By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2
WHEN?: Monday 18 December, runs through 27 January 2024
This Pinter play celebrates its 60th birthday this year and it invites us into a 1964 working class London living room which is the very definition of what we would now call ‘toxic masculinity’.
By Aline Mahrud
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHEN?: Wednesday 27 December, runs through 31 December 2023 RUNTIME: 155 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
‘The prince seems to be under some sort of spell,’ observes RuPaul’s Drag Race star Kate Butch as Queen Camilla, ‘Like the people who voted Brexit.’
By Aline Mahrud
WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2
WHEN?: Saturday 23 December (matinee), runs through 6 January 2024
What would Glenn Close think?
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2
WHEN?: Sunday 10 December (matinee), runs through 14 January 2024
This year’s Palladium pantomime is dedicated to its former star Paul O’Grady (Goldilocks and Cinderella) and during it Julian Clary says of him: ‘A year ago he sent me a card wishing me a warm hand on my opening adding that these days I probably needed 2.’
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ***/*****
WHEN?: Saturday 9 December, opens 15 December and runs through 10 February 2024 RUNTIME: 115 minutes (without interval) UPDATE: Transfers to the Harold Pinter Theatre 1 October through 14 December 2024 Tickets
Should the wearing of headphones ever be a requirement for theatre?
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2
WHEN?: Monday 4 December, opens 12 December and runs through 27 January 2024 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
Luke Thallon (Camp Siegfried, Old Vic, main picture) plays composer Wiktor who longs to write in communist-controlled Poland in 1949 and is drawn to the talented young singer Zula.
By Aline Mahrud
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHEN?: Saturday 2 December, runs through 13 January 2024 RUNTIME: 90 minutes (without interval)
Meet Orbis Rex, a rotund bundle of self-confidence with a mop of unkempt blond hair, musing whether the UK should Leave or Remain in the EU.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHEN?: Saturday 4 November (matinee), runs through 4 February 2024 RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
We can’t think of a less appropriate time to be staging this musical tale of producers who put on a Nazi-themed musical designed to fail to make money but are thwarted by a surprise hit.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHEN?: Saturday 25 November, runs through 7 January 2024 RUNTIME: 130 minutes (with a 20-minute interval)
‘Mirror, mirror on the wall – where is the greatest panto of them all?’
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2
WHEN?: Saturday 18 November (matinee), opens 21 November and runs through 27 January 2024
The best thing about this new musical version of the beloved Road Dahl children’s tale is Daniel Rigby’s comic turn as an increasingly exasperated Devon hotelier who is Basil Fawlty played by Eric Morecambe.
