Happy Dream

Shakespeare’s Globe

Only a few months after The Globe’s last Dream, not to mention the Bridge’s revival of their Dream and an RSC production at The Barbican, London has yet another version of Shakespeare’s popular comedy. Only this time it’s less dark and a lot more frivolous, as all the critics agreed. Emily Lim has a reputation for involving communities in theatre, and she applies her skills and experience to a production that involves the Globe audience in a lot of fun.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Miriam Gillinson for The Guardian loved it: ‘It’s generous, creative and clever, always with an eye to making the audience feel included. With gloriously extravagant costumes (concept by Fly Davis), a set that spontaneously blooms from designer Aldo Vázquez, hearty folk music by Jim Fortune and effervescent comic performances, this is the rarest of things: a Dream the whole family can enjoy.’

Rachel Halliburton at The Arts Desk declared: ‘It’s a Dream that’s very much in the Globe’s tradition of crowd-pleasing entertainment, filled with music, laughter, and appropriately absurd audience participation.’

LondonTheatre’s Aliya Al-Hassan was transported: ‘It’s true that we never feel the nervousness of the lovers alone in the forest, nor any of the potentially unsettling aspects of the text. But shying away from the darker sides of the play feels more than appropriate for these troubled times, and this Dream is perfectly frivolous summer fare.’

Clementine Scott at BroadwayWorld felt: ‘This version of Dream is something close to a folk musical, with original songs by Jim Fortune. The inherent artificiality of musical theatre, breaking into song and such, works well with the general sense of performance, and of witnessing some sort of deftly choreographed ritual.’

Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski was charmed: ‘it uses the Globe’s large, lairy crowd to maximum impact for a production that cheerily deviates repeatedly from Shakespeare’s exact text in a joyous, almost non-stop welter of audience interaction.’

The Standard’s Nick Curtissurprised himself: ‘It can be played dark or light. In Lim’s hands it’s a sunny show, decked with trippy flowers and colourful costumes, where the undercurrent of horror is only faintly implied. There’s copious audience participation, however, which is usually my very idea of horror but works surprisingly well here.’

Calling it ‘irresistible fun’, The Financial Times’ Sarah Hemming said the production ‘emphasises the theatricality and communality of Shakespeare’s comedy. Lim, who has previously worked on large-scale public-interaction theatrical works, foregrounds the role-play in the story and celebrates the transient community created by live theatre.’ She noted: ‘In the programme, Lim talks about “joy as a radical act” that can bind communities together. That’s what she delivers, and it feels pretty necessary right now. ‘

The Times’ Dominic Maxwell praised: ‘Grady-Hall…proves a clown of twinkling restraint. I say “restraint” — his Puck sports green tights adorned by table-tennis balls. Yet he plies his quirkiness calmly and plays the audience like a musical instrument as he encourages different sections to sing different notes on his cue. And that’s the key to the success of an evening that’s not so much good drama as a good time.’

Theo Bosanquet for WhatsOnStage overcame his reservations: ‘it feels the narrative is sublimated to the showmanship, the darker and more poetic aspects of the play drowned out in a (literal) sea of bubbles. But this is forgivable in a version that feels unapologetically fun, escapist and, I daresay, well-judged for the current times.’

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish was the only notable critic not to immerse himself in the lovefest, describing it as a ‘rainbow-colourful, strenuously frisky al fresco version, glutted with audience participation. Yet, for all the admirable industry and invention of Emily Lim’s production, at times I felt as if I’d been trapped in Butlin’s rather than spirited away to an enchanted forest outside Athens (…) The cast seem to be having a ball – many Globe-goers will, too. I just wish there was a bit more trust in the Bard to work his own magic.’

Critics’ average rating 3.9⭑

A Midsummer Night’s Dream can be seen at Shakespeare’s Globe until 29 August2026. Buy tickets directly from the theatre.

If you’ve seen this production ofA Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe, please leave your review and/or rating below

Ralph Fiennes’ love letter to theatre

Theatre Royal Haymarket

A second David Hare play hits the West End. Grace Pervades, transferring from Theatre Royal Bath, is very different to Teeth ‘n’ Smiles, the latter centring on a 60s rock band, the former on the leading 19th century actors Ellen Terry and Henry Irving. It seems superfluous to say that the two leads Miranda Raison and Ralph Fiennes received high praise. The critics’ reaction to David Hare was more mixed (‘great humour and excellent control’ WhatsOnStage); ‘It’s easy to admire the craft here, but you engage at a distance’ (The Stage).

Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

WhatOnStage’s Sarah Crompton declared: ‘Hare writes a love letter to theatre itself, at a time when it was defining its journey into the next century. He does so with great humour and excellent control, beautifully conducted by director Jeremy Herrin.’

The Times’ Clive Davis was diverted by it : ‘It’s a quirky, anecdotal piece which, at its best, is much more amusing than you might expect.’  It was, he said, ‘An evening that celebrates the art of illusion weaves one shimmering backdrop after another.’

The Telegraph‘s Dominic Cavendish thought: ‘David Hare’s genteel homage to (Terry and Irving), and to the changing face of theatre itself, elicits a delightful double-act from Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Raison; he the model of distinguished propriety, she the radiant antidote.’

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

Broadway World’s Aliya Al-Hussain wrote about the leads: ‘Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Raison are beautifully paired as the couple, with Raison’s Ellen giving warmth and encouragement to Fiennes’s intense and serious Henry’; ‘Raison radiates life and ambition; her world view is much broader than just the theatre and she reflects that life experience on stage.’

