Dominic Cavendish

“This rousing, faithful revival by Paddington director Luke Sheppard more than earns its keep.”

“The play still amuses, but it’s a patchy evening; while Grant is great fun, Baranski is serviceable rather than sensational.”

“Graham has masterfully brought home the debt we surely owe to Keynes, and in so doing has once again raised the overall standard of our national theatrical life.”

“As it briefly docks at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, with Sting himself in a lead role, it’s worth saluting the venture (and applauding its decent tunes), but it lacks a sufficient feel-good factor and goes overboard in its scale.”

“A striking premise, then, but as happens in the story itself, it feels as though the execution itself gets botched.”

“As the action shifts to the train to Sarajevo, the characters keep talking but the play runs out of things to say.”

“It hasn’t yet found the right sound or dramatic depth to do full justice to its subject matter.”

“There’s ample fun to be had and a surprisingly satisfying sting to the froth.”

“Whether Martin Crimp’s witty but underpowered new version affords the best showcase for Oh’s abilities is another matter.”

“Even so, it feels like a synthetic, vaguely modish experiment.”

“Yet, theatrically, it’s still pedestrian fare of a clumping kind.”

“This wondrous creature becomes the emblem of innocent suffering in the face of indescribable horror.”

“The show has a lot in its favour – not least daft entertainment value – but it lacks essential spark.”

“The last breathless line of the play is ‘Run!’.”

“The added racial charge aside, this fittingly intense, non-conformist production delivers a chilling reminder of the perennial cost of dissent.”

“The actors must work hard to make us care – but they do, and in some cases sensationally so.”

“This isn't a flawless night but it's a tour de force even so.”

“All that genteel restraint means that when Bonneville’s placid, unassuming demeanour breaks into a howl of distress, or his gauche stiffness yields to a kneeling marriage proposal at Joy’s hospital bed, the effect is one of emotional detonation.”

“The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is now a heart-warming musical starring Mark Addy that deserves to become an unlikely West End hit.”

“No performers could match the hallowed memory of Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne in the leads (a photo of them gets its own round of applause at the curtain-call).”

“While the two lead performances in Anthony Lau's revival at the National compel, its glaring deficit is that it strains too hard to jazz things up experimentally.”

“Not a total misfire, then, but it doesn’t hit the mark – better to re-watch the film.”

“Again directed by Sam Pinkleton, this knowingly bogus portrait of the First Lady as a dipsomaniac and frustrated cabaret star is a riot, laced with a truth about the necessity of self-expression, in which American actor Mason Alexander Park gives the funniest performance in town.”

“It would certainly be churlish of me not to concede that I have seldom, if ever, heard louder or more sustained laughter in a theatre.”

“Is this a new classic on a par with Mary Poppins or Matilda?”

“With performances this strong, and a tragic climax so potent, the cinematic incidental music that plays beneath the dialogue feels like an unnecessary emotional nudge.”

“But while her star turn has rightly ensured a sell-out run for Marianne Elliott’s assured production, it’s not enough to convert the sceptical to the play itself.”

“For all his charisma, the evening winds up fast-paced but fatally unmoving.”

“It’s the thinking person’s panto this season, and a revival to remember.”

“The play deserves a wider audience because it has something pertinent to say about this generation of rather lost young men.”

“Some may develop an allergy to Taleghani’s loosely rhyming, militantly unstuffy language and fourth-wall-breaking familiarity.”

“The scenario is old-fashioned in its simplicity but enables a drama of breathtaking craft, tilting line by line between levity and profundity, the far-fetched and the truth, superstition and faith.”

“It’s still a winningly funny proposition for a new generation – and Marber pulls out all the stops to raise the Garrick roof.”

“It’s diverting enough, but ultimately toothless.”

“Once again, the piece calls for a transfixing, shape-shifting performance from its star, and the hurtling 105-minute action showcases Pike’s theatrical bravura.”

“But Sahota covers so much terrain that Daniel Raggett’s production sometimes stumbles when the mood shifts and the piece becomes hobbled in terms of plausibility by its plot-motoring twists.”

“This ranks as an all-time great revival.”

“Topical in a way – what hidden agonies fund well-heeled or Western lifestyles today? – but elsewhere a tepidity sets in.”

“But the play itself remains a step-change short of a knock-out sensation.”

“I’d say it takes near genius to fashion something this incorrigibly goofy.”

“Sure, it’s no masterpiece, but a minor-league swansong from a giant of musicals is still a major deal.”

“They each get their moment to shine – and deserve to bask in a by turns lightly enjoyable and powerfully serious-minded summer smash.”

“Instead of busting free of the original, the chic, effortful result proves an intriguing but frustrating half-way house.”

“It amply justifies main-stage attention, and deserves to tour, too.”

