AmericanTheaterWeb NewsClips

The Times UK

Sir Fred and Mr B - the Sunday Times review
While the wayward young lovers dance neatly, their acting isn’t subtle enough for Ashton’s characterisations

Apologia - the Sunday Times review
Josie Rourke’s sensitive production presents a misleadingly solid country kitchen - the family’s foundations are perilously fragile

Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme - the Sunday Times review
Doesn’t succeed in linking together the soldiers’ personal dramas and the broader course of the campaign.

The Pianist - the Sunday Times review
Bartlett juxtaposes slabs of grim description and lambent melody, building the production like a dry-stone wall

The Hypochondriac - the Sunday Times review
This satire on the medical profession is the one Molière died on stage performing. This, however, is not a show that dies on stage

The Observer

My week: Alex Poots, director of the Manchester International Festival
Manchester is probably the only place in Britain that would welcome a festival with this much risk. It's a city with such a pioneering spirit, not just in its brilliant music and political activism; it had the first free public library, the first train station and the first computer was made here. Faced with losing the race to industrialise, landlocked Manchester brought the sea to the city by building the first major canal. It's this vision and "we'll make it happen" ethos that makes the festival possible.

How Eric Morecambe turned tears into sunshine
Edinburgh premiere for a play that highlights the rise and bitter struggles of Britain's funniest man

The Guardian

Theatre review: Every Time It Rains, Hull Truck Theatre
To mark the second anniversary of some of the worst flooding ever to hit Britain, Hull Truck has commissioned a new work from Rupert Creed, a pioneer of aural-history documentary dramas and a fine director and writer in the genre. Creed has crafted the verbatim accounts ...

Scouse meets Gaul and puts us all in the pink
He rhymes ye gods with senna pods. He does a good deja vu joke. He does a good deja vu joke. And he drops in a bit of French: "Je regrette ... rien," wails the constipated hypochondriac as he peers into his empty potty.

The Independent

Apologia, Bush, London
Everything Must Go, Soho, London
Oklahoma! Festival Theatre, Chichester
So what, exactly, is an apologia? "It means a formal, written defence of one's opinions or conduct ... Not to be confused with an apology." Thus Paola Dionisotti's Kristin – renowned art historian, veteran left-wing activist and lousy mother – defines the title of her autobiography and also of Alexi Kaye Campbell's drama in which she, Kristin, is confronted by Simon and Peter, her neglected sons.

Tom Tom Crew, E4 Udderbelly, London
Time was, circus acts only ever performed under canvas. How things have changed. Australia's Tom Tom Crew are currently to be found on the south bank of the Thames, performing inside an upside-down inflatable purple cow

Close-up: Felix Barrett
Few theatre companies could describe using a linear narrative as "taking a risk". But defying convention is the norm for Punchdrunk, the group behind a string of "immersive theatre" events that have already entered modern London folklore.

The heat is on: Our essential summer arts guide

Whatsonstage.com

Michael Coveney: Standing in line with a Calendar Girl
The most elegant, and most senior, of the Calendar Girls, Sian Phillips CBE, was standing at the bus stop on Friday night waiting for the Number Nineteen to take her home to Islington.

 

The Times UK

Forbidden Broadway UK: third time lucky
Forbidden Broadway, the satirical New York hit show, is coming to London to mock our West End musicals one last time

Kureishi puts The Black Album on stage
The Black Album, Hanif Kureishi’s 1995 novel about the rise of radical Islam, is going on stage. The author tells of the likeable young...

Oklahoma!
Oh, what a so-so evening, perhaps, but those tunes remain irresistible

NT Live - Phèdre, Cineworld, Stevenage
Even viewed from a cinema in Stevenage it was obvious that a powerful performance was unfolding on stage at the National

Rattle of a Simple Man
Waterman gives the play grit, switching between hard-faced faux refinement, maternal warmth and lonely despair

The Guardian

Theatre review: Everything Must Go!, Soho, London
With Lucy Prebble's Enron and David Hare's The Power of Yes coming shortly, no one could accuse the theatre of ducking the crisis in capitalism. The Soho gets in first with this collection of 10 short pieces about our current woes. The result, written and rehearsed at great speed, is rather like a topical, intimate revue: not everything works but you have to admire the Soho's readiness to grapple with the global fiscal fiasco.

Theatre review: Oklahoma! Chichester Festival Theatre
It's a terrible dereliction of duty I know, but in all my years of theatre-going I've managed to miss every single revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical. It's my loss, because it's a delight, with one brilliant tippy-tappy-toed song after another and a nugget of darkness lodged in its sweet heart. At least, that's how it comes across in John Doyle's ...

Letters: Collaboration between stars and writers
Mark Lawson is spot-on about the glut of theatrical revivals bolstering the success of West End theatre shows. Stars are being lured into performing the classic plays because they are a sure-fire bet, plays with proven track records, which appeal to an audience that is already reassured, knowing it will be more of the same with famous stars.

Pick of the week: Theatre
South: The House Of Special Purpose The Browning Version Suddenlossofdignity.com Home The Caravan

Pick of the week: Theatre
Scotland & Ireland: New Works New Worlds Peer Gynt The Taming Of The Shrew The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie Balgay Hill

Pick of the week: Theatre
London: Hamlet Arcadia A Doll's House Peter Pan

Pick of the week: Theatre
North: The Pianist It Felt Like A Kiss Every Time It Rains The Hypochondriac The English Mystery Plays

Pick of the week: Theatre
Central: The Wicked Lady Hotbed 2009 The Winter's Tale Romeo And Juliet Private Fears In Public Places

Theatre preview: Forbidden Broadway, London
Menier Chocolate Factory, SE1, to 13 Sep

Theatre preview: New Works New Worlds, Glasgow
Arches, Wed to 4 Jul

Theatre preview: New Connections, London
National Theatre, SE1, Wed to 7 Jul

Theatre preview: Everybody Loves A Winner, Manchester
Royal Exchange Theatre, Wed to 1 Aug

Theatre preview: The Wicked Lady, Newcastle-under-Lyme
New Vic Theatre, Fri to 25 Jul

Theatre preview: The English Mystery Plays, Barnsley
Monk Bretton Priory, Mon to 11 Jul

Theatre preview: Home, Exeter
City Centre, Sat, 2pm; ticketed promenade performance 6.30pm

Financial Times

Real-life bingo fuses with theatre
Sarah Hemming talks to Neil Bartlett about 'Everybody Loves a Winner', his new play about hope and the randomness of life and why someone will feel richer after watching

London Theatre Guide

Jackson tributes paid at Lyric theatre
Fans of Michael Jackson having been paying tribute to the entertainment superstar at London’s Lyric theatre, home of Thriller Live, the show inspired by the King of Pop’s music.

Thriller Live dims lights for Jackson
Thriller Live, the West End show celebrating the life and music of Michael Jackson, who died yesterday, is to dim its lights and observe a minute’s silence in tribute to the musician and entertainer.