London Reviews

Writer:  Jordan Seavey Director:  Josh Seymour Reviewer:  Richard Maguire This tidy, but talky, examination of gay life in America is the latest addition to plays about LGBTQ+ people being shown in London this summer. It’s a ripe period with the Young Vic’s The Inheritance and Fun Home, the White Bear’s A Little Hero and the King’s Head Theatre’s whole season of queer ...

Music: Mark-Anthony Turnage Director: Jonathan Moore Reviewer: Maryam Philpott In recent years, opera companies have worked hard to shake off their elitist image. Cheaper ticket prices, more work performed in the English language and initiatives such as opera up-close, taking shows to more intimate venues. Mark-Anthony Turnage and Jonathan Moore know that story and setting are half the battle, and ...

Writer:  Valeriy Pecheykin Director:  Charlotte Evans Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Many of us can remember Thatcher’s Clause 28 of 1988, which prohibited the promotion of homosexuality by local boroughs, and the teaching in schools of homosexuality as a ‘pretended’ family relationship. In 2013 Russia introduced its own version where homosexuality cannot be discussed in front of children. A Little Hero, a Russian ...

Writer: Abigail Hood Director:Glen Walford and Kevin Tomlinson Reviewer: Maryam Philpott In the middle of a very personal tragedy, help can come from the most unexpected sources and you might find a lasting friendship in the last place you would think to look. Abigail Hood’s new play Spiral, in which she also stars, has its debut at the Park Theatre ...

Writer: Daniel Winder Director: Paul-Ryan Carberry Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Alexandre Dumas’ historical fiction set in the court of Louis XIII has been a fertile one for adaptation ever since it was first published. There is something about the fellowship of its central quartet of characters – the titular trio of Porthos, Athos and Aramis, plus the ingenue country boy D’Artagnan ...

Book:  Jeff Whitty Music and Lyrics: Amanda Green, Tom Kitt, and Lin-Manuel Miranda Director:  Ewan Jones Reviewer:  Richard Maguire The youthful cast of this American high school musical certainly bring it on, but it’s a shame that the Southwark Playhouse didn’t bring on some air conditioning. Although Bring It On occasionally reaches camp zeniths, it’s the audience that remains smoking hot. ...

Book: Nadim Naaman Music and lyrics: Nadim Naaman and Dana Al Farden Director: Bronagh Lagan Reviewer: David Guest Important social issues mix with a heartbreaking love story in a new musical with a story to tell across decades, languages and cultures. Broken Wings is a tale of doomed passion set in turn of the century Beirut, based on the seminal ...

Writer: Oscar Wilde Director:Michael Fentimen Reviewer: Maryam Philpott At the end of Classic Spring’s year-long Oscar Wilde season, this final show has this phrase, taken from The Importance of Being Earnest, emblazoned across the safety curtain: 'If one tells the truth, one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out'. The fourth of Wilde’s plays to be staged by ...