Julia Rank at LondonTheatre pointed out: ‘Jeremy Herrin’s production is on the leisurely side and indulges Hare’s tendency towards exposition, with some unnecessary interludes. We’re informed that Irving and Terry were magic in performance and it’s a mistake to try to recreate snatches of their most famous Shakespearean roles with a style that now comes across as mannered.’

Tom Wicker from The Stage said: ‘Raison is luminescent as Hare’s take on Terry, bringing a quicksilver intelligence and a hard-won smile in the face of challenges.’ But he thought: ‘Hare’s writing is typically elegant and artful. It’s as carefully framed as Herrin’s staging…It’s easy to admire the craft here, but you engage at a distance.’

The Standard’s Nick Curtis called it ‘a warm, entertaining love-letter to a blended family of British theatrical pioneers, in which Ralph Fiennes sends himself up delightfully.’ He concluded: ‘Some may wonder why the once-radical Hare is wallowing in heritage theatre, but in fact this is anything but. Under all the period trappings and self-referential lines it’s a celebration of the protean spirit of the stage and the committed, charismatic, animating figures – like Irving and Fiennes – who keep it alive and push it forward. Sit back, relax, enjoy.’

Tim Bano at Time Out decided: ‘It’s all good fun, a cheeky, self-referential and sometimes self-critical play. Never exceptional, but nor too dull, Hare’s play becomes a sweet panegyric, and a really traditional, really entertaining night both at the theatre and of the theatre.’

2 stars ⭑⭑

The Independent’s Alice Saville counterblasted: ‘Hare clearly loves theatrical history. But he doesn’t let his audience love it too, because he’s too obsessed with overlaying it with his own agenda of old (good) versus new (diabolical). Jeremy Herrin’s production feels as stiff and mannered as the traditions that Edward Gordon Craig tried to sweep away. The new may be shocking, but at least it’s rarely quite this boring.’

Critics’ average rating 3.3⭑

Value rating 27

Grace Pervades can be seen at Theatre Royal Haymarket until 11 July 2026. Buy directly from www.gracepervadestheplay.com

If you’ve seen Grace Pervades, please leave are review and/or rating below

Definitely powerful, possibly predictable

Donmar Warehouse

Fran Kranz’s Mass, receiving its world premiere at The Donmar, is based on his film of the same name. WhatsOnStage said ‘the immense courage of people who, in real life, attempt to reach forgiveness and understanding is the propulsion for the play’. The people in question are two couples who have both lost their sons in a mass shooting, and meet in attempt at reconciliation. The critics agreed it was a gut wrenching evening, with credit given to the four lead actors: Adeel Akhtar, Monica Dolan, Paul Hilton and Lyndsey Marshal. Director Carrie Cracknell was also praised for the intensity of the production. They disagreed about the script: masterful’ (LondonTheatre), ‘predictable ‘ (The Stage).

5 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

WhatsOnStage‘s Sarah Crompton was impressed: ‘Four people sit around a table and talk. Franz Kranz’s lacerating play Mass is built from the simplest and least theatrical of ingredients. Yet in this production, thanks to the skill of director Carrie Cracknell and the intense naturalism of its cast, it becomes something very special.’ She continued: ‘once the characters begin to speak, the essential communion of theatre works its alchemical power; it is impossible not to listen and feel the terrible moral dilemma that gradually unfolds.’ She described the lead performers in detail: ‘Akhtar makes Jay a man who is being eaten from the inside by his anger and his sense of injustice…Hilton’s Richard is similarly hollow…Dolan creates a portrait of a woman in whom sadness is stretched to breaking point…Her entire body seems taut with pain…As Gail, Marshal is equally powerful. Her face seems made of glass, emotions passing across it as she listens intently to everything that is being said.’

Cheryl Markosky for BroadwayWorld described it as ‘simple, but also searingly powerful’. She explained: ‘What it comes down to is a thoughtful script, excellent direction and brilliant performances from all of the actors. They’re all commendable ­– although Dolan is particularly phenomenal as a trembling wreck about to fall apart at any second.’ She found ‘The intimacy of the 250-seater Donmar Theatre is perfect for Mass. We’re up close with the actors, witnessing pain, horror and guilt etched on their faces. Their pain is our pain’.

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

The Guardian‘s Arifa Akbar said: ‘It is hard to beat the force and sensitive performances of Kranz’s film but Hilton is masterfully brittle, his entire being sunken with apology, while Dolan is whey-faced and shaky. The always brilliant Akhtar is angrier and edgier than his film counterpart and Marshal brings a moving softness.’

The Independent‘s Alice Saville called it ‘an agonisingly intense, beautifully performed study of a couple’s search for forgiveness.’ She concluded that the play ‘really does shine on the Donmar’s small stage, where an audience can see close-up how a single space shifts from an impersonal meeting place into an almost spiritual site of reconciliation. Words are never enough, but they can still reduce a room to tears.’

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

Holly O’Mahony for LondonTheatre declared: ‘It’s a masterful piece of writing from Kranz: every utterance counts, and each line is a turn of a cog that keeps this grim yet poignant narrative moving.’ On the other hand: ‘However, Carrie Cracknell’s production can feel hands-off, perhaps through an intention to let the text breathe. Unlike James Graham’s Punch, which also tells a story of restorative justice, but paints a fuller picture beyond the brave meeting at its centre, here we really do just watch two sets of parents hash things out at length, which grows monotonous.’

