Sunday, December 14, 2025

Protein Dance: The Magic Flute review – charming family show conjured out of Mozart opera by Lyndsey Winship

DanceEast, Ipswich This colourful quest story is stylishly simplified for a young audience and an energetic cast of just four, choreographed by Luca Silvestrini to a melodious Frank Moon sco…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:06PM

Bah, hungry! Our theatre critic tucks into immersive banquets inspired by Charles Dickens and The Nutcracker by Arifa Akbar

Festive theatrical feasts serve audiences a slap-up dinner with their entertainment. But is what’s on stage as appetising as what’s on your plate? In west London, a line of smartly dress…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:24AM
Saturday, December 13, 2025

Amadeus returns: can Sky’s miniseries attract a new generation to Mozart? by Imogen Tilden

A reboot of Peter Shaffer’s play hopes to repeat the 1984 film’s magic and lure a fresh audience to classical music Forty years ago, Amadeus won eight Oscars, four Baftas and four Golden…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:18AM

My cultural awakening: The Lehman Trilogy helped me to live with my sight loss by Ann Griffin; As Told To Olivia Ladanyi

My reduced vision badly affected my ability to appreciate films and art, but the stripped-back staging and immediacy of the play gave me back my sense of self I began to notice my sight dete…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:18AM

‘A master of complications’: Felicity Kendal returns to Tom Stoppard’s Indian Ink after three decades by David Jays

The writer’s former partner and her co-star Ruby Ashbourne Serkis describe the bittersweet nature of remounting his 90s play so soon after his death • ‘We were swimming in the mind poo…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:02AM
Friday, December 12, 2025

Barbican to close its doors for a year for multimillion-pound renovation by Lanre Bakare Arts and Culture Correspondent

London site’s theatre, music venue and galleries to close in June 2028, in first stage of upgrades before 50th anniversary The Barbican will close its doors for 12 months from June 2028 as…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:12PM

Battle of the Irish Dancers review – how dare they leave out Michael Flatley? by Sarah Dempster

The Riverdance creator’s feet blew away a century of tradition, yet he’s oddly absent from this docuseries about young dancers preparing for the World Championships. Why? ‘Irish dancin…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:48AM

The Playboy of the Western World review – Nicola Coughlan serves comedy and tragedy in pub drama by Arifa Akbar

Lyttelton theatre, LondonCoughlan plays a barmaid, alongside Derry Girls co-star Siobhán McSweeney, in JM Synge’s 1907 classic Every woman loves a bad boy, or so the cliche goes. Here it …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:48AM

Actor and comedian Stanley Baxter dies aged 99 by Hannah J Davies

Baxter enjoyed a decades-spanning career on radio, TV and film, and was famous for impersonating famous people including Queen Elizabeth II ‘Astonishing’: how Stanley Baxter’s TV extra…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24AM

Horror hit Paranormal Activity spawns a West End play – and even its director yelped with fear by Chris Wiegand

Inspired by the scary film franchise, playwright Levi Holloway and Punchdrunk maestro Felix Barrett are bringing the ‘bizarrely joyous’ world of terror to the stage Malevolent spirits be…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:18AM

Into the Woods review – Brothers Grimm gloriously mashed up by Sondheim by Arifa Akbar

Bridge theatre, London Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s fairytale adventure follows its archetypal characters into real-world emotion, brilliantly drawn and sung Can Stephen Sondheim an…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:02AM
Thursday, December 11, 2025

Treasure Island review – swashbuckling musical is shipshape and Bristol fashion by Anya Ryan

Bristol Old VicAn inventive production crammed full of puppets, sword fights and rousing melodies shrieks with life It’s all aboard this Christmas with Jake Brunger and Pippa Cleary’s mu…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:12PM

Lily Allen ‘in conversations’ to adapt West End Girl album into a play by Ben Beaumont-Thomas

Singer told Jimmy Fallon that ‘the ink is not dry’ on a deal but the prospect of a stage version of her critically acclaimed album was ‘very exciting’ Lily Allen has said she is in d…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:24AM

Cinderella review – you shall go to the beach with this breezy seaside panto by Chris Wiegand

Norwich Theatre RoyalThere are eye-popping designs, playful puns and musical flourishes as Joe Tracini’s story unfolds on its own madcap shoreline Here is a sun-kissed panto to dispel any …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:06AM

Museum of Austerity review – a devastating reckoning with Britain’s decade of neglect by Arifa Akbar

Young Vic theatre, LondonA powerful blend of VR, testimony and theatre exposes the human toll of benefit cuts – and asks what justice looks like in a new political era David Cameron did no…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:54AM
Wednesday, December 10, 2025

