London Theatre Reviews

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, review of Harry Potter play at London's Palace Theatre

Just as Hamilton has been all-pervasive on Broadway since it opened there last summer, there's been little talk of anything but Harry Potter's official stage debut over here since the first announcement was made revealing that it was on its way over a year ago. (There was previously a small two-man fringe show called Potted Potter that raced through all the books to date in 70 minutes that transferred from the Trafalgar Studios small house to the Garrick where it was Olivier nominated in 2012,...

Aladdin, review of Disney's new musical at the Prince Edward Theatre

Here's a show which gives a lot of bang for your bucks, in every way.Disney have set themselves an extremely high bar: their stage version of The Lion King -- which next year marks its 20th birthday on Broadway -- is still consistently the highest grossing of any show in New York, and in 2014 set the record for the top-grossing entertainment in any genre or medium of all time, having earned $6.2 billion worldwide. Their animated musical film version of Aladdin, premiered in 1992, was the most...

Les Miserables (25th Anniversary touring production at Barbican)

This year sees the silver jubilee of one of the most successful musicals ever - 'Les Misérables'. It's almost beyond imagination to conceive of a musical lasting a staggering 25 years in one city (London) and touring and playing in dozens of other cities all over the world. But such is the phenomenal success of 'Les Misérables'. To celebrate its anniversary, a new touring production of the show has landed at its original home, The Barbican, and so we now have the unique situation of 2 versions...

The Glee Club

The Glee Club has arrived in the West End after an extended sell-out run at the Bush Theatre. Set in the summer of 1962 the story concerns the lives of five miners and a Church Organist that sing variety hall music songs in working men clubs. We meet the six men as they prepare for their annual appearance at the local Gala.Phil the Church Organist is trying to cope with being a homosexual in a small Yorkshire mining village at a time when there was little acceptance or toleration of sexual...

The Comedy About A Bank Robbery review of new comedy at the Criterion Theatre

The appropriately named Mischief Theatre have been making merry mischief with the West End since 2014 when their fringe-born hit The Play That Goes Wrong transferred to the Duchess, which went on to win last year's Olivier Award for best comedy and is still running, and is now Broadway-bound. Their second show Peter Pan Goes Wrong, which ran at the Apollo last Christmas, was also Olivier nominated. That, too, was honed via a pre-London tour; but now for the first time they are even more...

‘Wicked’ review — the West End hit flies high at the Apollo Victoria Theatre

Read our five-star review of Wicked, the Stephen Schwartz musical starring Lucie Jones and Helen Woolf, at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. Get Wicked tickets now.

Peter Pan Goes Wrong Review

"This is not a pantomime," says the publicity for Peter Pan Goes Wrong. But it is a farce — and a riotous one — in which, instead of Peter Pan's traditional declaration that to die would be an awfully big adventure, it is more of an awfully big misadventure here.But then Peter Pan was never written by JM Barrie to be performed as a panto — it's actually a rather serious, sometimes brooding and melancholic work about the pains of growing up, as it portrays the story of a boy who refuses to do so,...

The Phantom of the Opera review from 2000

Next Review by Sven Verlinden Nov 2000 Last week, Scott was off so Richard Halton did all the shows and of course now was the time to see this wonderful actor as the Phantom ! I had been waiting so long for this to happen, and Saturday's matinee I sat dead center Front Row. WONDERFUL seat !!! (B10) Anyway, it turned out to be an "understudies only" day, coz Charlotte, Matt, Scott of course, Shan Cothi, Lee David Bowen and Donald Francke were all off. The 2nd cover Chirstine was on (Ana Marina)....

The Book of Mormon London Review

Note: Cast has changed since this reviewIf you follow proceedings in the entertainment arena, you may well know as much if not far more than I do about this much-anticipated show. 'The Book of Mormon' has already been in residence on Broadway for the past two years, where it has been a huge success, and advance publicity for the show means there can't be many people in the UK who do not know about it already.Given the descriptive nature of the title, it is pretty clear that the show is about the...

Seven Streams of the River Ota

Conceived by Robert Lepage, the play is in 7 acts covering the period from the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 to the present day. Lepage used video and images to great effect mixed in with opera singing and some very bizarre scenes.The first four acts are simply superb and gripping . However it's down hill from then on. There were still some great theatre to be had but the last few acts were getting a little off subject and a little harder to understand. I thought all the acts would be connected...