Thespians review – world’s first actor gets comic kudos from Mischief’s merrymakers

Mercury 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 Reading

‘It’s showtime!’ Beetlejuice musical is a rave from the grave – in pictures

Tim 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 Reading

‘I want to bury it under a roundabout!’ Kim Noble on his unusual approach to promoting his graphic novel

The 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 Reading

Churchill’s Urinal review – Rosie Holt’s pisstake chancellor turns it up to No 11

King’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 Reading

John Kearns: Tilting at Windmills review – a handful of dust (and prawn cocktail crisps) in riff on TS Eliot

The 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 Reading

Grayson Perry’s life story to be told in ‘outrageous’ musical

Grayson 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 Reading

Josh Johnson: Symphony review – a masterful HBO special from a generational comedy talent | Tyson Wray

US 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 Reading

I’m Not Being Funny review – there’s laughter through tears in emotional dark comedy

Bush 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 Reading

An Ideal Husband review – Oscar Wilde’s comedy gets the gleefully camp glow-up it deserves

Lyric 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…

Continue Reading

A leak at No 11: Rachel Reeves and the satire about the urinal she couldn’t get rid of

When she broke through the glass ceiling and became chancellor, Reeves found her office had its own latrine. Rosie Holt reveals why she turned the story into a play called Churchill’s UrinalBritain is a conservative country, we are repeatedly told. So …

Continue Reading