London Archives - North West End UK

11Jun

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

Allegra – Richmond Theatre

“Given all the misery around… if you spend the day smiling, there must be something wrong with you.” That is the diagnosis for the ever-singing, always happy Allegra. She sings at home, at the baker’s, at the library, in the café, and even to her neighbours at 3 in the morning. In this new play by Peter Quilter, directed and choreographed by Stephen Mear, Maureen Lipman plays the titular role. Allegra lives by herself in a village where everyone is seemingly infuriated with her habit of breaking into song. Her fridge and cupboards might be empty (save some old cocoa and flour tins that hold her father’s ashes), but her mind is bursting with music and colourful imaginations. Her brother Ronen (John Middleton) looks in on her regularly, brings her food, and attempts to reign in her ene...

Teeth ‘N’ Smiles – Duke of York’s Theatre

9Jun

By Nathan DunnNo Comments

London

Teeth ‘N’ Smiles – Duke of York’s Theatre

Teeth ‘N’ Smiles has enjoyed a lengthy run during this 2026 revival at the Duke of York theatre, celebrating 50 years since prolific writer David Hare’s rock and roll musical took to the stage starring Helen Mirren as the work’s darkly charismatic protagonist Maggie Frisby. Similarly, this production brings some star-studded value to the cast with pop artist Rebecca Lucy Taylor (formerly of Slow Club fame), now professional performing as ‘Self Esteem’. How does Hare’s work stand now? This production is pleasantly refined - its large cast are handled with great balance inside a great space, which playfully leans into the immersive qualities of the venue as the late 1960’s rockers burst in and out of the stalls doors that flank the audience with an amusingly entropic quality. Chloe Lamfor...

9Jun

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Shantify – Underbelly Boulevard Soho

Some theatre productions are clever; others are musically impressive. The truly special ones manage to be both, while embracing an utterly absurd premise with complete confidence. ‘Shantify’ [jazz hands essential] is one of those rare productions. It is utterly joyous, inventive and irresistibly entertaining, and will leave you grinning long after the curtain falls, with its brilliantly reimagined sea shanties still playing on repeat in your head for days afterwards! The premise alone sounds improbable: take chart-topping pop hits, musical theatre favourites and traditional sea shanties, throw them together aboard a nautical adventure, and somehow make it all work. Yet against all odds, it works brilliantly, from Beyoncé to Taylor Swift, from the Spice Girls to Hamilton and Six, familia...

9Jun

By Holly SewellNo Comments

London

Are You Watching – Royal Court

A ten-foot pool of blood spilling across a white-tiled floor is the final image in Georgie Dettmer’s professional playwriting debut at the Royal Court’s Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. In it, two teenage girls are playing: they are reimagining the end of Gisèle Pelicot’s story. In the girls’ fictionalised version of events, Pelicot gets her revenge by shooting and killing her husband. They find their catharsis and go to sleep covered in blood. Are You Watching? follows a number of stories in vignettes, all of which have to do with voyeurism in some form. The stories look at sexual violence in the age of the Internet and AI — sometimes digital in origin, always physical and bodily in effect. A son finds deepfake porn, made using his own childhood pictures, on his father’s iPad; a famous ac...

4Jun

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

Waiting for Godot – Arches Lane Theatre

In a place where time seems to have lost meaning, where memory plays games with the mind, two men wait endlessly under a barren tree. They talk, they quarrel, they make up, they are bored, but they dare not leave. This week, a new production of Samuel Beckett’s most popular play takes to the stage. Directed by Leo Bacica, it has Rich Allen playing Vladimir and Steve Broad as Estragon. Together, the men wait for the mysterious, unseen Godot. Between uncomfortable boots, pockets full of turnip, and kidney trouble, the two men kill their time talking about the mundane and the spiritual, the philosophical and the nostalgic. The monotony of their wait is broken by the rather disruptive entrance of Pozzo and his servant Lucky. Lucky has a rope tied around him, which is controlled by...

