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.



The Wipers Times at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury

Posted on Sep 28, 2016 | 0 comments

reviewed for The Times, 28 September 2016 Woe betide the young hack who falls foul of Private Eye. Ian Hislop, the satirical magazine’s quick-spirited editor, has perhaps more of a public profile, but the comedy writer Nick Newman, with whom Hislop has been letting off literary whoopee cushions since...

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The Rivals at Bristol Old Vic

Posted on Sep 21, 2016 | 0 comments

reviewed for The Times, 21 September 2016 Sheridan’s 1775 comedy, The Rivals, centres on the trials and tribulations of Miss Lydia Languish. It’s a tough cookie of a part. As her name implies, Lydia is a drama queen, convinced by romantic novels that the course of true love never must run...

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A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur at the Print Room, W11

Posted on Sep 19, 2016 | 0 comments

reviewed for The Times, 19 September 2016 The Coronet cinema has a decayed decadence about it, but it’s still not a perfect fit for this late Tennessee Williams play. A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, written in 1976, represents one last glance back to the 1930s gentility that so fixated Williams. Looking...

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Dinner At The Twits, The Vaults, SE1

Posted on Sep 16, 2016 | 0 comments

an edited version of this review was published in The Times, 16 September 2016     Here’s a secret. I’ve always hated The Twits. Roald Dahl may top lists of the country’s favourite children’s author (with added fanfare, this week, for the centenary of his birth) but there’s something...

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punkplay at the Studio, Southwark Playhouse, SE1

Posted on Sep 14, 2016 | 0 comments

reviewed for The Times, 14 September 2016 Someone, somewhere thought this show was very clever. It’s about punk, see, and the problem with punk is that it’s a rebellion against the rules. Except, as the teenage Mickey finds out the hard way, proving himself to be the ultimate punk kid seems to involve...

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Counting Stars at Theatre Royal Stratford East, E15

Posted on Sep 7, 2016 | 0 comments

reviewed for The Times, 7 September 2016 Sophie is a lavatory attendant in a south London nightclub. She wipes the tears of the girls at the club, and sells them a spray of perfume or a mascara touch-up while she’s at it. Sophie likes to find joy in everything, turning her girls into “stars”....

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