All stories by Aleks.sierz on BroadwayStars

Friday, November 29, 2024

Expendable, Royal Court review - intensely felt family drama by Aleks.sierz

New play about a paedophile ring foregrounds the voices of British-Pakistani women British theatre excels in presenting social issues: at its best, it shines a bright light on the controver…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:31PM
Thursday, November 21, 2024

A Christmas Carol, Old Vic review – tidings of discomfort and noise by Aleks.sierz

This venue’s annual festive classic is seasonally joyous, but its writing is frankly patronizing This Dickens classic is an annual treat, or a Christmas trial — depending on your point …

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:42PM
Friday, November 15, 2024

Wolves on Road, Bush Theatre review – exciting dialogue, but flawed plotting by Aleks.sierz

New play about young black men and cryptocurrency is sadly predictable Cryptocurrency is like the myth of El Dorado — a promised land made of fool’s gold. Despite its liberatory potenti…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:12PM
Thursday, November 7, 2024

L’Addition, BAC review – top billing for physical comedy duo by Aleks.sierz

The latest in Forced Entertainment’s 40 years of experiment is a thought-tickling farce Can experimental theatre survive the decades? This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Forced Ent…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:12PM
Thursday, October 31, 2024

The Buddha of Suburbia, Barbican Theatre review – farcical fun, but what about the issues? by Aleks.sierz

Hanif Kureishi classic gets a compulsively comic makeover from Emma Rice Hanif Kureishi’s 1990 novel The Buddha of Suburbia begins like this: “My name is Karim Amir, and I am an English…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:24PM
Sunday, October 27, 2024

Reykjavik, Hampstead Theatre review – drama frozen by waves of detail by Aleks.sierz

Richard Bean’s new work play revisits the Hull fishing industry of the 1970s “Don’t take a piss in the house of a woman you have made a widow.” The mixture of earthy comedy and tragi…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:36PM
Sunday, October 13, 2024

A Raisin in the Sun, Lyric Hammersmith review - of race and men by Aleks.sierz

Lorraine Hansberry classic is both a historical gem and a play for today Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is not only the first play by a black woman to premiere on Broadway, back…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:02PM
Thursday, October 10, 2024

Brace Brace, Royal Court review – too slender to satisfy by Aleks.sierz

New play about the consequences of a plane hijack is energetic but unconvincing Air travel is bad for us. Yes, yes, I know we need planes to take us long distances, but look at the downside…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:32PM
Sunday, October 6, 2024

Angry and Young, Almeida Theatre review - vigorous and illuminating double bill by Aleks.sierz

Two all-time 1950s classics, 'Look Back in Anger' and 'Roots', get super revivals by young directors Why should we not look back in anger? With the Oasis reunion tour in the news recently, …

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:06PM
Thursday, October 3, 2024

A Tupperware of Ashes, National Theatre review – family and food, love and loss by Aleks.sierz

Tanika Gupta’s new play is a beautifully heartfelt mix of comedy and tragedy Queenie is in trouble. Bad trouble. For about a year now, this 68-year-old Indian woman has been forgetful. Lo…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:06PM
Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Waiting for Godot, Theatre Royal Haymarket review - humanity in high definition by Aleks.sierz

Brilliant revival of this key absurdist play stars Lucian Msamati and Ben Whishaw Modernism is us. Today. For the past two decades plays by Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter – which once u…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:32AM
Wednesday, September 18, 2024

The Lightest Element, Hampstead Theatre review - engrossing, but fragmentary by Aleks.sierz

Slender new play about political and gender prejudice in 1950s American science British theatre has a proud heritage of science plays. From 1990s classics such as Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia (1…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:48PM
Friday, September 13, 2024

The Real Ones, Bush Theatre review - engrossing, enjoyable and quietly inspiring by Aleks.sierz

Waleed Akhtar’s new play is about platonic love in a contemporary context Platonic love should be simple — basically you’re best mates. And without the complications of sex, what coul…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:32PM
Sunday, September 1, 2024

G, Royal Court review - everyday realism blitzed by urban myth by Aleks.sierz

Award-winning new writing is full of mystery and metaphor, but a bit too literary I live in Brixton, south London; in my street, for many years, a pair of trainers were up in the sky, hangin…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:54PM
Friday, August 16, 2024

Peanut Butter & Blueberries, Kiln Theatre review - rom-com in a time of Islamophobia by Aleks.sierz

Debut two-hander explores a gentle love story of two practicing Muslims At one point, in John Fowles’s 1977 novel The Magus, the guru character in the story compares sexuality before and …

