London Archives - Page 22 of 114

20Apr

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

Banging Denmark – Finborough Theatre

A fun, modern take on a romcom classic with a sociologist twist… Management consultant Jake Newhouse (Tom Kay) enrols super-duper feminist Ishtar Madigan (Rebecca Blackstone) to help him seduce the gorgeous, Danish, and totally unreceptive librarian of his dreams (Maja Simonsen). Now here’s the rub. Newhouse also goes by the name of Guy DeWitt, a powerful, misogynistic dating coach, pickup artist and deep voiced podcaster who recently sued Madigan for defamation. Unable to prove DeWitt sent his bros-before-hoes trolls out to destroy her reputation, her mental health and her mailbox, Madigan was forced to sell everything she owns to pay the settlement agreement. She now sleeps in the copy room of her university, a shadow of her glorious self - an alcoholic, paranoiac, horny PhD sch...

19Apr

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

F**king Men – Waterloo East

When Tony Award-winning playwright Joe DiPietro first started writing his all-male adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde, he didn’t think anyone would be interested in producing it. So, he gave it what he considered to be an ‘un-producible title’: F**king Men. As the title of this review gives away, the play not only went on to be produced, but it was a runaway success. Debuting in London over 15 years ago, F**king Men became a fringe classic, and DiPietro’s updated version is back for a six-week run at Waterloo East Theatre until 26th May. Drawing back the curtains on the interconnecting sexual encounters between ten different men, F**king Men offers the audience a glimpse into the lives of modern gay men navigating sex, love, and monogamy in a world that still too often discri...

Ushers: The Front of House Musical – The Other Palace

18Apr

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Ushers: The Front of House Musical – The Other Palace

A new musical housed in The Other Palace, Ushers: The Front of House Musical. We are introduced to the characters who make the theatre run. A newcomer Lucy (Danielle Rose) starts her shift, disrupting the well working machine to try and slot herself in this odd little family. As the evening runs, backstage dramas unfold between relationships, Gary (Cleve September) finally landed a role and is moving to Austria for the year while his boyfriend Luke Bauer (Ben) stays here, still front of house. Rosie (Bethany Amber Perrins), a very funny but creepy TikTok fanatic obsessed with leading men is preyed upon by the failed Opera star ‘Manager’ Robin (Daniel Page) desperate for a raise, money and the little power that comes from overworking your equals. Lucy gets to know this team over the evening...

15Apr

By Zara OdetundeNo Comments

London

The Comeuppance – Almeida Theatre

The Comeuppance is the first offering of the Almeida’s 2024 season as a thought-provoking piece of theatre that will leave the audience reflecting on their own lives. The Comeuppance takes place at the pre drinks of a circle of high school friends who reunite before they attend their 20th high school reunion. Many haven’t seen each other for years and each person is at a different point in their lives, as they reconnect and share old memories and inside jokes, another presence is hovering on the outskirts. Death. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins writes a play in which the characters are exploring their perspective of mortality and maturity. They have all grown up since they have last seen each other and have started to reflect on their choices and the consequences of them, all the what ifs and...

13Apr

By Anisha PucadyilNo Comments

London

Giselle Remix – Pleasance Theatre

Giselle Remix leaves you feeling inspired. Dare I say hopeful and courageous? You don't have to be gay or queer or pining for unrequited love. You come for the debauchery of cabaret but stay for the heart wrenching poetry of Raison d'être of life. Giselle Remix arrives at the Pleasance Theatre after a sold-out premiere at the Royal Opera House. Giselle, considered a masterwork of the classical ballet canon created in 1841, has been brought to many a stage in the past 183 years. This brainchild of the Pleasance Associate Artist Jack Sears and Royal Ballet Soloist Hannah Grennell has created a rapturous thunderclap in its universality of emotions and expression that is timeless. Before anyone comes on stage, the lights and orchestra fill it up. The music of an era gone by fill...

