – review by Susannah Clapp

Black writers shared feelings they had kept to themselves for years in a quietly explosive week of tension and tears The words of My White Best Friend (and Other Letters Left Unsaid) hit act…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24AM
Sunday, June 28, 2020

The week in theatre: The Protest; Rockets and Blue Lights; PlacePrints; Charlie Ward – review by Susannah Clapp

Urgent new perspectives on George Floyd’s death and the slave trade’s place in art; pastoral meditations from David Rudkin and an unforgettable wartime soundscape Every week, a new catas…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:03AM

Ian McKellen's Hamlet, aged 81: it's madness but there's method in it by Susannah Clapp

Eyebrows were raised over the casting for the young Prince of Denmark, but it could give the play new life At first it seems preposterous. Aged 81, Ian McKellen has announced he is to play H…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:54AM
Sunday, June 21, 2020

The future of the arts: ‘Online theatre is a skeleton of the thing itself’ by Susannah Clapp

With real life now the biggest show in town, our theatre critic reflects on the catastrophic effects of lockdown, and talks to industry insiders about navigating a way back Kitty Empire: ‘…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36AM
Sunday, June 7, 2020

The best online theatre: What Do We Need to Talk About?; Dear Ireland; Sea Wall; The Ruins of Empire – review by Susannah Clapp

Outstanding Zoom drama from New York, a deluge of monologues from Dublin and an astonishing solo performance by Andrew Scott The theatres have been dark – in that terrible, expressive phra…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:06AM
Monday, March 30, 2020

The experts’ experts: Observer critics on the cultural voices they trust by Laura Cumming, Mark Kermode, Bidisha, Miranda Sawyer, Susannah Clapp, Kitty Empire, Fiona Maddocks and Rowan Moore

The best new writers, the indispensable books, the go-to websites… our arts writers reveal their sources of insight Continue reading...

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:48AM
Sunday, March 22, 2020

The Seven Streams of the River Ota review – magic in motion by Susannah Clapp

Lyttelton, LondonRobert Lepage’s extraordinary, seven-hour fusion of horror, romance and French farce made for a fitting final show before London’s theatres went into lockdown This was t…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AM
Sunday, March 15, 2020

The week in theatre: On Blueberry Hill; Shoe Lady; Crongton Knights – review by Susannah Clapp

Trafalgar Studios; Royal Court, London; Theatre Royal BrightonSebastian Barry’s tale of two cellmates succeeds despite plausibility issues, while Katherine Parkinson is magnetic in a flims…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:54AM
Sunday, March 8, 2020

The week in theatre: Oliver Twist; I Think We Are Alone; Women Beware Women – review by Susannah Clapp

Leeds Playhouse; Stratford East; Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonOliver is both deaf and poor in a sign-language version of Dickens’s tale that speaks to 21st-century London. And Frantic As…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:48AM
Sunday, February 23, 2020

The week in theatre: A Number; The Visit; Alone in Berlin – review by Susannah Clapp

Bridge; Olivier, London; Royal & Derngate, NorthamptonCloned siblings cast fleeting shadows in a vivid Caryl Churchill revival, while Lesley Manville dazzles in an unwieldy revenge drama…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AM
Sunday, February 16, 2020

The week in theatre: Leopoldstadt; Death of England; Far Away – review by Susannah Clapp

Wyndham’s; Dorfman; Donmar Warehouse, LondonTom Stoppard explores his Jewish heritage in what may be his final play; Rafe Spall delivers a career-changing study in rage; and Caryl Churchil…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:48AM
Sunday, February 2, 2020

The week in theatre: Uncle Vanya, Night of the Living Dead – Remix; Faustus: That Damned Woman by Susannah Clapp

Harold Pinter, London; Leeds Playhouse; Lyric Hammersmith, LondonToby Jones and Rosalind Eleazar make light work of Ian Rickson’s overfreighted new Chekhov. Plus, wall-to-wall zombie horro…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:18AM
Sunday, December 29, 2019

Susannah Clapp’s best theatre of 2019 by Susannah Clapp

There was fearless new work, revelatory sound design and a seismic shift in the tussle between Chekhov and Ibsen. The Observer’s theatre critic introduces her 10 best shows of the year My …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:54AM
Sunday, December 22, 2019

The week in theatre: The Ocean at the End of the Lane; Swive [Elizabeth]; Teenage Dick – review by Susannah Clapp

