Pre-Raphaelite Tintin
Orlando opens with a pack of Virginia Woolfs on stage. All wear the same costume of horn-rimmed spectacles, long tweed…
Pitched battle
The Wagatha Christie affair began in 2019 when Coleen Rooney accused Rebekah Vardy of selling stories from her private Instagram…
Manhattan transfer
Crude eccentricities damage the potential brilliance of Othello at the National. Some of the visual gestures seem to have been…
Christmas cracker
Elf opens with an unbelievable premise. Buddy was abandoned as a baby and adopted by Santa’s elves and he spent…
Undramatic melodrama
A heroic Asian woman parachutes into occupied France to work for the resistance and help overthrow the Nazis. This sounds…
Mad about the girl
Viewers watching a good romcom need to fall in love with three things. The boy, the girl and the affair…
Insane profligacy
The UK Drill Project is a cabaret show that celebrates greed, criminality and drug-taking among black males in London. It…
Matt Hancock: Star of the ‘I’m a Celeb’ jungle
Has Matt Hancock gone mad? Maybe not. His appearance in ‘I’m A Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here’ is…
Who will be next week’s ministerial exit?
For the past fortnight, it was Suella Braverman. Now it’s Sir Gavin Williamson. The media aims to destroy two careers…
The National Theatre deserves to have its budget cut
The arts cuts have arrived. The biggest loser is English National Opera whose annual award of £12.6 million will be…
Bad education
King Hamlin is a shock-horror drama about gang crime in London. Hamlin, aged 17, has left school without learning any…
PMQs: Starmer’s astonishing Nigel Farage imitation
The small boats have landed. PMQs was dominated by the migration issue and the flotillas of dinghies struggling across the…
Clown or vicar – who cares?
London has a brand-new theatre – yet again. Last summer, a cabaret venue opened in the Haymarket for the first…
How long before Rishi fatigue sets in?
The Prime Minister has an Asian background. You wouldn’t know that if you listened to the Tories at PMQs because…
Three roled into one
Good, starring David Tennant, needs more dosh spent on it. The former Doctor Who plays John, a literary academic living…
The gripping spectacle of Truss’s fight for survival
A week of sheer hell for the Tory leader. Plots and rumours have swirled around Westminster. Rebels are said to…
Farrago of jabber
The Doctor is an acclaimed drama from the pen of writer-director Robert Icke. We’re in a hospital run by a…
After the fall
Clunk, clunk, clunk. John Gabriel Borkman opens with the obsessive footfalls of a disgraced banker as he prowls the attic…
Is Liz Truss a real grown-up?
Tough call today for Liz Truss. She had to relaunch her premiership at her very first conference as leader. She…
Worthy of Wilde
Eureka Day is a topical satire set in a woke school in America. An outbreak of mumps has led to…
The sound of silence
Look at this line. ‘I’m 80 years old. I find that unforgivable.’ Could an actor get a laugh on ‘unforgivable’?…
Redemption songs
Rehab: The Musical opens with a boyband star, Kid Pop, getting busted for possession of cocaine. The judge sentences him…
For the state funeral mourners, the endurance is part of the ritual
The queue snakes for miles along the South Bank. Thousands of ordinary people are giving up hours of their time…
Why is the BBC using Paddington to remember Her Majesty?
Here comes Paddington – again. Earlier this year, to celebrate her platinum jubilee, the Queen agreed to be filmed taking…
Rhapsodic banalities
‘Trans people are sacred. We are divine.’ The first line of I, Joan at the Globe establishes the tone of…
