Eddie Izzard: The Remix review – Noah’s Ark, jazz chickens and the Death Star canteen

Richmond theatre, LondonPausing her political campaigning to revisit routines that made her name, Izzard seems to be enjoying herself as much as we areEveryone wants rock stars to play their greatest hits. Comedians, not so much – but that’s changing. …

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Cinderella review – pop-powered Hammersmith panto looks sharp

Lyric Hammersmith, LondonVikki Stone’s playful fairytale is staged with fabulous costumes and high-energy songs but falls short of delirious comedyIn 2021, Camila Cabello was a screen Cinderella with dreams of opening a boutique for her dresses. Last y…

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Trevor Noah: Off the Record review – zapping comedy cliches back to life

O2 Arena, LondonRoutines about rude Parisians and airline seats should have passed their tell-by date long ago – but Noah’s skill reanimates the funTrevor Noah opens with a joke about taking photos then and now. Today it’s all “picture picture picture…

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Ruby Wax: I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was review – wandering towards wellness

Soho theatre, LondonThis one-woman play aims to dramatise Wax’s globe-trotting spiritual quest but gets sidetracked into anecdoteThis isn’t what she usually does, Ruby Wax confides in the preface to her show; this is a play. And so an expectation is se…

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Soho’s new home for cabaret is so slick it’s like countercultural cosplay | Brian Logan

The opening shows at London’s Underbelly Boulevard – Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett and Batsu! – are less edgy than you might expect, and more pricey, but there are some impressive turnsIt was one of the birthplaces of alternative comedy. Then it was a …

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Soho’s new home for cabaret is so slick it’s like countercultural cosplay | Brian Logan

The opening shows at London’s Underbelly Boulevard – Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett and Batsu! – are less edgy than you might expect, and more pricey, but there are some impressive turnsIt was one of the birthplaces of alternative comedy. Then it was a …

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Dancefloor disaster: Ayelen Parolin masters the choreography of comedy

The show must go on for the trio of hapless performers in Parolin’s new production Zonder, which finds the funny side in failureContemporary dance and comedy don’t exactly go hand in hand but Ayelen Parolin is a choreographer with funny bones. In her n…

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Iliza Shlesinger: ‘I’m thinking what many women are thinking – but saying it out loud’

The American comic on performing to a stripper party, the best heckle she’s had and why honest emotions are funnyHow did you get into comedy?I was always into watching funny shows – what was on TV that I could sneakily watch after my mom went to bed. I…

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Rosalie Minnitt: Clementine review – a frilly-bonneted comedy for today

Soho theatre, LondonIn this giddily inventive show, Minnitt plays a woman trying to bag a beau before her sentence to spinsterdom is declared‘I’m starting to get hysterical,” says Rosalie Minnitt’s Clementine, bearing down on her show’s denouement. “I …

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Fascinating Aïda review – caustic comments and filthiness 40 years on

Rose Theatre, Kingston upon ThamesFrom a killer song about cosmetic surgery to ditties on doppelgangers and dogging, Dillie Keane, Adèle Anderson and Liza Pulman are still going strongHow do you make your act feel new, 40 years on? Arguably, Fascinatin…

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