Dorfman; Sam Wanamaker Playhouse; Donmar Warehouse, LondonA Neil Gaiman adaptation delivers spooky childhood spectacle; and the teenage years of Elizabeth I and Richard III Sometimes it is n…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:54AM
Sunday, December 15, 2019

The week in theatre: Cyrano de Bergerac; The Duchess of Malfi; Three Sisters – review by Susannah Clapp

Playhouse; Almeida; Lyttelton, LondonGone is the big nose, while the fighting’s a poetry slam in Martin Crimp’s ingenious new rapping Cyrano. Plus, The Duchess of Malfi reimagined, and T…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AM
Sunday, December 1, 2019

The week in theatre: The Boy in the Dress; The Arrival; Richard III – review by Susannah Clapp

Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; Bush; Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonA new musical adaptation of David Walliams’s book scores on all counts; director Bijan Sheibani makes a…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:03AM
Sunday, November 24, 2019

The week in theatre: Dear Evan Hansen; Touching the Void; #WeAreArrested – review by Susannah Clapp

Noël Coward; Duke of York’s; Arcola, LondonA dazzling West End debut lights up a newly arrived Broadway hit, while Joe Simpson’s Andes ordeal is all too real on stage, and a jailed repo…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:06AM
Saturday, November 9, 2019

The week in theatre: Ghost Quartet; High Fidelity; When the Crows Visit – review by Susannah Clapp

Boulevard; Turbine; Kiln, LondonTwo recently opened London theatres make their mark, with love and loss round the camp fire, and a sparky reworking of High Fidelity that just needs a few goo…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:24PM
Sunday, November 3, 2019

The week in theatre: Light Falls; The Antipodes; Botticelli in the Fire – review by Susannah Clapp

Royal Exchange, Manchester; Dorfman; Hampstead, LondonSarah Frankcom signs off in Manchester with elegiac Simon Stephens and a little bit of Jarvis Cocker. Plus, Annie Baker’s latest and t…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:36AM
Saturday, October 26, 2019

The week in theatre: [Blank]; Lungs; Vassa – review by Susannah Clapp

Donmar Warehouse; Old Vic; Almeida, LondonAlice Birch searches for hope in the criminal justice system, Claire Foy and Matt Smith bring wit to eco angst, and Siobhan Redmond makes a fine Gor…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:06AM
Saturday, October 19, 2019

The week in theatre: There Are No Beginnings; Solaris; A History of Water in the Middle East – review by Susannah Clapp

Leeds Playhouse; Lyric Hammersmith; Royal Court, LondonA powerful verbatim portrayal of women’s lives during the Yorkshire Ripper years; a sci-fi classic reborn; and a musical imperialism …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AM
Sunday, October 6, 2019

The week in theatre: “Mr Harold”… and the boys; Blood Wedding; Macbeth – review by Susannah Clapp

Lyttelton; Young Vic, London; Chichester Festival theatreAthol Fugard’s masterly apartheid drama still shocks, while compatriot Yaël Farber is transfixed by Marina Carr’s lyrical Irish …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:06AM
Sunday, September 29, 2019

The week in theatre: Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp; My Beautiful Laundrette – review by Susannah Clapp

Royal Court, London; Curve, LeicesterCaryl Churchill conjures four short, sharp, unconnected plays that add up to one remarkable whole. And a new spin on an 80s film classic What a rapt, int…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:54AM
Sunday, September 22, 2019

The week in theatre: Faith, Hope and Charity; The King of Hell’s Palace; Chiaroscuro – review by Susannah Clapp

Dorfman; Hampstead; Bush, LondonAusterity bites at the National in Alexander Zeldin’s intense community centre drama, while a Chinese whistleblowing thriller is lost for words Alexander Ze…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:36AM
Sunday, September 15, 2019

The week in theatre: A Very Expensive Poison; A Doll’s House; Hedda Tesman – review | Susannah Clapp by Susannah Clapp

Old Vic; Lyric Hammersmith, London; Minerva, Chichester Lucy Prebble’s take on the Litvinenko murder swivels brilliantly between tragedy and farce, while Ibsen’s women still have much to…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:03AM
Sunday, September 8, 2019

The week in theatre: Hansard; The Son; Bartholomew Fair – review by Susannah Clapp

Lyttelton; Duke of York’s; Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonAlex Jennings and Lindsay Duncan snipe to perfection as an 80s Tory MP and his wife in a debut play that isn’t quite so sharp. P…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:42AM

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