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:18AM
Sunday, June 30, 2024

The Marilyn Conspiracy, Park Theatre review - intriguing murder mystery by Aleks.sierz

New play about the death of the most famous American woman of the Camelot era The death of Marilyn Monroe is a wet dream for conspiracy theorists. Like the assassination of JFK in the follo…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 12:54PM
Monday, June 24, 2024

My Father's Fable, Bush Theatre review - hilarious and haunting family drama by Aleks.sierz

New play about secrets from the past is both funny and profound Following the huge success of Benedict Lombe’s Shifters, which transfers soon to the West End, the Bush Theatre is riding h…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:18PM
Wednesday, June 19, 2024

The Bounds, Royal Court review - soccer play scores badly by Aleks.sierz

New history play about football has a flawed second half Every day this week I’m watching a football match, and now — after April’s production of Lydia Higman, Julia Grogan and Rachel …

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:36PM
Thursday, May 30, 2024

Lie Low, Royal Court review – short sharp sliver of pain by Aleks.sierz

Dublin Fringe Festival hit from 2022 comes to London’s main new writing theatre Faye is okay. Or, at least she says she’s okay. But is she really? And, if she really is, like really oka…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:12PM
Tuesday, May 28, 2024

The Harmony Test, Hampstead Theatre review - pregnancy and parenthood by Aleks.sierz

Taboo-tickling comedy about both conceiving a baby and life as empty nesters “Welcome to motherhood, bitch!” By the time a character delivers this reality check, there have been plenty o…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:54PM
Monday, May 27, 2024

Bluets, Royal Court review - more grey than ultramarine by Aleks.sierz

Katie Mitchell’s staging of Maggie Nelson’s bestseller is neither original nor beautiful When does creativity become mannered? When it’s based on repetition, and repetition without dev…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:42PM
Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Between Riverside and Crazy, Hampstead Theatre review - race, religion and rough justice by Aleks.sierz

Stephen Adly Guirgis’s Pulitzer-Prize winner finally makes it to London It’s often said that contemporary American playwrights are too polite, too afraid of giving offence. But this acc…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:02PM
Friday, April 19, 2024

London Tide, National Theatre review - haunting moody river blues by Aleks.sierz

New play-with-songs version of Dickens’s 'Our Mutual Friend' is a panoramic Victori-noir “He do the police in different voices.” If ever one phrase summed up a work of fiction, and th…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:02PM
Monday, April 15, 2024

The Comeuppance, Almeida Theatre review – remembering high-school high jinks by Aleks.sierz

Latest from American penman Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is less than the sum of its parts I’ve never been one for school reunions, but even if I had kept in touch with former classmates I thin…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 11:42AM
Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Out of Season, Hampstead Theatre review - banter as bullying by Aleks.sierz

New comedy about masculinity and music is predictable and clumsy One island off the coast of Spain has more cultural oomph than all the rest put together. I’m talking about Ibiza, the sun…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:36PM
Monday, February 26, 2024

Shifters, Bush Theatre review – love will tear us apart again by Aleks.sierz

New play about love and memory is exquisitely written and beautifully acted For the past ten years, Black-British playwrights have been in the vanguard of innovation in the form and content …

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:36PM
Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Metamorphosis, Lyric Hammersmith review – vivid images, but where’s the drama? by Aleks.sierz

Lemn Sissay’s adaptation of the Franz Kafka classic is just too wordy Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” is a novella whose cultural resonance has echoed loudly down the years. As a mode…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:36PM
Friday, February 2, 2024

Till the Stars Come Down, National Theatre review - exuberant comedy with a dark edge by Aleks.sierz

New play about three sisters is full of energy, but also a bit too populist for me The National Theatre is meant to represent the whole nation — and not just the metropolitan middle classe…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:42PM
Friday, January 19, 2024

Cowbois, Royal Court review – fabulously queer extravaganza by Aleks.sierz

London transfer for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s riotous comedy Western At its best theatre is a seducer. It weaves a magic spell that can persuade you, perhaps against your better jud…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:54PM
Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Don't Destroy Me, Arcola Theatre review - a theatre history curio by Aleks.sierz

Forgotten play by the author of Tom & Viv is realistic, but lacks dramatic focus British Theatre abounds in forgotten writers. And in ones whose early work is too rarely revived. One su…

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:48PM
Sunday, December 17, 2023

Rock 'N' Roll, Hampstead Theatre review - exciting music, uneven staging by Aleks.sierz

Nina Raine’s revival of Tom Stoppard’s 2006 epic rocks, but also stumbles There is a song by Syd Barrett, founder member of Pink Floyd, called “Golden Hair”. It’s on his album The …

SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 02:18PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic
TBA: Ragtime