Evening Standard - Theatre

Absent Friends, Harold Pinter Theatre - review

Henry Hitchings — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:39:05 GMT

First night: Absent Friends makes grief funny - a rare feat. And although Alan Ayckbourn's 1974 play is a period piece, its sharp understanding of psychology feels up-to-date

Suspiro Flamenco/Manuela Carrasco, Sadler's Wells - review

Clifford Bishop — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:21:17 GMT

This is flamenco with roots as deep and old as dance itself - a woman letting the music inhabit her, and calling on the spirits to do likewise

The Heresy of Love, The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon - review

Henry Hitchings — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:37:40 GMT

While too many scenes are earnestly loquacious, there's power in Helen Edmundson's positive feminist vision of Juana Inés de la Cruz

Masterclass, Vaudeville - review

Henry Hitchings — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:59:17 GMT

This is exactly what the title says: the occasion for a magisterial and classy performance from Tyne Daly as the wildly popular soprano Maria Callas

Sex With a Stranger, Trafalgar Studios - review

Henry Hitchings — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:17:38 GMT

First night: Phillip Breen's intimate production is absorbing and the committed performances make this a satisfying, unsettling experience

Angle: Repentance / Behind the Lines - review

Henry Hitchings — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:21:45 GMT

Angle is a theatre company which sets out to discovers new playwrights, developing and presenting work by previously unheard voices

The Rodin Project / Russell Maliphant Company - review

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:14:59 GMT

Russell Maliphant's new work opens, appropriately enough given the artist who inspired it, like a fin de siècle fantasy of classical Greece

The Changeling, Young Vic - review

Henry Hitchings — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:20:08 GMT

First night: Jam, jelly and custard do not usually play a large part in The Changeling. The opening night shows a messy approach to a tale of tragedy and vengeance

Wayne McGregor/Candoco/Hofesh Shechter, Sadler's Wells - review

Clifford Bishop — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:46:26 GMT

At first sight this evening was a pretty disparate bit of packaging. An excerpt from Wayne McGregor's FAR was followed by Set and Reset/Reset, Candoco Dance Company's reworking of an Eighties minimalist classic by Trisha Brown

My play's a big noise at Old Vic but I thought no one would stage it

Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:44:28 GMT

It has become the highest-grossing Old Vic show since Kevin Spacey took over at the theatre's helm

The Pitchfork Disney, Arcola - review

Henry Hitchings — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:07:46 GMT

Ridley's writing delights in metaphor and is often intriguing, yet it's rather too effortfully enigmatic. Ultimately the surrealism and operatic gestures feel punishing

The Dream/Song of the Earth/Royal Ballet, Covent Garden - review

Clifford Bishop — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:35:20 GMT

The unenviable task of making us forget that there was ever a Sergei Polunin at the Royal Ballet fell to Steven McRae, and was made all the more difficult by the role in which he had to do it

She Stoops to Conquer, National (Olivier) - review

Henry Hitchings — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:22:35 GMT

First night: She Stoops To Conquer is almost 240 years old, but Oliver Goldsmith's tightly plotted play seems wonderfully youthful in this fizzy production

Street star's West End coronation

Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:16:25 GMT

Former Coronation Street actress Katherine Kelly has been hailed as a new star of the West End stage after swapping leopardskin and Lycra for the corsets of 18th Century comedy

Midnight Tango, Aldwych Theatre - review

Clifford Bishop — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:02:42 GMT

Strictly Come Dancing stars Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace hang their tango showcase on a narrative thread - twinned tales of a boy overcoming his sleazy rival to win the girl, and an elderly couple rekindling the fire in their relationship

Port Authority, Southwark Playhouse - review

Henry Hitchings — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:12:20 GMT

Despite flashes of lyricism and humour this production doesn't grip us. Although McPherson's piece is inherently static, the decision to seat the actors in front of an array of empty crates emphasises the lack of vitality

Men in Motion, Sadler's Wells - review

Clifford Bishop — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:51:32 GMT

Striking passages - like the intimately simple waltzes between the men which end with Sillis throwing himself foetally into Putrov's arms - but too much stodge between them

The House of Bernarda Alba, Almeida - review

Henry Hitchings — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:18:53 GMT

In Bijan Sheibani's production of Federico García Lorca's final play, the action has been transposed from rural Spain to Iran. It's a decision that feels wilful

The Taming of the Shrew, RST - review

Fiona Mountford — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:50:44 GMT

There's an intriguing statistic in the programme. Between 1908 and 1944, The Taming of the Shrew was staged almost every year in Stratford. Since 1960, however, there have been a more modest 13 RSC versions

Nobel author flies in to watch his 1963 play at Soho theatre

Jack Rivlin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:19:00 GMT

A Nobel Prize-winning Peruvian author stunned the London cast of one of his plays by flying in for its opening night

Hustle's Lester to play Othello as stars of TV screen light up new season at National

Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:14:15 GMT

Hustle star Adrian Lester will take the part of Othello in a star-studded new season at the National Theatre

Tattoos, tutus and tantrums at Royal Ballet

Louise Jury, Will Stewart and Benedict Moore-Bridger — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:08:11 GMT

Dance company's party-loving star sleeps it off after making a dramatic exit

The Trial of Ubu, Hampstead Theatre - review

Henry Hitchings — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:12:11 GMT

First night: Courtroom drama is always popular, and Simon Stephens subverts the conventions of the genre in this sharply contemporary piece, inventively directed by Katie Mitchell

Sherlock and Sheridan are the critics' choice

Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:49:14 GMT

Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch and musicals sweetheart Sheridan Smith have been crowned king and queen of theatre by the critics

Theatre's new power couple

Nick Curtis — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:50:31 GMT

In a first for London's leading theatres two women, artistic director Josie Rourke and producer Kate Pakenham have taken charge of the Donmar. Change is coming, they tell Nick Curtis