WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHERE: Barbican Theatre
WHEN: 30/6, runs to 18/8
Simon Russell Beale is one of the finest actors of his generation and therefore it’s curious that he should choose to return to the Royal Shakespeare Company after 20 years in something quite so overcooked.
WORTH A LOOK: *****
WHERE: Almeida Theatre
WHEN: 19/6, press night 27/6, runs to 5/8
Star Bertie Carvel’s father John worked on the Guardian for 36 years before retiring in 2009. UPDATE 17/7: INK transfers to the Duke Of York’s Theatre from 9/9. TICKETS
WORTH A LOOK: *****
WHERE: Wyndham’s Theatre
WHEN: 17/6, press night 27/6, runs to 9/9
SETLIST: I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone; When A Woman Loves A Man; Crazy He Calls Me; Gimme A Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer); Baby Doll; God Bless The Child; Foolin’ Myself; Somebody’s On My Mind; Easy Livin’; Strange Fruit; Blues Break; T’ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do; Don’t Explain; What A Little Moonlight Can Do; Deep Song
It’s March 1959 and Billie Holiday is singing in South Philadelphia at the titular run-down bar in one of her last performances before her death just four months later.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2
WHERE: Old Vic
WHEN: 9/6, runs to 17/6
‘Gig theatre’ is the term used to describe this 70-minute show currently running on the same stage as John Boyega’s Woyzeck just half an hour after its curtain down.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE: Dorfman Theatre, National
WHEN: 3/6, press night 7/6 runs to 18/7
STOP PRESS: Barber Shop Chronicles runs at the Camden Roundhouse in summer 2019. Tickets
Barber Shop Chronicles is an ambitious and fun 105-minute play without interval set in barber shops in London, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHERE: Old Vic
WHEN: 15/5, opens 23/5, runs to 24/6
We’re at the first preview for John Boyega’s starring role in Woyzeck and it receives a rapturous response.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE: Menier Chocolate Factory
WHEN: 5/5, press night 17/5, runs to 8/7
Author Sir Peter Shaffer wrote this three-act play for Dame Maggie Smith in 1987, when we first saw it, and it won her a Tony.
WORTH A LOOK?: *****/****
WHERE: National Theatre
WHEN?: 29/4/17, runs to 19/8
Today’s two-plays-in-a-day extravaganza will be much appreciated by those who enjoy bingeing on their favourite TV boxsets.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHERE: Park Theatre
WHEN: 28/4, runs to 27/5
Helena Rubinstein emigrated from Poland to Australia in 1902, with no money and little English, formed one of the world’s first cosmetics companies and became one of its richest women.
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHERE: Almeida
WHEN: 27/4 to 10/6
How comfortable are we with the notion that no-one’s real life story is actually their own?
