THEATRE REVIEW

THEATRE REVIEW: Fallen Angels starring Janie Dee at the Menier Chocolate Factory

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK? ****

WHEN? Saturday 22 November (matinee), opens 2 December and runs through 21 February 2026 RUNTIME 120 minutes (including interval)

This Noel Coward comedy about 2 married women admitting to premarital sex and contemplating adultery was 1st performed in London 100 years ago with the theatre censor initially recommending it shouldn’t be staged because the morals of the female leads ‘would cause too great a scandal’.

  • Read on for reasons including how this production is as frivolous, light and intoxicating as the champagne bubbles that its leading ladies savour so enthusiastically here
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THEATRE REVIEW: All My Sons starring Bryan Cranston, Marianne Jean-Baptiste & Paapa Essiedu at the Wyndham’s Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK? *****

WHEN? Saturday 15 November, opens 21 November and runs through 7 March 2026 RUNTIME: 135 minutes (no interval)

Cranston (from TV’s Breaking Bad) plays under-fire US businessman Joe Keller post World War 2 in this Arthur Miller classic and occasionally sports a red baseball cap that can’t help but bring to mind the current US President.

  • Read on for reasons including how this exploration of the dark side of the American dream is the best production of this classic we’ve ever seen
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THEATRE REVIEW: Paddington The Musical at the Savoy Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK? ****

WHEN? Friday 14 November, opens 1 December and runs through 25 October 2026 RUNTIME: 165 minutes (with a 20-minute interval)

They say the devil has the best tunes and this new musical’s showstopper is reserved for its taxidermist villainess – Pretty Little Dead Things (listen below).

  • Read on for reasons including how it’s the strength of the songs that made us enjoy this show so much more than we expected
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THEATRE REVIEW: The Weir starring Brendan Gleeson at the Harold Pinter Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK? *****

WHEN? Tuesday 11 November, runs through 6 December 2025 RUNTIME: 100 minutes (no interval)

Conor McPherson (The Brightening Air, Old Vic) adapts The Hunger Games which opens this week in London and this won the Best New Play Olivier in 1999.

  • Read on for reasons including how Gleeson is spellbinding especially because he allows others to shine
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THEATRE REVIEW: The Producers starring Andy Nyman & Marc Antolin at the Garrick Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN? Saturday 18 October, runs through 19 September 2026 RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

We reviewed this revival of the Mel Brooks-written classic at the Menier Chocolate Factory last year and brought friends who’d never seen it to its West End transfer.

  • Read on for reasons including how Brooks virgins will be seduced by this marvellous musical comedy
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THEATRE REVIEW: Here And Now starring Rebecca Lock, Blake Patrick Anderson, River Medway & Finty Williams at New Victoria Theatre, Woking

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Tuesday 14 October, tour runs through 16 May 2026 RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

We catch this musical realisation of the Steps songbook shortly before the departure this week of its leading lady Rebecca Lock (Heathers, Other Palace) to musical Freaky Friday in Manchester.

  • Read on for reasons including how you’d be a deeper shade of blue if you missed out
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THEATRE REVIEW: Rocky Horror Show starring Jason Donovan at Teatre Coliseum, Barcelona

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Sunday 2 November 2025, European tour includes the UK and runs through 1 August 2026 RUNTIME: 120 minutes (with 20-minute interval)

It’s Halloween weekend and almost 2 years to the day after we last saw this musical at this very venue as we return to it with Jason Donovan (Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, London Palladium) this time playing the lead.

  • Read on for reasons including how Donovan’s charismatic performance is the delightful showbiz bow on a gift of a show
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THEATRE REVIEW: The Line Of Beauty at the Almeida Theatre starring Jasper Talbot

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK? *****

WHEN? Friday 24 October, opens 29 October and runs through 29 November 2025 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Jasper Talbot as Nick Guest snorts a line of cocaine in the toilet at a party and then offers to dance with prime minister Margaret Thatcher to Don’t Leave Me This Way by The Communards.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is a time capsule where deception is everything and little is as it seems
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THEATRE REVIEW: Hot Mess: A new musical at Southwark Playhouse (Elephant)

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Monday 20 October, opens 22 October and runs through 8 November 2025 RUNTIME: 65 minutes (no interval)

This scorching, thought-provoking 2-handed musical imagines a love story between Earth and humanity against a backdrop of worsening climate change.

  • Read on for reasons including how we wouldn’t be at all surprised if Hot Mess scorches its way to the West End next
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THEATRE REVIEW: Clarkston starring Joe Locke & Ruaridh Mollica at Trafalgar Studios

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN? Friday 3 October, runs through 22 November 2025 RUNTIME: 90 minutes (no interval)

Heartstopper‘s Locke plays Jake who is being trained by Ruaridh Mollica’s Chris to work the nightshift in the warehouse of superstore CostCo stacking shelves.

  • Read on for reasons including how Heartstopper fans won’t feel shortchanged by a drama which offers 1 of its stars navigating similar subject matter to the show that made his name
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