Susan Todd obituary by David Edgar

Director, actor and a co-founder of Monstrous Regiment, whose work would concentrate on women’s experience In 1975 the stage director Susan Todd, who has died aged 83, teamed up with the a…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:24PM

Japan releases playwright Jeremy O Harris three weeks after arrest for alleged drug smuggling by Agence France-Presse

The Emily in Paris actor and writer of the Tony-nominated Slave Play remains in Japan while prosecutors investigate the alleged discovery of MDMA in his bag The American playwright and Emily…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:36AM

The BFG review – RSC’s big friendly mishmash lacks Matilda’s confidence by Mark Lawson

Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon This adaptation of the beloved tale about an ogre looks beautiful but does not grow into a giant to rival the company’s hit Roald Dahl musica…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:36AM

Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo review – wild horror and sharp-toothed comedy from the Iraq war by Arifa Akbar

Young Vic theatre, London Rajiv Joseph’s tale of a captive animal that returns from the dead after the 2003 invasion is bracingly unconventional There is an exciting wildness to the Europe…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:36AM

Dracapella review – power ballads and beatboxing as ghoulish comedy gets down for the count by Brian Logan

Park theatre, LondonGleefully leaning into all the cliches and groansome laughs, Dan Patterson and Jez Bond’s musical vampire romp is supremely silly If ever there was a show where the tit…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:02AM
Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Sleeping Beauty review – York’s pun-packed crowd-pleaser has a double helping of fairy dust by Catherine Love

York Theatre RoyalPaul Hendy’s panto includes some silly surprises, well-handled audience interaction and a twinkling dame Anyone remember the bit in Sleeping Beauty with the velociraptor …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:24AM
Monday, December 8, 2025

Marjorie Prime review – Cynthia Nixon steals sad, and spotty, sci-fi revival by Richard Lawson

Hayes Theater, New York The return of the 2014 play, now starring June Squibb as an octogenarian using a tech program to speak to her dead husband, veers between poetry and cliche When Jorda…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:30PM

Fireside Tales review – Punchdrunk Enrichment set imaginations ablaze by Miriam Gillinson

Punchdrunk Enrichment Stores, LondonThis gentle and generous piece of immersive theatre combines captivating storytelling with moments of wonder We’re on our way to see Fireside Tales and …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:02PM

Snappily ever after: Sondheim’s fairytale musical Into the Woods – in pictures by All Photographs Tristram Kenton

The Bridge theatre in London presents Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s classic this Christmas. Take a closer look – and revisit past revivals Continue reading...

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:42PM

Judi Dench says she ‘can’t remember what I’m doing tomorrow’ but can still recite Shakespeare by Catherine Shoard

The actor has said she is increasingly facing problems with her memory as well as failing eyesight, struggling to remember appointments or see faces The actor Judi Dench has spoken about her…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:48AM

‘A producer grabbed me, and I thought, Oh, for God’s sake’: Patricia Hodge on sexual harassment, drugs – and being in her prime at 79 by Emine Saner

Until she reached her 50s, the actor was a constant presence on stage and screen. Then the offers disappeared. Now, as her renaissance continues, she is taking on Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:24AM

‘It went gangbusters’: the play about the Iraq war – told through the eyes of a starving Baghdad zoo tiger by Arifa Akbar

As bombs fell on the capital, a Bengal tiger was left all alone – until a US marine shot it. Rajiv Joseph explains why he brought the beast back from the dead for his Pulitzer-nominated dr…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:24AM

Beauty and the Beast review – imaginative and spine-tingling family fun by Mark Fisher

Citizens theatre, GlasgowLewis Hetherington’s reworking of the 18th-century fable is creepy and creative, serious and scary It is a rare for a family show to be both funny and spine-tingli…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:24AM
Sunday, December 7, 2025

Singin’ in the Rain review – a high-energy puddle-stomping production of unapologetic joy by Catherine Love

Royal Exchange theatre, ManchesterA charismatic Louis Gaunt stars as Raz Shaw’s version of the classic musical hits all the key beats with crowd-pleasing confidence Raz Shaw’s exuberant …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:18PM

The Forsyte Saga Parts 1 & 2 review – entitlement manifests in marriage and betrayal for feuding family by Arifa Akbar

Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonHuman drama and witty direction as the RSC stages an adaptation of John Galsworthy’s dynastic shenanigans Long before the upstairs/downstairs drama of Down…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:18PM

Pinocchio review – full-tilt family musical swaps Collodi’s darkness for heartwarming lessons and humour by Lucinda Everett

Shakespeare’s Globe, LondonMeticulous direction and an excellent cast bring to life the story of Geppetto and the puppet he crafts from wood ‘Fast is FUN!” bellows Pinocchio as he tear…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:42AM

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