While calling it ‘powerful stuff, for Time Out‘s Andrzej Lukowski also made the comparison: ‘the elephant in the room is James Graham’s recent Olivier-winning play Punch. The plot isn’t identical to Mass. But his Nottingham-set restorative justice drama about a killer confronting his victim’s parents is undoubtedly in the same ballpark, and it’s simply a stronger, more culturally relevant play.’

The Times’ Clive Davis thought: ‘The Donmar Warehouse is the perfect place to see a play as stark as this. The audience sit uncomfortably close to the actors, and an almost imperceptible slow revolve on Anna Yates’s set ensures that we have ample time to study the characters’ anguished reactions (…)It’s almost like reading a real-life transcript, which is both the strength and the weakness of the piece.’

The Stage‘s Sam Marlowe had a problem: ‘once we’ve got to grips with the premise, the drama can only really move in one fairly predictable direction, via pretty much all the emotional milestones you’d expect.’ Having said that, ‘Carrie Cracknell’s production is immaculate – delicate, raw, finely calibrated and faultlessly acted by a stunning cast. The sheer force of the human pain and helplessness laid before us lends the writing a propulsive power.’

Claire Allfree for the Telegraph felt let down:  ‘It’s wrenching to watch, and beautifully performed’ she said, but ‘Kranz’s play draws superficially on the moral complexity of restorative justice, but in truth merely takes the audience through the emotional gears.’  In summing up, she said it strives ‘for emotional impact at the expense of genuinely provocative ideas.’

Nick Curtis’ review in The Standard began promisingly: ‘This gruelling play…is a sincere exploration of a process of restorative justice following a US school shooting. The stage version is realised with crystalline focus by Carrie Cracknell and acted with deep, pressing conviction by a central quartet of fine actors.’ However: ‘it’s too slick, too facile, a neat emotional workout for actors and an easy win for a smugly liberal audience.’ As for the hopeful ending: ‘it feels lazy and hollow.’

Critics’ average rating 3.6⭑

The Mass can be seen at the Donmar Warehouse until 6 June 2026. Buy tickets directly from the theatre

If you’ve seen The Mass at The Donmar, please leave your review and/or rating below

Henry Goodman on top form in classic Miller

Marylebone Theatre

The small, four-year-old Marylebone Theatre has scored a coup by attracting Henry Goodman to play Gregory Solomon in Arthur Miller’s The Price. All the critics agreed that, despite him only featuring significantly in the first half, he gave a show-dominating performance (‘a riveting performance’ The Stage). Which was a shame, in a way, because the actual star of the play is Elliot Cowan (‘a towering performance’ WhatsOnStage) who, along with  John Hopkins as his brother and Faye Castelow as his wife, received high praise, just not as much as Goodman.

Solomon is an 89 year old thinking about purchasing the brothers’ late father’s furniture and possessions, while the middle-aged brothers assess the course of their lives, the choices made, the prices paid. There was a general feeling that this late play deserves to be higher up in the Miller canon (‘one of his masterpieces’ Telegraph), although there were dissenting voices (‘a sense of drag’ Time Out).

Jonathan Munby directs with a naturalistic set full of dusty junk (‘exquisitely cluttered’ WhatsOnStage) provided by Jon Bausor.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

5 stars ★★★★★

The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish loved it: ‘The Price is now rightly regarded as one of his masterpieces, bang on the money about how our lives are shaped and how we take stock of them.’ Henry Goodman’s character, he said, ’embodies the play’s ingenious combination of flip dime-store comedy and unalloyed pathos. Those tonal fluctuations align with Miller’s interest in how the price of an object varies depending on context, and how the value of an endeavour can be subject to shifting interpretations over time.’ About Goodman, he said: ‘ “In brief, a phenomenon” Miller’s stage-note reads; he is.’

4 stars ★★★★

’the stifling weight of familial responsibility is slow-burning and powerful’ said Dave Fargnoli in his review for The Stage. He continued: ‘The playwright touches on themes of self-deception, competition and the ways in which a simplistic, money-centric view of success forces people into living lives of unfulfilling drudgery.’ He pointed out: ‘Director Jonathan Munby establishes a measured, never overly pensive rhythm, giving each taut conversation room to breathe, while ensuring the pace and the building tension don’t slacken.’ ‘Henry Goodman gives a riveting performance as mercurial octogenarian raconteur Solomon’.

Henry Goodman also attracted The Standard’s Nick Curtis’s attention. He said he  ‘superbly captures Solomon’s spirit. It’s up there with his superb Shylock in the Merchant, Tevye in Fiddler and his Billy Flynn in Chicago in terms of immersion in the role.’ He lavished praise on much of the production and was impressed by the way ‘Miller springs constant surprises. The play shouldn’t work as well as it does given the way he engineers the shift in tone around the interval, but the lulling, luring early humour sets us up perfectly for the coming sucker punch.’

Alun Hood for WhatsOnStage also wrote a tribute to Goodman: ‘It’s a stupendous, magnetic performance, one foot in the schtick of Jewish vaudeville turns and the other in the hardbitten realities of a man who has had to fight for everything he has. This is a masterclass’. He had plenty of praise too for Elliot Cowan: ‘Cowan gives a towering performance in his own right, his face clenched, body language defeated, his voice a muted growl, and his eyes kind but desperately sad. He inhabits this living embodiment of the adage that good guys come last to such an extent that his emotional breakdown, when it comes, is really tough to watch, yet you can’t look away.’

The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar talked about the play: ‘Through (the brothers‘) clashing memories, Miller captures the way in which the past is always contested within families, and between siblings. Miller makes you feel for them both, but also see how a life of illusion and wilful self-deception might be a choice. It is powerful, winding drama. You end up wondering why this angry, plaintive and deeply psychological play is not more often revived.’

