2,444 stories by "Michael Billington"
Whether too avant garde, too shocking or simply unlucky, sometimes a great play doesn't find favour with the public. I'd like to see these given another run " how about you?CE Montague, a fa…
Bush, LondonArtifice and art overlap in this self-referential piece about a theatrical group trying to stage a show about an African genocideHow do you tackle a subject such as genocide in e…
Finborough, LondonPanned when it was first produced, this piece has no hint of the inequality of passion that normally drives Rattigan's playsCritically hammered on its debut in 1958, Terenc…
Stephen Sondheim's serial-killing barber may be an unsavoury hero, but the musical skilfully mixes savagery, tragedy and comedy to create a work of art that leaves one in aweThere are musica…
Donmar Warehouse, LondonWelsh playwright Peter Gill tracks the damage done to the English middle classes by the first world war in this taut and passionate dissection of the doomed 1919 peac…
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London This boisterous production brings Francis Beaumont's 1607 burlesque of citizen drama and chivalric romance to lifeThis dashing new theatre has already proved …
Noel Coward Theatre, LondonSimon Beaufoy's stage version of the iconic film is well directed but feels like a missed opportunity to address any of the degradation of unemploymentIn the end, …
Southwark Playhouse, LondonIsy Suttie is perkily determined, but this musical about the woman who mapped London lacks dramatic tensionIt is rare to find a new British musical that is not by …
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 …
