ajhlovestheatre

SARAH From the novel by Scott McClanahan Adapted and directed by Oliver Reese The Coronet Theatre – until 17 December 2022 https://www.thecoronettheatre.com/whats-on/sarah/ Hurtling towards December we may be, but there’s no doubt that Jonathan Slinger is delivering one of the performances of the year in Sarah this extraordinary fever dream of a monologue, distilled from […]

Will Barton and Kelly Price, photograph by Alastair Muir THE SEX PARTY Written and directed by Terry Johnson Menier Chocolate Factory until 7th January 2023 https://www.menierchocolatefactory.com/Online/default.asp Terry Johnson has an interesting history of promising his audience a certain kind of play then delivering something quite unexpected: Dead Funny sounded like a classic, if macabre, farce […]

TAMMY FAYE Music by Elton John Lyrics by Jake Shears Book by James Graham Directed by Rupert Goold Almeida Theatre – until 3rd December 2022 https://almeida.co.uk/how-to-get-tickets-for-tammy-faye An ambitious new musical at a major producing theatre from a team of internationally renowned powerhouse creatives, with a uniformly magnificent cast, featuring the UK debut of a beloved […]

MARY by Rona Munro directed by Roxana Silbert Hampstead Theatre – until 26 November 2022 https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/ The titular Mary of Rona Munro’s brief but absorbing new play is the 16th century Queen of Scots, a fascinating figure whose short, controversial life has already provided rich dramatic fodder for playwrights such as Schiller (the oft-revived Mary […]

A DEAD BODY IN TAOS by David Farr Directed by Rachel Bagshaw Wilton’s Music Hall until 12th November then Warwick Arts Centre https://www.wiltons.org.uk/whatson/763-a-dead-body-in-taos Science fiction is a difficult genre to pull off in the theatre. There’s something about the warm immediacy of live performance that is anathema to the chilly mechanics of futuristic fantasy. The […]

THE CHOIR OF MAN Created by Nic Doodson and Andrew Kay Directed by Nic Doodson Arts Theatre https://www.choirofmanwestend.com/ They’re back, those big burly men who sing like angels while dispensing free beer….yes, The Choir of Man has returned to town and it’s just the tonic that we need in these grim times. The term “crowd […]

THE BAND’S VISIT Music and Lyrics by David Yazbek Book by Itamar Moses Based on the screenplay by Elran Kolrin Directed by Michael Longhurst Donmar Warehouse – until 3 December 2022 https://booking.donmarwarehouse.com/events/5801ANBQVBLJQKVGKMVQVKJKLJQMKBTVN?_ga=2.51218858.288472771.1665651419-1175656577.1665651419 Extraordinary what a difference venue size can make. When I saw this highly unconventional Best Musical Tony winner in a 1000+ seat Broadway […]

ONLY AN OCTAVE APART Justin Vivian Bond and Anthony Roth Costanzo Co-created and directed by Zack Winokur Wilton’s Music Hall – until 22 October https://www.wiltons.org.uk/whatson/753-only-an-octave-apart That old adage about madness and genius being closely aligned has seldom been better demonstrated, at least in the theatre, than by this beauteous bitchslap of a show, already an […]

EUREKA DAY by Jonathan Spector Directed by Katy Rudd The Old Vic – until 31 October 2022 https://www.oldvictheatre.com/stage/event/eureka-day The scene that closes act one of Eureka Day is probably the funniest couple of minutes on any current London stage. Throughout it, the actors, playing school board members in a meeting live-streamed to dozens of concerned […]

BRIGHT HALF LIFE by Tanya Barfield Directed by Steven Kunis King’s Head Theatre – until 1 October 2022 https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/bright-half-life Watching Tanya Barfield’s bittersweet two hander, receiving it’s UK premiere here following an off-Broadway run and a couple of American regional productions, it reminded me that last year’s critically lauded West End revival of Nick Payne’s […]