5,590 stories by "Mark Shenton"
This week’s announcement of the Oscar nominees makes interesting reading, as ever, not least for the ongoing debt the cinema has to
Deloitte, the UK live entertainment business generated £17 billion in revenues in 2017. That figure includes attendance at cinemas and sports events,
Puccini’s meltingly beautiful and bracing score for Madama Butterfly has acquired a new bitterness after the last few months of #MeToo revelations.
I’m constantly amazed by the strength and variety of what the theatre offers us and how uncomfortable plays also test us, deeply.
We are truly blessed in Britain to live in a theatrical culture that offers us regular access to the great classics of
Last weekend, Camilla Long swapped her patch from reviewing films to television for the Sunday Times. “I've officially left my wife for
Lia Williams may not be as well known as some of her big-name co-stars, she may not even have got into drama
Another shifting of the tectonic plates of London's premier league theatres took place last week with the announcement of the planned 2019
This punchy revue-like musical about the six wives of Henry VIII originated as a Cambridge University student production, where its authors, musical
Theatre PRs are at the front line of a theatre’s relationships with the critics, columnists and reporters who cover theatre; and it's
I was only writing yesterday about the pervasiveness of snobbery in the theatre by some cultural critics and commentators. As if on
Popular success often equates with critical disdain, and vice versa: it was long fashionable in critical circles to frown on Andrew Lloyd
I go to a lot of first nights as part of my job. And inevitably, whatever the show and regardless of how
Follies, Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s glorious tribute to a vanquished era of variety spectaculars, is set during a final reunion for
Who doesn’t fantasise about being able to craft a theatre season just for yourself? As a critic, the order and sequence of
The volatility of theatrical politics and its impact on larger public conversations came to the fore in 2017 as never before. This
It’s that time of year when we try to begin again with a blank slate and set out our intentions for the
While this year's most hotly anticipated musical was a Broadway import, homegrown shows have enjoyed a remarkable renaissance. Mark Shenton celebrates the
Theatre can be made anywhere and everywhere " as Peter Brook famously put it: "I can take any empty space and call
It’s the time of year when critics are busy compiling their 2017 end-of-year reports, offering their round-ups of the best (and sometimes
The maddeningly memorable, nursery rhyme-like refrain of We're Off to See the Wizard is built on a lie. The Wizard of Oz
It's difficult to complain if someone is munching on popcorn during the quiet bits of a play like The Glass Menagerie when
“Don’t be a prick at Christmas” is the jauntily sung take-home message of Thirty Christmases, Jonny Donahoe’s intimate, funny and heartbreaking confessional
We now gladly embrace colour-blind casting in theatre, which means that anyone can play any role " it’s all acting, after all.
Yes, this year has brought the West End the stage version of Bat Out of Hell and 2018 already promises us Tina:
