Lloyd Evans

Riveting and sumptuous: The Motive and the Cue, at the Lyttelton Theatre, reviewed

13 May 2023 9:00 am

The Motive and the Cue breaches the inviolable sanctity of the rehearsal room. The play, set in New York in…

So good it would have made Ibsen envious: Dixon and Daughters, at the Dorfman Theatre, reviewed

6 May 2023 9:00 am

Dixon and Daughters is a family drama that opens on a note of sour mistrust. We’re in a working-class home…

Famine zones are more fun than this play: Dancing at Lughnasa, at the Olivier Theatre, reviewed

29 April 2023 9:00 am

Snowflakes, an excellent title, rehashes The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter. A guest in a hotel room is visited by…

Why do people in theatre hate their audiences?

22 April 2023 9:00 am

Lloyd Evans bemoans theatre’s new hostility towards paying punters

London theatre-goers have peculiar tastes

22 April 2023 9:00 am

The Secret Life of Bees is a fairy-tale set in the Deep South in 1964. Lily, a bullied white girl,…

An epic bore: A Little Life, at the Harold Pinter Theatre, reviewed

15 April 2023 9:00 am

A Little Life, based on Hanya Yanagihara’s novel, is set in a New York apartment shared by four mega-successful yuppies:…

Deeply unsatisfying: Berlusconi – A New Musical, at Southwark Playhouse Elephant, reviewed

8 April 2023 9:00 am

Berlusconi: A New Musical, an excellent title, has opened at a new venue in south London, Southwark Playhouse Elephant. The…

Flawless: Accidental Death of an Anarchist, at the Lyric Hammersmith, reviewed

1 April 2023 9:00 am

Accidental Death of an Anarchist has been performed all over the world with varying degrees of success. Written by Dario…

Drab by comparison to the film: Bonnie & Clyde, at the Garrick Theatre, reviewed

25 March 2023 9:00 am

The murderous odyssey of Bonnie and Clyde is a tricky subject for a musical because the characters are such loathsome…

PMQs proved that we have too many politicians

23 March 2023 2:46 am

PMQs drove up a cul-de-sac today. Sir Keir’s team of researchers have discovered a crime blackspot where ten houses have…

A ripping production with plenty of laughs: Guys and Dolls, at the Bridge Theatre, reviewed

18 March 2023 9:00 am

Further than the Furthest Thing is an allegorical play set on a remote island populated by English-speakers from all over…

Jeremy Hunt’s crafty Budget spells trouble for Labour

16 March 2023 3:58 am

Jeremy Hunt was designed to exclude unnecessary body movements. Tall and gaunt, his demeanour faintly bird-like, he worked through his…

Cumbersome muddle: Women, Beware the Devil, at the Almeida Theatre, reviewed

11 March 2023 9:00 am

Rupert Goold’s new show, Women, Beware the Devil, has great costumes, sumptuous sets and an intriguing chessboard stage like a…

Approaches perfection: Medea, @sohoplace, reviewed

4 March 2023 9:00 am

Winner’s Curse is a hybrid drama by Dan Patterson and Daniel Taub which opens as a lecture by a fictional…

The secret truth about Dom: The Play

25 February 2023 7:13 pm

‘Who wrote it?’ asks the Times, of Dom: The Play. I’ll let you in on a secret: it was me.…

How has it escaped being cancelled? The Lehman Trilogy, at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, reviewed

25 February 2023 9:00 am

Standing at the Sky’s Edge is an ode to a monstrous carbuncle. The atrocity in question is a concrete gulag,…

Small boats are Rishi’s big problem

23 February 2023 3:49 am

Small boats are becoming a big problem for Rishi. Four Tory backbenchers raised the issue at PMQs. Andrew Selous asked…

A sex farce reminiscent of Alan Clark’s diaries: Phaedra, at the Lyttelton Theatre, reviewed

18 February 2023 9:00 am

Simon Stone claims that his new comedy, Phaedra, draws on the work of Euripides, Seneca and Racine. In fact, the…

Chatterbox crackdown

11 February 2023 9:00 am

A romcom with an irritating title, Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, has opened at the HP Theatre starring Jenna Coleman…

These drag queens haven’t a clue how banal their problems are: Sound of the Underground, at the Royal Court, reviewed

4 February 2023 9:00 am

Sound of the Underground is a drag show involving a handful of cross-dressers who spend the opening 15 minutes telling…

Pure, heavenly escapism: The Unfriend, at the Criterion Theatre, reviewed

28 January 2023 9:00 am

The Unfriend is a smart new family comedy which opens on the sunlit deck of a cruise ship. Peter and…

PMQs gets worse every week

19 January 2023 3:06 am

Gruesome rhetoric at PMQs. The horror began with Sir Keir Starmer revealing that he can tell the time. ‘It’s three…

Comes close to perfection: Watch on the Rhine, at the Donmar Warehouse, reviewed

18 January 2023 10:00 pm

Watch on the Rhine is the curiously misleading title chosen by Lillian Hellman for a wartime family drama that became…

Clever and witty state-of-the-nation play: Kerry Jackson, at the Dorfman Theatre, reviewed

14 January 2023 9:00 am

The National’s new comedy by April De Angelis is a clever and amusing attempt to deliver that most elusive artefact,…

Harry’s interview is an explosive, flame-throwing spectacle

9 January 2023 9:01 pm

Bombs away! Prince Harry’s mission to dump ordnance on his nearest and dearest continued last night in a riveting interview…