Monthly Archives: April 2017

The moment the curtain goes up at Drury Lane you know 42nd Street is going to be a huge popular success. The songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin are great and include such iconic numbers as “We’re in the … Continue reading →

ENO is short of cash and needs more audiences. One way to raise its profile is to semi-stage famous musicals with big names. Lonny Price revives Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel with Alfie Boe and Katherine Jenkins. There are some people … Continue reading →

The Lottery of Love, John Fowles’ translation of Marivaux’s Le Jeu de L’Amour et du Hasard, one of the most popular romantic comedies. It premiered in Paris in 1730. Sylvia, wanting to find out what a potential husband is really … Continue reading →

Nina Raine’s Consent, highly critical of the Law, particularly when it comes to rape, takes a sharp look at the behaviour of barristers in court and in their private lives. The confrontations and cross-examinations are even bitterer in the home. … Continue reading →

Some members of the audience found Edward Albee’s play so shocking and disturbing that they tried to laugh it off. But Albee is being serious. The dialogue is often funny; the situation never is. Laughter is, of course, a defence … Continue reading →

Cy Coleman’s Life, a relentlessly sordid American musical about whores and pimps, has a dynamic score and dynamic performance Sharon D Clarke.

Tom Robertson had as great an impact on British theatre in the 1860s as John Osborne had in the 1950s. His Caste, a sentimental comedy about class distinctions, which was excellently revived all too briefly, deserves to be much better … Continue reading →

Having just seen Sean Foley’s ghastly sledgehammer approach to Molière’s The Miser at Garrick Theatre, it was particularly pleasing to see Patrick Marber’s Don Juan in Soho at Wyndham’s Theatre. Marber’s witty and very vulgar modern take on Molière’s heartless … Continue reading →