Theatre review: Pride

Twelve years after the film shone an overdue light on the relationship between the LGBTQ+ and mining communities that were equally targeted by Margaret Thatcher's Britain, director Matthew Warchus reunites with original screenwriter Stephen Beresford, who provides the book and lyrics, plus composers Christopher Nightingale, Josh Cohen and DJ Walde to stage Pride the musical. In 1984, young gay activist Mark Ashton (Jhon Lumsden) is looking for a way to mobilise his and his friends' Pride protests into something that has a wider effect, and lands on the idea of joining forces with another group that are struggling to have their voices heard: The coal miners' unions are on strike and being demonised in the press as "the enemy within," while the small town communities they support are feeling the financial strain.

Theatre review: Here Comes J. Edgar!

With music by Peter Matz and the comedy pedigree of Harry Shearer and Tom Leopold on book and lyrics, Here Comes J Full Stop Edgar Exclamation Mark is a broadly comic attempt to satirise one of the most influential figures in shaping 20th century America: J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI for almost 60 years, but remembered as much for his fondness for wearing drag in his private life, as for the draconian policies he enforced in his public one. In an opening that fully embraces what a hokey cliché it is, Hoover (Bryan Batt) is visited on his deathbed by his younger self (Jess Pratley,) who'll take him through his life story in the form of a 1940s/'50s-style musical. As a child he's the editor of a school newspaper that publishes gossip about the staff and students, and it's an instinct that carries through to his adult life and the way he runs the country's most powerful law enforcement agency.

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

If A Midsummer Night's Dream is the Open Air Theatre's signature Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing feels like it occupies a very similar place at the Globe. I could definitely do with longer gaps between new productions - they do start to blend into each other in my memory and I sometimes wish for a bit more distance from the last one to let the next fresh take make its mark - but while some have been better than others the venue has never served up a completely duff one as long as I've been going there. Chelsea Walker's production doesn't buck that trend either: Not a particularly high-concept one apart from Sami Fendall's designs taking a lot of inspiration from the weddings the plot revolves around - a lot of white, floral displays and the musicians decked out as a wedding band, playing old standards that punctuate the comedy and sometimes troll the characters.

Theatre review: The Guilty

The big price hikes to the cheapest seats since Timothy Sheader took over the Donald and Margot Warehouse mean I don't go as often, and when I do I'm usually alone as not everyone wants to spend £32 to look at the back of an actor's head. When that actor is Russell Tovey though it's a pretty safe bet that both I and my usual theatre companions will be interested, actually, especially with the promise of him being the only actor on stage: Tovey plays Joe, a 999 operator who's not exactly a natural fit for the job; frequently tetchy and impatient with the callers, many of whom are wasting his time and police resources, but some of whom could do with a more sympathetic ear. As it turns out this isn't what he wants to be doing - a police officer suspended from his usual duties, this is his last night on the phone lines before he has to attend a hearing about the event that left his and his colleagues' jobs on the line.

Theatre review: A Midsummer Night's Dream(Regent's Park Open Air Theatre)

I doubt too many people would be surprised to know that A Midsummer Night's Dream ranks as the most frequently-produced play in the Open Air Theatre's history, although in my personal experience (this is now my third) they've not yet managed a production that's lived up to the perfect summer setting. Atri Banerjee's won't buck that trend, though at least in a year that's not served the play particularly well it's streets ahead of the Globe's current infantile attempt. The big idea behind Banerjee's version is to build up the role of music in the play, with the fairies becoming a folk band, playing songs Maimuna Memon has composed out of the lyrics Shakespeare has provided, as well as out of a lot of the poetry usually spoken. It's an idea that provides a lot of charm, lifting the scenes that the band underscores, but it does come at the expense of the comedy.

Theatre review: Sting

Sophie Swithinbank's Sting draws parallels between the modern-day collusion of men and institutions against women experiencing abuse, and the historical persecution of women accused of witchcraft, through a pair of women conducting an academic study on just that subject: Lily (Phoebe Ladenburg) is a university lecturer specialising in the history of witch hunts, attempting to digitise a unique archive of cases and evidence. She hires a part-time assistant to help speed up the process, but doesn't get quite what she bargained for. Ash (Adelle Leonce) is qualified, educated and well-versed in the subject, but she hides it all a bit too well under hectic first impressions: She arrives for her first shift still drunk and exhausted from the night before's clubbing session, and just as she starts to settle in has a miscarriage.