WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE: Menier Chocolate Factory
WHEN: 18/3, press night 20/3, runs to 29/4
Eve Best (pictured above) is 1 of our favourite actresses and here she plays a widow ‘living in sin’ with a Cabinet minister, much to the horror of her 18-year-old son who is returning home after evacuation in World War Two.
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHERE: Wyndhams Theatre
WHEN 17/3, press night 28/3, runs to 10/6
There’s a moment towards the end of this Molière adaptation where David Tennant rails against former Chancellor George Osborne (announced today as the new editor of the Standard) and Donald Trump to great applause.
WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2
WHERE: Donmar Warehouse
WHEN: 16/3 (matinee), runs to 15/4
This dramatisation of the moment in 1981 when ‘Gang Of Four’ Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins, David Owen and Bill Rodgers left the Labour party to form a party of their own is a recent history that will be familiar to many.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE: New Wimbledon Theatre
WHEN: 15/3 (matinee), runs until 18/3 and then on UK tour until 26/8
Hard to believe, perhaps, that this is the first UK tour this classic 1983 musical, which won six Tonys, has embarked on.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE: New Victoria Theatre, Woking
WHEN: 11/3 (matinee), touring the UK until 27/5
This 20th anniversary production of Jonathan Larson’s groundbreaking musical features a showstopping performance by this year’s UK Eurovision entrant Lucie Jones as Maureen (pictured above).
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE: Garrick Theatre
WHEN: 8/3 (matinee), press night 13/3, runs to 3/6
It’s Budget Day and we decide to see this comedy as cheaply as possible with a £20 restricted view ticket three rows back from the end of the stalls behind a pillar.
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHERE: Vaudeville Theatre
WHEN: 4/3 (matinee), press night 14/3, runs to 17/6
A foot fracture meant Tamzin Outhwaite had to withdraw from this production shortly before its first preview and is replaced by Kate Verner here.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE: Trafalgar Studios 2
WHEN: 2/3 (matinee), runs to 1/4
We’re mulling over the breaking story of the audience being banned from eating in Imelda Staunton’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? when a group of uniformed schoolchildren walk in and their teacher hands out a giant bag of popcorn, which they share before curtain up.
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHERE: Almeida Theatre
WHEN: 2/3, runs to 6/4
Such was our excitement about this Robert Icke production that we had second row tickets for the first preview on 17/2.
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHERE: National Theatre
WHEN: 28/2, press night 1/3, runs to 6/6
The most remarkable thing about this play detailing the virtual reality treatment given to a soldier injured in her final Afghanistan tour is the wildly inventive stage design by Es Devlin (see picture).
