Theatre


I currently write two regular monthly columns on theatre: one for Prospect Magazine as their theatre critic, and one for The Stage, drawing in part on my experience as Chair of the Drama Section of the UK Critics’ Circle.

Prior to the pandemic, I was the New York Review of Books‘ resident London theatre critic, and I had previously spent several years as the junior theatre critic at The Times, reviewing for that paper two or three times a week. I have also contributed theatre reviews to The Spectator, The Guardian, The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal. As a theatre programme obsessive, I regularly contribute programme notes to theatre and opera venues, and welcome inquiries about potential work in this area.

As Critics’ Circle Chair, I organise our prestigious annual Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards, the only awards made in British theatre purely on the basis of professional theatre critics’ votes, and without any input from vested interests within the industry. We successfully relaunched in April 2022 after the Covid-19 pandemic with a ceremony at London’s Ham Yard Hotel. I also maintain an active interest in arts philanthropy. I can date the moment I fell in love with theatre to a Joanna Laurens production at the Gate Theatre, W11. Consequently, I founded a Young Supporters’ Network at the Gate and have sat on their Development Working Group, which means that this is the only venue at which I now exclude myself from reviewing.



Kiki’s Delivery Service, Southwark Playhouse, SE1

Posted on Dec 22, 2016 | 0 comments

reviewed for The Times, 22 December 2016 If you’ve read Eiko Kadono’s Japanese bestseller, you know the drill. If you haven’t, welcome to an enchanting new world of whimsy and witchcraft. Kiki the little witch is desperate to prove to her parents that she is ready to take on adult responsibilities,...

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Sweet Charity at Royal Exchange, Manchester

Posted on Dec 14, 2016 | 0 comments

reviewed for The Times, 14 December 2016 Charity Hope Valentine is “just nuts about happy endings”. They tend not to come her way. Our eponymous dance hall hostess doesn’t just wear her heart on her sleeve — it’s tattooed right on her shoulder. Appropriately enough, it’s broken. Neil...

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Aladdin at the Lyric Hammersmith, W6

Posted on Nov 29, 2016 | 0 comments

reviewed for The Times, 29 November 2016 When I was small, I hated panto. The tired puns, the insulting drag, the cultural references intelligible only to the ITV demographic. There are only so many times a budding theatre critic can watch David Mellor cavorting with the stars of You’ve Been Framed!...

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Ghosts at Home, Manchester

Posted on Nov 25, 2016 | 0 comments

reviewed for The Times, 25 November 2016 Niamh Cusack is one of my favourite actresses. The intensity of her work will burn your retinas, yet never obscures her light traces of humour. In Polly Findlay’s Manchester Home production of Ghosts, Cusack turns Ibsen’s 19th-century widow, Helen Alving, into a...

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Genesis at Soho Theatre, W1

Posted on Nov 18, 2016 | 0 comments

reviewed for The Times, 18 November 2016 Modern bedside manner makes for a cold performance. Go for a consultation on your risk level for breast cancer and you’ll probably meet someone like Helen Bradbury’s Rachel: restrained, informative, professional. Stage a medical “issue play” and you get the...

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Deny, Deny, Deny at Park Theatre, N4

Posted on Nov 11, 2016 | 0 comments

reviewed for The Times, 11 November 2016 Jonathan Maitland is one of the country’s most successful TV journalists and a nationally rated Scrabble player. His second play, An Audience with Jimmy Savile, provoked headlines and helped to put the fledgling Park Theatre in north London on the map. None of...

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