REVIEWS Archives - Page 2 of 563

25Feb

By NewsdeskNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Dry Bits – Crucible Playhouse

Imogen Ashby, with support from Sheffield Theatres and the LEVEL Centre, brought her raucous, raw solo show ‘Dry Bits’ to the Crucible Playhouse stage. What followed was a night of humour, vulnerability, ferocity and honesty. To the show’s credit, whilst a one-woman piece about menopause might feel like it has a very clear target audience (and it does), it is ultimately a story about change, memory and how we attach and detach ourselves emotionally from moments, events and conditions of past, present and future life. That seems loaded, but this show also knows exactly what it is and isn’t afraid to put that on the tin (the show’s title doesn’t leave much to the imagination, for example). The concept is delivered with great playfulness and kookiness to good comedic effect. Ashb...

25Feb

By Natalia PrucnalNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Single White Female – Sheffield Lyceum

‘Single White Female’ is an intense psychological thriller, adapted by Rebecca Reid from the iconic 1992 film under the same name, but with a modern twist for its 2026 audience. The script takes many creative liberties in updating the story from the source material, but generally does so fluidly, despite the occasional already-outdated reference and odd pacing of the end of the second act. The play follows Allie and her teenage child Bella, as they navigate life in a skyscraper apartment. Allie’s ex-husband, Sam, tells her his new fiancée is pregnant and cannot afford to support them, so Graham (Allie’s coworker and best friend) encourages her to look for a roommate. Online they quickly find Hedy. Hedy’s relationship grows with both Allie and Bella, but things take a turn for the worst,...

Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes – Liverpool Empire

25Feb

By Jo TillotsonNo Comments

North West

Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes – Liverpool Empire

A dancer enters the stage wearing vibrant red ballet shoes, the lighting renders her faceless, the music boldly proclaims that there is drama ahead… I am already hooked. A timeless tale of love, passion and conflict perfectly plays out from start to finish. A ensemble dancer is discovered by a ballet impresario, but are his obsession and her desires compatible? This tour of The Red Shoes celebrates the tenth anniversary of its original production and is a celebration of art and performance. The beautiful score originally composed by Bernard Herrmann is beautifully orchestrated for this company by Terry Davies. The visual identity of the piece is beyond description, and, quite simply, begs to be seen. Lez Brotherston’s set, with its grand moving proscenium arch and clever use of material...

The Woman in Black – Liverpool Playhouse

25Feb

By Stephanie WiswallNo Comments

North West

The Woman in Black – Liverpool Playhouse

Step back in time with one of the most popular and spine-tingling tales in the history of London’s West End, 'The Woman in Black' by Susan Hill. Currently touring the UK after its successful long reign in London, I had the absolute pleasure of witnessing last night’s production in Liverpool’s very own Playhouse. The playwright for this production was Stephen Mallatratt and it was directed by Robin Herford. The tale of the Woman in Black has had audiences gripped for over 30 years, it’s legacy and accomplishments have led it to become an equally prosperous film franchise starring Daniel Radcliffe. A macabre tale of one Mr Arthur Kripps (Philip Stewart), a young and carefree solicitor who has his future mapped out with his soon-to-be-wife, is sent to an unsettling and ominous estate to fi...

25Feb

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Sunny Afternoon – Leeds Grand Theatre

If you thought Liam and Noel were the most quarrelsome rock ‘n’ roll siblings, this often dark jukebox musical featuring the hits of The Kinks will make you think again. The decades-long sibling rivalry at the band’s creative heart, tortured songwriter Ray Davies and his wild guitarist sibling Dave, make the Gallagher boys look like choirboys in comparison. They were at each other’s throats from the moment they formed The Kinks in Muswell Hill with constant bickering, plus onstage fistfights, which led to them being the only UK pop act banned from America at the heart of their powers, denying them the chance to be huge across the pond. They probably wouldn’t have made it big like the Fab Four or The Who as Ray’s often bittersweet classics that are all included in the show are so quin...

