Hampstead & Highgate Express

“Zhailon Levingston's direction and pacing is spot on.”

“It packs a much-needed emotional punch to round off the night.”

“Lindsay-Abaire, songwriter Jeanine Tesori, and veteran director Michael Longhurst fashion a life-affirming and moving night out from this oddball story.”

“Under Kate Fahy's direction this horror is brilliantly staged – a single, harsh spotlight and off-stage whispers laden with threat.”

“Whatley’s performance (supported by an excellent minimalist set and lighting) is near perfect.”

“By the end as they wave their hockey sticks aloft, you will be looking forward to next term and cheering the Malory Towers girls along.”

“A timely and insightful reflection on a diplomatic process, this is a slow-burner but full of charm.”

“Ben Stones’ design is superbly detailed with angled corridors and rooms promising eerie encounters.”

“Rather than simply recreating the well-loved movie there's a genuine bid to translate its flimsy plot into the language of musical theatre - which makes for a breathlessly enjoyable night out.”

“The entire chaotic caper gets away with it thanks to a plot that trades enjoyably on the under-estimation of both women and 'the natives'.”

“But the whole enterprise lacks the throb of the music that underpins all this sex, drugs and excitement.”

“There's an uplifting message of community, acceptance, and the compromises of adulthood.”

“In The Print is a well-researched, utterly absorbing piece of high-calibre theatre.”

“But neither book nor songs offer enough to buy a ticket to a show that leans lazily into the North in Northampton - complete with flat caps, vests and tats, and wayward accents.”

“Ticketholders will get their money's worth in spectacle, while perhaps missing the emotional connection of the books and movie.”

“Graham brilliantly shows rather than tells us how group therapy, an overworked but empathetic social worker (a wry Emma Pallant) and the formal exchange of letters with his victim's parents help to save Jacob from spiralling downwards.”

“It's not the deepest of Disney stories, but director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw invests it with terrific action-packed energy and tongue in cheek humour.”

“Marc Bruni's capable direction does deliver a depiction of heartless opportunism in an America booming into a consumerist powerhouse.”

“But with jets of steam, flames shooting X Factor-like from oil drums to a deafening soundtrack and a young cast giving it their all, it's such an all-encompassing assault on the senses that you just have to go with this technically audacious slice of pure entertainment.”

“A hit at Edinburgh, Kathy and Stella now joins other shows (Operation Mincemeat, Two Strangers) bringing a smaller-scale but cheerful energy to the West End.”

“If it were just a nostalgia exercise it would have limited appeal but what is essentially a farce shot on a fixed TV set works very well on stage.”

“It turns out it's a welcome chance to see a revelatory, powerful piece of theatre - and Denise Gough's electrifying career-making performance.”

“Tim Price's uneven biodrama of socialist firebrand Nye Bevan offers most of an explanation - while failing to get under its subject's skin.”

“Suffice to say that while fans will love being immersed in a familiar world, The First Shadow stands alone as a remarkable piece of theatre.”

“The creative sorcery of playwright Lucy Kirkwood and director Lyndsey Turner put the right mix of fright and fun into the cauldron to produce a near perfect family show, with sackfuls of inventive visuals, pacy action, and irreverent humour for children, while throwing a bone to the adults.”

“This show should be on prescription!”