I missed the original run of 1536, so was glad to catch the West End transfer of a rightly celebrated and scorching play that would be terrific for anyone to have written, let alone a debut writer

There are undeniably moving things in Rory Mullarkey’s warm and sincere new play. Even so, the lack of structure and specificity to the city (plus a long, rambling opening monologue that just didn’t work for me) leaves it falling short of shattering

This is good to see, as many of their prev tours have forced regional audiences to compromise with largely recast productions. But it’ll be interesting to see which productions end up being selected over time - i.e. realistically it’s not going to be your Cate Blanchett-starring shows…

This show can’t always see the wood for the trees narratively, but is so full of delicately crafted visual wonder that it’s a delight. Off to Sadler’s Wells East next, then Blackpool Grand

Love being blindsided by a new play, and this Hilary Mantel adaptation @liveveryplay.bsky.social did exactly that

Didn’t love Madge’s aggressively jaunty new musical, with its crazily chaotic first half and naff depiction of a northern community. It ultimately feels like a big TV ad for the bank, but at least has a show-stealing villain from Samuel Holmes

The new Nyman/Dyson show is short on scares, if not ideas, and never manages to summon the magic of their previous hit, Ghost Stories. Frances Barber’s performance is a treat, but by the end, it’s more hammy than horror

Ahead of his new show with Jeremy Dyson which opened in York last night, I spoke to Andy Nyman for @theipaper.com about how he was nearly Derren Brown, why he loves magic and horror (and why others don’t), and what draws people to the supernatural inews.co.uk/culture/arts...

Enchanting design and a nice central idea. But the delivery is muddled rather than magical

Aron Julius’s new play clearly stems from a personal fascination and fandom towards Conteh, so much so that he takes the role himself. But as warmly as that comes across, he has not managed to shape that into a massively interesting, illuminating or well-written play

Plenty of worthy messages that, jumbled together without enough kid-friendly dazzle, never quite achieve lift off

Apparently one of the biggest hits in the New Vic’s history, this musical’s 60s/70s pop hits go down well with the old crowd. It’s essentially a three-star show, but good golly the shoddy storytelling is so all over the place that it becomes an incoherent slog

I clearly drew the short straw in the Exeunt reviews round-up: National Theatre special, covering The Authenticator, which I found naff, muddled and misleadingly marketed

Private Lives is a problematic play and I don’t really know why you’d revive it in 2026 (if McIntyre does have an answer, it doesn’t come through). But I thought this is about as good a production as you can stage, and Steve John Shepherd is particularly great www.whatsonstage.com/news/private...

Three hours, five decades, one brilliant Liz White. Leo Butler’s ambitious new play is overlong (ending at least six times), baggy and with a clumsy, cursory approach to politics. But with an edit, it could be a fantastic state-of-the-nation drama

It’s a short (85-minute) walk up the garden path for a starchy staging that’s more concert performance than true musical. The songs are well performed, and I gave some of the ropey direction the benefit of the doubt, but it doesn’t really unlock the story’s magic

It gets a little slow and laboured towards the end of its 3+ hours, but I thought this production from Matthew Xia was really irresistibly lovely – and better than the National’s, for my money

The design and central performance are reasonably effective, but losing so much of the psychology as a result of condensing the novel makes this a punishingly dreary evening www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/crim...

Reviewed Broken Glass at the Young Vic which I found a bit starchy and fragmented until it goes for broke at the end

Unfortunately timed, coming directly on the back of the Royal Exchange’s tremendous Road, this revival of Two shows the precipitous decline in the quality of Cartwright’s writing. In this flimsy production, all this pub-set two-hander serves is stale ale www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/two-...

Reviewed the touring Memory of Water which gets a cosy production where depth sits alongside shallowness

I think the best time to see Operation Mincemeat has been and gone. What you now get is an easy, breezy romp (that needs to be funnier to sustain two and a half hours) whose original idiosyncrasies have been minced up in the process of becoming an outsize commercial hit

Great to chat to two of the brilliant minds behind Imitating the Dog – the OGs of live camerawork on stage – about their (underrated, imho) new War of the Worlds adaptation and what they think about their imitators: Jamie Lloyd, Kip Williams, Katie Mitchell et al

Reacting to the grimly predictable announcement of a Traitors stage adaptation, Rebecca Watson writes: “Culture’s job seems increasingly to be about déjà-vu comfort rather than originality … Artistic directors need to trust that the audience is out there.”

