Author: The Reviews Hub - London

Composers: Duke Ellington and Terence Blanchard Conductor: Daniela Candillari Trumpet: Terence Blanchard with The Terence Blanchard Quintet Focused on the vital yet perilous relationships between people and wild waters, this stirring programme in the LPO’s Harmony with Nature series features works from two of America’s most revered composers: Duke Ellington and Terence Blanchard, the latter playing live with his Quintet. In the pre-show talk, Gail Whiteman, head of Exeter University’s Nature and Climate Impact team, delivers a compelling set of climate change stats – “With each 1°C of warming the atmosphere can hold 7% more water vapour, intensifying floods… 1.5…

Directors: Ephrat Asherie and Michelle Dorrance The Center Will Not Hold at Sadler’s Wells announces the arrival of this production from The Dorrance Dance Company with a frenetic energy that leaves its audience breathless.  Not so much a rollercoaster as a top speed theme park tour, this hour-long show, born out of a tiny four-minute fragment four years ago, erupts onto the stage with vitality and exuberance. Created and directed by Ephrat Asherie and Michelle Dorrance, the piece expands a short duet into a full ensemble work, bringing together performers steeped in a dizzying array of styles: house, breaking, hip…

Writers: Nicolás Perez Costa and Matias Puricelli Director: Nicolás Perez Costa The infamous French libertine, the Marquis de Sade, is noted for several reasons. His history of mixing the infliction of pain upon others with his own sexual desires gave us the term sadism, but beyond that, he was a prolific writer, producing works throughout his many periods of incarceration in various prisons and asylums. Argentinian performer Nicolás Perez Costa, who has created this hour with cowriter Matias Puricelli, plays the Marquis dressed in a shocking pink tailcoat and breeches, evoking the 18th Century period in which the Marquis existed…

Book, Music and Lyrics: Stephen Dolginoff Director: Gerald Armin Stephen Dolginoff’s dark two-hander musical returns to London in a particularly stripped-back production by Gerald Armin. Based on the real-life case of two young men who murdered a boy in 1924 to prove that they were Nietzschean supermen, Thrill Me, now over 20 years old, has garnered a cult following and already Waterloo East has added more shows to its run due to demand. It was last seen in London at The Hope Theatre in 2019 in a production by Matthew Parker, which then transferred to Jermyn Street Theatre in 2022.…

Book: Jeff Whitty Music & Lyrics: Robert Lopez & Jeff Marx   20 years on from its original West End debut, Avenue Q is back, and as just as outrageous, ridiculous and hilarious as ever. Like a grown-up Sesame Street, the residents of Avenue Q are a tight-knit community who spend a lot of time together. Princeton (Noah Harrison) is the newest kid on the block, recently graduated with a BA in English and devoid of any job prospects, desperate to find his purpose in life. He meets his new neighbours quickly: Kate Monster (Emily Benjamin) is as suggested, a…

Writer: Krishna Istha Co-creator: Geetha Shankar Director: Milli Bhatia Second Trimester is a deeply personal work performed by Krishna Istha and Geetha Shankar as they draw on Geetha’s lived experience to illuminate her initial reluctance toward her trans son’s decision to become pregnant. Early on, we are told that Geetha, unlike Krishna, is not a trained performer and that she can take a three-minute break at regular intervals if needed. This framing quietly establishes the stakes of the piece as what unfolds is not just performance, but an act of real-time vulnerability. The show opens with a playful Would You…

Composers: Antonín Dvořák, Ryan Carter and Camille Saint-Saëns  Conductor: Lidiya Yankovskaya Piano: Tomoko Mukaiyama & Bizjak Piano Duo There’s humour and warmth in Saint-Saëns colourful Carnival of the Animals – and in a night including a journey across the Czech countryside and a contemporary piano concerto, the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s exploration of music and nature provides a charming evening of harmony and animation. It is fitting for the Southbank Centre’s ‘Harmony with Nature’ programming that upon entering the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Zoological Society of London is celebrating 200 years of the ZSL with a concert in the lobby. The archival…

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Florence Carr-Jones History and performance merge in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys as a group of grammar school boys in Sheffield take extra lessons in manipulating and contorting history in order to pass their Oxbridge entry test and interview. Glassroom Company offers up a slightly cramped and chaotic production at the Old Red Lion Theatre that underplays the sexual abuse of teenagers groped by one of their teachers but emphasises Bennett’s still shining script. The History Boys is an examination and celebration of different forms of intelligence; the traditional school learning that helps pupils pass standard…