Romeo & Juliet review: this optimistic take is quietly radical April 1, 2026 Romeo and Juliet review and star rating: ★★★★ Following Tom Holland’s vulnerable, impressionable Romeo in Jamie Lloyd’s 2024 adaptation, could there be another truly fresh take? Yes, according to directorial powerhouse Robert Icke, who delivers a technically cool, youthfully exuberant production that comes with a shocking twist. His Romeo & Juliet celebrates the lives of [...]
Teeth ‘N’ Smiles review: Self Esteem is magnetic in dated show March 26, 2026 Teeth ‘N’ Smiles review and star rating: ★★ It’s unfortunate timing for playwright David Hare that Will Butler and David Adjmi’s Stereophonic, itself an electrifying rumination of life behind-the-scenes of life in a 1970s rock band, was one of the five-star hits of 2025. Its tender real-time examinations of relationships played out in exacting detail, [...]
Dracula review: Cynthia Erivo is overwhelmed in tech-heavy production February 17, 2026 Dracula review and star rating: ★★ How much further can this trend for incorporating live video in theatre productions go? In Kip Williams’ adaptation of Dracula, it is often not like being in the theatre at all. Far too often it feels like watching a film at the cinema, with giant video screens playing pre-recorded [...]
Shadowlands theatre review: Hugh Bonneville grips in grief drama February 16, 2026 Shadowlands theatre review and star rating: ★★★★ There are ample ways to soak up the Paddington movie franchise live in the capital right now. If you’re not going to listen to songs about “M-M-M-M-Marmalade” at Paddington the Musical, then why not invest in Hugh Bonneville, who returns to the London stage for the first time [...]
Arcadia at the Old Vic is a brilliant farewell to Tom Stoppard February 5, 2026 Arcadia | Old Vic | ★★★★☆ Arcadia is a dizzying piece of work, as broad as the universe and as self-contained as a jigsaw puzzle. Through it Tom Stoppard addresses some of humanity’s great questions: do we have free will? Is poetry more important than science? Is there anyone Lord Byron didn’t shag? It opens [...]
American Psycho musical at the Almeida review: Bloody brilliant February 3, 2026 American Psycho at the Almeida | ★★★★★ A lot has happened over the years Rupert Goold has been artistic director of the Almeida. In 2013 he opened his tenure at the Islington theatre with this wickedly amoral musical: six British Prime Ministers and one pandemic later, he completes the oroborus with the same riotous show. [...]
Ballad Lines review: A muddled musical with moments of brilliance January 30, 2026 A Jacobean vicar’s wife, a pregnant Presbyterian teen and a 21st-century New York lesbian walk into a bar – Ballad Lines is the result.
High Noon play review: New ground for the West End’s Westerns January 26, 2026 High Noon review and star rating: ★★ Westerns feel ripe for the stage, although very few have been staged as plays. The musicals are famous West End fodder: Oklahoma! was given a provocative, horny reimagining at the Young Vic in 2022, but while High Noon has some musical numbers courtesy of Bruce Springsteen’s back catalogue, [...]
This Soho pub is putting on a ‘problematic’ show about a drunkard January 23, 2026 The Coach and Horses in Soho is one of central London’s most storied boozers. It was a favourite of Peter O’Toole, who famously once got so drunk he climbed onto the roof and refused to get down until he was served more booze. The late landlord from the 1980s heyday, Norman Balon, earned the nickname [...]
Ariana Grande tickets for London musical ‘could easily go over £300’ January 16, 2026 “Dynamic pricing” has forced some West End ticket prices as high as £400 – will Ariana Grande’s new production of Sunday in the Park with George cost as much as an all-inclusive break in the Med? While some figures including Andrew Lloyd Weber have criticised dynamic pricing – the act of putting prices up in [...]