Theatre

The award winning play fails to live up to the hype, says Tim Walker. The first thing to be said about Clare Barron’s Dance Nation is that it isn’t going to get you boogying in the aisles. The title suggests an upbeat song and dance extravaganza with a jaunty, attractive, young cast, some big, bold […]

Play’s not quite the thing here The two apostrophes in Love’s Labour’s Lost do not engender confidence. This rarely performed work – uncertain if it’s a morality play, a bawdy comedy or just an excuse for a lot of exhausting verbal acrobatics – shows that even Shakespeare had his off days. The director Nick Bagnall […]

TIM WALKER reviews Little Shop of Horrors at Regent’s Park Theatre LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS by Ashman ; Directed by Maria Aberg ; Designed by Tom Scutt ; At the Regents Park Open Air Theatre, London, UK ; July 10 2018 ; Credit : Johan Persson – Credit: Archant It is right of course that […]

TIM WALKER on how this seductive production of the comedy classic makes it funnier than ever. Vaudeville Theatre, London, until October 20 There is a great deal of kissing going on in Michael Fentiman’s adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest. Men kiss women, women kiss women and men kiss men. Fehinti Balogun’s dashing Algernon […]

TIM WALKER gives five stars to King Lear at London’s Duke of York’s theatre King Lear Duke of York’s, London, until Nov 3 ***** (Five stars) Two kings, neither in full possession of their faculties, are currently holding dominion in the West End, and across the Thames, at the National Theatre. One is sublime, and […]

TIM WALKER gives three stars to Alkaline at London’s Park Theatre Alkaline Park Theatre, London, until August 4 *** (Three stars) It is now more than half a century since Katharine Hepburn had to pluck up the courage to tell Spencer Tracy that their blonde-haired daughter was marrying Sidney Poitier in the film Guess Who’s […]

TIM WALKER reviews Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s production of ‘As You Like It’. Seldom, if ever, can the fates have conspired against a first night in quite the way they did for As You Like It at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre last week. No one could have known when they scheduled it […]

TIM WALKER on the plays that show nothing ever changes in politics. Gielgud Theatre, London, until September 7 If there’s one political speech that’s stood the test of time – and I always wonder at how brilliantly manipulative it is every time I hear it – it’s the ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen’ eulogy that Mark Antony […]

TIM WALKER gives five stars to The Lieutenant of Irishmore at London’s Noël Coward Theatre The Lieutenant of Irishmore Noël Coward Theatre, London, until September 8 ***** (Five stars) Over the years, Daniel Radcliffe, Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Ben Whishaw have all been only too happy to tread the boards for the director Michael […]

Stage review of Monogamy, at Park Theatre, London by TIM WALKER Sometimes, not often, a great ensemble cast can take a mediocre play and turn it into something special by a real collective act of will. I’ve seen it happen only a few times before – I think, for instance, of what wonders Roger Allam […]

TIM WALKER gives Killer Joe at London’s Trafalgar Studios one star Killer Joe Trafalgar Studios, London, until August 18 * (One star) The programme notes for Killer Joe state that Orlando Bloom is ‘best known’ for his roles in the Lord of the Rings and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchises. It would appear that […]

TIM WALKER gives The Chalk Garden at the Chichester Festival Theatre four stars The Chalk Garden Chichester, until June 16 **** (Four stars) When Penelope Keith was awarded a DBE, she was quick to point out that the honour was for her charitable work, rather than her acting. The star of To the Manor Born […]

TIM WALKER gives four stars to 3Women at London’s Trafalgar Studios 2 3Women Trafalgar Studios 2, London, until June 9 **** (Four stars) The playwright Alan Bennett once noted that every family has a secret – and the secret is it isn’t like any other family. Katy Brand’s new comedy drama 3 Women certainly doesn’t […]

TIM WALKER gives five stars to Red at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre Red Wyndham’s Theatre, London, until July 28 ***** (FIVE STARS) A great play talks to you because it talks to you about your own life. Red is such a play. It tells the story of how the brilliant, unconventional artist Mark Rothko took a […]

An ideal cast overcomes a flawed play ‘It takes great courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it,’ observes Viscount Goring in An Ideal Husband. In so many of Oscar Wilde’s works, the wit is the master of the plot, whereas in this one it’s very much the […]