The Sunday Times’ Dominic Maxwell explained : ‘really it’s the men’s story. As the workaholic Walter, Hopkins emits a George Clooney-ish urbanity that beguiles and repels. As the furrowed Victor, Cowan shows a decent man who goes all the way from cynicism to gullibility. The emotional acuity of their unpredictable debating is thrilling.’ He ended with his thoughts about Goodman: ‘ Whether venting big ideas about how we live or unexpectedly peeling a boiled egg, Goodman’s capering interloper embodies this rich story’s gorgeous contradictions. Bravo.’

3 stars ★★★

Tom Wicker for Time Out had reservations about the play: ‘While it’s thrilling to see talented actors really knock chunks out of each other, with Munby excavating every ounce of pain from their performances, a sense of drag also begins to set in, as Miller circles the same arguments.’ Nevertheless he decided: ‘there’s some seriously meaty material here about how we take ownership of our lives when value is relative. Even a lesser Miller is greater than most.’

Critics’ average rating 4.0★

The Price can be seen at Marylebone Theatre until 7 June 2026. Buy tickets directly from marylebonetheatre.com

Read Paul Seven’s review here

If you’ve seen this production of The Price, please leave your review and/or rating below

The puppet show is still rude and fun, but not so shocking

Shaftesbury Theatre

Avenue Q needs no introduction unless of cours you were a child when it was last in the West End 20 years ago. It’s perhaps best summed up as Sesame Street meets The Simpsons, only ruder. This revival brings back the original Broadway director, Jason Moore, and original puppet designer, Rick Lyon. On the whole the critics wallowed in nostalgia (there are very few updates to Jeff Whitty’s book), and seemed pleased to enjoy content that might be difficult to stage in a new show. Mostly they loved Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx‘s songs, although some dissented.

Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

5 stars ★★★★★

Alun Hood for WhatsOnStage summed up what many felt: ‘Avenue Q remains a delight, the theatrical definition of naughty but nice. Outrageous, smart and kind, it’s lovely to have it back.’

4 stars ★★★★

Tom Wicker for The Stage reported: ‘Its pitch-perfect, primary-coloured evocation of trying to get by in a world that never seems to give you a break is funny, weirdly touching and relevant. Some modernising tweaks to the book and songs to include references to AI-related job losses, social influencing and podcasts work seamlessly well.’ He declared: ‘for big laughs and a winkingly naughty jolt of hand-operated humanity, this show is hard to beat.’

The Standard’s Nick Curtis was delighted to see the show back: ‘It’s both hilarious and liberating to see goggle-eyed, gape-grinning puppets drinking, swearing and shagging. The pitch-perfect, genre-mocking songs (Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx) and the book (Jeff Whitty) gleefully demolish taboos in a way that should leave the “you-can’t say-anything-these-days” crowd sputtering over their keyboards.’

The Financial Times’ Sarah Hemming observed: ‘Some gags have aged badly, while others need rethinking (former child star Gary and cabaret dancer Lucy the Slut, for instance). But Avenue Q remains a bonkers, fundamentally big-hearted show with a salient message to hang on in there: the final song about transience, “For Now”, has a wistful ache that really lands.’

The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar was amused: ‘The force of the show’s faux-naivety works because of the comic dissonance between the puppets’ innocence – wide eyes, cutesy voices – and their adult misbehaviour (drunkenness, pole dancing, sex and betrayal). Lopez and Marx’s songs are a blast’.

The Times’ Clive Davis recommended: ‘If…you desire a musical that combines deliciously louche humour with smart lyrics, then you must get along to the Shaftesbury Theatre.’

His colleague Dominic Maxwell at The Sunday Times agreed: ‘I left it knowing that I had just seen a bracingly funny show that also knows that life is fleeting and that we all falter as we try to work out how the hell to live it.’

Marianka Swain reviewed for the Telegraph: ‘the joy of this jauntily efficient show (from which many meandering new musicals could learn) is that these existential crises are presented through catchy songs by Robert Lopez (of Frozen fame) and Jeff Marx. Along with Jeff Whitty’s crisp book, they temper the life lessons with a constant stream of bawdy gags.’

Anya Ryan for LondonTheatre mentioned: ‘With a cast as strong as this one, it is difficult not to be wowed by the cutesy charm of it all. Rick Lyon’s cuddly puppets are animated into existence by an ensemble who have the dance of it all down to a tee.’

BroadwayWorld’s Aliya Al-Hassan joined the chorus of praise: ‘At a time when it seems like we are constantly told what not to say, Avenue Q still revels in speaking the lines that you may well be thinking. Rude, crude and totally unsuitable for children; it’s great to have it back.’

3 stars ★★★

Louis Chilton for The Independent felt the show hadn’t aged well: ‘there’s no getting around how obnoxious and old-fashioned the show’s attempts at provocation now feel’ but he conceded: ‘The performances in particular are all strong, and involve an impressive juggling of singing, puppetry, and character-switching. The songs are bright and catchy, more pithy than substantial.’

Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski reported: ‘The script has been given a cosmetic overhaul and now has references to Trump, AI, etc. It’s all pretty skin deep, though. Again: Avenue Q today is not the punky outsider it was almost a quarter century ago. But as a heritage musical, it remains a delightful one-off.’

