Nick Curtis

“The mechanics of this vintage piece weren’t entirely smooth on opening night, but the intended audience here is surely after surefire laughs and glamour rather than perfect line-readings or radical reappraisal.”

“The dialogue is both deftly intelligent and blissfully funny, hence the comparison with Stoppard.”

“The Last Ship is earnest and well-meaning with some good songs, but it simply doesn’t float.”

“The return of chameleonic arthouse darling and Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton to the stage... is a major event. It's also, surprisingly, a little bit boring.”

“This is a big, bold, entertaining swing at major issues, led with considerable star power.”

“His previous shows in London have been revelatory. This one is a misstep.”

“In a diaphanous orange frock and ratted Farrah Fawcett wig, inserting one cigarette after another into her raptor’s rictus grin, Outhwaite gives a monstrous, physically precise tour de force.”

“It’s also wildly implausible and dated.”

“Director, writer and actor Phelim McDermott’s musing on creativity and his relationship with composer Philip Glass and his music strikes me as quite beautiful, but some will find it exasperating.”

“I can’t tell you what this show wants to be but it definitely doesn’t want to be a musical.”

“All together this is an OTT, aorta-pumping rollick through one of Lloyd Webber and Rice’s strongest musical collaborations, by a team who know that the score and the feel of it are all that matter.”

“The play seems oddly insubstantial given the subject matter, though it’s enjoyable enough in Lyndsey Turner’s production.”

“Now with a quizzical, oaky-voiced Richard Coyle as Atticus, the show is a little ponderous but remains a supremely well put-together piece of theatre.”

“James McAvoy gives a stunningly powerful performance in this piece of pure theatre, the most breathtakingly exciting show in London right now.”

“The result is hugely charming and affecting, if imperfect.”

“Here, as ever, he serves the text without flash or fancy, and the result is a sleek night’s entertainment, full of explosive laughs.”

“Too many scenes feature two people arguing, and many of them end abruptly.”

“It’s an arresting but oddly distancing experience, as if you’re watching two plays at once, your brain constantly trying to unpick them.”

“Yes, it’s sentimental but this puppet-horsepowered tale of a stallion and his boy seeking each other through the carnage of the Somme, based on Michael Morpurgo’s book, remains tremendously moving.”

“Beetlejuice the musical is louche, macabre and pure, unadulterated fun, full of black-and-white grotesquerie, visual flair and near-the-knuckle jokes.”

“You’ll be passably entertained and maybe slightly inspired if you go to see it, but you won’t be blown away.”

“Flawed and basic as this is, though, it’s a masterful piece of programming.”

“Above all, it’s laugh-out-loud funny.”

“The show is a full-on onslaught with little modulation, compelling but exhausting.”

“Cromwell’s production has a hectic energy designed to carry us over the flaws.”

“Rarely has the brutal speed of the play’s events, and its juxtaposition of sudden violence and bombshell love, seemed as clear as it does in Icke’s staging.”

“I feel like a heel for saying it but this Kinky Boots is soulless.”

“Though schematic, Kimberley Belflower’s Broadway hit, a punchy riposte to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible , is a terrific piece of provocative entertainment.”

“Today, it looks coarse and lumpen in Daniel Raggett's unmodulated production, with Phil Daniels one of the few saving graces as the casually exploitative manager Saraffian.”

“This is a chance to see two actors at the top of their game, and at exhaustive, almost exhausting length.”

“And this is a pure pleasure in terms of the acting and the staging.”

“The singing from both leads is magnificent, the acting passionate but the script by American writer George Brant is pedestrian and heavy on exposition.”

“Her performance triumphantly walks a knife edge between virtuosity and absurdity.”

“But the play’s emotional impact has dulled over the years.”

“If this swansong is slapdash and indulgent, he’s surely earned the right to it.”

“It’s an oddity, this, but worth seeing for him.”

“This revival of Arcadia reminds us what a towering, impish talent he was.”

“It’s great to see her back on stage again after the unfortunate debacle of 2024’s Opening Night, where she was again required to fall apart.”

“If you enjoy the deliciously creepy feeling of your hair stirring on your tightening scalp in anticipation of terror, Paranormal Activity is the show for you.”

“This stage adaptation is a worthy addition to the canon.”

“In this All My Sons, we see a great writer, a visionary director and a superlative cast all chiming in harmony.”

“But overall this is a gentle, sad, valedictory piece of work about life and death, happiness and class, performed and directed with great subtlety.”

“This is an uneven but bold probing of a dirty little secret in society that finds, in Ambika Mod, an eloquent expression of underlying pain.”

“Why then does the whole thing feel so humdrum and inert?”

“It is a subtle and elegantly constructed piece of work.”

“Hastie’s interpretation is full of novel ideas and subtly revelatory touches but feels ponderous and staid overall.”

“A subtle nod to Wilde’s buttonhole expression of homosexuality, to end an often unsubtle production.”

“In a time of polarisation and performative outrage, this show is a hymn to tolerance and the ability to laugh with others and at oneself.”

“The way Duffy’s script entwines the vicissitudes of sex, celebrity and Elizabethan politics is enormous fun.”

“It’s a unique show with the texture of theatre but the communal immediacy of stand-up.”

“Like life and politics, Sahota’s play is messy but it’s a bracingly vibrant debut and I absolutely loved it.”

“Rachel Zegler is an absolute smash in Jamie Lloyd’s thrilling revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s improbable hit musical about Argentina’s populist, postwar first lady Eva Perón.”

