UK / West End Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 2

Review: NUTCRACKER, London Coliseum
by Vikki Jane Vile - December 13, 2024

It has been some time coming. For nearly 15 years English National Ballet enthusiastically performed Wayne Eagling’s Nutcracker, a traditional but rather staid production with a fuzzy narrative and lacking opportunity for the company to shine....

Review: HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTTS, Arcola Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - December 16, 2024

Created by Recent Cutbacks, Hold On To Your Butts is a “shot for shot” parody of the iconic Jurassic Park film, with three actors taking on the movie in only seventy minutes (the original film has a runtime of two hours and seven minutes). Jack Baldwin and Laurence Pears take on nearly all of the ch...

Review: SÉAYONCÉ’S PERKY NATIVITITTIES, Yard Theatre
by Franco Milazzo - December 13, 2024

In Séayoncé’s latest adventure, Dan Wye’s drag ghost whisperer joins forces with her ex-lover Satan to put on an anti-Christmas TV show. Well, that’s the plan at least: before long, she discovers that she has been duped by another former amour Santa to deliver the “real” message of the season....

Review: CHRISTMAS COMES TO MOOMINVALLEY, Jacksons Lane
by Christiana Rose - December 16, 2024

Adapted from Tove Jansson’s short story The Fir Tree, the creative team at Jackson’s Lane have collaborated with organisation Moomin Characters and the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland, to produce a festive spectacle, concerned with wonder, discovery, joy and the pure kindness of giving....

Review: CARLOS ACOSTA'S NUTCRACKER IN HAVANA, Southbank Centre
by Gary Naylor - December 12, 2024

Carlos Acosta's touring show is a delightful Christmassy treat...

Review: MATTHEW BOURNE'S SWAN LAKE: THE NEXT GENERATION, Sadler's Wells
by Franco Milazzo - December 12, 2024

Even 30 years after he created it, Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake is still his defining production. Just why hasn’t he yet surpassed this masterpiece?...

Review: THE LITTLE FOXES, Young Vic
by Alexander Cohen - December 12, 2024

We love watching a rich family crumble on stage. From Oedipus and his mother to Chekhov’s families fractured by existential angst, to Ibsen’s split by socio-politics paradigm shifts. The Hubbards, the family of former plantation owners in Lilian Hellman’s The Little Foxes, could be the spiritual suc...

Review: FLAMINGO, The Hope Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - December 13, 2024

“Oh, that I were a man!” In the opening scene, one might worry that they have accidentally stumbled into a one-woman production of Much Ado About Nothing, as the woman on stage gives a passionate rendition of one of Beatrice’s iconic monologues. However, this quickly changes when another woman accid...

Review: CINDERELLA, King's Head Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - December 13, 2024

Written and directed by British Panto Award winner Andrew Pollard, Cinderella is given a “North London upgrade” in the King’s Head theatre’s first-ever pantomime. Maddy Erzan-Essien stars as the titular heroine, a girl who longs to find her place in the world and is forced to serve her evil stepsist...

Review: THE MASSIVE TRAGEDY OF MADAME BOVARY, Southwark Playhouse
by Gary Naylor - December 11, 2024

A valiant effort, but too long and too ambitious to achieve its aim of transforming Flaubert's tragic heroine into a comic lead...

Review Roundup: What Went Right for THE PRODUCERS at Menier Chocolate Factory?
by Aliya Al-Hassan - December 11, 2024

The first major London revival of Mel Brooks’ musical adaptation of The Producers is now open at the Menier Chocolate Factory, directed by Tony Award-winning Patrick Marber and Broadway choreographer Lorin Latarro....

Review: OLGA KOCH COMES FROM MONEY, Soho Theatre
by Kat Mokrynski - December 12, 2024

Do you relate to the problem of being bullied in state school for being rich and then being bullied in private school for not being rich enough? Then this might be the show for you. Olga Koch Comes From Money is an hour of stand-up in which Koch explores her own relationship with wealth in a show th...

