THEATRE REVIEW

THEATRE REVIEW: Tender starring Dex Lee at Soho Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN?: Saturday 2 May (matinee) and runs through 30 May 2026 RUNTIME: 150 minutes (includes a 20-minute interval)

1 of the joys of the West End is that early casting news means we know Lee, who here bares his washboard abs, bottom and soul as a troubled stripper, will play Prince Charming opposite French and Saunders in Cinderella in the Palladium pantomime this Christmas.

  • Read on for reasons including how giving the audience the opportunity to be complicit in the torture inflicted feels troubling
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THEATRE REVIEW: Please, Please Me starring Calam Lynch & Noah Ritter at Kiln Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN?: Thursday 30 April and runs through 29 May 2026 RUNTIME: 130 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

The depth of the relationship between John Lennon and Beatles manager Brian Epstein has been much speculated upon and here Calam Lynch and Noah Ritter explore what was certainly an unusually close friendship.

  • Read on for reasons including how it’s the talented cast that is the best reason to see this show
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THEATRE REVIEW: Mass starring Monica Dolan & Adeel Akhtar at Donmar Warehouse

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Monday 20 April, opens 29 April and through 6 June 2026 RUNTIME: 105 minutes (no interval)

It’s just when you think Mass has run its considerable dramatic course that Monica Dolan’s mother Linda re-appears after bidding farewell to unpin an emotional grenade that can’t fail to obliterate the viewer.

  • Read on for reasons including how Mass boasts a fantastic cast which gets the most from some difficult emotional material
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THEATRE REVIEW: Heart Wall at Bush Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Wednesday 15 April and runs through 16 May 2026 RUNTIME: 100 minutes (no interval)

The audience taking their seats is welcomed with the offer of karaoke at The Sun Inn near Manchester by young barman Valentine played by Aaron Anthony.

  • Read on for reasons including how Heart Wall offers an extremely moving final moment which feels well-earned
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THEATRE REVIEW: A Doll’s House starring Romola Garai at the Almeida

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Saturday 4 April, opens 8 April and runs through 23 May 2026 RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

We had tickets to see Jessica Chastain in Jamie Lloyd’s version of this Ibsen classic before Covid hit in 2020 and sadly it never made it to the Playhouse Theatre in London although it did run on Broadway.

  • Read on for reasons including how rather than being in miniature this Doll’s House construction is a gigantic must-see
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THEATRE REVIEW: FLYBY starring Stuart Thompson & Poppy Gilbert at the Southwark Playhouse

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: **1/2

WHEN?: Friday 3 April, opens 9 April and runs through 16 May 2026 RUNTIME: 110 minutes (without interval)

We’re here because its star Stuart Thompson (Radiant Boy: A Haunting, Southwark Playhouse) is brilliant in everything we’ve seen him in and here plays an unpredictable engineer who disappears into the void.

  • Read on for reasons including how the writer/composer has worked with artists including David Byrne and Jacob Collier
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THEATRE REVIEW: Slippery starring John McCrea & Perry Williams at the Omnibus Theatre, Clapham

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2

WHEN? Sunday 23 March, runs through 11 April 2026 RUNTIME: 80 minutes (no interval)

What would you do if the ex-boyfriend you ghosted for 10 years put you down as his emergency contact and the hospital called to ask you to pick him up after an accident?

  • Read on for reasons including how this captivating 2-hander refuses to let its audience out of its vice-like grip
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THEATRE REVIEW: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest starring Aaron Pierre, Giles Terera & Kedar Williams-Stirling at the Old Vic

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Thursday 2 April, opens 15 April and runs through 23 May 2026 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Film One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest starred a dynamic Jack Nicholson and won 5 Oscars in 1975 but director Clint Dyer (Death Of England: The Plays) has chosen instead to go back to the 1962 novel for inspiration.

  • Read on for reasons including how those who thought they knew this story may just have their minds changed by this powerful and emotional reinvention
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THEATRE REVIEW: Our Town starring Michael Sheen at Rose Theatre, Kingston

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2

WHEN? Saturday 28 March (matinee) and runs through 28 March 2026 RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

‘No other play I’ve read or seen performed has ever affected me in quite the same way,’ writes star Michael Sheen (Nye, National Theatre) of this revival of a classic as the 1st production of the Welsh National Theatre.

  • Read on for reasons including how there’s a world where there is a West End transfer for this show
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THEATRE REVIEW: Copenhagen starring Richard Schiff, Damien Malony & Alex Kingston

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Wednesday 1 April, opens 2 April and runs through 2 May 2026 RUN TIME: 170 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

What happened when German physicist Werner Heisenberg visited his mentor Niels Bohr, whose father was Jewish, in the titular Copenhagen in 1941?

  • Read on for reasons including how this is a brilliantly cast revival of a thought-provoking play which has plenty to say about world events we are currently living through
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