Critics’ average rating 3.9★

Value rating 43 [Value rating is a combination of average rating and typical ticket price]

Avenue Q can be seen at Shaftesbury Theatre until 29 August 2026. Click here to buy directly 

If you’ve seen this latest production of Avenue Q, please leave your review and/or rating below

Dated or bang up-to-date?

Old Vic Theatre

Dale Wasserman’s stage adaptation of Ken Kesey’s book is not the same as the film, a fact noted by the critics. The book has its faults- primarily in its misogyny and its old fashioned view of mental illness, as some reviews made very clear. Its concept of a psychiatric institution as a metaphor for an authoritarian society dealing with dissidents is given a new perspective in Clint Dyer’s production by making all the patients black and the people in charge white. This worked for some critics (‘Bold, precise and deeply affecting’ 5⭑ WhatsOnStage), but not others (‘belittles mentally ill people’ 2⭑ Independent).  For many reviewers, the cast were the saviours of the show. There were numerous name checks but special mention went to Aaron Pierre as the rebellious McMurphy, Giles Terera as inmate Dale Harding and Olivia Williams as Nurse Rached.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

5 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

Maygan Forbes for WhatsOnStage loved it: ‘Clint Dyer’s direction is razor sharp, finding rhythm in both chaos and control. The ward is rendered with astonishing precision; Ben Stones’ set transforms the Old Vic into a claustrophobic, watchful institution that feels less like a stage and more like a system closing in. You forget where you are (…) Bold, precise and deeply affecting, it grips from first beat to final silence, powered by a company firing on every level.‘

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

The Times’ Clive Davis found Pierre: ‘utterly persuasive. Every manic gesture, every small act of bravado, is the mark of a character who exists on the margins.’ He commented: ‘If the in-the-round staging — a fixture in Matthew Warchus’s final season as the Old Vic’s artistic director — means that some of the dialogue goes astray, it draws us into the heart of the skirmishes between staff and patients. At times, we became the kind of voyeurs who once saw the mentally ill as entertainment. This play may be uncomfortable viewing at times, yet it’s exhilarating, too.’

Olivia Rook at LondonTheatre decided: ‘Dyer’s vision is felt most keenly in the production’s opening and closing scenes, which are full of the rich sights and sounds of Mardi Gras Indian parades, as the ensemble cast enter beating drums and singing, washed in Chris Davey’s murky amber light. He has also assembled an impressive, predominantly Black cast as Ratched’s patients to foreground the novel’s colonial implications — and it is their palpable chemistry that is the production’s biggest success.’

Referring to the ‘unimprovable’ movie, Gary Naylor for BroadwayWorld observed: ‘any production has to sway out of the way of those biggest of hitters and turn their force into a means to tell the same story but in a new environment, a new context for our times.’ He assured us: ‘A framing device and a casting decision does that.’

The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish had reservations: ‘We could do with a greater sense of the risk of that gamble, a stronger feeling of period and indeed more live-wire volatility all round.’ But he concluded: ‘The added racial charge aside, this fittingly intense, non-conformist production delivers a chilling reminder of the perennial cost of dissent.’

3 stars ★★★

Having said this stage adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel is ‘cruder and more explicatory than the movie’, The Stage’s Sam Marlowe went on: ‘Its portrayal of mental illness is uncomfortably outdated and there’s a troubling seam of misogyny running through it.’

David Jays for The Guardian found: ‘As the anarchic McMurphy, Aaron Pierre gives a storming performance but although Clint Dyer’s stirring take on Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel boldly reframes the story, the text can’t support his ideas.’ He explained: ‘By casting Cuckoo’s Nest’s inmates with predominantly Black actors, Dyer gives Kesey’s tale a new political edge, as pawns in a system designed to disempower (…) What is explicit in both the original novel and this 1963 adaptation by Dale Wasserman is a relentless misogyny – so this reading feels at once radical and retrograde.’

Time Out‘s Andrzej Lukowski was critical of the interpretation:  He also felt  Pierre was ‘somewhat miscast’, saying ‘it’s too light a performance’.

The Standard’s Nick Curtis pointed out: ‘Since the forces of (white) authority are primarily vested in Olivia Williams’s autocratic, manipulative and sour Nurse Ratched, a nasty spine of misogyny runs through the story. Williams stepped into the production late, after Michelle Gomez withdrew, though you wouldn’t know it from her focused, resolutely unsympathetic performance.’

2 stars ★★

The Independent’s Alice Saville was scathing: ‘Taken simply as a comedy, this play works fantastically well, delivering laugh after well-paced, guilty laugh to an audience that knows they probably shouldn’t be finding this stuff quite so funny. But this story was written with more rebellious intent. It aimed to liberate, not to reinforce the values of a society that still belittles mentally ill people, and keeps them locked out of mainstream society. Taking their pain seriously? Now that would be radical.’

Critics’ average rating 3.5★

Value rating 47 (Value rating is a combination of the critics’ average rating and the typical ticket price)

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest can be seen at The Old Vic theatre until 23 May 2026. Buy tickets directly from the theatre

If you’ve seen One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest at the Old Vic, please leave a review and/or rating below

Michael Frayn’s dense play delights some, baffles others 

Hampstead Theatre

The critics had furrowed brows over this revivial of Michael Frayn‘s complex story of a mysterious wartime meeting between two physicists, one Danish and one German, in which the play itself (and Joanna Scotcher‘s set) becomes a metaphor for quantum mechanics and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.  The Times critics found himself ‘stumbling in the dark’, but BroadwayWorld gave it five stars, finding it ‘creates genuine tension’. The critics generally praised the cast of three, Alex Kingston,  Damien Moloney and Richard Schiff, although they were disappointed that the latter fluffed his lines. Michael Longhurst directs.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

5 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

Gary Naylor at BroadwayWorld found: ‘It’s terribly clever, the kind of chewy material that requires a decent night’s sleep beforehand, but it could be very dry, more the stuff of a contentious panel at a symposium, but Frayn’s dialogue and boldness in trusting his audience creates genuine tension and we sway between the men and the ideas, knowing now what they didn’t then.’

