Writers: Peter Groom and Oliver Gully Director: Olive Gully Reviewer: Maryam Philpott When we think of the sirens of the 1930s and 1940s, the golden age of Hollywood, we tend to focus on their glamour – the movies, the outfits, the lovers and, often, their own personal tragedies – but rarely do we place them in the context of world ...

Writer: Lisa Carroll Director: Debbie Hannan Reviewer: Maryam Philpott The pressure to fit in never really leaves you, whether you are a woman in her 30s expected to have a few children or an OAP behaving disgracefully instead of knitting tea cosies. But that need to conform exerts its most intense power on teenagers and young adults who barely know ...

Creators: Katy Schutte and Chris Mead Director: Erin McGathy Reviewer: Maryam Philpott There isn’t a huge amount of science fiction in London theatre making Thirteen Cycles, an improvised 60-minute show dedicated to an under-used field, an appealing prospect and a chance for its two performers to showcase what should be a diverse knowledge of alien planets and advanced technologies along ...

Creator: Wilkie Branson   Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Dancer Wilkie Branson’s new film TOM is full of foreboding and intrigue.  Shadowy figures populate stunning landscapes and dystopian cities in this story of a man trying to find his place in the world. The film certainly looks good, and if Keanu Reeves were to make a dance movie then TOM might be the result. ...

Music and Lyrics: Matt Board Book: Reina Hardy Director: Grace Taylor Reviewer: Karl O'Doherty If you’ve never had the joy of attending a con(vention) for a relatively niche cultural obsession, then some of the wide-eyed enthusiasm here may alarm you. If you’re a seasoned attendee, however, with this musical you can bask in the feeling that you’re in a safe ...

Director: Dean Elliott Reviewer: Scott Matthewman The band-biography-as-jukebox-musical genre has, for the time being at least, receded from the West End. With so many proponents from Jersey Boysto Sunny Afternoonand Beautiful, it has often felt as if the book were an inconvenient interruption for wallowing in an artist or group’s back catalogue. No such pretence is in evidence for The ...

Artistic Director: Fez Fa’anana Reviewer: Maryam Philpott There are some shows that exist entirely in their own space, often combining different performance arts, and impossible to rate on anything except their own terms. Arriving at the Spiegeltent in Leicester Square until the New Year, Briefs latest Boylesque-meets-circus-meets-drag show Close Encounters is exactly that, a world apart, a high entertainment cabaret that ...

Writer: Miriam Sherwood Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Miriam Sherwood’s grandparents threw the biggest parties in the darkest times. Surviving the Nazis in the Second World War, and then surviving the political purges of the 1970s, Sherwood’s grandparents managed to remain in Slovakia for decades before they were forced to flee to Munich. Rendezvous in Bratislava is Sherwood’s attempt to recreate one of ...