Theatre review: ECHO (Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen)

In keeping with his usual theatrical style, originally developed when he was denied a passport and couldn't perform his shows himself, Nassim Soleimanpour uses a different actor as his proxy for every performance, allowing him to have someone make a connection with the audience even if he can't do so in person. Unusually, for his latest play ECHO (Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen) the full schedule of guest stars was revealed in advance, and given there's now a message on the website saying that no, you can't have a free ticket exchange to a different night, the Royal Court might be regretting that as, presumably, they're getting inundated with calls demanding they see Jodie Whittaker or Toby Jones. Tonight's guest National Treasure was Meera Syal, who at least would have had some idea what she was getting herself into as it transpires she's done one of Soleimanpour's previous shows: The playwright was excited as that had been the performance his wife caught, and she'd gushed about Syal's performance.

Theatre review: Red Speedo

Well I didn't have weaponising "You Got It" on my Bingo card of what theatres would try this year, but that's what Matthew Dunster's production of Red Speedo does, replaying the song on a constant loop before the show begins, before ramping up the volume to levels even an Orange Tree matinée audience should have been able to hear. At least it's better than those ten-second sound loops I've had at some shows, and it turns out Roy Orbison's song is such a banger I was still tapping my feet to it by the seventh or eighth repetition. On-topic lyrics aside, I was expecting a reference to this being a motivational aid the protagonist listened to before a race, but nothing so specific transpired to explain the choice. Holly Khan's sound design also goes in for a loud klaxon to mark the start and end of every scene, echoing the way Olympic swimming races are started, and giving the audience an occasional jolt.

Theatre review: The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare's Globe)

There's only really two things wrong with The Taming of the Shrew: One of them is half the plot, and the other is the other half. In Padua, the beautiful Bianca (Sophie Mercell) has many suitors, including the wealthy locals Gremio (Nigel Barrett) and Hortensio (Lizzie Hopley,) and recently-arrived Lucentio (Yasmin Taheri.) They compete for Bianca's hand in a needlessly convoluted scheme involving assuming fake identities, swapping around real identities, and a steadfast refusal to say a single funny line. The other storyline gives the play its title, as Bianca is not allowed to get married until her older sister Katherina (Thalissa Teixeira) does, and as she's considered a difficult woman, it seems she never will. So Hortensio recruits his mercenary friend Petruchio (Andrew Leung) to marry Katherina (it's not like she has any say in the matter) and once that's done he proceeds to bend her to his will through a sustained campaign of gaslighting and literal torture as defined by the UN.

Theatre review: Skeleton Crew

Michael Longhurst's run at the Donald and Margot Warehouse ends with something of a whimper, as the original play scheduled to close his tenure had to be cancelled - I think for contractual reasons - and instead director Matthew Xia was given Dominique Morisseau's Skeleton Crew. It's a play that does feel connected to the last few years at the venue, which have included two Lynn Nottage plays about the decline of American industry in the 2000s, but while the themes are similar Morisseau doesn't quite have the spark to her writing that elevates Nottage. Set in the break room of the last small car factory left in Detroit in 2008, the workforce have been pared back to a bare minimum but the four employees we meet are trying to convince themselves that the factory's closure in the next couple of years isn't as inevitable as it looks.

Theatre review: Alma Mater

Is it something that personally targets just me, or does the Almeida have a particularly unlucky track record of illness among its actors? I worked out that over the last eight years I've had to reschedule three shows there, miss one entirely, and have one performance meant to be a few weeks into the run turn into an early preview after the original star was replaced. The only comparable run of bad luck I can remember is when any RSC actor who went anywhere near a bicycle was guaranteed at least one fracture. Come to think of it that was around the time current Almeida boss Rupert Goold was at the RSC. Has Gooldilocks been a jinx all along? Making that third entry onto the list of rescheduled visits is Kendall Feaver's Alma Mater which had to replace original star Lia Williams with Justine Mitchell at short notice. Additionally, Nathalie Armin was indisposed today, so the supporting role of Leila had to be read in by Assistant Director Connie Trieves tonight.

