Music: Cy Coleman Lyrics: Michael Stewart Book: Mark Bramble Director: Jonathan O’Boyle When it comes to a musical version of the life of Phineas Taylor Barnum, there is an elephant in the room – and we’re not talking about the large puppet that

Writer: Dongmeng Chen Director: Zhaoyi Ying Ming and Yifei have a beautiful house with an ocean view. Their happy life, where schoolteacher Ming loves to cook breakfast for the couple before Yifei heads off to her financial job, is threatened when

Writer: Lynn Beaumont Director: Charlotte Beaumont Lynn Beaumont met her husband Richard while they were both working on a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, but her telling of their life together starts at the end, as she

Writer: Ödön von Horváth, translated by Christopher Hampton Director: Matilda Ziegler Written in 1937, Ödön von Horváth’s Judgment Day is not explicitly about the rise of Nazism in the playwright’s native Germany. Its portrayal of a village that

Creators: Elina Saleh Franck and Richard Vincent Director: Richard Vincent Improv theatre is by its nature unpredictable. Actors may start with a preconceived idea of their characters and how they relate to each other, but without a script to follow, those assumptions can often change on the spot. Talking People’s five-night residency in the Bush

Writer: Morgan Lloyd Malcolm Director: Nicky Allpress Henry James’s novella The Turn of the Screw has encountered numerous adaptations, from the 1961 film The Innocents to Netflix’s 2020 series The Haunting of Bly Manor. There is something endlessly

Thelma & Louise continues at the Young Vic Theatre, London until 24 October 2026.Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩When a man is described as a ‘ladies’ man’, all a woman sees is a creep. That disparity lies at the heart of Thelma & Louise, the 1991…

Writer: Clifford Odets Director: Sam Yates American playwright Clifford Odets honed his craft at the height of the Great Depression, in the mid-1930s. The opulence of the 1920s had long since faded into memory, and alongside economic hardship at every turn, the dread of another world war loomed on the horizon. Odets funded his stage

Writers: Jean Syamali-Harris and Stanley McElligott Director: Stanley McElligott We’ve all sat through presentations given by people who weren’t really engaged with their topic. Whether that’s bored schoolchildren working on an assignment in which they have no interest, or work colleagues who just want to get through something so that they can get to the

Death Note: The Musical continues at the Barbican Theatre, London until 12 September 2026.Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩The Japanese supernatural crime manga series Death Note has been adapted into novels, anime series and live action films before…

Writer: Jonathan Caren Music: Ben Harper and CJ Harper Additional Music and Lyrics: Khalil Madovi Director: Daniel Bailey The socioeconomic disparity between members of the same family can be a powerful driver for storytelling. In Jonathan Caren’s Hit Machine, successful record producer Wes (Josh Radnor) is playing host to his little brother, Noah Galvin’s Alex,

The Jonathan Larson Project continues at Southwark Playhouse Borough, London until 22 August 2026.Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩The musical Rent has become a perennial hit since its debut in the mid-1990s, with a new West End revival due to open…

Writer: Chloë Moss Director: Felix Barrett The people who answer 999 calls and coordinate emergency responses are supposed to be perpetually calm and unflappable, providing a sense of order to what can be the most chaotic of situations. That is not a description one would apply to Joe, Russell Tovey’s operator, in Chloë Moss’s tense

Evangeline was reviewed at The Glitch, London.

Writer: Florian Zeller, translated by Christopher Hampton Director: Lindsay Posner When the French playwright Yasmin Reza described her play Art – classified as a comedy by audiences, critics, and awards ceremonies – she spoke of it as a tragedy. “Laughter is always a problem… the way people laugh changes the way you see a play.”

Morgan Gregory and Danielle Steers in Hot Mess at The Other Palace, London. Picture: Pamela Raith Hot Mess continues at The Other Palace, London until 6 September 2026. How do you make a musical about how mankind is destroying the world through…

Writers: Ian Chapman Black and Levenka Andrea Director: Tracy Collier The silent film era was perhaps the greatest period for mime and slapstick comedy. Without sound or dialogue, comedy was purely visual. In the similar dialogue-free Reel Life, creators Levenka Andrea and Ian Chapman Black play Algernon and Bruno, a duo of physical comedians. Their

Writer: Tim Connery Director: Nathan Osgood In the pantheon of American jazz musicians, Nat King Cole is probably best remembered for his remarkably smooth voice and for standards such as Straighten Up and Fly Right, Unforgettable, Nature Boy, and The Christmas Song. Beyond that, there are elements of his life that have fallen out of

As with all elements of ancient mythology, there is some blurriness around the Muses of Greek lore. Their number and origin have changed over the centuries, but the most common understanding is of nine goddesses, each of whom embodies one aspect of the arts. It is this set of nine that forms the inspiration for