UK / West End Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations

Review: FASCINATING AIDA, Royal Festival Hall
by Franco Milazzo - January 03, 2025

And so yet another Fascinating Aïda tour comes to a close. Having already dipped into their latest extended jaunt around the UK a couple of times already, one thing has become abundantly clear: the second best thing about going to see this celebrated cabaret outfit has been experiencing the reaction...

Review: THE NUTCRACKER, Royal Albert Hall
by Franco Milazzo - January 02, 2025

When I first saw The Nutcracker, I was convinced one of these things must be true: either someone had spiked my drink, the cast were all on drugs or we were all in some kind of baffling nightmare. No other explanation seemed plausible to my young mind....

Review: MARIA, in Cinemas and Streaming
by Gary Naylor - December 31, 2024

Angelina Jolie is compelling in a movie that concentrates on the misery to the exclusion of almost everything else in the diva's life...

Review: THESE GAYS! THEY'RE TRYING TO..., The Divine
by Amber-Rae Stobbs - December 31, 2024

Riotous queer theatre show is NSFW - in a good way!...

Review: HANSEL AND GRETEL, Royal Ballet and Opera
by Gary Naylor - December 29, 2024

Macabre and spectacular, this is Christmas fare as it once was and should still be, fully trusting its audience....

Review: THE CREAKERS, Southbank Centre
by Christiana Rose - December 30, 2024

Based on Tom Fletcher’s best-selling children’s book and adapted by scriptwriter Miranda Larson, The Creakers musical is an escapade which highlights the very real need for sustainability, through a tale about Lucy and the ‘kidderlings’ of Whiffington. The children wake up to find that all of the ad...

Review: LONDON COMMUNITY GOSPEL CHOIR AT CHRISTMAS, Royal Albert Hall
by Franco Milazzo - December 27, 2024

There’s something about the London Community Gospel Choir that will get any place - even one as large and grand as the Royal Albert Hall - up on their feet, dancing, clapping and singing along as if their entire Christmas was rolled into this one night....

Critics' Choice: Gary Naylor's Best Theatre of 2024
by Gary Naylor - December 26, 2024

There's praise for plays old and new and musicals, well, mainly old...

Review: PLEASE RIGHT BACK, Southbank Centre
by Franco Milazzo - December 23, 2024

Somewhere in that creative space between cinema and live drama, Please Right Back looks at family, fantasy and the place fiction plays in difficult times....

Review: JOHN, Arch Film Studio
by Amber-Rae Stobbs - December 22, 2024

A play that deserves a larger audience in 2025...

Review: SLEEPING BEAUTY, The Bridge House Theatre
by Gary Naylor - December 22, 2024

Traditional fringe panto offers value and and the comfort of familiarity and escapism at Christmas...

Review: PAN, Chickenshed Theatre
by Gary Naylor - December 20, 2024

Pan is back with songs and spectacle and a lesson about what really matters in life...

Review Roundup: What Did the Critics Think of Sigourney Weaver in THE TEMPEST?
by Aliya Al-Hassan - December 20, 2024

The Jamie Lloyd Company presents The Tempest,  the first production in a season of Shakespeare in London’s iconic Theatre Royal Drury Lane....

Review: THE TEMPEST, Theatre Royal Drury Lane
by Alexander Cohen - December 20, 2024

As achingly monotone as it is aggressively monochrome....

Review: DUCK POND, Southbank Centre
by Aliya Al-Hassan - December 20, 2024

When circus is performed well, it is as high an art form as perfectly executed ballet or impeccable Shakespearean oratory. When it falls down in execution, it falls hard. Australian circus company Circa's production Duck Pond unfortunately belongs in the latter camp....

Review: SLAVA'S SNOWSHOW, Harold Pinter Theatre
by Josh Maughan - December 19, 2024

For a family living in London, there is a diverse catalogue of Christmas shows ripe for attendance. With current ticket prices, picking the right show is crucial for both all-round enjoyment and the bank account. Slava’s Snow Show is back in London at the Harold Pinter Theatre, and if you’re looking...

Review: REVEL PUCK CIRCUS: THE RUCKUS, Fellowship Square
by Franco Milazzo - December 18, 2024

With enough vim and vigour to light up the nearby town hall, Revel Puck Circus brings The Ruckus back to their hometown of Walthamstow as part of their Winter Festival....

Review: RICK ASTLEY'S SWINGING CHRISTMAS, Royal Albert Hall
by Laura Jones - December 18, 2024

Rick Astley returns to the Royal Albert Hall for his Swinging Christmas big band concert. Backed by the superb band, Astley delivers a mix of classic jazz, seasonal favourites, and a certain hit of his own, creating a festive evening full of timeless Christmas cheer....

Review: CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, Almeida Theatre
by Gary Naylor - December 18, 2024

Daisy Edgar-Jones and Kingsley Ben-Adir lead a fine cast in an impressive, if gruelling, examination of the destructive power of mendacity...

Review: CYRANO, Park Theatre
by Louise Penn - December 18, 2024

Virginia Gay's Cyrano is billed as 'after Edmond Rostand' and is far more than a faithful adaptation of the classic tragic tale of doomed romance. In reimagining the play, Gay finds an interesting central role for herself as the overlooked and lovesick Cyrano, wishing for more from her friendship wi...

Critics' Choice: Christiana Rose's Best Children's Shows of 2024
by Christiana Rose - December 18, 2024

In an evolving year of children’s theatre, the themes of climate change and sustainability reign supreme, with a lean towards immersive and inclusive theatre with excellent changes in the industry meaning prior access resources are provided as a matter of course. These resources are often made avail...

Review: THE INVENTION OF LOVE, Hampstead Theatre
by Alexander Cohen - December 17, 2024

Don’t be fooled. It’s midwinter and a rotund man with a big white beard is centre stage. But this is no schmultz-fest panto. It’s Simon Russell Beale as A.E Housman in Blanche Mcintyre’s sober new production of Tom Stoppard’s portrait of the artist as an old man, The Invention Of Love....

Review Roundup: NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 at the Donmar Warehouse
by Aliya Al-Hassan - December 17, 2024

Arriving in the glittering opulent world of Moscow High Society, the impulsive and romantic Natasha Rostova awaits the return of her fiancé from the front lines. But when she falls under the spell of an intoxicating aristocrat, it is up to the unlikely hero, Pierre, to pick up the pieces of her shat...

Review: TREVOR NELSON'S SOUL CHRISTMAS, The Royal Albert Hall
by Mica Blackwell - December 17, 2024

Trevor Nelson's fifth Soul Christmas is a funky festive offering that showcases the communal power of music. Featuring a group of iconic soul and R'n'B singers doing what they do best, it was a joyous evening that lifted the Scroogiest of spirits....

Review: NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812, Donmar Warehouse
by Debbie Gilpin - December 16, 2024

“Nothing is trivial, and nothing is important, it’s all the same.' Conflict rages around the world, and yet normal life (with its requisite anxieties) is expected to go on regardless. This is the situation in which Tolstoy’s War and Peace characters find themselves; the Napoleonic Wars continue, but...