Regular readers of this blog will know that, a few weeks ago, I was blown away by Tooting Arts Club’s revival of Barbarians, Barrie Keeffe‘s 1977 modern classic about disaffec…
What an honour! Last night I had the privilege of helping to open the third annual From Page to Stage season of new musicals. From Page to Stage is the brainchild of Katy Lipson of Aria Ente…
This week the AULTP bloggers discuss two Measure for Measures, at the Globe versus the Young Vic, Trevor Nunn's revival of Shakespearean epic The Wars of The Roses, and new comedy Dinner wit…
Obviously I go to the theatre a lot: but last night truly was special. I had the huge privilege of attending a premiere, at the White Bear Theatre, that marked the playwriting debut of a …
The new play’s the thing, even when it’s very old…. Here are four I’ve seen over the past few weeks, three of which I haven’t managed to squeeze yet into …
Richard, one of the central characters in Daniel Dingsdale's debut play Dark Tourism (like me) has a thing for quotations. The irony is that he's a peddler of lowest common denominator cultu…
Next weekend, the 85th birthday of American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim will be marked (albeit, somewhat belatedly – his actual birthday was on 22 March) in grand, celebrato…
Tonight should have been the night that Rebecca Lenkiewicz's new Out of Joint play Jane Wenham: The Witch of Walkern, inspired by the last woman in England to be charged with witchcraft in t…
I’m not the only theatre person who was focused on the Conservative Party Conference last week. Though she may not have anticipated quite the extent of the spitting, pig mask wearing p…
I wish I could have been in Manchester last week for the Conservative Party annual conference. Not because I've suddenly gone "true Blue" and definitely not because I wanted to spit at those…
How well do you know the work of composer-lyricist Leslie Bricusse? How many songs can you name by this living legend… apart from "Pure Imagination" (and the "Oompa Loompa" theme) from Cha…
On this Sunday's Andrew Marr Show on BBC One, in amongst an interview with David Cameron and other reports from this year's Conservative Party conference in Manchester, I was delighted to se…
I’ve known the Showstoppers for many years, both the company and its producers (James Seabright and Suzanna Rosenthal), and over that time, I’ve seen the show many times – …
Playwright Barney Norris has followed his award-winning debut Visitors with Eventide, which is now running at London’s Arcola Theatre before touring until 15 November 2015, c…
I’ve been looking forward to Barney Norris‘ new play ever since I caught his acclaimed four-hander Visitors at the Bush Theatre last year. The play, which centred on an elderl…
Have you seen the raft of rave reviews for our Featured Show? The European premiere of Harvey Fierstein‘s Casa Valentina, which is now running at London's Southwark Playhou…
Off-West End, out of town and out of this world. I’ve seen a few shows recently that have left me feeling distinctly disquieted… for their visions of the future, their distortion…
This morning I’m delighted to be in agreement with most of the overnight critics awarding a slew of four stars to last night’s opening: the London premiere of another New York im…
I love it when I disagree with the critics. No, really I do. I’m fascinated that we can all have such widely variant opinions on the same thing – and I’m very happy for min…
I’ve witnessed at first-hand two regime changes over the past few days and curiously they have a man in common: Ed Miliband. The political regime change, the announcement of Jeremy Cor…
How many shows can you name that have their opening night more than a fortnight after their run was scheduled to end? Dusty is London’s own Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, a fraught hig…
A couple of weeks ago, as part of the ongoing Hamlet hysteria, I was amazed that such an apparent uproar was caused by director Lyndsey Turner’s experimenting with the placement of the…
I was pleased to be invited to an event at the Arcola Theatre last night, to hear Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn launch his new Arts Policy document. This is the latest in more th…
Yesterday wasn't just a miserably wet Bank Holiday Monday in London (and most of the rest of England): north of the border, it was also the conclusion of the world's largest arts festival, t…
We owe the phrase "you won't succeed on Broadway if you don't have any Jews" to Spamalot " so it only officially entered the theatrical lexicon circa 2005 when the Monty Python musical opene…