Friday, September 22, 2023

'Mlima's Tale' review – Lynn Nottage's stealthy poaching drama has animal magnetism by Matt Wolf

Lynn Nottage's 2018 Public Theater play gets a powerful London airing courtesy director Miranda Cromwell and leading player Ira Mandela Siobhan.

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 12:29PM
Tuesday, September 19, 2023

'The Little Big Things' review – this new musical movingly and buoyantly puts disability centre stage by Matt Wolf

Henry Fraser's inspirational memoir is now a musical, directed by Luke Sheppard of "& Juliet" renown.

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 05:55AM
Tuesday, September 12, 2023

'Red Pitch' review – this nimble play scores with its celebration of friendship by Matt Wolf

Tyrell Williams's Olivier-nominated and Evening Standard Theatre Award-winning play returns for an encore engagement, fronted once again by the dazzling Francis Lovehall

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 11:18AM
Tuesday, August 22, 2023

'The Way Old Friends Do' review – this new play is one for the ABBA enthusiasts by Matt Wolf

Ian Hallard stars in his own play, directed by his husband, Mark Gatiss, and with a scene-stealing supporting performance from Sara Crowe.

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 01:28PM
Wednesday, August 16, 2023

'The Garden of Words' review – this wistful, rain-soaked Japanese tale draws you in by Matt Wolf

Japanese anime continues to have its day onstage with this latest show coming in between London premieres of My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away.

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 11:30AM
Saturday, August 5, 2023

'Macbeth' review – part action hero, part politician, Max Bennett compels throughout by Matt Wolf

A ripped Max Bennett takes the title role in a play soon to be seen again in London with David Tennant and then Ralph Fiennes: Matti Houghton plays his Lady.

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 07:21AM
Thursday, July 13, 2023

'Cuckoo' review – this new family drama is alarming, surprising and highly entertaining by Matt Wolf

Jodie McNee gives a superb performance in Olivier-winner Michael Wynne's eighth play for the Royal Court, this one all-female and directed by Vicky Featherstone

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 10:38AM
Tuesday, July 11, 2023

'Beneatha's Place' review – Cherrelle Skeete gives a star-making performance by Matt Wolf

Kwame Kwei-Armah revisits his 2013 play, this time in London and with a rejigged second act - and superb leading lady

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 11:00AM
Wednesday, July 5, 2023

'Modest' review – this cheer-worthy art herstory lesson mixes drag, music and revolutionary spirit by Matt Wolf

Emer Dineen heads a non-binary cast of six in author Ellen Brammar's study in female empowerment and gender politics set during the 1870s

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 12:48PM
Friday, June 30, 2023

'Robin Hood: The Legend. Re-written.' review – laudable in principle, but this revamp is a muddled polemic by Matt Wolf

Carl Grose gives the Robin Hood legend a contemporary makeover that misses the mark, in onetime Tony nominee Melly Still's production

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 11:04AM
Wednesday, June 28, 2023

'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' review — Jamie Parker gives a performance for the ages by Matt Wolf

Olivier Award winner and Tony nominee Jamie Parker gives a tremendous performance in the title role of this return engagement of a genuinely striking British musical

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 09:56AM
Tuesday, June 27, 2023

'Accidental Death of an Anarchist' review – Daniel Rigby has extraordinary stamina in this furiously funny police satire by Matt Wolf

Daniel Rigby and Mark Hadfield head cast of Daniel Raggett's high-octane production, seen previously at Sheffield Theatres and the Lyric Hammersmith

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 12:15PM
Thursday, June 22, 2023

'Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image The Musical' review – this puppet-based satire mainly preaches to the converted by Matt Wolf

39 years after they first came to British TV, the satiric puppets take to the London stage

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 11:42AM
Tuesday, June 20, 2023

'The Third Man' review – this musical adaptation of the classic film feels sadly redundant by Matt Wolf

Sam Underwood of TV's Dynasty looks understandably worries in this faltering knock-off of the storied Graham Greene novella and Carol Reed film, directed by Trevor Nunn

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 12:21PM

A mighty force in both drama and politics, Glenda Jackson rarely played it safe by Matt Wolf

Glenda Jackson was a rare and rightly awarded talent

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 08:51AM

'School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play' review – sparky study of beauty, identity and teen friendships by Matt Wolf

Monique Touko directs UK premiere of buoyant, keenly observed play from Jocelyn Bioh, with a breakout performance from Tara Tijani

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 08:21AM
Thursday, May 25, 2023

'Bleak Expectations' review — a Dickensian comedy that lacks character by Matt Wolf

Radio 4 comedy Dickens pastiche comes wearisomely to the stage, with a different guest star every week; Caroline Leslie directs.

