Drum roll please…(Cue a literal drum rolling across the stage.) The Lyric pantomime is one of traditions with the return of many well-loved jokes and skits. Costumes and sets are all made at the Lyric itself by Good Teeth, with set pieces being reused year on year. This year Cinderella gets the Hammersmith makeover, with … More CINDERELLA – REVIEW – LYRIC HAMMERSMITH
Wishmas is a 60-minute walkthrough immersive experience consisting of 6 magical rooms filled with colourful characters and activities. As you help save wishes alongside the Wishkeepers, reindeer, and the big man himself, to ensure no wish is forgotten. Each room has its own theme – from a train simulator with wonderful soaring scenery video projections, … More WISHMAS: A FANTASTICAL CHRISTMAS ADVENTURE – REVIEW
Malevo, created by director, choreographer, and dancer, Matías Jaime, is an all-male dance troupe that has appeared on America’s Got Talent and Cirque du Soleil, and has residency in Disneyland Japan. Malevo performs its take on the Argentine Malambo, a traditional dance handed down from older Argentinian Gauchos (South American Cowboys). The 90 minute programme … More MALEVO – REVIEW – PEACOCK THEATRE
I came to see this show at last year’s Fringe and fell in love with it. I was keen to see if my memory of the play was accurate or if those rose-tinted glasses had set in… I’m pleased to say it was just as funny as I remember! The Defectors were formed in 2022 … More DEFECTIVE INSPECTOR & DEFECTIVE INSPECTOR: A STITCH IN TIME – REVIEW – CAMDEN FRINGE
A stunningly lavish production, the English National Ballet brings Cinderella in-the-round to the Royal Albert Hall. The scenery relied heavily on projections (designed by Daniel Brodie), but these were so beautifully done, transforming the space into gardens, palaces, ballrooms, kitchens and magical worlds with such precision and wonder. Drapes fall from the ceiling and are scooped into … More CINDERELLA IN THE ROUND – REVIEW – ROYAL ALBERT HALL
Storytelling at its finest; Northern Ballet’s version of The Great Gatsby is inspired. A true ensemble piece with strong storytelling and characterisation, there are no background characters here, with each personality shining through in solos to duets and group scenes. The story is familiar to many, taken from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s modern classic The Great … More THE GREAT GATSBY – REVIEW – SADLERS WELLS
John Godber’s Teechers follows three Year 11 students putting on their end-of-term play, documenting the new Drama Teacher, Miss Nixon, during her first year at Whitewall School. Miss Nixon attempts to inspire her students to love drama, she also fights against the unfair system, and the temptation from local private schools. Salty, Gail, and Hobby, … More TEECHERS LEAVERS ‘22 – REVIEW – GREENWICH THEATRE
Nederlands Dans Theater’s NDT 1 programme consists of 3 pieces: La Ruta, Gods and Dogs, and Figures in Extinction [1.0]. Gabriela Carrizo’s La Ruta I don’t even know where to begin! A road with a bus stop visited by a range of dream-like characters, each more gruesome and bizarre, “bleeding through the cracks of a … More NDT 1 – REVIEW – SADLERS WELLS
The original Quality Street play, written by J. M Barrie (writer of Peter Pan) premiered in 1901. A sweet (pun intended) romantic comedy in which our heroine Phoebe (brilliantly played by Paula Lane) tries to survive when the love of her life leaves for the wars, only to return 10 years later and not recognise … More QUALITY STREET – REVIEW – RICHMOND THEATRE
Jungle Book reimagined is set in the future, where the impact of climate change floods has humans leaving the cities for higher ground. Mowgli, a climate refugee, is lost to the waters and saved by the animals who have now claimed the city, the human concrete jungle, as their own. A hunter is killing off … More JUNGLE BOOK REIMAGINED – REVIEW – SADLER’S WELLS THEATRE
Creature takes inspiration from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, focusing on the essence of the Monster’s plight: loneliness, exclusion, and her warning against abandoning what you have created. Creature starts where Frankenstein ends. Creature is in an arctic research station, the subject of experimentation to test endurance and adaption for future missions: colonising off earth. We follow his … More CREATURE – REVIEW – SADLER’S WELLS THEATRE
Gone Too Far! is a funny, moving and utterly relevant play about identity, culture, and what it is to know yourself. Gone Too Far! is the story of two brothers brought up apart – one in Nigeria, one in Peckham – brought back together and navigating their relationship, their culture, and their identity against the … More GONE TOO FAR! – REVIEW – THEATRE ROYAL STRATFORD EAST
Flabbergast Theatre’s Macbeth is a visceral, crawling, clawing, earthy interpretation of the story of ambition, murder, and the power of suggestion. The audience arrives whilst the ensemble moves around the floor, screaming, laughing, and moving animalistically, while being interrupted by gongs. They are covered in clay and dust and are dripping – it certainly creates … More MACBETH – REVIEW – SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE
The principal dancer of the New York City Ballet, Tiler Peck brings a varied and compelling programme, Turn It Out to Sadlers Wells. The programme consists of four pieces, all with their own unique style. Each piece is worth watching at least twice to fully appreciate the intricacies, musicality, and skill of the dancers. Opening … More TURN IT OUT WITH TILER PECK & FRIENDS – REVIEW – SADLERS WELLS
Ballet Black: Pioneers is split into two pieces, Then and Now (2020) and Nina: By Whatever Means. The first piece, Then and Now (2020) is storytelling through words, music and dance. The combination of poetry by Adrienne Rich read by Hafsah Bashir, Natasha Gordon, and Michael Shaeffer, and the violin solo of Daniel Pioro with … More BALLET BLACK: PIONEERS – REVIEW – BARBICAN
A simple open, bare stage greets the audience, Dada Masilo enters the stage, seemingly in the middle of a dance. It’s powerful, energetic, and sharp in movement. Ann Masina, the stunning vocalist then enters, greeting Masilo and moving to join the other musicians. The back of the stage changes to display the projection of a … More DADA MASILO’S THE SACRIFICE – REVIEW – SADLERS WELLS
South Bank Royal Festival Hall is a space I usually associate with classical music, full choirs, and orchestras. This is the first dance piece I have seen in the space. The staging is curiously bare to begin with. The stage is black, and a full light set up – house lights included – remain for … More REVIEW – COWPUNCHER MY ASS – SOUTHBANK CENTRE
The audience arrive to see raised and tilted lengths of wood, a small space in which the ensemble perform the entire piece. The turn table stage becomes a raft, a journey across a continent and a journey across the UK to find a sense of belonging and family in the UK care system. Dritan Kastrati, whose real life experience forms the … More REVIEW – HOW NOT TO DROWN – THEATRE ROYAL STRATFORD EAST
You enter a set up with tiered cinema/theatre seating with the stage under an archway. Five monitors and one mic stand are set up. “The best things in life are free” plays on a loop with videos playing on each of the monitors: jellyfish, clocks ticking backwards, waterfalls, amusement rides. These are motifs of time, … More REVIEW – CACEROLEO – VAULT FESTIVAL
This modern take on one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays hits you in the senses from the moment you enter the theatre. The space is immediately loud and brash: club music at club volume, making it actually quite hard to think as you first walk in. A simple bar is set up with pool table … More REVIEW – OTHELLO – LYRIC HAMMERSMITH
