London Reviews

Book, Music and Lyrics: Scott Alan Director: Scott Alan Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Scott Alan’s songwriting has a definite cachet among musical theatre cabaret performers. His pensive, yearning ballads provide a great opportunity for a singer to emote and demonstrate emotional depth as part of their set. A whole evening of such numbers, though, can risk monotony. There’s an earnestness to ...

Writer and Director: Nina Raine Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Hot on the heels of Consent, which scored a West End transfer for the National, comes Nina Raine’s new play Stories, charting one woman’s journey to find a sperm donor. Despite some very fine acting, Stories seems like a pilot for an abandoned TV sitcom from twenty years ago. Anna wants a baby and reaching ...

Book: George Furth Music/Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim Director: Marianne Elliott Reviewer: Karl O'Doherty Genuine insight is rare - and is marked by being something completely obvious as a truth, though the thought may not have occurred to you before. Premiering in 1970 as a musical about contemporary attitudes to sexuality and relationship status, it ruffled feathers, won awards and revealed that ...

Writer: Oliver Lansley Directors: Oliver Lansley and James Seager Reviewer: Scott Matthewman As the centenary of the Armistice approaches, it feels an appropriate time to revive Les Enfants Terribles’ 2012 show The Trench, set in the muddy battlefields of World War I – and far below them. Lansley’s script takes the form of an epic poem: the combination of battle ...

Writer: Joe Eyre Director: Will Maynard Reviewer:  Richard Maguire  In a world like ours a woman gives birth to a crocodile. After some tests at the hospital the woman and her husband are allowed to take Sarah, their new ‘daughter’, home, but instead of making her snug in a cot, they slip her into a half-filled sink. Thus begins Joe ...

Musical Director: Michael Bramwell Director: Michael Gyngell Reviewer: Dan English The Fab Four continue to ply their trade as the songs and careers of The Beatles are delved into within the touring production of Let It Be. Chronicling Liverpool’s most famous export’s journey into trans-Atlantic stardom, this jukebox tribute follows the astronomical rise of Paul, Ringo, John and George as ...

Composer: George Gershwin Libretto: DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin, based on the play by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Director: James Robinson Reviewer: Scott Matthewman There has not been much in the way of good news coming from English National Opera of late. Perhaps – just perhaps – this new production of the Gershwins’ musical crowning glory, a co-production with New ...

Creators: Neon Dance Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Puzzle Creature, or, perhaps, Adventures in and out of a Polytunnel, is an ambitious project by dance company Neon Dance that doesn’t quite find its feet. Arriving at The Place, we are asked to leave our shoes and coats in the bar. The publicity for the show suggests that we will share the same ...