Carrie Hope Fletcher is the star of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella; Oliver Ormson is in Disney’s Frozen. The pair discuss romance, musicals and returning to the stage amid theatre’s crisisYou could say they’re a fairytale couple: Prince Charming and …
@Home review – Didy Veldman explores where the heart is
Gulbenkian theatre, CanterburyActions speak louder than words as a talented cast take a guided tour of our most intimate relations Didy Veldman’s @Home grew around the idea of being “at home”, but to think of it as a dance about that idea would be a mi…
Antigone review – gender switch sparks striking take on Sophocles
Mercury theatre, ColchesterWendy Kweh plays Creon as a politically minded queen in Merlynn Tong’s adaptation steeped in grief and decayThe chorus has been banished, the cast of five has no room for Eurydice and, most strikingly, Creon is a queen in Mer…
The Long Song review – a vivid, harrowing staging of Andrea Levy’s novel
Chichester Festival theatreTara Tijani and Llewella Gideon are superb in this unblinking portrait of dignity amid moral horror, which follows a Jamaican woman looking back on her lifeAn additional sting in the tragedy of the death of Andrea Levy at the…
Athena review – teenage duellists take a hesitant stab at friendship
Yard theatre, LondonTwo vividly portrayed fencers shuffle towards a climactic battle in this smart, galvanising coming-of-age drama The verbal sparring is sharp and pointed in Gracie Gardner’s quick-witted play about two American high-schoolers trainin…
We Are As Gods review – big-time sensuality
Battersea Arts Centre, LondonSome 70 dancers reacquaint audiences with the BAC building in a sumptuous feast from James Cousins CompanyThough it features some 70 dancers, James Cousins’ We Are As Gods is not only, perhaps not even mainly, a dance perfo…
Metamorphoses review – riotous night of vice, profanity and shocks
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonAncient Greek myths are retold with stripped-back simplicity and no little bloodshed in a hugely enjoyable show“Welcome in,” calls Irfan Shamji as latecomers shuffle into the tight space. “We’re about to start a banger.” …
The Mirror and the Light review – Cromwell’s spell is finally broken
Gielgud theatre, LondonThe climactic play based on Hilary Mantel’s magisterial trilogy has wit and grace but no great dramatic releaseIt’s a truism all too well known to Thomas Cromwell that history is written by the victors. By the final volume in Hil…
Actor Renu Arora: ‘I saw my leg go under the bus and thought I was dead and gone’
Four years ago, she was involved in a horrific accident. Little did she know it would leave her uniquely prepared to play a noblewoman hit by a falling elephant in the RSC’s new Christmas musicalOne Wednesday evening in March 2017, everything changed f…
Putting It Together review – how Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George was born
James Lapine’s account of how he and Stephen Sondheim braved bad previews and cast members jumping ship to create a hit musical is fascinatingThis book is a retrospective peep behind the curtain, an account of how a musical was conceived, written, prod…