Dance review: Quadrophenia

It's not often I go to see a purely dance-based show - very much not my area of expertise but sometimes a welcome change. There's always been some unusual inspirations for ballet but it seems like there's more than ever at the moment, and while I'm sure Peaky Blinders and Black Sabbath will be... experiences, I'm glad I went for Quadrophenia, based on The Who's album and the subsequent film. Pete Townshend's wife Rachel Fuller is a classical musician, and it's hers and Martin Batchelar's orchestral adaptation of Townshend's songs that provides the musical backdrop to the 1960s Brighton-set story of Jimmy (Paris Fitzpatrick,) a factory worker who finds release from the drudgery in girls, drugs and violence as part of a group of local mods.

Theatre review: The Entertainer

If the whole point of SirKenBran's eponymous, year-long residency at the Garrick was to prove that he could programme a whole season and actually remember to turn up for the whole thing, then it looks like a success. If we're also meant to take into account the actual shows, though, this has made Michael Grandage's underwhelming West End season of a few years ago seem like a resounding triumph in comparison. For the finale SirKenBran lets Rob Ashford take the directing reins on his own, while he himself takes on the lead role in John Osborne's The Entertainer, a part the playwright himself once told him he should play. Of course, Osborne's been dead for over twenty years so he probably wouldn't be too offended if his suggestion had been ignored, and maybe SirKenBran should have thought instead of the living who actually have to sit through it every night. He plays Archie Rice, a music hall entertainer who followed his father Billy into showbusiness.

Theatre review: Romeo and Juliet (Kenneth Branagh Company at the Garrick Theatre)

The SirKenBranCo season at the Garrick has put two of my least favourite Shakespeare plays at the centre of its programming, and where The Winter's Tale at least had Dame Judi bringing attention to one of the unsung standout roles in that play, a couple of good turns don't stop Romeo and Juliet from being every bit as much of a chore as I usually dread (and am occasionally pleasantly surprised, but not often.) This time SirKenBran doesn't take to the stage himself, sharing directing duties with Rob Ashford for the story of two wealthy Verona families who've been at war for generations, for reasons long-forgotten. Romeo Montague (Richard Madden) sneaks into a party held by the rival Capulets in hopes of bumping into Rosaline, the girl he fancies, but forgets her as soon as he spots Juliet (Lily James.)

Theatre review: Harlequinade and All On Her Own

When life gives you harlequins, make...

Harlequinade has a reputation as a very minor part of the Terence Rattigan canon. It's certainly not notable for its depth, but it's no doubt also suffered from often being paired with one of the playwright's masterpieces, The Browning Version, for no other reason than their both being one-acters. Playing in rep with The Winter's Tale in the SirKenBranCo season, it's paired with a different Rattigan piece, but it's no less of an unusual combination: The evening opens with Zoë Wanamaker in the monologue All On Her Own as widow Rosemary, returning from a date to an empty house. Sitting in the room where her husband died of an overdose, she has a conversation with him about whether it truly was an accident as the coroner ruled, or a suicide; she replies to herself on his behalf, expressing thoughts she's been afraid to say out loud before.

Theatre review: The Winter's Tale (Kenneth Branagh Company at the Garrick Theatre)

The latest director to launch his own West End residency is Kenneth Branagh, and he promises to stick around until the end and not get distracted by a shiny thing this time. For the opener SirKenBran co-directs with Rob Ashford and stars as Leontes in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. Leontes is king of Sicilia, and lifelong best friends with the king of Bohemia, Polixenes (Hadley Fraser.) Until, that is, for no reason at all, he becomes convinced that Polixenes is having an affair with his wife Herminone (Miranda Raison) and that the baby the queen is pregnant with isn't his. By the time the oracle at Delphi confirms Hermione's innocence it's too late: His public accusation and humiliation of her has brought about deaths and divine retribution, and Leontes' misery can only be ended 16 years later, when his lost baby daughter Perdita (Pirate Jessie Buckley) is found in Bohemia.