Theatre

A figure of envy for much of male Middle England: Michael Rudman, with Felicity Kendal

I’m disappointed this director didn’t plunge the knife into Dustin Hoffman

27 September 2014 8:00 am

At the age of 75, the theatre director Michael Rudman has got around to his memoirs, their title taken from…

The Play That Goes Wrong. Photo: Alastair Muir

If you have teenage boys who loathe the very idea of theatre, send them to The Play That Goes Wrong

20 September 2014 9:00 am

It’s taken a while but here it is. The Play That Goes Wrong is like Noises Off, but simpler. Michael…

Can the Scots really be as small-minded, mistrustful and chippy as Spoiling suggests?

13 September 2014 9:00 am

Referendum fever reaches Stratford East. Spoiling, by John McCann, takes us into the corridors of power in Holyrood shortly after…

Dolts, Doormats and FGM: theatre to make you physically sick

30 August 2014 9:00 am

Wow. What an experience. A 1991 movie named Dogfight has spawned a romantic musical. We’re in San Francisco in 1963.…

Alex Salmond has already lost — if the Edinburgh Festival is anything to go by

23 August 2014 9:00 am

Lloyd Evans tours the Edinburgh Festival in search of clues about the outcome of the referendum

An innocent graduate of Operation Yewtree, Jim Davidson, dazzles in Edinburgh

23 August 2014 9:00 am

Let’s start with a nightmare. Wendy Wason, an Edinburgh comedienne, travelled to LA last year accompanied by her husband, who…

You’re never too old, they say. But I am

16 August 2014 9:00 am

For my 49th birthday treat, I went to see Shakespeare in Love at the Noël Coward theatre in London. Expensive…

Lillian Hellman lied her way through life

5 July 2014 9:00 am

Lillian Hellman must be a maddening subject for a biographer. The author Mary McCarthy’s remark that ‘every word she writes…

Churchill reading in his library at Chartwell

Churchill was as mad as a badger. We should all be thankful

19 April 2014 9:00 am

The egotistical Churchill may have viewed the second world war as pure theatre, but that was exactly what was needed at the time, says Sam Leith

The summer of love

12 April 2014 9:00 am

I spent it skipping about in tights, imagining women wanted me

Jeffrey Archer’s diary: My personal trainer only smiles when I’m in pain

15 March 2014 9:00 am

The week leading up to publication is a strange time for any author. You subject yourself to doing everything from…

Tim Rice’s diary: From Eternity to here

8 March 2014 9:00 am

Last October, in these very pages, I wrote with what is now annoying prescience, ‘Like almost everyone else in the…

Any other business: Britain’s chaotic energy policy puts us in Putin’s hands

8 March 2014 9:00 am

To have written last month that the headline ‘Kiev in flames’ looked like a black swan on the economic horizon…

Simon Callow’s notebook: What it’s like to lose at an awards ceremony

8 March 2014 9:00 am

It was one of those weeks. On Monday, I was in four countries: I woke up at crack of dawn…

Penelope Lively’s diary: My old-age MOT

22 February 2014 9:00 am

My surgery has been calling in all those over 75 for a special session with their doctor — a sort…

William Astor: My father, his swimming pool and the Profumo scandal

11 January 2014 9:00 am

I was ten when the Profumo affair began at my home, Cliveden. Andrew Lloyd Webber has captured some of the story – but not all

How to get your child hooked on theatre (hint: don't rule out Peppa Pig)

14 December 2013 9:00 am

Mike Shaw on what (and what not) to do when taking children to the theatre

James Delingpole: I'm in love with Shakespeare — and with David Tennant's Richard II

9 November 2013 9:00 am

‘Dad, it’s three hours long,’ says Boy, worriedly. ‘Yeah. And whose bloody fault is it we’re going?’ I want to…

'You can't handle the truth!' — the greatest courtroom dramas of all time

9 November 2013 9:00 am

As a new production of Twelve Angry Men opens in the West End, Robert Gore-Langton names his favourite courtroom dramas

Terrific: Barnaby Kay (Keith) and Tamzin Outhwaite (Briony)

Toffs rule! 

2 November 2013 9:00 am

This is a strange one. Simon Paisley Day’s new play feels like a conventional comedy of manners. Three couples pitch…

David Tennant plays Richard II like a casual hippie

2 November 2013 9:00 am

Gregory Doran, now in command at Stratford in succession to Sir Michael Boyd, launches his regime with Richard II, intending…

Dear Mary: Should I thrust my backside at other people in the theatre?

2 November 2013 9:00 am

Q. I am no interior decorator, but we have a couple of rather subtle paint colours in the house that…

A Roald Dahl tea? It reminds me more of Jimmy Savile

7 September 2013 9:00 am

One Aldwych, an Edwardian grand hotel near Waterloo Bridge, is serving a Jimmy Savile tribute tea. It is not explicitly…

A cast of celebs fails to bring any oomph to The Ladykillers

20 July 2013 9:00 am

The Ladykillers is back. Sean Foley’s adaptation of the classic Ealing comedy introduces us to a crew of villains who…

Can I turn the West London Free School into Fame Academy?

20 July 2013 9:00 am

‘Another opening, another show,’ sang five-year-old Charlie on his way to school this morning — and then proceeded to belt…