It’s the comedy economy, stupid! Elf Lyons on the true cost of standup

After a Franglais Swan Lake, the comic explains economics with sex dolls in ChiffChaff. She talks about loving horror, how guinea pigs helped her through illness and standing up for comedians Elf Lyons loves economics. Or rather, as she warbles to The …

Continue Reading

Trixie Mattel review – glittering, belittling comedy from Drag Race star

O2 Academy, Newcastle Ill-judged jokes and a lack of wit and grit make for a tedious set from one of the queens on RuPaul’s seriesIn an interview with Rolling Stone, drag queen Trixie Mattel said she was taken aback by the positive response to her uniq…

Continue Reading

Miles Jupp: my double life as Mr Banks from Mary Poppins

Having been repeatedly told that he looks like David Tomlinson, Miles Jupp now finds himself playing the mildly aristocratic character actorThere is something unnerving about feeling that someone else has lived through your career before you’ve even ha…

Continue Reading

Showstopper! The hit musical that’s made up every night

It started as a challenge from Ken Campbell in a squat but Showstopper! The Improvised Musical grew into a West End sensation. The pair behind it tell allAcross the road from Victoria Station is one of London’s longest-running musicals, Wicked. Walk fu…

Continue Reading

Carol Channing, star of Hello, Dolly! on Broadway, dies aged 97

Celebrated for her performances in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Hello, Dolly! Channing also earned an Oscar nomination for Thoroughly Modern MillieCarol Channing, the American actor who originated the roles of Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes an…

Continue Reading

Keep review – want a list of every single thing in Daniel Kitson’s house?

Battersea Arts Centre, LondonThe storyteller sets out to list all 20,000 of his possessions in a show that misfires despite some delightful apercus‘I have a house with lots of things in it,” says Daniel Kitson, “and this is a show about those things.” …

Continue Reading

Decadence and dystopia: the unmissable theatre, dance and comedy of 2019

Blanchett and Hiddleston get sexual, there are chills in a Glasgow tower block, Matthew Bourne takes on the star-crossed lovers, plus Catherine Tate, Tim Minchin and Ben Elton return to the road Continue reading…

Continue Reading

New artistic director of Battersea Arts Centre is Tarek Iskander

Iskander, a theatre-maker and former NHS executive, succeeds David Jubb, who called it a ‘fantastic appointment’Battersea Arts Centre in south London has appointed Tarek Iskander as its new artistic director and chief executive. Iskander plans to “rein…

Continue Reading

Berwick Kaler: my 40 years as a panto dame – and Gary Oldman’s cat catastrophe

After four decades of festive fun in York, the actor and writer is hanging up his frock and hobnailed boots. He looks back at the Theatre Royal’s panto family‘I must say I never expected there to be quite this much fuss,” Berwick Kaler says, indicating…

Continue Reading

Revenge of the clowns: how Bozo and chums put the fun back into fright wigs

After the ‘attacks’, tabloid fear-mongering and a devastating horror film, clowns were meant to be all clapped out – with pirates and princesses muscling in. So why is business booming?Don’t be fooled by those painted-on smiles. If the rumours are to b…

Continue Reading