Theatre review: Grud

After being developed at a Hampstead Theatre playwrighting scheme (back when Hampstead had development money,) Sarah Power's Grud now receives a distracting staging from Jaz Woodcock-Stewart in the Downstairs studio space. Bo (Catherine Ashdown) is a socially-uncomfortable science geek with no friends at her sixth-form college, until she meets the equally eccentric but more hyper Aicha (Kadiesha Belgrave,) the only other member of their school's space club. As they attempt to build a working miniature replica of a device that's about to be launched into space to do tests, the two girls do quickly feel affection for each other, but Aicha is a lot more enthusiastic about showing that she's excited to have made a friend on her level. Bo's mixture of not knowing how to behave around people, and not wanting to get too close to anyone, comes from growing up with her alcoholic single father.

Theatre review: Mean Girls

The audience at the Savoy Theatre were largely decked out in pink today. Security let them all in, but frankly they were lucky, considering it's not Wednesday. Tina Fey's (book) musical adaptation of her endlessly quotable 2004 film with Jeff Richmond (music) and Nell Benjamin (lyrics) finally makes it to the West End, and the new Mean Girls doesn't disappoint: Cady Heron (Charlie Burn) goes from being home-schooled by her mother in Kenya to being thrown into the deep end of an American High School. Her guides to the convoluted class hierarchy are queer outsiders Janis (Elena Skye) and Damian (understudy Freddie Clements) but the social group she ends up joining is the Plastics, when she catches the attention of their fearsome leader Regina George (Georgina Castle.) Cady's been warned about the school's ruthless alpha pack, but thinks she can study them from the inside by treating them as the lions she watched in Africa.

Theatre review: I'm Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire

Turning Misery into (more of) a black comedy, Samantha Hurley's New York hit I'm Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire transfers to Southwark Playhouse with its original director, designer and leading lady - the latter's performance being a big part of what sells... whatever it is that's going on here. Set in 2004, around the time that the internet started to be fast enough and ubiquitous enough to help blur the lines between fandom and stalking, Shelby Hinkley (Tessa Albertson) is the 14-year-old president of the Tobey Maguire fan club, whose regular video messages to members include an update on the actor's current whereabouts. It turns out she's got a specific plan for this information though, and when Tobey (Anders Hayward) gets anaesthetised to get his wisdom teeth removed, she's ready to grab him from an LA dentist's practice, stuff him in a duffle bag and onto a coach, and chain him up in her basement in South Dakota.

Theatre review: Your Lie In April

PREVIEW DISCLAIMER: As all seats for Your Lie In April's preview period are being sold at the same price, I wasn't going to miss the chance to see a show in a West End theatre from a seat where the stage was actually visible, so I went before the official press night.

For the latest in the West End's unofficial East Asian season the Harold Pinter Theatre is decked out in the familiar cherry blossom so we know we're back in Japan: Your Lie In April is based on Naoshi Arakawa's popular teen romance manga, which makes it an interesting contrast to last week's Marie Curie, a Korean take on a European story that very much followed a Western musical template: Here a largely Western creative team takes on a Japanese storytelling tradition, and while Frank Wildhorn (music,) Carly Robyn Green and Tracy Miller (lyrics,) Riko Sakaguchi and Rinne B Groff (book) offer up another slice of Broadway-friendly music, Nick Winston and Jordan Murphy's production maintains a cartoonish feel that reminds us of its comic book origins with a distinctively Japanese flavour of cheese.

Theatre review: A View From The Bridge

It's ten years since Ivo van Hove's production of A View From The Bridge not only made a star of the Belgian director in London and New York, but also tangibly influenced the way a lot of theatre has been approached since then. It feels a lot more recent than a decade, but then all that influence is probably part of that (along with the fact that I have seen it a bit more recently than that, as a streamed recording during lockdown.) So in some respects it probably is time for someone to revisit Arthur Miller's domestic tragedy as a whole new generation can see it with fresh eyes; but for many of us it'll be slightly odd to see a production that keeps the original details and trappings of post-War New York, where Italian-American families live under the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge and work - when they can find work - loading and unloading ships on the docks.