“A critic without criticism is PR … If everyone just oozes blandishments, the crimes committed are worse than negativity.” See also: theatre reviews

This had an incredible look and concept, brilliantly reworking the Lady Macbeth character. With more dramaturgy and richer writing, it could’ve been extraordinary

Rightly sounding like a PSA

Reviewed Guess How Much I Love You? which didn’t floor me as much as most critics (although I’m not a parent, which must make a difference), but I thought the performances, design and ending were really great

Regional theatre not immune to dynamic pricing, it seems, with Manchester’s Royal Exchange upping top-price tickets for Road to £75 (let’s call it £80 by the time you’ve paid fees on top). A lovely gesture for the opening show of its 50th anniversary season…

I’ve seen these actors do great work. But I really think a revival of a dated 1930s comedy of manners needs some driving idea behind it, otherwise it’s just a revival of a dated 1930s comedy of manners

Another scattershot season announcement from Factory International. Bewildering for, among other things, calling “spring” the months between May-September. Big names aside (ENO, Ai Weiwei, Kip Williams doing opera), there’s once again no theatre to be seen, and shows running for max three nights

Shared a couple of highlights and lowlights from 2025

Reviewed Christmas Day at the Almeida - another great anti-festive show, even if it could’ve done with being a bit more decisive about the eerie abstract elements that decorate it like strange, dark baubles

There’s little fun of the fair in Oldham Coliseum’s Christmas show. A dull and fusty Jim Cartwright revival with none of the bravery and risk-taking of the theatre’s manifesto that we’re handed on our way out

Aardman characters + Circa acrobaaatics. What should be a surefire hit ends up a shear (🐑) waste of talent

The Everyman’s panto once again chooses a story it’s not especially interested in performing, and the design seemed noticeably cheaper this year too. But a great dame stops it becoming fee fi ho hum

I will be the five millionth person to say All My Sons is incredible. People have picked out individuals perfs like Paapa and Marianne, but how rare is it to see a cast where absolutely nobody puts a single foot wrong?

Royal Exchange hit-maker Raz Shaw has done a great job with what I don’t think is an amazing musical. Although the pace occasionally makes it feel like Singin in a Tornado, this is sunny stuff with a strong chance of rain-drenched rapture

Now this is more like it

Brolly-tree for Singin’ in the Rain at the Royal Exchange

I caught the Toby Jones/David Harewood Othello, which often looked great but essentially hammed the whole thing up in a jarringly overripe way that consistently made the audience laugh while rendering Othello a comic fool rather than a tragic hero

Dinsdale’s Scrooge scrimps slightly on grumpiness, but the BSL performers really added something to the story, and a brilliant Ghost of Christmas Past puppet really added something to the scares

Second Cinders of the week – this one Cinder-better than the last

I didn’t think every twist worked, but I liked that it decided Christmas shows can have the imagination to do something a bit different

Anyway, this “spoilt and entitled horrible little ignoramus” just saw End at the National and loved it! Such rich but understated performances. Not seen anyone crumple their face like Clive Owen. The hour and a half flew by; I almost didn’t want it to end

My weekend began with a 1,353-word email from the director of the show I reviewed in the FT this week, which began like this (below), went on to say I’m not fit to clean the boots of the production team, and concluded by saying “Yours is a remarkably ugly contribution to the world.” Happy Saturday

I thought this was a bit of a turkey. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice muster up all of seven forgettable songs that make you wonder why they bothered. But nothing else in the messy show seems to have a clearer idea of what is going on or why on.ft.com/4oSkkT8

For a limited time only, you can get 20% off an Exeunt subscription, granting you 100% access to some of the best voices in theatre criticism. Which I would surely take up myself were I not one of said best voices in theatre criticism.

Very late to writing up my Line of Beauty thoughts, but I thought it had great performances in a pretty uninspired, trad production that made you feel Grandage's reverence for the novel above much else upstagereviews.wordpress.com/2025/11/15/t...

Ft. me on Oli Hurst’s revival of Dennis Kelly’s Orphans, which has another fantastically full-on performance from John O’Neill, but not a whole lot else