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

WhatsOnStage‘s Sarah Crompton had this to say about the cast: ‘Alex Kingston is simply superb as Margrethe, bringing a sardonic tone of reality to the men’s endless debate, often sitting at the centre of the circle, while Damien Molony is engagingly restless and questing as Heisenberg, a man who thinks as fast and dangerously as he skis. He perhaps looks a little too young as the 40-year-old Heisenberg, while Richard Schiff, at 70, is a little too old for Bohr. But the age gap emphasises the pseudo father and son relationship between them, and Schiff’s occasional hesitations are combined with a graceful sense of doubt which suits the character of a man who constantly strove to be fair.’

Tom Wicker for The Stage described how ‘As the characters engage on the black, water-ringed circle of Joanna Scotcher’s set – redolent of both an atom and a doomsday clock in its markings – Longhurst keeps us viscerally aware of how history and time don’t progress on a straight line, but constantly surround and shape each other. A blinding flash from lighting designer Neil Austin’s chain of bulbs starkly adds to the warning weight of Frayn’s words.’

Despite the first night fluffs, The Telegraph‘s Dominic Cavendish declared that the play ‘brilliantly fuses the unreliability of memory and unknowability of behaviour with Heisenberg’s own Uncertainty Principle.’ About the proudtcion, he said: ‘Longhurst answers the brain-boxy material with visual dazzle, avoiding static lecture-mode with a double-revolve that shifts the trio’s positions, combining meditative restlessness with a suggestion of atomic particles.’

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

Time Out‘s Andrzej Lukowski reported: ‘There is so much talking. It is a dense, unabashedly ideas-heavy play. It is often thrillingly clever, but its density can be tough for us and clearly tough on the cast – of the three actors it’s only Molony who seemed 100 percent on top of the text on press night, both in terms of not stumbling occasionally and also feeling entirely present in the character.’ He concluded: ‘it’s remarkable, but less explosive than it once was.’

The Guardian‘s Arifa Akbar was also underwhelmed: ‘It is a handsome production, the dense science-talk in the play’s second half is made clear… yet it does not always manage to lay bare the metaphors and bigger meanings of the science. Tension comes and goes, the dialogue not quite drawing out the characters’ emotional torments which lie beneath the surface’.

Matt Wolf for LondonTheatre, expressing a lack of enthusiasm spoke of ‘a play that has always had about it the whiff of a graduate seminar and here looks as if it is being visibly flayed by its creatives to whip its philosophical and scientific conundrums into vigorous, properly theatrical life.’

Demetrios Matheou at The Arts Desk noted: ‘the ideas and the moral conundrums here are, for the most part, completely absorbing. The spell is only broken, in fact, by the actors…Schiff doesn’t seem entirely comfortable. On opening night he stumbled quite a few times, almost always over the science-speak; and his transitions between warm, almost naïve old scientist and rage don’t always work. Kingston starts off in a slightly too melodramatic register, just a bit too blunt, though she does come into her own as Margrethe becomes a more prominent intermediary in the second half. And both of those actors have plenty of charisma to keep us on board, even when not giving their A game. In the meantime, Molony really shines’.

The Times’ Clive Davis admitted to scratching his head: ‘Frayn is, after all, attempting to make one of the most complex subjects accessible to a mainstream audience. And his dialogue is peppered with the witticisms that have become his trademark. The fact remains, though, that unless you have a thorough grounding in the subject, there are long passages in Michael Longhurst’s revival at Hampstead Theatre where many of us will be stumbling in the dark.’

Critics’ average rating 3.6⭑

Copenhagen can be seen at Hampstead Theatre until 2 May 2026. Buy tickets directly from the theatre

If you’ve seen Copenhagen at Hampstead Theatre, please leave a review and/or rating below

Romola Garai is ‘magnetic’ in updated Ibsen

Almeida Theatre

The much anticipated update by Anya Reiss of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was received with mixed reviews by the critics. Some thought it ‘an impressively incisive, white-knuckle engagement with contemporary anxieties’ (Time Out). Others though the relocation to a modern household with banker husband and ‘yummy mummy’ was ‘built on sand’ (Telegraph). All (bar one) agreed that Romola Garai‘s performance as Nora was ‘stellar’ (Independent).

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Tom Wicker for The Stage declared: ‘Garai is magnetically good as Nora, peeling back a sharp-edged brittleness that veers into monstrosity at times to reveal the damage and desperation beneath the surface gloss.’ He noted: ‘One of the most compelling aspects of this play is how nearly everyone, including Torvald, is corrupted by status, while engaging in the mental gymnastics of viewing themselves as the victim of the story.’

The Standard‘s Nick Curtis, too, was taken with the star: ‘Garai, an actress of great poise and focus, is here all a-jitter. Her Nora is fretful, nervy, prone to blurting out unwary truths and possessed of a billowy but self-conscious sensuality. It’s a wonderfully deep, layered performance and in the final speech where Nora is revealed to herself, it’s impossible to take your eyes off her.’ About the director, he commented: ‘Hill-Gibbins likes to keep his cast mostly barefoot and off-balance. He’s matured from a shock-tactic showman into a director of great perception, with a particular flair for awkward atmospheres.’ He ended with a thought on the ending: ‘the concluding showdown between Nora and Torvald is brutally compelling and the final image is a devastatingly powerful one.’

