US Edition
The Producers: The Mel Brooks classic is delivered with taste-trampling gusto
The celebrated musical’s first London revival since the West End premiere run of 2004-2007 is a consummate guilty pleasure
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The Housetrap: TV’s Ghosts house stars in a shambolic but fun murder-mystery
Fancy solving a murder in West Horsley Place manor house? As interactive theatre goes, it’s a little ramshackle, but entertaining even so
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Ben Elton: ‘If the King wanted Blackadder back, I could be press-ganged into writing it’
At 65, the comic has swapped Thatcher-bashing for lampooning our age of identity politics – and spies a chance to revive a beloved character
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Ballet Shoes: A playful, graceful adaptation – and a palpable hit
This first ever stage adaptation of the beloved children’s classic is a joy – an un-balletic stampede to the box office surely awaits it
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The Red Shoes: lovely to look at – but this is no Matilda
Offering a winning mixture of live music, movement, dance and song, Nancy Harris’s take on Andersen’s tale nevertheless lacks the wow-factor
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Mary Poppins, Bristol Hippodrome: Practically perfect in every way
The stage-musical brings together the best of the beloved PL Travers book and the 1964 Disney film – a heaped spoonful of theatrical sugar
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Maggie Smith had the rare gift of showing us the soul of the outsider
From Downton Abbey to Harry Potter, the late star, who has died at 89, excelled at portraying eccentrics – and revealing their humanity
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The Lightest Element: An unsung British astronomer gets a mind-expanding bio-drama
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin isn’t a name many have heard of these days – Stella Feehily’s fascinating new play just might change that
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Voices of Resilience: Dispatches from Palestine in a heart-wrenching but one-sided evening
Maxine Peake and others read reports from Gaza that hit hard, but the lack of reference to Hamas and its atrocities was a glaring omission
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Abigail’s Party: Tamzin Outhwaite fills Alison Steadman’s shoes to perfection
The former EastEnders star makes the role of the fussy, proprietorial matriarch her own in this spirited revival of the Mike Leigh classic
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Why Am I So Single?: Can the creators of Six replicate their success? Not quite
The duo behind the hit about Henry VIII’s wives bring a defiant spirit to their new musical – but it doesn’t measure up to their debut
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Ben Elton: a comedy great gives modern life a grilling
Telling it like it is, the comic looks set to remake himself as the darling of Middle England
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Comedian Ahir Shah: ‘The idea that British tolerance was linked to the EU is nonsense’
One of the brightest stars of UK stand-up talks about Rishi Sunak, racist heckling and why he now feels upbeat about the future
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Kazuo Ishiguro: ‘Why do people stay in terrible marriages? Most of the time, we don’t rebel’
The novelist on how reality caught up with his most nightmarish visions – and the ‘bad taste’ early work that could have got him cancelled
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The Real Thing, Old Vic: Stylish but uneven revival of a Stoppard classic
Max Webster’s engaging production of one of Sir Tom’s most emotionally resonant successes is not wholly loveable, yet
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Edinburgh comedy reviews: the funniest shows at the 2024 Fringe
Our comedy critics review the funniest stand-up and sketch shows in Edinburgh, including Amy Gledhill, Josh Glanc and Elf Lyons
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