“But in the ranks of Disney stage adaptations it feels closer to the mediocre Frozen (which lasted just three years at this theatre from 2021-4) than the all-conquering The Lion King (25 years in the similarly-sized Lyceum, and still going strong).”

“The show captures the sleepless grind and tedium of recording but also the euphoria when the sound comes together.”

“As it is, it’s a tight, thought-provoking, 85-minute vehicle for two actors at the top of their game.”

“Tamsin Greig is shatteringly good in Terence Rattigan’s 1952 tragedy of quiet desperation.”

“Mischief’s artistic director, Lewis co-wrote the script with Wright, and there are many of their fellow founders – who all studied together at LAMDA – and trusted regulars from previous shows in the cast. Dave Hearn’s elastic Lance, Chris Leask’s strangulated Sergei and Greg Tannahill’s fey hotel ma...”

“Because Are is extremely sketchy and gets lumpier and messier as it goes on.”

“This is a terrific piece of work all round, that’s already been showered with Olivier and Critic’s Circle awards.”

“But really, it’s a load of old nonsense.”

“The leaps the takes as a writer into the numinous here won’t be to everyone’s taste but I bloody loved it.”

“In performance this Gatsby turns out to be a sleek, ravishingly designed ocean liner of a show, with enough musical oomph and vocal power to distract you from the hollowness at its heart.”

“Icke is one of the most gifted theatre artists working today – his magnificent 2024. Oedipus has just won a string of awards – but for all its intensity, Manhunt feels like it’s hedging its bets.”

“This West End transfer, with Ivanno Jeremiah reprising his supple and riveting performance in the lead role, also shows how prescient Cameron was.”

“Rupert Goold’s production is still a magnificent piece of theatrical craft that fuses sport and art.”

“Unicorn is pretty sexy by West End standards, exercises the brain as well as other organs and features beguiling performances from its three stars.”

“This isn’t perfect but it’s perceptive, provoking fun.”

“A sleek, smart play that lays out issues that were obvious in 1997 – and 1988 and 1959 – is welcome.”

“Each of the film’s tentpole moments – the couple ‘flying’ on the prow and Irish-dancing in steerage; the ‘paint me like one of your French girls’ sex scene; the sinking and the floating-door denouement – is recreated with wry, lo-fi wit.”

“For all its stark visual boldness, this is a curiously old-fashioned take.”

“Forget the 2008. Brad Pitt film: this is the version to treasure.”

“Shame that Collins and the wolfish Morte – a respected stage actor and director in Spain before he became a lockdown favourite in Netflix’s crime drama – are stuck in a phony emotional rollercoaster by American writer Bess Wohl.”

“At the risk of blurting out the worst-kept spoiler in theatre history, this show is mother**in’ good.”

“But though the play has historic value and potent moments it feels hopelessly over the top in this staging.”

“I’ve seen many fine duos play the leads but this time I enjoyed and understood the play on a whole new level. Macdonald also draws superb performances from Jonathan Slinger and Tom Edden as Pozzo and Lucky, the rich man and his slave who distract and disturb the bickering vagrants.”

“This Dolly is a complete delight.”

“It’s an elegant, essential provocation from a singular writer whose voice – needling, sly, hyper-aware – demands attention.”

“Mnemonic is still a teeming, fecund representation of McBurney’s ability to make giant associative leaps while drilling down into what makes us human.”

“The dialogue, and some clever dance routines lift an efficient piece of entertainment.”

“Kathy and Stella left me dead inside.”

“This is a blast from the past which still echoes today: flawed but stirring.”

“The lines, the laughs, even the accents and intonations of the greatest British sitcom ever, Fawlty Towers, are present and correct in this efficient and energetic stage adaptation, but it’s an oddly soulless affair.”

“So if you ask me what Spirited Away is really about, I’d say it’s about an hour too long.”

“But the show relies on argument rather than character and it’s short on substance, partly because so little is known about the Brontes beyond their published works.”

“Jeremy Herrin’s production is full of pathos and ruined grandeur, with superb performances all round.”

“The show remains a hot mess, unsalvageable.”

“But as drama it simply isn’t good enough.”

“Then into the people Harry seduces: a repressed moneyman, his trustafarian singer sister, their huge-haired Jewish mum. The characterisations are broad and the larky tone is set by the opening line: “I could always do an immaculate English accent.”

“Bevan’s exceptionalism shines through, but with so much history to cover the show feels skimpy at times.”

“This remains a huge achievement by Hastie and Bush, one of our most prolific and arresting writers: a bold step forward for musical theatre, that brings northern, working-class steel to the South Bank.”

“Mitchell’s score pulls in influences from jazz, blues, spirituals and country: the bouncy Livin’ It Up On Top, the soulful All I’ve Ever Known and Wait for Me and yes, even the martial Why We Build the Wall are strong, standout tunes.”

“It’s now nine-tenths of a superb one.”

“If you can afford it, Sarah Jessica Parker – with Broderick as Ken to her Barbie – is worth it.”

“This baggily playful, queer subversion of Wild West tropes is a delight up until the interval.”

“Baker’s plays are singular creations that march to their own rhythm, and we’re fortunate that four of them have now come to the National.”

“This is bracingly good and important.”

“This is the Christmas show to beat – a deliciously spiky supernatural tale that honours the dark streak in Roald Dahl’s child-pleasing writing.”

“Instead, it tells a short, thin tale of stupidity and cruelty at interminable length.”

“Grandage’s production is consistently funny, and the performances entertain, but this play really doesn’t know what it’s saying.”

“His take on ‘the actor’s Everest’ lacks both grandeur and pathos until its final third.”