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical – Birmingham Hippodrome

25Feb

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical – Birmingham Hippodrome

"Go and see Percy Jackson!” they said. “Who?” I replied, immediately betraying my ignorance of popular culture. Is this a pop star who has gone under my radar? Most have since the turn of the century to be fair. Is it some form of movie star only know to a myriad of teens? Is it a strange strain of that global phenomenon known as a YouTuber? No, no, no. If, like me, you are in the dark, allow me to throw some light your way. It seems the author Ricki Riordan has been bashing out stories about Percy for over twenty years initially inspired by his own son’s struggle in school. Percy is a demi-god (Half-divine, half-human) son of a mortal and Poseidon, the famous Greek god, who continually finds himself ensnared in rip-roaring adventures in a series of now seven books. There now we know. Perc...

25Feb

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Operation Mincemeat – The Lowry

Back in April 2023, my daughter and I were in London’s theatre-land, seeking something cheerful and light after enduring a four-hour production of A Little Life — a play that had left us both in a numbly depressed state. A tiny show had just opened at the Fortune Theatre, just off Covent Garden, and we decided to take a risk on some cheap, last-minute tickets. It turned out to be a very wise decision. The show was Operation Mincemeat and, in the ensuing three years, it has garnered universal audience adoration, five-star reviews galore, continued success in the West End, and a Broadway transfer with resulting Tony and Olivier Awards recognition. The next step in its seemingly inexorable rise is a world tour, which kicks off with a glitzy “yellow carpet” premiere in Salford — cementing i...

24Feb

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

Blink – King’s Head Theatre

Phil Porter’s Blink at King’s Head Theatre is a darkly funny and tender meditation on loneliness, voyeurism and the ways in which we connect in today's modern world. Sophie’s father has died, leaving her spiralling, falling back in on herself and showing all the signs of mental health issues. Jonah has run away from the religious commune he was raised in after finding a bag of thousands of pounds his mother left him after she died. Through a series of small coincidences, Jonah unknowingly rents the flat below Sophie. Not knowing Jonah at all, Sophie sends him a baby monitor, a screen hooked up to a camera in her flat and he starts to watch here in small doses and quickly moves to constant viewing. Despite their closeness, just a floor apart, their actual paths never cross. Jonah takes t...

24Feb

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Head. Heart. Hand. – Traverse Theatre

Stef Smith is an uncompromising writer. Edinburgh’s Queen Margaret University has some history. What might a collision between the two produce? Commissioned to mark ‘150 years of hope, action and education’ it’s performed by a cast of the university’s acting and performance students, bookended by crises; the poverty and hunger that inspired its founding in 1875 and the cuts to and erosion of the education sector that started in the 1970’s, persisting to the present day. It’s almost as if, following the 60’s, someone felt education might pose a threat. The story alighted upon two other milestones in the institution’s journey, the wartime contributions of the students (many spent time in London looking after bomb repair workers dealing with the effects of Hitler’s 1944 rocket offensiv...

The Story of Peer Gynt: An Evening with Kåre Conradi – The Coronet Theatre

24Feb

By Ralph JeffreysNo Comments

London

The Story of Peer Gynt: An Evening with Kåre Conradi – The Coronet Theatre

The Story of Peer Gynt is part lecture, part show and altogether brilliant. On a stage that is almost entirely bare, save a single chair turned away from the audience, Kåre Conradi welcomes us. He begins to tell us a bit about Ibsen, about Peer Gynt and about the Norwegian award named after him. In the space of just over an hour, he promises he will take us through the story. He does this by switching between a description of the plot in the manner of an engaged lecturer and sudden moments of dramatisation, where – with a surprising ease – he takes on the emotions, ambitions and character of Peer. Most of these moments he gives to us in English. Occasionally, he slips into the original Norwegian, though never without giving those of us who can’t speak it a clear sense of what he is sayi...