The creative director of Leeds 2023 on seeing ‘beyond the chapati pan’ of her working-class background and how British theatre reflects diversity nowWho were your influences and role models?I had a great teacher from when I was 11, who looked out for m…
Netflix’s Diana: The Musical is the year’s most hysterically awful hate-watch | Stuart Heritage
The filmed Broadway show has crash-landed early on the streamer with hilariously awful songs, a musical mess to rival CatsLogically, it makes perfect sense that Diana: The Musical should exist. After all, Diana, Princess of Wales lends herself extraord…
Jason Donovan on Kylie, coolness and cocaine: ‘I’m a survivor and I’ve made mistakes’
Fresh from a run in Joseph, and about to go on tour, the actor and singer reflects on superstardom, drug addiction and the steadying joy of fatherhoodDespite insisting that he likes to look to the future, Jason Donovan is confronted with the past much …
How to Survive an Apocalypse review – dinner drama ducks deep questions
Finborough theatre, LondonJordan Hall’s play dips its toes into surviving global apocalypse but only explores romantic disaster This play will not teach you how to survive an apocalypse. Pitched as a romcom about the complexities of survivalism, this f…
Curious review – Jasmine Lee-Jones packs a punch with new solo show
Soho theatre, LondonThe Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner playwright returns with a production about a drama student researching Black British historyJasmine Lee-Jones made the fiercest of debuts with her audacious two-hander Seven Methods of Killi…
Dracula: The Untold Story review – a wild gothic thrill ride
Leeds PlayhouseFor a tale of the undead, Imitating the Dog’s inventive blend of live theatre and tech is bursting with lifeHaving tackled zombies in its most recent production, Night of the Living Dead – Remix, the Leeds company Imitating the Dog now t…
Ida Rubinstein: The Final Act review – a passionate dancer’s drama
Playground theatre, LondonThe extraordinary life story of the Ballets Russes star is retold with intensity, imagination and balletic flourishesDid you know Ravel’s Bolero was originally called Fandango? And it was written as a ballet commissioned by Id…
‘We’re concentrating on the villains’: the shocking play about the Grenfell tragedy
The writer of a drama about the Grenfell inquiry – and the £800,000 cost-cutting that made the refurbishment lethal – explains how this story is a microcosm for what’s rotten in Britain todayAlthough Richard Norton-Taylor’s ninth play makes its debut l…
‘You’re in a new world’: refugee actors share their journey on stage
A new play touring England uses beds to reflect on experiences of former unaccompanied minorsFor most people, bed is a place of comfort, somewhere to recline and switch off. For others, it is a scene of displacement, a symbol of the precariousness of l…
‘They changed my ending, I felt aghast’ – how we made Wicked
‘I once performed Defying Gravity at the White House within spitting distance of the Obamas,’ says Idina Menzel. ‘In fact, I might actually have spat on them’I’d played with the story of The Wizard of Oz since my childhood in the US when I would arrang…