Dark of the Moon – Charing Cross Theatre

2Jun

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Dark of the Moon – Charing Cross Theatre

This new musical version by Lindy Robbins, Dave Bassett and Steve Robson is the latest in a long series of versions of this piece. It was first performed as a play in 1942 and a substantially revised version transferred to Broadway in 1945. It was produced in London at the Lyric Hammersmith in 1948 and the Ambassadors Theatre in 1949. The story has not been updated. It is effectively a fairytale about a rural Appalachian community who live in close proximity to a coven of witches in the nearby Smoky Mountains. One of the witches, John (Witch Boy), is enamoured with one of the human girls, Barbara Allen, and seeks to develop a relationship with her, to the dismay of both communities. Its theme is the clash between cultures with the boy/ girl relationsh...

30May

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Second Class Queer – Riverside Studios

‘Second Class Queer’ delivers an emotionally charged and deeply human exploration of identity, belonging and grief. Written, performed and produced by Kumar Muniandy, the one-person play uses the framework of a Berlin speed-dating event to unpack the experiences of Krishna, a queer Malaysian-Indian man navigating racism, homophobia and the exhausting complexities of existing between conflicting cultures. What makes this production compelling is not technical polish, but the honesty of its storytelling and writing and the charisma of Muniandy. The script confronts difficult themes without losing sight of humour or vulnerability, allowing moments of discomfort to sit alongside genuinely touching reflections on loneliness, shame and connection. Muniandy’s performance carries a quiet intens...

30May

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Redcliffe – Southwark Playhouse

While gay life has existed as long as humanity, the British history of homosexuality isn’t recorded in any informative detail until the 18th century. It is via court records and lurid newspaper reports from that period which give colour to London’s bordellos, ‘rent boy’ scandals and the plight of poor men who were executed and pilloried for the crime of sodomy. Anyone interested in Georgian queer life should read ‘Mother Clap’s Molly House- The Gay Subculture in England 1700-1830’ by Rictor Norton. It’s academic and brutally comprehensive, but it’s an absolute banger. It is from this arcane world of blackmail, public hangings and graphic pamphlets that Jordan Luke Gage has found inspiration for Redcliffe, his debut musical. Set in Bristol 1752-53, this eagerly anticipated production put...

29May

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

Black Comedy– Orange Tree Theatre

Aspiring sculptor, social climber, and cad Brindsley Miller is supposed to be hosting both his fiancé’s well-to-do father as well as a famed art collector in his unimpressive flat, when a blown fuse plunges the entire building into darkness. What follows is a hilarious cavalcade of slapstick gags and farcical set pieces, as Miller attempts to spin more and more plates and stay on top of an ever-growing web of lies in order to keep his many transgressions from coming to light. Unlike Miller’s evening, this revival of Peter Shaffer’s farce is an absolute success. While the characters are in darkness, the audience gets a clear view of everything, thanks to Elliot Griggs’s simple-yet-effective lighting design (and a lighting desk operator with split-second-perfect timing). While the charact...

Beetlejuice The Musical – Prince Edward Theatre

29May

By Maani WayNo Comments

London

Beetlejuice The Musical – Prince Edward Theatre

Based on Tim Burton’s iconic film of 1988, Beetlejuice bursts onto the West End in musical form with an all-star cast and presents a unique and thrilling piece of theatre. This eagerly awaited stage adaptation has been highly anticipated since its US debut in 2018 and does not disappoint. This is the story of Beetlejuice, the title character: a pale-faced ghoul dressed head to toe in a black-and-white suit, complete with outrageous green hair, trapped between the real world and the afterlife, affectionately known as “The Netherworld”. Beetlejuice has one goal: to be seen and no longer feel invisible. His plan to achieve that involves killing a seemingly ordinary couple and haunting the new occupants of their home. However, it is not until he meets Lydia, the daughter now living in the h...