Marvellously conservative: Cable Street reviewed
Cable Street is a musical that premièred last year at the Southwark Playhouse and has now migrated to the Marylebone…
If this play is correct, the Foreign Office is a joke
Safe Haven is a history play by Chris Bowers who worked for the Foreign Office and later for the UN…
Why is this low-grade Ayckbourn play in the West End?
Woman in Mind is a dyspeptic sitcom set in 1986 starring Sheridan Smith as Susan, a moaning Home Counties housewife…
The rebellion will have a craft stall
A new party has entered UK politics. Take Back Power seeks to ‘tax the rich and fix Britain’ and they’re…
Oh, Mary!’s climax is an inspirational bit of comedy
High Noon, directed by Thea Sharrock, is a perfectly decent version of a trusty western which celebrates its 74th birthday…
My advice to the next generation
Everyone went to the same school as someone famous. In my case it’s Spider-Man, Tom Holland, who joined my former…
Why has the National got it in for Oirish peasants?
The Playboy of the Western World is like the state opening of parliament. Worth seeing once. Director Caitriona McLaughlin delivers…
One for hardcore Stoppard fans: Indian Ink reviewed
Unusual. After the press night of Indian Ink by Tom Stoppard, no one leapt up and cheered. The crowd applauded…
The bitter truth about New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Eve is the party we don’t need but can’t get rid of. The location varies according to geography.…
Paddington – The Musical is sensational
Who doesn’t love Paddington? The winsome marmalade junkie has arrived at the Savoy Theatre in a musical version of the…
Until Truss faces her enemies, she remains an irrelevance
Liz Truss is back. The ex-prime minister hosted a new current affairs show last night on Just The News, a…
Ivo van Hove tries and fails to destroy Arthur Miller
All My Sons, set in an American suburb in the summer of 1947, examines the downfall of Joe Keller, a…
A sack of bilge: End, at the Dorfman Theatre, reviewed
End is the title chosen by David Eldridge for his new relationship drama. Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves star as…
The art of having no friends
Apparently it’s easy to make money on YouTube by teaching a course in your specialism. Mine is having no friends.…
The babyishness of Hunger Games on Stage
The Hunger Games is based on a 2008 novel about a despotic regime where brainwashed citizens are entertained with televised…
This Othello is almost flawless
Othello directed by Tom Morris opens with a stately display of scarlet costumes and gilded doorways arranged against a backdrop…
One of the best plays about the 1980s ever staged
Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty has been turned into a stage show directed by Michael Grandage. We’re in the…
Perfection: Hampstead Theatre’s The Assembled Parties reviewed
The Assembled Parties, by Richard Greenberg, is a rich, warm family comedy that received three Tony nominations in 2013 following…
Why was the 19th century so full of bigots and weirdos?
Da Vinci’s Laundry is based on an art world rumour. In 2017, Leonardo’s ‘Salvator Mundi’ sold at Christie’s for $450…
Dominic Cummings: why the elites keep getting politics wrong
Last night, Dominic Cummings was interviewed at the O2 by the activist start-up, Looking for Growth. Cummings walked on stage…
Yoga is slow-motion pole-dancing for grannies
It’s hard work being rich. I gave up trying years ago. You must waste money on everything, even the basics,…
Tracy Letts’s magic touch
Tracy Letts’s Mary Page Marlowe is a biographical portrait of an emotionally damaged mother struggling with romantic and family problems.…
Stephen Fry is the perfect Lady Bracknell
Hamlet at the National opens like a John Lewis Christmas advert. Elegant celebrations are in progress. The stage is full…
Obsolete message: Led By Donkeys in conversation, reviewed
The founding members of Led By Donkeys granted a public interview last Thursday at a theatre in Walthamstow. They were questioned by Guardian columnist…
A dazzling musical celebration of the 1970s
Clarkston is an American-backed production featuring a Netflix star, Joe Locke. He plays a young graduate with a terminal illness,…