Theatre review: Marie Curie

The latest in the West End's influx of East Asian theatre is a South Korean musical, although I'm not sure it heralds a K-Musical revolution to match the popularity of K-Pop or K-Drama - not until the genre develops as distinctive an identity to make it stand out. Jongyoon Choi (music) and Seeun Choun's (book & lyrics) Marie Curie, in an English version by Tom Ramsey (book) and Emma Fraser (arrangements & lyrics) follows Marie Skłodowska (Ailsa Davidson) as she travels from her native Poland to France, where she'll be the only female student of science at the Sorbonne. On the train journey she meets Anne Kowalska (Chrissie Bhima,) who's planning to get factory work, and will become a lifelong friend and link back to her beloved homeland.

Theatre review: The Bounds

I often talk about weirdly specific themes that come around in theatre, and this year we're getting one that's also specific to a venue: After Gunter, the Royal Court Upstairs once again gives us a play about mediaeval football matches between entire villages that could go on for days and risked turning violent - in a story with an undercurrent of witchcraft. The characters in Stewart Pringle's The Bounds don't actually get anywhere near enough the action to get injured by it, which isn't to say you feel confident they won't come to harm: On the outskirts of the Northumberland village of Allendale, Percy (Ryan Nolan) and Rowan (Lauren Waine) have taken their places for the annual Whitsun match against hated local rivals Catton. But in practice they're essentially spectators, and not even in a good location: They're clearly not star players, and have been ditched somewhere so far out of the way that even a game that takes place over several miles is unlikely to reach them.

Theatre review: Some Demon

Apart from when things went a bit chaotic circa Covid, I think I've pretty much kept up with every Papatango winner for the last decade - the playwrighting contest has come up with some very impressive work, even if I've always suspected that it doesn't hurt your chances if the subject's a depressing one. In other news, this year Laura Waldren's Some Demon is set in an eating disorder inpatient clinic, and takes its title from a Nietzche quote. Zoe (Sirine Saba) has been in and out of institutions like this one for the last decade; her current stay seems to be a particularly long one, as she alternates between making progress and even becoming a helpful and maternal figure to the other residents, and sabotaging both her own treatment and other people's. Right now she's getting impatient with Mara (Leah Brotherhead,) whose tantrums and screaming fits are disrupting group sessions during the day, and keeping everyone awake at night.

Theatre review: Babies

The Other Palace has managed to combine its remit to discover new British musicals with the high school musicals that have been its bread and butter in recent years: Martha Geelan (book) and Jack Godfrey's (music & lyrics) Babies isn't even an adaptation of an existing property, although its premise has been a mainstay of teen TV drama since even I was a teenager: Back then it would most likely have been an egg that each of a class full of kids would have been given to look after as if it was a baby; here Year 11 are delivered a shipment of hi-tech Japanese dolls that cry like real infants and need feeding and care. The class have to look after them for a week while juggling all their usual schoolwork, a cautionary project meant to put them off becoming single teen parents for real, as the entirety of the year above them seem to have done.

Theatre review: The Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC/RST)

Known for being particularly good with some of the lesser-loved Shakespeares, Blanche McIntyre returns to Stratford-upon-Avon for the new RSC regime's first season. And in the first half at least, The Merry Wives of Windsor justifies its place as very few people's favourite: While the popular myth of Elizabeth I demanding to see Falstaff in love seems very unlikely, it does feel probable that this Henry IV spin-off was written because of popular demand, and its mix of characters from a very different world with a whole bunch of new comic foils begins as a tangle of plots, tricks and misunderstandings. There's even a very tedious version of the Twelfth Night subplot about convincing two different types of idiot that the other wants to duel them to the death, which even the characters get openly and mercifully bored with and ditch after the first couple of acts.