A show to give London a happy Face When I was starting out on local newspapers, I remember heading off with a sense of morbid fascination to cover the re-enactment of the Battle of Britain by a small Townswomen’s Guild in a village hall. The question that occurred to me as I sat watching this […]

Tim Walker writes that ‘Faceless’ raises some interesting questions about diversity, but shouldn’t a court room drama end with a verdict? In the run-up to the opening of The Book of Mormon, I well remember how its publicists did a great job of putting about the idea this was a show that went beyond the […]

TIM WALKER reviews a ‘stylish and highly intelligent’ Hampstead Theatre production ‘Glyndebourne is quintessentially English,’ opines Nancy Carroll as Capt John Christie’s wife Audrey in The Moderate Soprano. ‘Fritz, Carl and Rudy made sure of that.’ The playwright Sir David Hare clearly sees in the story of how the eccentric captain set about creating an […]

TIM WALKER gives The Way of the World at the Donmar Theatre, London, four stars The Way of the World Donmar Theatre, London, May 26 * * * * (Four stars) William Congreve’s The Way of the World is one of those big, sprawling and very, very long Restoration comedies that most theatre directors – […]

The Daily Mail’s theatre critic has been accused of racism in his review of a play, says BONNIE GREER. He certainly doesn’t understand theatre Twitter has just experienced a first: a theatre critic set it ablaze. That milestone belongs to the Daily Mail’s parliamentary sketch-writer by day and theatre reviewer by night, Quentin Letts. He […]

If there’s one playwright in this country that I think we’ve ridiculously over-indulged it’s Alan Bennett. What honestly can be said about our much-vaunted national treasure’s best-known work The History Boys, except that it’s an apologia for paedophilia? So many of Bennett’s plays – I think especially of Afternoon Off, with its hideous undertones of […]

A first class sentimental journey says TIM WALKER Old black and white films had their own subtle ways of conveying messages that were deemed to be awkward at the time they were made. The sight of a character seated with a blanket over his or her legs tended, for instance, to be a portent of […]

It takes some arrogance to rewrite Shakespeare, says TIM WALKER. The sheer size of the National Theatre’s Olivier stage seems to have thrown everyone involved in this production of Macbeth into a state of utter panic. Set designer Rae Smith tries to make it feel more manageable by throwing down several vast curtains of cheap […]

TIM WALKER says Martin Shaw has his vote in this Gore Vidal stage drama Ronald Reagan used to say that politicians shouldn’t merely represent the people, but they should represent them at their best. I look at Donald Trump – and, on this side of the Atlantic, Boris Johnson – and I’ll admit that I […]

Why the West End show starring Suranne Jones is certainly not one for the faint-hearted. It never ceases to amaze me what little due diligence some people are willing to put in before they commit the best part of a couple of hundred quid – not to mention a couple of hours of their lives […]

In his latest stage review, TIM WALKER watches Girls and Boys at Royal Court Theatre, London. Girls and Boys Royal Court Theatre, London, until March 17 FOUR STARS It’s rather an annoying thing watching a play you’ve decided isn’t any good – and, in my case, have a rather nasty two-star review already composed in […]

In his latest stage review, TIM WALKER watches Mad as Hell at Jermyn Street Theatre, London. Mad as Hell Jermyn Street Theatre, London, until February 24 FOUR STARS More than 40 years on, Peter Finch’s anguished cry in the Oscar-winning film Network – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it […]

In his new stage review, TIM WALKER watches Long Day’s Journey into Night at Wyndham’s Theatre, London Long Day’s Journey into Night Wyndham’s Theatre, London, until April 7 FIVE STARS Nudging 70, Jeremy Irons is a brave man to make his West End comeback in, of all plays, Long Day’s Journey into Night. Eugene O’Neill […]

BONNIE GREER on the late Sir Peter Hall, a man who revolutionised English-speaking theatre Peter Hall called his memoir Making An Exhibition Of Myself, a phrase his mother would hurl at him from time to time. An only child, and the grandson of Queen Victoria’s ratcatcher, he was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, a […]

This is a sumptuous revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s 1971 homage to departed American musical theatre, says Martin McQuillan After the success of La La Land a canny producer at the National has decided to bring back the original musical of unhappy endings to create a theatrical blockbuster, a glorious hit that can […]