Prince Edward theatre, LondonThere are drop-dead gorgeous designs and the performances are full of life but this off-kilter escapade has scattershot gags and unmemorable songsHalloween has arrived early as yet another movie turned musical hits the West…
Continue ReadingMercury theatre, ColchesterThis musical from the company behind The Play That Goes Wrong unearths the invention of acting in ancient Greece – and finds little has changedThe Mischief theatre company has been making fun of actors’ foibles for years, esp…
Continue ReadingTim Burton’s hit 1988 comedy horror is enjoying an all-singing, all-dancing afterlife on stage. After recent productions in the US and Australia, the musical opens in London this month. We braved rehearsals for a first look.All photographs by Tristram …
Continue ReadingThe unsettling performance artist, who has made some electrifying stage shows in his time, is taking a leap into literature with an eye-opening book, In Pursuit of a Wonderful Nothing. A hard sell, he thinksThere are commercial strategies to promote yo…
Continue ReadingKing’s Head theatre, London An office toilet once used by the wartime PM sparks a culture war in this frenzied show about politics and patriarchyWhen Rachel Reeves became chancellor in 2024, she said it felt like “smashing one of the last glass ceiling…
Continue ReadingThe Crescent, YorkThe comedian addresses a relationship breakup via The Waste Land, Aldi and a dimwit estate agentHow has it come to this? That’s what new show Tilting at Windmills finds John Kearns asking, and – after a fashion – it’s what TS Eliot as…
Continue ReadingGrayson the Musical will explore ‘identity, creativity and self-acceptance … with life coaching from a six-foot teddy bear named Alan’Grayson Perry’s life story is to be told in an “outrageous” new stage musical co-created with the composer of Jerry Sp…
Continue ReadingUS comedian has a remarkable ability to transform amusing, if somewhat banal, anecdotes into meticulously crafted joy and preposterousnessIn terms of both quality and quantity, Josh Johnson is producing standup at a more prolific rate than any other co…
Continue ReadingBush theatre, LondonMarried aspiring standups confront on stage what they’re concealing in real life, in Piers Black’s compelling two-handerStandup is performance in extremis, self-projection in the raw – and has long appealed to dramatists interested …
Continue ReadingLyric Hammersmith, London The dissolute aristocrats from 1895 remain sharply funny, and bitingly relevant, in this flamboyant new spinOscar Wilde’s comedy was billed as a “play of modern life” when it premiered at the Haymarket theatre in London in 189…
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