Regarding the adaptation, Time Out‘s Andrzej Lukowski explained: ‘Structurally, it’s a fairly faithful update of Ibsen’s original. But at the points where it needs to be updated – the original plot revolves around the illegality of women taking out bank loans – Reiss’s updates aren’t just a modish reskinning but an impressively incisive, white-knuckle engagement with contemporary anxieties.’ Of the star, he noted: ‘Garai marinates every line delivery, every gesture in compelling neuroticism: it’s entirely gripping, the 90-minute first half flying by.’

Rachel Halliburton for The Times was pleased with the adaptation: ‘it’s exhilarating to see this update sharpen the text’s incisors with cuttingly contemporary moral dilemmas.’ Romola Garai, she said, ‘delivers another riveting performance’.

WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton agreed: ‘the adaptation, though radical, is both scintillating and intelligent, and gives Romola Garai a glorious opportunity to show once more just what a subtle and fascinating actress she is.’ She gave more detail: ‘Reiss’s writing is smart and sweary, entirely convincing in its depiction of Nora as a spoilt “yummy mummy”, who requires others to provide validation for her actions.’ She added a warning: ‘Controversially, Reiss veers away from Ibsen’s famous ending. It’s interesting, but it is also a rare false note in a clever and absorbing rethinking.’

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

Anya Ryan for LondonTheatre disagreed about the ending: ‘It is a reimagining that might have Ibsen turning in his grave, yet it feels like a powerful, conflicting closing image. Beyond this, Reiss keeps A Doll’s House largely intact. Indeed, it is remarkable that a play approaching its 150th anniversary continues to feel so resonant.’

The Independent’s Alice Saville, while complimenting ‘stellar’ Romola Garai, had some stern advice for Anya Reiss: ‘Joe Hill-Gibbins’s staging is provocative and fun, without bringing out the emotional depth of a story that feels like it’s torn between honouring the structure of A Doll’s House and demolishing it entirely. We’re in an era where playwrights are encouraged to toy with sellable existing texts instead of making new ones – maybe it’s time Reiss got some characters all of her own to play with.’

The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar’s opinion of the adaptation fell in the middle: ‘Anya Reiss does a heroic job of reimagining this story for modern times, and half pulls it off.’ She explained: ‘As an adaptation, it is inspired in its ideas’. However, ‘Her dream of feminist self-realisation gets slightly lost in the mix.’ There are consequences, she said: ‘There is some excellent acting from the accomplished cast to smooth over the stiffer bits – so much so that you can see the effort and art of it. The roles feel performed by them and maybe this is the point – the performance of marital roles, the concealment of true selves – but it brings awkwardness.’

The Telegraph‘s Dominic Cavendish had a similar view: ‘Romola Garai transfixes beautifully as the desperate housewife, but Anya Reiss’s modernised A Doll’s House is a halfway house; what begins forcefully, fails to land fully.’ He concluded: ‘There’s a crudely topical allusion to war in the Middle East that lets Tom Mothersdale’s initially likeable, suddenly intemperate and finally implausible Torvald off the hook. Nora speaks her “truth” to a mere type; decent points are made but lack dramatic weight. As for the famous, climactic door-slamming departure, there’s a twist in the tale here, too. Some may judge it richly ambiguous; I found it a disappointing cop-out that robs Garai of her big moment and suggests Reiss’s rethink, like Nora’s life, has rather been built on sand.’

2 stars ⭑⭑

Gary Naylor reviewing for BroadwayWorld had a dreadful time: ‘Adapter, Anya Reiss and director, Joe Hill-Gibbins, update the Norwegian’s text with swear words (the baddest ones too!!!) and Ubers that turn up within two minutes on Christmas Eve. Far from making the play relevant for 2026, it reminded me more of the satires of Yuppie culture that Channel Four rejoiced in back in the 80s. But this is no Serious Money.’ He proceeded to demolish many aspects of the story and characters including Romola Garai’s Nora: ‘It was all so gauche that, in the second act, I could only think of Truly Scrumptious “turning around on a music box that’s wound by a key”, which undercut the vibe somewhat.’

Critics’ average rating 3.4⭑

A Doll’s House can be seen at the Almeida Theatre until 23 May 2026. Buy tickets directly from the theatre.

If you’ve seen Romola Garai in A Doll’s House, please leave your review and/or rating below

Funny but messy look at the legacy of slavery

Dorfman Theatre at the National Theatre

After great success with Rockets and Blue Lights, Winsome Pinnock returns to the National Theatre’s Dorfman Theatre with a play that looks at ‘the legacy of enslavement for both those who were responsible and those who are descendants of the enslaved’ (WhatsOnStage). Most of the critics thought it was amusing, but messy.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar summed up: ‘It all courses along with a lightness of touch that works. What a disarming way to serve up important contemporary questions around investigating histories, facing up to toxic legacies and atoning – or at the very least apologising – for them.’

Franco Milazzo for BroadwayWorld noted: ‘The real electricity comes from the triangular combat between Fenella, Marva and Abi, each circling the others with intellectual vanity, professional insecurity and something far more primal beneath.’ He pointed out: ‘This is not quite the gothic thriller it promises. But as a tense, talky, quietly incendiary three-hander about race, legacy and intellectual power, it cuts deeper than any jump scare.’

