All stories by Libby Purves on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE Coliseum, WC1 by Libby Purves and Friends

TA-RAN-TA-RA !   Mike Leigh,  a veteran better known for films, Abigail’s Party and theatrical experiments with scriptless rehearsal,  is also a dedicated devotee of the utterly scripte…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:55AM
Sunday, December 1, 2024

DICK WHITTINGTON and his cat Greenwich Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

THE COOLEST CAT IN LONDON. AND SOME RATS.           Here’s your traditional Christmas outing, proper panto.  No rackety popstar hype or tedious suggestive jokes from worn-out comicS…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:27PM
Friday, November 15, 2024

THE FORSYTE SAGA           Park Theatre, N4 by Libby Purves and Friends

GALSWORTHY ?  WELL WORTH SEEING      With late Victorians, there’s plenty to bite on:  a rising bourgeoisie aflame with parvenu ambition,  piety , pannier skirts ,patriarchs, an empi…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:05PM
Thursday, November 14, 2024

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. Ambassadors Theatre, WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

WISDOM IN A LIFE BACKWARDS      Forget the awful fim made from Scott Fitzgerald’s story about a life lived backwards – a man born in old age, working towards youth and infancy in reve…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:44AM
Tuesday, November 12, 2024

THE TRUTH ABOUT HARRY BECK                London Transport Museum  by Libby Purves and Friends

  A JOURNEY OF JOURNEYS      A map is a lovely thing, but sometimes practically speaking a diagram is better. And can also be lovely: especially when its useful elegance has become a fam…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:04PM
Saturday, November 9, 2024

GIANT Royal Court Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

THE BIG  RATHER UNFRIENDLY  GIANT       Tom Maschler, legendary publisher  and once a Kindertransport child,  summed up the appeal of Roald Dahl:  his stories offer  “A glorious p…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:55AM
Friday, November 1, 2024

GUARDS AT THE TAJ. Orange Tree, Richmond by Libby Purves and Friends

1648, Agra: marble and murder, a terrible beauty     One of the worst photo-ops of Princess Diana’s collapsing marriage was that shot at the Taj Mahal, billed by romantics as “eternal …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:24AM
Thursday, October 31, 2024

SUMMER 1954 Theatre Royal Bath & TOURING by Libby Purves and Friends

LOOK BACK IN COMPASSION          The Rattigan renaissance of the last few years is more than welcome:  ever since Flare Path hit the West End fourteen years ago there seems to have bee…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:45PM

RIGOLETTO London Coliseum by Libby Purves and Friends

THE GRANDEST OF GRIEFS  Not Renaissance Mantua but New York a century past: smart bars and low dives, gangsters in fedoras. Why not ?  In any world might be a lonely jokester, missing his …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:11AM
Wednesday, October 30, 2024

OEDIPUS. Wyndhams Theatre WC1 by Libby Purves and Friends

A short catch-up on one of the season’s greats (was away..) Mark Strong is made to play great tragedy: a long powerful body,  controlled bleak intelligent  features.A figure from any age…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:37PM
Tuesday, October 29, 2024

DR STRANGELOVE Noël Coward Theatre WC1 by Libby Purves and Friends

“…HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB”        That was the subtitle, when exactly sixty years ago a shower of Oscars fell on Stanley Kubrick’s brilliantly tasteless,…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:26PM
Friday, October 25, 2024

REYKJAVIK Hampstead Theatre, NW3 by Libby Purves and Friends

A HARD AND ICY WORLD     A 1970’s Hull folksong chorus: “Next time you see a trawlerman on Hessle Road half tight – remember, o remember, the perils of that night”.  It was a trib…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:27AM
Thursday, October 24, 2024

THE UNGODLY Southwark Playhouse SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

BROTHER,  CHRISTIAN,  WITCHFINDER  I reviewed this play about the Witchfinder General  Matthew Hopkins last year, in Ipswich:  I write only to add thoughts,  now that it has deservedly…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:54PM
Wednesday, October 16, 2024

THE LEHMAN TRILOGY. Gillian Lynne Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

LEHMANS REVISITED The first time I saw Sam Mendes’ production at the NT,  I exclaimed that the evening had no right to be so much fun: three hours, three chaps in black frock coats, no so…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:10AM
Tuesday, October 15, 2024

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ANNE FRANK Marylebone Theatre NW1 by Libby Purves and Friends

CHOSEN PEOPLE, CHOSEN LIVES     The saying goes “two Jews, three opinions”, though some say that’s an underestimate. Here  are five people and innumerable opinions: two couples,  …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:58PM
Wednesday, October 9, 2024

