theatre

THEATRE REVIEW: Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody starring Zheng Xi Yong and Joseph Dann at the Underbelly Boulevard Soho

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2

WHEN?: Saturday 24 October and runs through 1 November 2026 RUNTIME: 70 minutes (no interval)

Heated Rivalry is a Canadian TV show and gay love story set in the unlikely world of ice hockey which was a surprise hit this year and has spawned at least 2 musical parodies of which this is 1.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is a lot of bawdy fun and a good representation for fans of the show
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THEATRE REVIEW: The Pianist starring Daniel Krikler at the Park Theatre

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 17 October, opens 22 October and runs through 28 November 2026 RUNTIME: 130 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

This is the new musical version of the life of Polish-Jewish pianist Władysław Szpilman during World War 2, a story which won 3 Oscars in its 2002 celluloid incarnation starring Adrien Brody.

  • Read on for reasons including how we’re here for monsta-longlisted star Daniel Krikler
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THEATRE REVIEW: Ilford Boy starring Leo Whitfield Harris, Craig Stein, Ria Zmitrowicz & Lindsey Coulson at the Donmar Warehouse

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Monday 12 October, opens 20 October and runs through 28 November 2026 RUNTIME: 155 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

It’s the day of his nan’s funeral and impressionable 14-year-old Ted meets his mum’s gay best friend and suddenly his world doesn’t feel so lonely.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is 1 of the best new plays of the year so far
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THEATRE REVIEW: RENT The Musical starring Gaten Matarazzo at Tom Stoppard’s Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Wednesday 30 September, opens 8 October and runs through 27 March 2027 RUNTIME: 175 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Matarazzo from Netflix’s Stranger Things is cast perfectly as Mark the filmmaker chronicling the lives of bohemian friends in the late 80s/early 90s in New York’s East Village in this classic musical revival.

  • Read on for reasons including how brilliant the onstage seating experience is for this production
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THEATRE REVIEW Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? starring Gillian Anderson @SohoPlace

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Saturday 26 September, opens 30 September and runs through 19 December 2026 RUNTIME: 210 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Gillian Anderson gave us the definitive Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Young Vic on a revolving stage a decade ago and here performs a similar trick as Martha.

  • Read on for reasons including how Anderson’s performance is 1 for the history books as she gives an unforgettable take on a classic role
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THEATRE REVIEW Golden Boy starring Josh O’Connor at Almeida Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

WHEN?: Saturday 19 September (matinee), runs through 31 October 2026 RUNTIME: 145 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Boxing or playing the violin?

  • Read on for reasons including how to see this on NT Live if not at the sold-out Almeida
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THEATRE REVIEW: TRU starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson at the Menier Chocolate Factory

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 19 September, opens 27 September and runs through 14 November 2026 RUNTIME: 85 minutes (no interval)

You join us in the New York apartment belonging to writer Truman Capote at Christmas in 1975 as Manhattan socialites who were once his confidants turn their backs on him when they recognise thinly-veiled versions of themselves in an excerpt of his new novel published in Esquire magazine.

  • Read on for reasons including how TRU boasts a commanding central performance of 1 of history’s more colourful if perhaps occasionally loathed characters
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THEATRE REVIEW: Kimberly Akimbo starring Maria Friedman at Hampstead Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN? Saturday 29 August, opens Wednesday 9 September and and runs through 7 November 2026 RUNTIME: 165 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

The key to the success of this Tony Award-winning musical is the casting of its leading lady who can convince as a 16-year-old ageing four times more quickly than her peers and as the pensioner she physically appears to be.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is is filled with joy, love and laughs even at its tear-spattered finale
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THEATRE REVIEW: The Story starring Letitia Wright & Lorraine Toussaint at National Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN? Friday 28 August, opens 3 September and runs through 24 October 2026 RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

The best thing about this revival of a 2003 US play inspired by a 1981 scandal in which a journalist won a Pulitzer Prize for writing about an inner city child only to later admit the story was fraudulent is the promising performance of Letitia Wright (pictured centre above) at its heart.

  • Read on for reasons including why today’s UK headlines would be a more relevant place for this venue to seek to represent the population it should be serving
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THEATRE REVIEW: A Month In The Country starring Sophie Okonedo at Donmar Warehouse

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Monday 24 August, opens 2 September and runs through 3 October 2026 RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Sophie Okonedo (Medea, @SohoPlace) is the beating heart of this revival of Brian Friel’s (Dancing At Lughnasa, National) take on this very Chekhovian tale of an 1840s Russian landowner’s wife’s infatuation with her son’s young tutor.

  • Read on for reasons including how Okonedo relishes the opportunity to be the emotional focus
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