Lloyd Evans

My brush with a rabid monkey

8 March 2025 9:00 am

India A crowded bus station. A lady monkey with a baby clinging to its neck sidled past me, eyeing the banana…

Brian Cox’s Bach has to be heading for Broadway

8 March 2025 9:00 am

The Score is a fine example of meat-and-potatoes theatre. Simple plotting, big characters, terrific speeches and a happy ending. The…

PMQs was a façade

6 March 2025 2:41 am

A bit of a stitch-up at PMQs, or so it seemed. The ‘opposition’ leader, Kemi Badenoch, ignored her duty to…

Shakespeare as cruise-ship entertainment: Jamie Lloyd’s Much Ado About Nothing reviewed

1 March 2025 9:00 am

Nicholas Hytner’s Richard II is a high-calibre version of a fascinating story. A king reluctantly yields his crown to a…

We saw the real Keir Starmer at PMQs – and it was ugly

27 February 2025 3:49 am

Strange atmosphere at PMQs. Our MPs seemed to believe that the Commons debate was a vital briefing session for Sir…

Tedious and threadbare: Unicorn, at the Garrick Theatre, reviewed

22 February 2025 9:00 am

Unicorn, Mike Bartlett’s new play, involves some characters in chairs discussing a sexual threesome. That’s the entire show. Polly (Nicola…

If you have two hours to spare, spend it anywhere but here: The Years reviewed

15 February 2025 9:00 am

The Years is a monologue spoken by a handful of actresses, some young, some old enough to carry bus passes.…

Kemi is starting to sound like Sir Keir

13 February 2025 3:12 am

Kemi Badenoch has made PMQs her own. Her own what? Her own select committee. That’s how she runs it. She…

Stylish facsimile of Carol Reed’s film: Oliver!, at the Gielgud Theatre, reviewed

8 February 2025 9:00 am

Oliver! directed by Matthew Bourne is billed as a ‘fully reconceived’ version of Lionel Bart’s musical. Very little seems to…

Kemi finally has a good PMQs

6 February 2025 2:46 am

Genuinely, a historic day at PMQs. The plates are shifting. Labour whips spotted that Nigel Farage’s name was on the…

An excellent sixth-form drama project: Santi & Naz, at Soho Theatre, reviewed

1 February 2025 9:00 am

Santi & Naz is a drama set in the Punjab in 1947 that uses an ancient and thrilling storyline about…

Starmer can’t keep blaming the Tories

30 January 2025 3:58 am

Great stuff from Kemi Badenoch at PMQs. She was entertaining, tricky, probing, unpredictable. If she keeps this up she may…

The Traitors finale was a cruel spectacle

26 January 2025 12:58 am

Blame Covid. That’s the origin of the BBC’s hit game-show, The Traitors. Workplaces are still deserted as people sit in…

Pious bilge: Kyoto, at @sohoplace, reviewed

25 January 2025 9:00 am

The West End’s new political show, Kyoto, can’t be classed as a drama. A drama involves a main character engaged…

Cheerless and fussy: The Tempest, at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, reviewed

18 January 2025 9:00 am

The Tempest is Shakespeare’s farewell, his final masterpiece or, if you’re being cynical, the play that made him jack it…

Keir can thank God for Kemi

16 January 2025 4:05 am

Robots will never replace Sir Keir Starmer. No need. Silicon Valley is already using him as the template for an…

Exquisite: Tom Stoppard’s The Invention of Love, at Hampstead Theatre, reviewed

11 January 2025 9:00 am

The Invention of Love opens with death. Tom Stoppard’s play about A.E. Housman starts on the banks of the Styx,…

The issue of rape gangs will not go away

9 January 2025 3:59 am

Finally, we heard it. At PMQs today, the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, dropped the euphemism ‘grooming’ and said ‘rape gangs’…

Brutal and brilliant portrait of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford

4 January 2025 9:00 am

The Last Days of Liz Truss? is a one-woman show about the brief interregnum between Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.…

Is Kemi Badenoch too nice to be Tory leader?

19 December 2024 5:40 am

Kemi Badenoch got tough with Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs. Not tough enough, but at least she led on a…

Sumptuous but musically unmemorable: Elton John’s The Devil Wears Prada musical reviewed

14 December 2024 9:00 am

The Devil Wears Prada is a fairy tale about an aspiring female novelist, Andy, who receives a job offer from…

Don’t blame this man for interrupting David Tennant

12 December 2024 11:56 pm

The curse of Macbeth strikes again. David Tennant’s turn as the Scottish psychopath was interrupted this week by a kerfuffle…

Kemi Badenoch is bad at PMQs

12 December 2024 3:42 am

Flunked it again, unfortunately. Kemi Badenoch chose poor tactics at PMQs. She made flabby speeches instead of hitting the PM…

This Muslim playwright believes Yorkshire is headed for civil war

7 December 2024 9:00 am

Expendable, at the Royal Court, is an urgent bulletin from the front line of the grooming gang scandal in the…

Kemi let Starmer off the hook again

5 December 2024 3:09 am

Labour thinks it can win on immigration. Their new strategy was road-tested today at PMQs as backbencher Olivia Bailey opened…