“When I reviewed Retrograde – Ryan Calais Cameron’s riveting account of a career-defining moment for actor Sidney Poitier in the mid-Fifties – at the Kiln in 2023, I rounded off by comparing it to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. ‘Yes, it’s honestly that good’, I declared, giving it five stars.”

“Even so, the inclusive fascination and adrenal fervour of the evening remains.”

“It’s just a big shame that, despite all the effort, it’s a ‘whatever’ not a forever kinda affair.”

“Linton’s richly textured production reclaims him as a major voice.”

“Mike Bartlett’s intricately entertaining latest also foregrounds thoughts on how we might be tempted to escape the conformism of everyday coupledom.”

“Indeed you could say that the ensuing lines (‘Who will tie it up with a ribbon? And put it in a box for me…’) apply to the evergreen 1960 musical overall: for all its Dickensian gloom, it’s so fundamentally ebullient it’s like bottled joy: guaranteed to put a spring in your step.”

“My enthusiasm sank as the disconnect between mirth and tragedy became inescapable; it’s droll to see Ronney bobbing about with a door strapped to her back, but little more than that.”

“Some will happily view the show as a fun, even festive, accessory to the film, but when that’s rentable for £3.45 and tickets for this rise to £250, I’d advise against impulse purchases.”

“Nadia Fall’s superbly acted production combines familiar delight with fresh pertinence.”

“The star raises the roof without breaking into a sweat”

“All told, it actually feels like a valuable work-in-progress about America’s vexed race relations.”

“This is a robust, gripping account of a Miller masterpiece – and the perhaps underrated West, 54, can take his place alongside the great past interpreters of the role.”

“Even so, and despite the live-event bonus of different generations coming together, as they once gathered round the box, to watch it as one, I can’t avoid noting that the show falls far short of its peerless source material.”

“Here, the film’s shimmery sense of wonder has undergone a rather dutiful theatrical solidification – the approach is authentic-feeling in its use of masks and puppets (Toby Olié), yet a whiff of the inorganic persists.”

“A five-star wow bobbing in a three-star show.”

“We surely exit eternally grateful that McKellen added the challenge to his bucket-list; a must-witness.”

“Gordon commendably crams a lot of information into one eminently (albeit swearily) accessible evening, but it could be said that her potted history falls into that trap, too.”

“A riveting period portrait - and a heart-rending mirror of forsaken souls in which we may all glimpse our own familial griefs.”

“Whether the show deserves to long outlive its own opening night is another matter.”

“His play, first seen at the Bush in 2022, has rightly transferred.”

“Rufus Norris and his creative team attain a pulse-quickening theatricality, the ensemble as tightly drilled as an A&E team.”

“A deeply moving, monumental musical that really matters … deserves to be a huge hit.”

“But it washes over you like a steam bath.”

“A play for today, on paper, but the concept could use a digital-era upgrade, and a shot more vigour, to set the world on fire.”

“There’s even a version of Blowin’ in the Wind that might have swept in from the savanna. That won’t necessarily stave off criticism that this qualified celebration of what Live Aid achieved remains insufficiently Afro-centric.”

“The public appetite for this show...stems greatly from Parker's presence.”

“Jack Thorne's 'The Motive and the Cue,' is a rapier-witted and stirring love-letter to theatre, and to Hamlet, and to two of the play'”

“Standing ovations are ten a penny these days but this show thoroughly deserves the one it gets.”

“‘The First Shadow’ suffers from dramatic bloat and tonal inconsistency.”

“James Macdonald directs, patiently and beautifully.”

“Fun enough for the festive season, but I can’t say I was fully bewitched.”

“Mullarkey’s latest opus proves to be that rare thing at the Royal Court, a near-unalloyed delight.”

“Abounding with witty entertainment and curiosity value, augmented by scene-stealing appearances from two real-life corgis, it confirms the promise shown by Marcelo Dos Santos with his comic monologue”

“There is a magnificence in simplicity, and Scherzinger’s Norma, initially drawing herself regally downstage, in black dress and shades, her dark hair long with a soupcon of the untamed warrior, has a poise that thrills.”

“I’d wager, all the same, that this inventive gem of a night is in with a very good fighting chance of resounding victory.”

“Still, just as that vote was hard-won, Sylvia still feels a few slogging steps short of victory.”

“It’s a pleasure to report that what fans loved about the film has been beautifully served in this stage version, scripted by Tom Morton-Smith and directed by Phelim McDermott.”

“I needn’t have worried a nano-second.”

“I loved every sympathy- and suspicion-shifting minute of it”

“It really is as good as we’ve been told.”

“The big news is that this is just what was needed, will raise the benchmark for family entertainment for years to come and may even usher in a whole cycle of Potter-world stories.”