Everything Theatre Reviews, interviews and news for theatre lovers, London and beyond

Slick, smart and a guaranteed mood-improver.

A promising situation comedy

What could be more cheering in 2020 than to be back in a theatre at Christmas?

Daft and superficially DIY this may be, but it’s cleverly put together

A bright and lively musical with emotional heft in parts

Returning home from Cirque du Soleil’s Luzia at the Royal Albert Hall, I posted a quick mention on Instagram. The next morning there were several likes and comments from performers in the show. We expect that sort of engagement after shows from small companies, in small venues, but not so much after shows that list 14 different credits…just for the programme! It was a valuable reminder that while Cirque du Soleil is a juggernaut, it carries individual artists who train, ...

Exuberant spoken word is brought to even greater life with charming, quirky performances

Like the abusive marriage that it describes, Bottled starts off deceptively sweet. It is Katy’s 15th birthday, and she’s celebrating at home with family and her mum’s boyfriend, some shiny balloons and a violently pink cake. As she talks us through the scene, describing the characters and their part in her life, the commentary is wry and perceptive, a healthy mix of childish candour and teenage snark. When, shortly after that birthday party, she hooks up with Bradley, a hot, ...

Pros: Nicely menacing Gothic atmosphere. Cons: Shallow characterisation and a complete lack of variation in tone A word of warning to anyone planning a visit to Notre Dame de Paris at London Coliseum. Brace yourself. Brace for histrionics. The breast-beating starts early, with the first big number, Les Sans-papiers, and never really lets up for the rest of the show. The understandable anguish of the outcasts, the vulnerable and the falsely accused is rendered with the same power ballad intensity ...

Pros: The set. The sound design. The projection. The lighting. Cons: Far too many people in the audience filming the show on their phones. A silvery particle spins and tumbles from above, setting in train an evolutionary journey from primordial soup to space exploration. Well that’s the idea, anyway. More prosaically, Totem is a high-spec review show, in which circus acts, loosely themed around ideas of man’s evolution and environment, are interspersed with quirky comic vignettes. The circus acts are ...