By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHEN?: 25 February (matinee) and runs through 22 April 2023 RUNTIME: 90 minutes (no interval)
We’re in the front row of this intimate venue and Okonedo’s Medea points at us, locks eyes with us and asserts: ‘Watch and keep silent.’
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHEN?: 3 March, opens 13 March and runs through 2 September 2023 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (including a 15-minute interval) UPDATE: This production is now booking through 31 August 2024 Tickets
Marisha Wallace is scene-stealingly sensational in this revival of a musical theatre classic as nightclub singer Miss Adelaide, a role often played for laughs rather than deploying the killer voice Wallace has.
By Aline Mahrud
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHEN?: 18 February, opens 21 February and runs through 1 April 2023 RUNTIME: 135 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
Callum Scott Howells (Cabaret. Playhouse Theatre) proves what a versatile actor he is in this story of a single young father struggling to bring up a young child and cope with an alcoholic mother.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHEN?: 17 February, runs through 3 June 2023 RUNTIME: 120 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
The moment we know we’re in the presence of comedy genius is when something unexpected happens – a sink in the kitchen set overflows and threatens to drench the front row tonight – and Smith acknowledges it, laughs with it yet never breaks character.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHEN?: 11 February, opens 13 February and runs through 25 March 2023 RUNTIME: 170 minutes (including a 20-minute interval) UPDATE: Standing won 2 Olivier Awards and transfers to the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London’s West End in February 2024
It’s not very often at the theatre that we cry so uncontrollably that we worry we might embarass ourselves.
By Aline Mahrud
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHEN?: 30 January, opens 2 February and runs through 1 April 2023 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
‘The Old Vic’s Artistic Director Matthew Warchus said to me in 2018: ‘Musicals aren’t written, they’re re-written’, says Sylvia director Kate Prince in the programme.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2
WHEN?: 20 January through to 1 April 2023 RUNTIME: 95 minutes (no interval)
Quietude – what if you could only speak 140 words a day?
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: **** UPDATE: The Unfriend returns to the West End at the Wyndham’s Theatre from 16 December 2023 Tickets
WHEN?: 15 January through to 16 April 2023 RUNTIME: 115 minutes (including a 15-minute interval)
One of the joys of Steven Moffat’s (BBC 1’s Inside Man) first stage comedy is its no-nonsense precision.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHEN?: Saturday 14 January, runs through 28 January 2023 RUNNING TIME: 180 minutes (with 20-minute interval)
This production of As You Like It by director Josie Rourke is her 1st theatre work for more than 4 years since Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and it is absolutely bursting with ideas
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2
WHEN?: Tuesday 10 January (press ticket), runs to 4 February 2023
RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
We cast our eye across the audience at this 200-seat venue and we can see Beverley Knight, David Morrissey, Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar.