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 12:28PM
Tuesday, May 23, 2023

'A Midsummer Night's Dream' review — lively production is extravagant but busy by Matt Wolf

Michelle Terry plays Puck at the theatres she runs, directed by Elle While and with Mariah Gale as a female Bottom here called Nicola Bottome

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 02:11PM
Monday, May 22, 2023

'The Comedy of Errors' review — Sean Holmes's production finds emotional depth amid the comedy by Matt Wolf

Season opener at Shakespeare's Globe captures the shifting moods of early Shakespeare comedy; Michael Elcock, late of the musical Hex, co-stars.

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 08:33PM
Monday, May 15, 2023

'Christina Bianco: In Divine Company' review — a musical revue honours a dizzying array of divas by Matt Wolf

Christina Bianco brings her exuberant solo show to the Menier for a short, very sweet run, with Ryan MacKenzie her ace accompanist

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 09:06AM
Thursday, April 27, 2023

'Dixon and Daughters' review — Brid Brennan commands a visceral, hotheaded play by Matt Wolf

Onetime Tony-winner Brid Brennan ("Dancing at Lughnasa") delivers bigtime as a fierce matriarch fresh out of prison

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 06:16AM
Tuesday, April 25, 2023

'The Secret Life of Bees' review — a buzzy adaptation isn't as sweet as honey by Matt Wolf

2019 Off Broadway musical comes to London in a powerfully sung production directed by Whitney White and starring Eleanor Worthington-Cox, a onetime Matilda

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 12:14PM
Friday, March 24, 2023

'BLACK SUPERHERO' review — a charismatic carnival of incident and emotion by Matt Wolf

Olivier nominee Danny Lee Wynter makes his playwriting debut in a play starring himself, Ako Mitchell, and Dyllón Burnside, from the TV series 'Pose'

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 09:30AM
Thursday, March 23, 2023

'Eugenius!' review — no superhero could save this muddled musical by Matt Wolf

Elliott Evans takes the title role in this latest iteration of a still-problematic, slow-aborning musical, here directed by Hannah Chissick

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 11:01AM
Tuesday, March 21, 2023

'Further than the Furthest Thing' review — a deeply visceral play finds meaning in the mysterious by Matt Wolf

Jenna Russell, in a break from her storied musicals career, plays the Scotswoman, Mill, in this fine revival of Zinnie Harris's elliptical if intriguing 2000 play, seen off Broadway in 2002

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 01:18PM
Thursday, March 16, 2023

'Marjorie Prime' review — an eerie look at AI's future potential by Matt Wolf

Anne Reid inherits Lois Smith's stage and screen role as Marjorie, opposite Olivier nominee Richard Fleeshman, late of the West End "Company"

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 09:57AM
Friday, March 3, 2023

'Trouble in Butetown' review — Tinuke Craig brings WWII Cardiff to life by Matt Wolf

The director Tinuke Craig follows up last summer's 'Jitney' with another bustling, boisterous play, this one a premiere from the Nigerian-British writer Diana Nneka Atuona; Sarah Parish star…

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 10:08AM
Tuesday, February 28, 2023

'The Winter's Tale' review — Shakespeare's play is cleverly reinvented for the ages by Matt Wolf

Sergo Vares and John Lightbody head the cast in Shakespeare's late Romance, which utilises both stages at the Globe for the first time.

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 08:31AM
Thursday, February 23, 2023

'Women, Beware the Devil' review — Rupert Goold directs a stylish play with little substance by Matt Wolf

Lydia Leonard, late of "Oslo," leads the cast of young writer Lulu Raczka's Jacobean mash-up, directed for the Almeida by the busy Rupert Goold.

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 01:29PM
Friday, February 17, 2023

'Graceland' review — Sabrina Wu superbly performs a show better suited for the page by Matt Wolf

Sabrina Wu, recently seen in "The Doctor," graduates to the solo part in critic-turned-playwright Ava Wong Davies's anatomy of love and loss

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 07:35PM
Thursday, February 9, 2023

'The Lehman Trilogy' review — epic play continues to astonish with new cast by Matt Wolf

Hadley Fraser leads adroit new cast in third separate London showing of Ben Power's five-time Tony-winning play.

SOURCE: LondonTheatre.co.uk at 01:54PM

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