Review: THE PRODUCERS, Menier Chocolate Factory
by Aliya Al-Hassan - December 11, 2024

Good things come to those who wait. Last seen in the West End way back in 2004, starring Nathan Lane and Lee Evans, Mel Brooks' satirical work of genius, The Producers, has finally goose-stepped its way to a glorious return to the London stage at the wonderful Menier Chocolate Factory....

Review: BETTE AND JOAN, Park Theatre
by Gary Naylor - December 09, 2024

Greta Scacchi and Felicity Dean are gruesomely grotesque but also wonderfully warm as the fading titans of the Golden Age of Hollywood...

Review: WHITE CHRISTMAS, The Mill At Sonning
by Mica Blackwell - December 09, 2024

A gem of a show wrapped in a big red bow, White Christmas at the Mill at Sonning brings a dollop of Golden Age glitz and festive joy to the holiday season. With immaculate production value and a talented cast, I dare you to not leave the theatre counting your blessings instead of sheep....

Review: MADDIE MOATE'S A VERY CURIOUS CHRISTMAS, Apollo Theatre
by Christiana Rose - December 09, 2024

Maddie Moate’s festive live science show incorporates the perfect blend of live science experiments, a mission to assist Mrs Claus and a taste of musical theatre with a pantomime flair....

Review: RUINATION, Royal Ballet and Opera
by Franco Milazzo - December 08, 2024

In a season where theatres are filled with the usual hoary horde - here a Christmas Carol, there a Nutcracker or Messiah - the Royal Opera House deserves praise and maybe even a standing ovation for bringing back its Yuletide hit from 2022. Ben Duke’s Ruination (a co-production between the Royal Bal...

Review: HOME ALONE IN CONCERT, Royal Albert Hall
by Kat Mokrynski - December 09, 2024

With a score by the iconic John Williams, Home Alone is the ideal film to be set to live music at the Royal Albert Hall as a part of their Christmas season. The 1990 film, written by John Hughes directed by Chris Columbus, follows the adventures of Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin), an eight-year-...

Review Roundup: THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA Opens in London
by Aliya Al-Hassan - December 06, 2024

The Devil Wears Prada, a new musical, based on the blockbuster film and bestselling novel, has strutted into London’s Dominion Theatre. What did the critics think?...

Review: DICK WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT, Hackney Empire
by Kat Mokrynski - December 09, 2024

For its 25th pantomime, the Hackney Empire is putting on Dick Whittington and His Cat, directed by and starring Clive Row, who has been the resident Dame of the Hackney Empire for years. This particular production of Dick Whittington has been written by Will Brenton with original music and songs by ...

Review: THE REST IS ENTERTAINMENT, Royal Albert Hall
by Alice Cope - December 06, 2024

This live show wasn’t without its chaotic moments, they only added to the charm of the evening....

Review: BALLET SHOES, National Theatre
by Aliya Al-Hassan - December 06, 2024

Beloved by parents and children alike, the National Theatre has taken on the first major stage adaptation of Noel Streatfeild’s best-selling book Ballet Shoes as their big ticket show this festive season. It is a brave move, as the book is so well known and hasn't been out of print since 1936. Howev...

Review: HOMO ALONE, The Other Palace
by Abbie Grundy - December 05, 2024

This is Home Alone like you've never seen it before....

Review: HANSEL AND GRETEL, Shakespeare’s Globe
by Cindy Marcolina - December 06, 2024

Though we admit that venturing as far as saying that the witch looks like a mix of Margaret Thatcher and the old Queen might be just us being fastidious with our interpretative vein, the links are there to see and analyse. Yes, it’s a bit cheesy and adults playing children is always slightly jarring...

Review: THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, Dominion Theatre
by Aliya Al-Hassan - December 06, 2024

The Devil Wears Prada may be the most hyped musical of the year. With a stellar cast, incredible clothes and none other than Sir Elton John at the helm of the music. The publicity tells us to 'gird our loins.', but after seeing this thin and rather flat show, the question is: for what?...