THEATRE REVIEW

THEATRE REVIEW: Brokeback Mountain starring Lucas Hedges & Mike Faist @sohoplace

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

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

WHEN?: Wednesday 10 May, runs until 12 August 2023

Songwriter Dan Gillespie Sells and director Jonathan Butterell have reunited after the success of musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie to create something quite understated, haunting and beautiful with their take on Brokeback Mountain.

  • Read on for reasons including how it is former Fairground Attraction frontwoman Eddi Reader who steals this show
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THEATRE REVIEW: A Play For The Living In A Time Of Extinction

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN?: Saturday 29 April (matinee), running to Saturday 29 April 2023 (evening) and then touring the UK until autumn 2023 RUNTIME: 70 minutes (no interval)

Lydia West’s (It’s A Sin, Channel 4) stage debut is a curious mix of uncomfortable audience interaction and despair at mankind-inspired climate change and species extinction.

  • Read on for reasons including how and where to see this production as it tours England
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THEATRE REVIEW: The Motive And The Cue starring Johnny Flynn, Mark Gatiss & Tuppence Middleton at the National Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 22 April, opens 2 May running to 15 July 2023 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (including a 20-minute interval) UPDATE: This productions transfers to the West End 9 December 2023 through 23 March 2024 at the Noel Coward Theatre Tickets

Mark Gatiss (ITVX’s Nolly) is 1 of our finest character actors and here plays Sir John Gielgud directing Richard Burton in Hamlet in 1964 on Broadway.

  • Read on for reasons including how The Motive should be more confident of its worth and rely less heavily on Shakespeare’s greatest hits
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THEATRE REVIEW: For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Sunday 16 April (matinee), running to 7 May 2023 RUNTIME: 130 minutes (including a 20-minute interval) UPDATE: For Black Boys transfers to the Garrick Theatre 29 February through 4 May 2024 Tickets

WHERE?: Apollo Theatre, West End, London

Can theatre save lives?

  • Read on for reasons including how we think this production deserves to have a life after this run
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THEATRE REVIEW: A Little Life starring James Norton, Luke Thompson & Omari Douglas at Harold Pinter Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN?: Saturday 8 April (matinee), runs through 5 August 2023 RUNTIME: 220 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

It’s hard for us to appreciate the popularity of this play because it is based on a best-selling 2015 book by Hanya Yanigihara we’ve not read and stars a much in-demand actor we’re not especially a fan of.

  • Read on for reasons including how this play is perhaps too reverential to its source material
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THEATRE REVIEW: Dancing At Lughnasa starring Siobhan McSweeney, Louisa Harland & Ardal O’Hanlon at National Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

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

WHEN?: Saturday 8 April, opens Tuesday 18 April runs through 27 May 2023 RUNTIME: 155 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Our narrator is actor Tom Vaughan-Lawlor who plays Michael, the unseen seven-year-old boy who is being raised by the Mundy sisters in County Donegal in 1936.

  • Read on for reasons including how the cast includes 3 of Channel 4’s hit comedy Derry Girls
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THEATRE REVIEW: Eugenius at Turbine Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Sunday 2 April (matinee), runs through 28 May 2023 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Time travel back to October 2018 and this superhero musical was on the verge of a West End transfer which never materialised when a backer withdrew.

  • Read on for reasons including how this focused revival could propel this superhero musical into the West End finally
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THEATRE REVIEW: Marjorie Prime starring Anne Reid, Nancy Carroll, Tony Jayawardena & Richard Fleeshman at the Menier Chocolate Factory

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN?: Saturday 1 April, running to 6 May 2023 RUNTIME: 85 minutes (no interval)

In the week when we are mourning the loss of 67-year-old Paul O’Grady this new play about memory, loss and grieving starring Anne Reid (pictured right) feels like appropriate viewing.

  • Read on for reasons including how director Dominic Dromgoole brings the best out of Reid
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THEATRE REVIEW: Cabaret starring Aimee Lou Wood & Jon McCrea at The Kit Kat Club

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***** RUNTIME: 165 minutes (including 20-minute interval)

WHEN?: Saturday 25 March, booking to 16 December 2023

It’s a sign of the quality of this production that despite 3 major cast changes it continues to punch at the very top of its weight.

  • Read on for reasons including how Sex Education’s Aimee Lee Wood’s hilarious turn as Sally Bowles is the best reason to catch this Cabaret
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THEATRE REVIEW: The Way Old Friends Do at Park Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN?: Saturday 18 March (matinee), runs through 15 April 2023, then tours at venues until 10 June 2023 Update: Transfers to the West End and the Criterion Theatre 17 August through 9 September 2023 Tickets

The best bit in this new comedy written by its star Ian Hallard (Closer To Heaven, Above The Stag) is the reaction of his character’s Nan to his news that he is bisexual at the close of Act 1.

  • Read on for reasons including why this is the best time of year to see this show about the world’s 1st ABBA drag tribute act
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