Theatre review: English

Marking both one of the last shows from Indhu Rubasingham at the Kiln, and one of the first from the Harvey/Evans regime at the RSC, this co-production of Sanaz Toossi's English is a great reflection on both companies. A play about language and identity, this was the 2023 Pulitzer winner for drama, and marks another year to buck the trend of underwhelming winners of that prize. Some while ago Marjan (Nadia Albina) spent nine years living in Manchester, before returning to her native Iran. She's married and settled now, but is constantly trying to reconnect with how she felt then, which she does by teaching English classes. Over a five-week course she helps four adults prepare for their TOEFL exam in a classroom she optimistically announces will be a Farsi-free zone (the fact that the play uses the conceit of the actors speaking English in Iranian accents, with "Farsi" represented by English in their own accents, tells you how successful they are at sticking to this.)

Theatre review:Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White

Alice Childress' 1966 play about segregation Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White is set in South Carolina in 1918, and the fact that it's the final year of the First World War is a constant underlying theme: Black soldiers like Lula's (Diveen Henry) adopted son Nelson (Patrick Martins) and sailors like Mattie's (Bethan Mary-James) husband are fighting the same as white Americans and risking their lives the same, but in an upcoming celebration Nelson will, like the rest of the black troops, have to add himself to the end of the parade uninvited; and when the war ends, however much they try to convince themselves otherwise, they know their contribution won't be recognised by allowing them into the spaces they're currently forbidden from. But if Lula and Mattie think they've seen it all, their new neighbour will confront them with one more taboo.

Theatre review: Passing Strange

Ben Stones' white wedge of a set, with four musicians stationed around the stage along with the odd prop and piece of furniture, clues the audience in from the start to the fact that we're in for a night of gig theatre. The fact that it opens with a quartet of backing singers arriving on stage to find the star turn hasn't shown up yet, and it takes a few blackouts and resets for the Narrator (Giles Terera) to kick proceedings off, correctly lets us know that there's also a chaotic element in store: Stew Stewart (book, music & lyrics) and Heidi Rodewald's (music) 1970s-'80s-set coming-of-age musical Passing Strange pretty much plays by no other rules than its own. The Narrator introduces himself as Stew so from the start it's implied this piece will be autobiographical, and that he himself is an older version of our young protagonist.

Theatre review: Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe)

Apparently Shakespeare's Globe is out of the worst of its post-lockdown budget hole, which hopefully means Michelle Terry (who let's not forget chucked The Two Noble Kinsmen into her inaugural season) won't be quite as obliged to programme just the hits, which has essentially seen the venue having to reboot A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing in alternate years. But for the time being it's an even-numbered year so I guess it's the latter they have to find a new take on, even as Lucy Bailey's production still feels fresh in my memory. At least Much Ado is a play the Globe rarely seems to fudge, and Sean Holmes' take on it is no exception. Grace Smart's design seems to take inspiration from the text's laboured pun on Seville oranges to set the action in an orange grove, and the cast seem to be liberally handing out fruit to the groundlings in a production that makes particularly good use of the shared space with the audience.

Theatre review:Fun at the Beach Romp-Bomp-a-Lomp!!

It's a week of exclamation marks in theatre and I wonder if the creators of the latest musical parody to hit the stage are unaware of musical theatre history, or just deliberately flying in the face of it: Because famously Oliver Exclamation Mark was an enduring hit, but when Lionel Bart followed it up with Twang Exclamation Mark Exclamation Mark that went so badly that, to my knowledge, nobody's ever even been allowed to revive it even as a curiosity. So with Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder Exclamation Mark opening in the West End, are Brandon Lambert (music and lyrics) and Martin Landry (book) setting themselves up to be the catastrophic flipside at Southwark Playhouse with Fun at the Beach Romp-Bomp-a-Lomp Exclamation Mark Exclamation Mark? Well... a bit.