Category Theatre Reviews

Joseph Caley as Romeo and Momoko Hirata as Juliet in BRB’s ROMEO & JULIET. Image Credit: Andrew Ross

Passionate, emotional and breathtaking, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s adaptation of ROMEO AND JULIET is simply spectacular

Birmingham Royal Ballet’s 2016 Shakespeare season looks amazing. The world-class ballet company is performing seven ballets at 10 venues across the UK as part of the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death...

Intense, gritty and powerful, Ann Marie Duff and Louise Brealey shine in HUSBANDS & SONS

Marianne Elliott makes a welcome return to the Royal Exchange with HUSBANDS & SONS, a major co-production with the National Theatre starring Anne-Marie Duff and Joe Armstrong.

Adapted for stage by the National Theatre’s Associate Director Ben Power, HUSBANDS & SONS interweaves three singular D H Lawrence plays (A COLLIER’S FRIDAY NIGHT, THE WIDOWING OF MRS HOLROYD and THE DAUGHTER IN LAW) into one standalon...

CHIP SHOP CHIPS is a funny and warm-hearted play which will leave you with a full belly and a smile on your face

Seven years after her collaboration with Box of Tricks on LETTING IN AIR (2009), acclaimed playwright Becky Prestwich makes a welcome return to the stage with her new play CHIP SHOP CHIPS.

Set during the grand reopening of Booth’s Fish & Chip Shop, CHIP SHOP CHIPS is a funny and nostalgic tale of family, love and the nation’s favourite food...

Genevieve Barr and Arthur Hughes star in THE SOLID LIFE OF SUGAR WATER. Image: Patrick Baldwin

THE SOLID LIFE OF SUGAR WATER is an intimate portrait of loss, hurt and recovery

Following its premiere at the 2015 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Jack Thorne’s new play THE SOLID LIFE OF SUGAR WATER heads to Royal Exchange this week as part of a national tour. 

Directed by Amit Sharma, THE SOLID LIFE OF SUGAR WATER tells the story of Phil and Alice, a young couple trying to understand their relationshi...

Raw, real and relentless, WIT is a beautiful play full of grace and redemption

Following his production of THINGS OF DRY HOURS back in 2007, Raz Shaw makes a welcome return to the Royal Exchange to direct WIT, the Pulitzer prize-winning play about a 50 year old professor dying of cancer.

Written by American playwright Margaret Edson, WIT tells the story of Vivian Bearing (Julie Hesmondhalgh) a renowned academic of metaphysical poetry being treated for stage IV metastatic ovarian cancer...

Fast-paced, slick and funny, Move Over Moriarty makes a welcome return to the stage

Following the success of Inspector Norse and Withering Looks, satirical comedy duo LipService return as Holmes and Watson in a reprisal of their cult classic Move Over Moriarty.

Written by Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding, Move Over Moriarty follows super sleuth Sherlock Holmes and his dim sidekick John Watson as they investigate the Garibaldi Biscuit Affair, a case as impenetrable as a London pea-souper...

Smart, silly and wickedly funny, Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel is fully deserving of its huge popularity

Improvised comedy (or ‘improv’ as it is otherwise known) has always had a bit of a bad reputation in the UK. Despite continued efforts to revive the genre, many ‘off-the-cuff’ improv productions can easily become meandering and flabby. One troupe that have truly mastered the art, however, is the team behind Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel.

Austentatio...

Slick, sassy and superbly performed, Alexandra Burke excels in The Bodyguard

Few people can handle the power ballad classic I Will Always Love You like Whitney Houston, but Alexandra Burke is certainly one of them.

The three-time Brit nominee and X-Factor winner steals the show as Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard, belting out hit after hit in the award-winning musical.

Based on the smash-hit 1992 film starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, The Bodyguard tells the story of superstar Rachel Ma...

INTO THE WOODS L-R Michaela Bennison (stepsister) & Gemma Page (stepmother) Photo: Jonathan Keenan

Matthew Xia delivers a musical Christmas cracker at Manchester’s Royal Exchange with INTO THE WOODS

“Into the woods, into the woods!” And into the woods we certainly went!

Setting the scene for Sonheim’s amalgamation of fairy tales is Tony Award winning stage and costume designer Jenny Tiramani who has turned Manchester’s Royal Exchange round stage into a magical forest, both outside and inside...

Smart, stylish and scintillatingly witty, Opera North’s production of KISS ME KATE is not to be missed

This review was originally written for The Reviews Hub

Following their five-star production of Carousel in 2012, Opera North returns to the world of Broadway with a brand new production of hit musical Kiss Me, Kate.

Written by Samuel and Bella Spewack, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, Kiss Me, Kate revolves around the tangled love lives of theatre actor/producer Fred Graham and his leadi...