These days you need a star in a West End show to keep the box office busy. It wasn't always thus. Back in the 1980s producer Cameron Macintosh made the show itself the the main attraction with mega-hits like Les Miserables and it didn't particularly matter who was in it, the public were just excited to see Les Mis regardless of who happened to be playing Jean Vajean.
West End Theatre News and Reviews


Craig Revel Horwood to play Miss Hannigan in Annie
By Phil Willmott Sunday, August 6 2017, 07:29


Review: APOLOGIA at Trafalgar Studios
By Stuart King Friday, August 4 2017, 22:07
Among the personal possessions I've accumulated during many years of theatregoing, is a programme signed for me by Stockard Channing at the stage door of the Comedy Theatre in 1991. Back then, she was garnering plaudits for her turn as empathically naïve Ouisa Kittredge in Six Degrees of Separation. I am delighted to report that in Apologia, which has just opened at Trafalgar Studios, Channing (now aged 73), delivers an equally noteworthy performance which is set to dazzle West End audiences.


Review: COMING CLEAN at the King's Head Theatre
By Phil Willmott Monday, July 31 2017, 13:53
A final piece by the late Kevin Elliot, best known for his play My Night with Reg, drew a fairly negative reaction from critics recently so it's interesting that the King's Head Theatre are reviving his very first play only weeks afterwards. It's 35 years since a premiere at the Bush Theatre and as far as I know this is the first time anyone's revisited it.


Review: THE SECRET DIARY OF ADRIAN MOLE at the Menier Chocolate Factory
By Phil Willmott Friday, July 28 2017, 18:54
If you were a teenager in the 1980's the character of Adrian Mole, geeky, pretentious and utterly relatable to, will be an old friend. His hilarious take on adolescence was captured by writer Sue Townsend in a fictitious diary, first a best selling book, then a TV series, then a play, then a musical, and there were several sequels. Adrian's faded from public consciousness in the last decade or so and, alas, Townsend died in 2014. All this makes this adorable, completely new musical very welcome especially as it transports us back to his first teenage incarnation and reminds us what fun it was follow his bumbling and humbling attempts to become an intellectual and a hit with girls.


Review: THE ELDERS at Theatro Technis
By Monty Leigh Friday, July 28 2017, 08:59
Collaborating with Siberian Lights, Newly formed London based theatre company A’dart are hoping to ‘create performances that raise questions about society's overarching rules and principles’ and with Kat Christidi’s piece of new writing/directing ‘The Elders’ they are off to a strong start.
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