THEATRE REVIEW

THEATRE REVIEW: The Constituent starring James Corden & Anna Maxwell Martin at the Old Vic

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN?: Friday 14 June 2024, opens 25 June and runs through 10 August 2024 RUNTIME: 90 minutes (no interval)

Corden writes the final episode of the beloved comedy Gavin and Stacey this Christmas and here stars in a timely drama as the titular constituent who seeks help from his hard-pressed MP.

  • Read on for reasons including how you should buy a ticket if you want to see Corden stretch himself as an actor and for the brilliance of Maxwell Martin
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THEATRE REVIEW: The Cherry Orchard starring Adeel Akhtar & Nina Hoss at the Donmar

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Saturday 15 July (matinee), runs through 22 June 2024 RUNTIME: 165 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

We’re in the front row and at the start of Act 2 a character asks the audience member on our left to get up on stage and dance with them.

  • Read on for reasons including how this striking adaptation is a triumph of gig theatre
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THEATRE REVIEW: Hamlet starring Eddie Izzard at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN?: Sunday 16 June, running through Sunday 30 June 2024 RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

It’s unusual for a performer to address their audience directly at the end of a show but Izzard does so here acknowledging it divided critics, urging fans to take to social media to spread the word about its appeal to the ‘young and young at heart’ before it departs this venue in a fortnight to go around the world.

  • Read on for reasons including how 1-person storytelling is a bit of a fashionable fad that is already starting to fray a little
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THEATRE REVIEW: Kiss Me Kate starring Adrian Dunbar & Stephanie J Block at the Barbican Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Saturday 8 June 2024, opens 18 June and runs through 14 September 2024 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

‘Mother of God!’ For those wondering what Sergeant Ted Hastings did next in the Line Of Duty, wonder no longer …

  • Read on for reasons including how this is set to be 1 of the most sizzling shows of this summer in London
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THEATRE REVIEW: Closer To Heaven starring Frances Ruffelle at the Turbine Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 1 June 2024, closes 30 June 2024 RUNTIME: 135 minutes (including a 15-minute interval) Update: now extended through 27 July 2024

We 1st saw this Pet Shop Boys musical on its debut at the intimate Arts Theatre in London’s West End in 2001 and then on its revival at Above The Stag in Vauxhall in 2019 and said: ‘If you’re a Pet Shop Boys fan you’ll marvel at just how good these songs are but also why being so ahead of its time can be the only reason why it wasn’t a bigger hit’. 

  • Read on for reasons including how this is our favourite ever musical and this is its best revival
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THEATRE REVIEW: Babies starring Zoe Athena & Bradley Riches at the Other Palace

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

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

WHEN? Saturday 1 June 2024 (matinee), and runs through 14 July 2024 RUNTIME: 120 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

This hilarious and really quite touching new British musical answers the question what would happen if you gave 9 Year 11 teens a robot baby each for a week that needs caring for 24/7 and cries, needs feeding and poops?

  • Read on for reasons including how you’ll go ga-ga for the songs and you’ll struggle to get the earworm Baby, Baby, Baby out of your head
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THEATRE REVIEW: Heathers: The Musical @SohoPlace

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Friday 24 May 2024, runs through 6 July 2024 and then tours the UK RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

‘What’s your damage, Heather?’ The moment we realise we’re not the target audience for this musical of an 80s cult film is when we start to see young women dressed in different coloured blazers as if part of the terrifying clique of bullies called Heather at its heart.

  • Read on for reasons including how to see this production in London and across the UK
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THEATRE REVIEW: Boys From The Blackstuff at the National Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 25 May 2024, runs through 8 June and then onto the Garrick Theatre 13 June through 3 August 2024 Tickets RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Songs including Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick by Ian Dury, Depeche Mode’s New Life and Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division play before curtain up to set the scene as the UK in 1982 or thereabouts.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is an adaptation that is always sensitive to the elements that made the original so human with a real sense of place and time
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THEATRE REVIEW: A View From The Bridge starring Dominic West, Kate Fleetwood & Callum Scott Howells at Theatre Royal Haymarket

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 25 May 2024, runs through 3 September 2024 2024 RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

The unnaturally blond hair and high-pitched giggle of Scott Howells’ Italian immigrant Rodolpho turns the stomach of West’s dock worker Eddie Carbone and the head of his niece Catherine.

  • Read on for reasons including how this production about immigrants who just want to work will have resonance in this election period and is brilliantly performed
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THEATRE REVIEW: Romeo and Juliet starring Tom Holland & Francesca Amewudah-Rivers at the Duke Of York’s Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

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

WHEN?: Monday 20 May, opens and runs through 3 August 2024 RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Outside it’s 1 of the hottest days of the year and inside this historic venue the most remarkable thing about this very Jamie Lloyd production of the Shakespeare classic is the absolute inferno of chemistry between its 2 leads.

  • Read on for reasons including how this Romeo and Juliet is very Jamie Lloyd and how Holland is well cast
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