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton called it ‘a pacy and surprisingly witty three-hander which explores the legacy of enslavement for both those who were responsible and those who are descendants of the enslaved.’ She concluded: ‘Billed as a “gothic psychological thriller”, there are moments of comedy, drama and real pathos, alongside some investigative scenes that feel a bit Scooby Doo in tone. There’s much to enjoy in this production, but it needs to be more focused to authenticate its own identity.’

Holly O’Mahony for LondonTheatre opined: ‘Pinnock confronts the politics of racial identity head on. But is laughter the best medicine for tackling troubling ghosts of the past? I’m not so sure.’

Time Out‘s Andrzej Lukowski was convinced that: ‘whatever contrivances there may be to get there, the questions The Authenticator asks are salient enough to justify it all, and it’s an enjoyable – if bumpy – ride to get some answers.’

2 stars ⭑⭑

Although Fiona Mountford is still billed by The i as their Chief Theatre Critic Telegraph, lately she has been doing more reviews for The Telegraph.  She was critical of the play: ‘The 90-minute running time of Miranda Cromwell’s traverse production is too short to explore adequately everyone’s motivations and to explain away plot implausibilities, yet wearyingly long enough for trite dialogue and a few half-hearted haunted-house-style jump scares.’ She thought: ‘As one might expect from this type of dramatic set-up, secrets are (sort of) unearthed and conclusions (sort of) reached, yet there remains the unmistakable whiff of a script that has been continually and unsatisfactorily edited.’

The Times’ Clive Davis was damning: ‘Is it a satire, a polemic, a detective story or a pseudo-gothic thriller? Winsome Pinnock’s play about researchers wandering a stately home seems to shift directions every ten minutes. The three actors, Rakie Ayola, Cherrelle Skeete and Sylvestra Le Touzel, do their very best to keep The Authenticator on course…but in the end it’s a lost cause.’

Critics’ average rating: 3.0⭑

The Authenticator can be seen at the National Theatre until 9 May 2026. Buy tickets directly from the theatre.

If you’ve seen The Authenticator at the National Theatre, please leave a review and/or rating below

Strictly star shines in dull musical

London Coliseum

The critics agreed that Strictly star Johannes Radebe is a success as drag queen Lola in this revival of Cyndi Lauper’s musical. While reviewers complimented co-star Matt Cardle’s singing, most were critical of his acting. Opinions varied on the quality of Harvey Fierstein’s book but it was agreed that Nikolai Foster‘s production was spectacular.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Tom Wicker for TimeOut had plenty of good things to say about the show: ‘Foster’s staging is gorgeous…Leah Hill’s choreography is playfully breathless…(Radebe) brings an intensity to this larger-than-life character that’s operatic in pitch and disco-fabulous in tone‘. The only weakness was Matt Cardle ‘whose stiff and hesitant performance turns Charlie from everyman into nowhere man’.

Paul Vale at The Stage commented; ‘In Foster’s production, Lola is a goddess of defiance and rebellion. Radebe amps up the dance and doubles down on fabulous. That could imbalance the piece, but it actually brings cohesion to a musical that’s always struggled with its own identity.’

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

Lindsey Winship’s review for The Guardian starts on a high with praise for Johannes Radebe, saying he is: ‘utterly magnetic on stage, and when he’s dancing you can’t take your eyes off him.’ But ends on a more downbeat note: ‘It’s an enjoyable night out, and a brilliantly unlikely story, but in terms of the craft of musical theatre, Kinky Boots leans towards the pedestrian.’

The Times’ Clive Davis reported : ‘As you’d expect, the physically imposing Radebe nails all the moves in Leah Hill’s high-energy choreography and brings a winning vulnerability to a character who has had to come to terms with being an outsider. Cyndi Lauper’s songs have stood the test of time. What a Woman Wants, with its echoes of Gotan Project techno beats, delivers crisp tango flourishes.’

The Telegraph’s film critic Tim Robey praised Johannes Radebe: ‘This is stage presence: anyone who has paid purely to come and see him dance will be mesmerised.’ But he noted: The problems come down more to Harvey Fierstein’s book, based on the 2005 film. For the man behind such landmark gay writing for the theatre as Torch Song Trilogy and La Cage aux Folles, he did a weirdly nervous job all round here.’

Theo Bosanquet at LondonTheatre was happy: ‘there’s plenty to enjoy from this latest popular musical to play theatreland’s largest venue…However well-worn those red boots may now be, there’s an undeniably nostalgic enjoyment about slipping into them one more time.’

BroadwayWorld’s Aliya Al-Hassan found it ‘fails to capture the energy and vigour of its previous iteration.’ There were aspects that pleased her: about Radebe, she noted: ‘Leah Hill’s choreography allows him to shine throughout, with rapid-fire footwork and pirouettes off stage.’ And ‘Matt Cardle shows off some nice vocals’. However, she was not alone in reporting: ‘The main issue with this show is the sound, which is tinny and echoing throughout.’

2 stars

The Standard’s Nick Curtis was blunt: ‘A fierce, fabulous performance from Strictly star Johannes Radebe is the unlikely saving grace in this misconceived revival of the 2012 musical about footwear and self-acceptance. Despite winning a Tony, Olivier and Grammy award, Kinky Boots has always been a small and deeply mediocre show, and an oddball, hybrid work.’

Critics’ average rating 3.1⭑

Value rating 31 (Value Rating is a combination of the critics’ rating and the typical ticket price)

Kinky Boots can be seen at the London Coliseum until 11 July 2026 . Buy tickets directly from the theatre

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