James McAvoy is currently the hottest thing on London’s West End, playing a famously unattractive man. Tickets to Cyrano de Bergerac are in short supply thanks to the combined power of McAvoy and superstar director Jamie Lloyd. This reworked Cyrano is stripped back and refreshingly sexy. McAvoy is the star of the show, both in... Continue Reading →
Kevin Elyot’s debut play, Coming Clean, is back as the King's Head Theatre’s production returns to London’s West End. In pre-AIDS 80s Thatcherite Britain a gay couple Tony (Lee Knight) and Greg (Stanton Plummer-Cambridge) feel out the boundaries of their long-term relationship. Enter a young, sexy cleaner named Robert (Jonah Rzeskiewicz) who puts things to... Continue Reading →
Reworking Shakespeare’s Richard III into American High School territory, Teenage Dick feels like a mash-up - take Netflix’s The Politician, mix in the social media of Dear Evan Hansen, a dash of Six’s feminine re-framing and serve nice and hot. Of course, most of these shows debuted after Teenage Dick first took to the stage... Continue Reading →
Matthew Lopez’s Best Play Olivier award-winning The Inheritance, directed by Stephen Daldry, has arrived on Broadway following last year’s highly acclaimed production at London’s Young Vic and its West End transfer, with many of the original cast. Inspired by E. M. Forster’s novel Howard End, the epic two-part play examines multigenerational gay life in New... Continue Reading →
If the onset of winter, the continuing saga of Brexit and a looming general election is getting you down, maybe stepping back in time to a completely charming musical is what you need? That’s what the Menier Chocolate Factory is betting on with this bright and relentlessly cheery revival of 1950s hit musical, The Boy... Continue Reading →
British theatre is loving a bit of historical revision these days and & Juliet gives us re-written Shakespeare with liberal lashings of scandi-pop brilliance. I loathe jukebox musicals but & Juliet is just fantastic! What if star-crossed Juliet didn’t take her own life after Romeo died? What if instead, she woke up and got on... Continue Reading →
April De Angelis’ two-part adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s beloved Neapolitan Novels has a lot of stories to tell you and this production ricochets from magical realism to mobster-camp with frequent stops at political-feminism-polemic to bring them to you. It’s a bit exhausting. How do you translate an epic, adored literary series to the stage without... Continue Reading →
Voter suppression. Emergency acts to achieve the government's agenda, disdain for the courts and attacks on the press. A group of progressive friends become increasingly anxious and despairing, unsure how to resist in the face of the swift rise to power of a dangerous right-wing demagogue stoking devision. Sound familiar? In 1985, Tony Kusher was... Continue Reading →
Dear Evan Hansen is probably the most anticipated Broadway-to-London transfer since Hamilton, and it’s finally here with a fresh-faced lead actor who bowled over critics and fans alike. For this show, today is definitely going to be a good day! Teenager Evan Hansen suffers from severe social anxiety and writes encouraging letters to himself on... Continue Reading →