13Apr

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

Player Kings – Noel Coward Theatre

If it were not for the promotion of this show, the title would hide the fact that the play came from Shakespeare’s quill. Incorporating both Henry IV Part One and Two, this adaptation faces the challenge of giving the audience a decent slice of the two plays, without losing the essence that makes each play special. It is a brave actor that takes on such a dialogue heavy role as Falstaff, with almost four hours of performance, but Sir Ian McKellen is a brave knight, and despite his eighty-four years, and his acknowledgement that this is a role that he has previously avoided, he is victorious in his joust with words. Adapted and directed by Robert Icke, there is a fresh breeze blowing through this history play. Gone is the chainmail, replaced with khaki fatigues and red berets...

12Apr

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Artificially Yours – Riverside Studios

You can’t escape talk about AI these days. Whether it’s dubious photo editing or a dodgy script in an ill-fated Willy Wonka experience, this tech has well and truly permeated our collective consciousness, so it comes as no surprise that it’s starting to be explored through theatre. Enter: Aaron Thakar’s Artificially Yours, playing its first-ever run at Riverside Studios until 21st April. The play revolves around the domestic lives of three couples: Pippa and Martin (Leslie Ash and Paul Giddings), Lilah and Ash (Destiny Mayers and Aaron Thakar), and Ellie and Noah (Ella Jarvis and Jake Mavis) — all of whom have welcomed Agapē, the AI-powered virtual relationship therapist, into their homes. Each couple navigates various disputes that one person in the relationship believes can be reso...

Spencer Jones: Making Friends – Soho Theatre

12Apr

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Spencer Jones: Making Friends – Soho Theatre

Actor and comedian, Spencer Jones is back with a brand-new hour of chaos at the Soho Theatre Downstairs. We explore the creation of his lockdown crafts, new friends found and lost in Devon and his justification of career as his kids seek advice to escape bullies and chickens. From the very entrance Jones is excitable and generous with his audience. Humble and giddy to be here, we are immediately put at ease ready to enjoy whatever he has crafted for us this evening. Pre-warning us “if you haven’t seen one of my shows before, ah ahaha. At least you’ll have a story”. There is loose plot, but we can put ourselves in his ‘study’ at home in his new house in Devon mid lockdown trying to create ‘new material’ to pay his mortgage. Longing to make new friends here, with anyone: neighbours, raili...

10Apr

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

The Retreat – White Bear Theatre

From the writer & creator of “Peep Show” & “Fresh Meat” comes a disappointing, often predictable farce on spirituality, mental health and the pressure of modern living. Monk-in-the-making Luke (Jed McLoughlin) escaped London’s City life and painful events to find inner peace at a spiritual retreat in the Scottish Highlands. His coke and sex addict of a brother, Tony (Harry Harding), comes to bring him down from his Gaelic cloud and back into carnal reality. Ensues an endless series of easy plot revelations, which sadly turns the play into a classic, yet unimaginative topping improv exercise of “Yes and…” There is little to no subtext here, nor emotional reality to hold on to. The somewhat intimate, confessional moments feel unearned. The childish blaming game gets old fast...

9Apr

By Anisha PucadyilNo Comments

London

Gunter – Royal Court

Gunter is haunting! Take a bow! Lydia Higman, Julia Grogan, and Rachel Lemon are three co-creators who prepared the show just in time for the Edinburgh Fringe 2023. They took the Fringe by storm with sold-out shows at Summerhall then. As you read this review, they continue their winning streak with sold-out shows at the Royal Court. The play wraps fiction, myth, past, and present with haunting imagery and spine-tingling music. My favourite moment on stage is young Anne centre stage, sitting with her period pain as the 'adults' trip over their own assumptions of what is happening without asking her. You wonder why you have never seen this before on stage. You wonder, after all these years, why we are still fighting wars and lamenting dead children instead of researching the deep pain wom...