Rev Stan's Theatre Blog
London theatre reviews and interviews
Category: West End
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Video review transcript (lightly edited for grammar): Les Liaisons Dangereuses – I never know how you pronounce that. Dangerous Liaisons at the National Theatre, starring Aidan Turner and Lesley Manville, is superb. I’m just going to come straight out and say it. The chemistry between the two leads is fantastic. There’s a delightful mixture of…
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Video transcript: Woman in Mind at the Duke of York’s Theatre sees Sheridan Smith play a woman who is hit on the head by a rake, and she starts to hallucinate an alternative life. The alternative life is very different from her real life. In her real life, she has a boring, inattentive husband and…
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Video transcript: Born with Teeth at the Wyndham’s Theatre imagines a collaboration between Christopher Marlowe, played by Ncuti Gatwa and Shakespeare, played by Edward Bluemel. At the time, Christopher Marlowe is the much more famous playwright, and Shakespeare is very early career, hasn’t really achieved any fame as yet. And it’s a play about personalities…
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Clarkston video review transcript: Clarkston at the Trafalgar theatre. It stars Joe Locke and Ruaridh Mollica as two co workers during the night shift at Costco in a small rural town in America. And Joe Locke’s character Jake, has blown in while on a journey across the country, and more, of which you find out…
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Julian Kostov and Sinéad Matthews & cast in 'Till the Stars Come Down'. Photo: Manuel Harlan Is it even a real wedding if there isn't a punch-up? Set in a former mining community in Nottingham, the wedding at the heart of Till The Stars Come Down is between Sylvia (Sinéad Matthews), a local, and Marek…
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Video transcript: It’s always a huge treat to see Imelda Staunton on stage, and Mrs. Warren’s Profession at the Garrick Theatre was no different. Here she’s acting alongside her real daughter, Bessie Carter. They play mother and daughter in the play, and the two of them just sparked whenever they were on the stage, it…
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Story: Luka (Jack Lowden) is an alcoholic, and his sponsor James (Martin Freeman), is helping him through the 12 steps. They start building up trust and a rapport, but is that enough for when they reach the fifth step, which is about confessing to things you’ve done wrong? Video transcript: I wanted to see The…
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Retrograde. Stanley Townsend, Ivanno Jeremiah & Oliver Johnstone. Photo: Marc Brenner. Ryan Calais Cameron’s play Retrograde is set in 1950s Hollywood when a twenty-something struggling actor, Sidney Poitier (Ivanno Jeremiah), is on the verge of signing a deal with a film studio. Peppy young writer Bobby (Oliver Johnstone) is on his last chance and has…
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Video review transcript: Hayley Atwell and Tom Hiddleston are having so much fun in this production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. This is a playful, cheeky, party-themed production of Shakespeare’s play. And it’s vibrant, it’s acid pink in both its tone and its design. There is this brilliant chemistry…
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I managed to pack in more than 70 theatre visits this year and saw some cracking plays. And some that didn't quite ignite. My favourite plays of 2024 (In no particular order – links through to written or video reviews): Oedipus, Wyndhams Theatre (booking until 2 Jan 2025) Laughing Boy, Jermyn Street Theatre Shifters, Duke…