THEATRE REVIEW

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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THEATRE REVIEW: The Code starring Tracie Bennett & John Partridge at Southwark Playhouse (Elephant)

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK? ***1/2

WHEN? Saturday 11 October (matinee), runs through 11 October 2025 RUNTIME: 90 minutes (without interval)

Bennett is arguably best known for her Olivier and Tony nominations as Judy Garland in End Of The Rainbow and here plays bisexual actress Tallulah Bankhead on the night she discovers to her surprise that she’s not being cast in the film of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie.

  • Read on for reasons including whether this delightfully cast treat deserves a West End transfer
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THEATRE REVIEW: The Unbelievers starring Nicola Walker at the Royal Court Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN? Saturday 11 October, opens 16 October and runs through 29 November 2025 RUNTIME: 120 minutes (no interval)

Walker (Unicorn, Garrick Theatre) plays mother Miriam Wright whose teenage schoolboy son has gone missing and is determined to leave no stone unturned to find him.

  • Read on for reasons including how those hoping this might repeat the West End transfer and awards success of the recent Giant may have a long wait
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THEATRE REVIEW: Mary Page Marlowe starring Susan Sarandon & Andrea Riseborough at the Old Vic

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Tuesday 29 September, opens 8 October and runs through 1 November 2025 RUNTIME: 90 minutes (no interval)

Oscar winner Susan Sarandon makes her London stage debut in a play which looks at a woman’s life across 7 decades and 11 scenes.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is never less than totally engrossing as we see the unvarnished portrayal of a woman’s difficult life
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THEATRE REVIEW: The Importance Of Being Earnest starring Stephen Fry & Olly Alexander at the Noel Coward Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN? Saturday 28 September 2025, runs through 10 January 2026 RUNTIME: 165 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Stephen Fry returns to the West End stage as Lady Bracknell for the 1st time since being nominated for a Tony for his Malvolio in 2012’s Twelfth Night and appearing as The Narrator in the Rocky Horror Show in 2015.

  • Read on for reasons including how if you’re having half as much fun as they are onstage, you’ll be having 1 of the best nights of your life
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THEATRE REVIEW: Romans, a novel starring Kyle Soller at the Almeida

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: **

WHEN? Friday 26 September, runs through 11 October 2025 RUNTIME: 170 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Last year this venue had a big hit with Eline Arbo’s play The Years which transferred to the West End and looked at the life of 1 woman at different stages across 65 years featuring multiple actresses, winning 2 Oliviers in the process.

  • Read on for reasons including how pretentious full title, Romans, a novel perhaps sharply illustrates this play’s failure of form
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THEATRE REVIEW: Bacchae starring Clare Perkins, Ukweli Roach & James McArdle at the National Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2

WHEN? Tuesday 23 September, opens 24 September and runs through 1 November 2025 RUNTIME: 105 minutes (no interval)

Author Nima Taleghani (Romeo And Juliet, Duke Of York’s Theatre) is perhaps best known as gay teacher Mr Farouk in Netflix’s Heartstopper and with this his play becomes the 1st debut work on the Olivier Theatre stage.

  • Read on for reasons including this is a flawed and irreverent take on a Greek classic which will make you laugh
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