THE OTHER PLACE Lyttelton, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

Sent from my iPad ZELDIN AGAIN I sometimes feel real sympathy (possibly unwanted) for actors who, trained and motivated to channel and express extreme and painful emotions, do their absolute…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:00AM
Friday, October 4, 2024

JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK Gielgud, WC1 by Libby Purves and Friends

POETRY AND PITY    Tremendous swagged,  fringed, and roped retro curtains ,  the Gielgud looking much as it would  100 years ago when  Sean O’Casey’s most famous play reached Londo…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:46AM
Wednesday, October 2, 2024

PINS AND NEEDLES          Kiln, Kilburn NW6 by Libby Purves and Friends

SHARP SCRATCH?     Crossing the Edgware Rd yesterday a shouting vaccine denier with a loudspeaker informed us all, stomping past in some sort of hurry,   that vaccines were lies, inoculat…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:02AM
Monday, September 30, 2024

REDLANDS Chichester Festival theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

STONED STONES IN WEST WITTERING, 1967       At the end the 1200-strong crowd explodes to join a final roar of “Satisfaction” with the cast – lawyers, police, fans, three generatons …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:33PM
Saturday, September 28, 2024

THE CABINET MINISTER Menier, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

VICTORIAN MISCHIEF WELL IN TUNE FOR TODAY .  Do you want to see a senior Government minister entangled with a socially climbing financier and a fashion-greedy wife,  playing the flute t…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:51AM
Friday, September 27, 2024

RED SKY AT SUNRISE Wiltons, and touring by Libby Purves and Friends

LAURIE LEE, REMEMBERED AND REMEMBERING        A nine-part orchestra, gilded harp and flute at its apex; behind, monochrome photos of a century past show rural Gloucestershire,  then the…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:21AM
Wednesday, September 25, 2024

CORIOLANUS Olivier, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

POLITICAL ECHOES, CLASS ARROGANCE, THRILLS        The award for ExIt  of the Year goes to the magnificent David Oyelowo, tearing up the central aisle  of the Olivier in a fury as the f…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:57AM
Tuesday, September 24, 2024

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS Touring by Libby Purves and Friends

FIRST CLASS FROM CHRISTIE, LUDWIG AND BAILEY  This could have been a bit of a groan, like the overcomplex Rebus Game Called Malice , also on tour .  But actually it’s a class act in ever…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 02:30AM
Tuesday, September 17, 2024

ART now Colchester & touring by Libby Purves and Friends

FRIENDSHIP HITS  THE ROCKS OF TASTE : MISCHIEVOUS, SAD AND FUNNY         Not everything that tours the country is Agatha Christie or star-fed froth: sometimes a serious emotional and in…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 10:59AM
Monday, September 16, 2024

THE LIGHTEST ELEMENT Hampstead Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

REACH FOR THE STARS: IT TAKES HARD GRAFT AND VODKA Any week now at the Gielgud we shall hear the famous drunken cry in Juno and the Paycock   “what is the stars?”.    At the heart of …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:49PM
Friday, September 13, 2024

WHY AM I SO SINGLE? Garrick Theatre, WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

DATING FOR A CONFUSED AGE        I have written before of the particular glee I feel when a brand-new and original show emerges , not from anxious corporate calculations but from young a…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:57AM
Tuesday, September 10, 2024

GUYS AND DOLLS STORMS ON by Libby Purves and Friends

WORTH ANOTHER VISIT? O YES It’s a gig, it’s a party, it’s as  glorious as ever. Down on the floor the promenaders surge between changing stages as they rise and fall to create old Man…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:18AM
Monday, September 9, 2024

A GAME CALLED MALICE Cambridge Arts Theatre & touring by Libby Purves and Friends

UPMARKET EDINBURGH ROCK, SORT OF     Sir Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus accounts for a tenth of all crime  bestsellers in the UK:  the ancient mazes around Edinburgh Castle, set against…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 11:46AM
Friday, September 6, 2024

WIESENTHAL Kings Head Theatre, Islington Square by Libby Purves and Friends

A MOMENT FOR REMEMBERING    A desk, leather chairs, a heap of file boxes, a single sunflower in a pot.   The century has turned, and it’s the last day in the office for Simon Wiesenthal…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 11:53AM
Wednesday, September 4, 2024

GRENFELL, REMEMBER by Libby Purves and Friends

On this day of the report, a reminder of those two excellent verbatim plays from two stages of the inquiry. How theatre, with Nicholas Kent, reacted . There have been other plays about the e…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:25AM
Monday, August 19, 2024

THE FABULIST Charing Cross Theatre wc1 by Libby Purves and Friends

I IMPERSONATION, ILLUSION AND INTRIGUE           Cottonwool clouds, a scatter of furniture and instruments, an ancient cine camera, a noble arch and some pillars and fake trees. On a 19…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:54PM

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