Audiences struggled to relate to the 50-year-old Profumo scandal. Lloyd Webber needs to focus on passionate love' Matt Trueman: Stephen Ward to close after four months' Xan Brooks: Stephen W…
Odeon theatre, Paris Luc Bondy's stylish, modern-dress production of Marivaux's comedy is a compelling portrait of a woman poleaxed by passionIsabelle Huppert, a veteran of some 90 films, is…
Soho theatre, LondonThis story of a couple's escape to the countryside finds a visceral intensity as it explores the symptoms of drug addictionAddiction lies at the heart of this short, shar…
Lyttelton, London This revival of Shelagh Delaney's portrait of sexuality, working-class life and mothers and daughters in the 1950s has the same emotional bite as the originalAlthough much …
Dystopian plays are rare, but from Samuel Beckett's Happy Days to Caryl Churchill's Far Away, there have been some standout original stage creationsThe arrival of 1984 at the Almeida theatre…
Southwark Playhouse, LondonAuthentic acting makes up for a slightly nostalgic script by Tracy Letts about an ailing Chicago doughnut storeAs you enter the theatre, a sign warns you of "mild …
Joan Littlewood's pioneering 1963 musical about the first world war not only changed attitudes towards the conflict, it remade British theatre. As the show gets a loving revival, Michael Bil…
The Langham, LondonA trio of plays by Tennessee Williams benefit from their plush hotel setting: there is angst and politics as well as sex in the airA lot of theatre these days takes the au…
He may not look like a showman, but Lan has a Diaghilev-like talent for bringing artists togetherIt comes as no surprise to learn that David Lan has been appointed as a consulting artistic d…
Theatre Royal Stratford East, LondonTerry Johnson's revival of Joan Littlewood's iconic musical restores a classic for a new generationIf ever a show deserved to be called "iconic" it was Jo…
Orange Tree, RichmondFrom art to politics, consumerism and climate change, this is a play that is not afraid to address big ideasI instinctively warm to plays on big issues and they don't co…
Palace, WatfordDaniel Kanaber's first full-length play makes a sincere case for religion as an aid in the grieving processHow do you cope with the death of a loved one? That is the question …
Royal Court, LondonAbi Morgan's play is something of a romcom for the intellectual classes, though it's given a bit of zip by the two actorsAbi Morgan, who has had great success on TV with T…
Finborough, LondonA boy has died in care in this debut piece that couples authenticity with moral ambivalence in its exploration of guiltThe title implies that we might be in for a study of …
Juliet Stevenson gives a remarkable performance in Beckett's story of a woman tragically aware of her mental plightBeckett's Happy Days, with its progressively entombed heroine, would seem t…
New Diorama, London There's little respite from the noise and rhetoric in Schiller's story of sibling hatred, written under the spell of ShakespeareAs part of a three-play rep season, The Fa…
Royal Festival Hall, LondonThis Irving Berlin tribute hummed along pleasantly enough, but it failed to face the music and danceThis celebration of Irving Berlin's 125th anniversary offers a …
Those wanting a glimpse into Hollywood's future should pay attention to what British theatre critics are saying today. Ejiofor, Dench, Weisz, Redmayne " the list of graduates goes onIt's tha…
Southwark Playhouse, London This triple bill of plays about the women left behind during the first world war makes for uneven yet fascinating viewingTheatrical commemoration of the first wor…
Hampstead theatre, LondonA grad-school reunion in New England raises pertinent questions about the role of women " and draws disappointing conclusionsGina Gionfriddo's Becky Shaw, seen at th…
Olivier, LondonSimon Russell Beale is magnetic and unorthodox in an exceptional production that mixes the epic and the intimateAnother day, another Lear. But, although this is the third prod…
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonIf the BBC does not go and record Atkins's masterclass in acting " in which she channels Ellen Terry's informal lectures on Shakespeare's female characters " I…
Royal Court, London Russell Tovey is commanding as a repressed gay footballer in John Donnelly's witty but finally overdone new playJohn Donnelly has the enviable gift of writing plays that …
Arcola, London This manic farce with a first-rate cast is full of erotic confusion, but its cross-dressing comedy is stretched to breaking pointThis manic farce by Tirso de Molina kicks off …
His TV work might have upstaged his distinguished career in theatre, but the actor best known as Trigger excelled in work by Bennett, Marber and, especially, PinterYou can often tell the qua…