WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE? Leicester Square Theatre RUNTIME: 60 minutes
WHEN? 7/9/19, closes 7/9/19
‘About me, the critics lied. I ignored them – and survived,’ sang character Billie Trix in song Friendly Fire (see below) played by Frances Barber in ahead-of-its-time 2001 Pet Shop Boys’ musical Closer To Heaven.
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHERE? Old Vic RUNTIME: 170 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
WHEN? 3/9, opens 5/9 and runs to 5/10/19
‘The only thing that’s criminal here is the £4 cost of a programme – and that you have to go outside to pee.’
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHERE? Other Palace RUNTIME: 160 minutes (with a 20-minute interval)
WHEN? 30/8, opens 5/9 and runs to 23/11/19
There is a song here, Breaking Down, that is so good and so well performed by Laura Pitt-Pulford that you’ll want to stand and cheer at its conclusion towards the end of the opening half.
WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2
WHERE? National Theatre (Lyttelton) RUNTIME: 90 minutes (no interval)
WHEN? 26/8, opens 29/8 and runs to 25/11/19
Stars Alex Jennings and Lindsay Duncan boast 5 Olivier Awards between them and we really couldn’t be in safer hands.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE? Turbine Theatre RUNTIME: 150 minutes (with a 20-minute interval)
WHEN? 25/8, opens 6/9 and runs to 13/10/19
Welcome to London’s newest theatre at a venue close to Battersea Power Station which we last visited in the late 90s for a pop gig starring Robbie Williams, Gary Barlow and All Saints.
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHERE? Noel Coward Theatre RUNTIME: 65 minutes (no interval)
WHEN? 20/8, opens 28/8 and runs to 14/9/19
No Time To Die is revealed as the title of the new Bond film Waller-Bridge co-wrote moments before she takes to the West End stage to kill off the character with which she made her name.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE? Gielgud Theatre RUNTIME: 170 minutes (including 20-minute interval)
WHEN? 17/8 and runs to 30/11/19
This year’s BBC adaptation of Les Miserables was song-free and here that idea is very much reversed with the focus on the score of the behemoth musical with the labyrinthine plot far less well explained.
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHERE? Donmar Warehouse RUNTIME: 165 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
WHEN? 16/8, opens 22/8 and runs to 5/10/19
The stage is so cluttered that at a suitably dramatic moment lead Monica Dolan turns on her heels, loses her balance, falls off the stage and ends up in an unsuspecting audience member’s lap.
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHERE? Almeida Theatre RUNTIME: 170 minutes (with 20-minute interval)
WHEN? 12/8, opens 20/8 and runs to 28/9/19
Welcome to writer/director Robert Icke’s final production as Associate Director at this venue in a remarkable run which has seen 3 West End transfers at 5 attempts.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE? Kiln Theatre RUNTIME: 120 minutes (including 20-minute interval)
WHEN? 3/8, runs to 7/9/19
It’s our 1st visit to north London’s refurbished Kiln Theatre and we’re in the centre of the front row to see Olivier Award-winning Sharon D. Clarke’s (pictured above) turn in this musical set in a rundown Chicago hotel in 1938 and concentrating on the lives of 3 women.
