Emma review – Austen’s comedy of manners gets an exaggerated Essex makeover

Rose theatre, Kingston upon ThamesAva Pickett’s modern-day adaptation of the novel adds pop music, farce and clowning but lacks gimlet-eyed observationsAn early blast of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance sets the mood of this 21st-century take on Jane Austen’s c…

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Ania Magliano: ‘My favourite gig? I did some material about vibrators and a 92-year-old gave me tips on different settings’

The standup on Taskmaster, her time in the Cambridge Footlights and the geniuses behind Colin the CaterpillarWhat made you get into comedy?
In primary school I wasn’t very cool. I never got Hula Hoops in my packed lunches because my Polish mum would g…

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Eric Idle: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, Live! review – mock’n’roll star’s night of nostalgia

Playhouse, EdinburghThe Monty Python man revisits his remarkable career, with songs dedicated to George Harrison and Robin Williams – and some ribbing of John CleeseA career retrospective fondly remembering a previous career retrospective: who said pop…

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‘It’s a lot darker than Sleaford Mods’: Jason Williamson on acting, rejection and a radical portrait of street life

The frontman is realising his stage dreams by starring in Edgecity which draws on playwright gobscure’s experience of sleeping rough. The pair talk about an urgent, explosive showIn the late 1980s, fresh from being kicked out of school, Sleaford Mods f…

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‘It’s a lot darker than Sleaford Mods’: Jason Williamson on acting, rejection and a radical portrait of street life

The frontman is realising his stage dreams by starring in Edgecity which draws on playwright gobscure’s experience of sleeping rough. The pair talk about an urgent, explosive showIn the late 1980s, fresh from being kicked out of school, Sleaford Mods f…

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Esther Manito review – disjointed dispatches from the frontline of family life

Soho theatre, LondonThe standup has some effective material about the usual middle-aged gripes, but never quite coalesces these scattershot routines into a well-rounded wholeNobody ever listens to what put-upon mums have to say, says Esther Manito, and…

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‘There’s magic, blood and gore!’ Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton on touring Inside No 9 – and being megastars in China

As the show based on their cult TV hit goes on the road, the duo discuss haunted theatres, feeling like arthritic swans and what it was like being mobbed in ShanghaiHow do you make a shopping centre in Woking spooky? I bow before Reece Shearsmith and S…

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Ideal review – stage return for Johnny Vegas’s TV weed dealer fails to score

Lowry, Salford Reprise of Graham Duff’s cult comedy delights the series’ fans but there’s not much here for anyone elseIf you are a fan of the cult BBC Three sitcom Ideal, you should immediately book a ticket for this show. Judging by tonight’s audienc…

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Bill Posley: The Day I Accidentally Went to War review – veteran comic drops truth bombs

Soho theatre, LondonThe US comic and TV writer’s account of his military service in Iraq is exuberant, enlightening, and flies the flag for the plight of veteransAt one point in Bill Posley’s show about his time in the US army, he tells us how, after f…

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Haywire review – early history of The Archers inspires behind-the-mic farce

Barn theatre, CirencesterFeaturing extraordinary voice acting, this play about the birth of the BBC’s farming drama will equally satisfy superfans and everyday folkEven regular listeners to Radio 4’s The Archers can balk at the laborious annual plotlin…

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