THEATRE REVIEW

THEATRE REVIEW: Kimberly Akimbo starring Maria Friedman at Hampstead Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN? Saturday 29 August, opens Wednesday 9 September and and runs through 7 November 2026 RUNTIME: 165 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

The key to the success of this Tony Award-winning musical is the casting of its leading lady who can convince as a 16-year-old ageing four times more quickly than her peers and as the pensioner she physically appears to be.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is is filled with joy, love and laughs even at its tear-spattered finale
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THEATRE REVIEW: The Story starring Letitia Wright & Lorraine Toussaint at National Theatre

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By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN? Friday 28 August, opens 3 September and runs through 24 October 2026 RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

The best thing about this revival of a 2003 US play inspired by a 1981 scandal in which a journalist won a Pulitzer Prize for writing about an inner city child only to later admit the story was fraudulent is the promising performance of Letitia Wright (pictured centre above) at its heart.

  • Read on for reasons including why today’s UK headlines would be a more relevant place for this venue to seek to represent the population it should be serving
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THEATRE REVIEW: A Month In The Country starring Sophie Okonedo at Donmar Warehouse

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Monday 24 August, opens 2 September and runs through 3 October 2026 RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Sophie Okonedo (Medea, @SohoPlace) is the beating heart of this revival of Brian Friel’s (Dancing At Lughnasa, National) take on this very Chekhovian tale of an 1840s Russian landowner’s wife’s infatuation with her son’s young tutor.

  • Read on for reasons including how Okonedo relishes the opportunity to be the emotional focus
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THEATRE REVIEW: Electra/Persona starring Cate Blanchett & Nina Hoss at National Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****/***

WHEN? Saturday 22 August, opens 1 September and runs through 10 October 2026 RUNTIME: 130 minutes (without interval)

Perhaps predictably this mash-up of Greek tragedy with Ingmar Bergman is a play of 2 halves.

  • Read on for reasons including how Blanchett and Hoss conjure literal theatrical electricity
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THEATRE REVIEW: Abigail’s Party starring Tamzin Outhwaite at Harold Pinter Theatre

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Saturday 15 August and runs through 19 September 2026 RUNTIME: 120 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Growing up in the 70s with the sounds of Demis Roussos and taste of cheesy pineapple skewers, even the aspiration was palpable.

  • Read on for reasons including how Outhwaite as Beverley performs remarkable comedy magic
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THEATRE REVIEW: Death Note The Musical at Barbican Centre

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN? Saturday 1 August, opens 11 August and runs through 12 September 2026.

It feels like musical theatre has never been more popular and yet we can’t help but also think that not everything’s ripe to see its characters burst into song.

  • Read on for reasons including how this should have stuck to its Post-Its rather than its musical notes
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THEATRE REVIEW: I’m Every Woman: The Chaka Khan Musical starring Alexandra Burke at Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

WHEN? Sunday 2 August (matinee), opens 4 August and runs through 27 September 2026 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

X Factor winner Burke (Chicago, Phoenix Theatre) is Chaka Khan and encores with a mash-up of her biggest hits – I Feel For You, Ain’t Nobody and I’m Every Woman – and it’s a joyous end to the story of a complicated woman born ahead of her time in the surprise hit show of the summer.

  • Read on for reasons including how we were expecting to see Burke’s understudy
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THEATRE REVIEW: Cats starring Melanie La Barrie & Gary Wilmot at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Saturday 1 August (matinee), opens 6 August and runs through 12 September 2026 RUNTIME: 135 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

It’s the extraordinarily moving song Memory – sample lyric: ‘I remember the time I knew what happiness was, let the Memory live again’ – which elevates this Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on T.S. Eliot’s poems in Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats.

  • Read on for reasons including how to see this show on tour around the UK after this run
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THEATRE REVIEW: How The Other Half Loves at the Old Vic starring Roger Allam

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Wednesday 29 July, opens 11 August and runs through 19 September 2026 RUNTIME: 180 minutes (with a 20-minute interval but aiming for 150 minutes)

Olivier Award-winner Roger Allam (A Number, Bridge Theatre) is the hilarious best reason to see this farce as bumbling businessman Frank Foster who fails to realise his wife is cheating on him.

  • Read on for reasons including how this timely production could ride the crest of the wave as a whole new audience discovers its writer’s genius
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THEATRE REVIEW: Cleansed starring Pearl Chanda, Jack Riddiford, Stuart Thompson & Leo Bill at the Almeida Theatre

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN? Friday 24 July, opens 29 July and runs through 29 August 2026 RUNTIME: 100 minutes (no interval)

Our performance is stopped almost midway through for what was described as ‘a 1st aid front of house incident’ and we imagine it was in response to the spurting blood as a character’s tongue is cut off.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is exactly the sort of play that can remind about the power of theatre to change its audience
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