The London Theatre Review

The warm, wise and completely wonderful Julie Hesmondhalgh talks to Nancy about playing Joan Scourfield, the woman whose son was killed with a single punch in 2011, in James Graham's incredibly moving play Punch. And the smell of whiskey and cigar smoke hang in the air as the gang give their views on the West End transfer of Ryan Calais Cameron's play Retrograde, a snappy period thriller in which...

Another iconic 90s movie gets the musical treatment as KT Tunstall and Amy Heckerling turn Clueless into a stage show. Nancy and the Nicks review. And there have been more than 200 adaptations of Bram Stoker's Dracula - but there's always room for one more. The gang visit high-camp comedy Dracula: A Comedy Of Terrors at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Plus, Nancy talks to Tom Burke, currently playin...

As Thomas Ostermeier's very starry Seagull hits the Barbican - Cate Blanchett, Tom Burke, Emma Corrin and more! - Nancy and Producer Tim give their opinions. Nick Clark and Nick Curtis join Nancy to review James Graham's devastating play Punch at the Young Vic. And Nancy talks to Ivanno Jeremiah as he prepares to reprise his role as Sidney Poitier in the West End transfer of Ryan Calais Cameron's...

The great Brian Cox transforms himself into Johann Sebastian Bach for Oliver Cotton's play The Score at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Music to our ears, or a bum note? Nick, Nancy and Producer Tim give their views. We've also got a review of the National Theatre production of Michael Abbensetts's seminal play Alterations, set in a tailoring shop in 1970s London, plus Nick Curtis pulls himself away...

From dashing prince to hopeless king, Jonathan Bailey leaves the world of Wicked behind - for a few months at least - as he takes on one of Shakespeare's trickier tyrants in Richard II at the Bridge Theatre. Nancy, Nick and Nick give their verdicts. Two national treasures hit the Donmar stage this month: Celia Imrie and Tamsin Greig play a mother and daughter dealing with the consequences of a str...

Not even Sigourney Weaver could save Jamie Lloyd's The Tempest from its gloom spiral - but Lloyd is back for the second part of his Shakespeare at Drury Lane season with a Marvel special, turning Loki and Agent Carter (well, Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell) into Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. There's confetti. There are balloons. There are 90s club bangers. So is Lloyd's reputat...

It's the show that's had people (mainly men, actually) fainting almost every night...Eline Arbo's adaptation of Nobel Laureate Annie Ernaux's book The Years transfers from the Almeida to the West End with a phenomenal cast of Romola Garai, Gina McKee, Deborah Findlay, Anjli Mohindra and Harmony Rose-Bremner. Nick, Nick and Nancy not only review the show - with full and frank info on *that* now inf...

It's Greek Week on the podcast as Nick Clark, Nancy Durrant and Producer Tim (making a special on-mic appearance while Nick Curtis soaks up some Maldives sun) review Sophocles two ways: Oedipus at the Old Vic starring Oscar-winner Rami Malek, and Elektra at the Duke of York's starring Oscar-winner Brie Larson. Plus Nancy talks to Dune: Prophecy and His Dark Materials star Jade Anouka, who performs...

On this week's pod Nick Clark talks to Celine Dion! Well not quite, but pretty close: in fact he talks to Lauren Drew, star of Six the Musical, Legally Blonde, Les Mis and Heathers on stage, and The Voice on the telly, who is tackling her biggest challenge yet as she transforms herself into Celine Dion every night for the brilliant, ridiculous parody musical Titanique. Plus Nick, Nick and Nancy re...

The great Brian Cox, star of Succession and much else besides, alongside his wife Nicole Ansari-Cox join Nick Curtis to talk about playing Mr and Mrs Johann Sebastian Bach in Oliver Cotton's play The Score. Plus it's a fair COP for Nick, Nick and Nancy as they review Kyoto at @sohoplace, from the creators of The Jungle, which turns the diplomatic ins and outs of the first COP conference into a ten...

By popular demand...we're back! Nancy Durrant, Nick Clark and Nick Curtis kick off season two of The London Theatre Review with a musicals spectacular as they review Titanique, the supercamp, super-funny parody of that famous film - you know, the one with the big iceberg - at the Criterion Theatre. Is it unsinkable, unthinkable, or very very twinkable? And they are reviewing the situation with the...

A bumper pod to end a bumper year of theatre! Nick, Nick and Nancy look back at their theatrical highs (and a couple of lows) of 2024. For their final trips of the year, they take in The Tempest at Theatre Royal Drury Lane starring none other than Hollywood royalty Sigourney Weaver, and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at the Almeida with Normal People star Daisy Edgar-Jones. Plus, Nancy talks to Bad Sisters...

It's thirties week on the podcast as Nick and Nick and Nancy review the National Theatre adaptation of Noel Streatfeild's beloved 1936 children's book Ballet Shoes (spoiler: there's dancing, fossils, and lots of joy) and Lillian Hellman's savage 1939 drama The Little Foxes starring Anne-Marie Duff. Plus, Nick Curtis talks to Tracy-Ann Oberman about the return to the West End of her acclaimed Shake...

Final chance to enter the LTR competition to win £200 of Theatre Tokens! Plus this week, the Devil's in the Dominion, as The Devil Wears Prada becomes the latest beloved film to receive a West End musical makeover, with music from Elton John and starring Vanessa Williams as fashion editor Miranda Priestly. Nancy and the Nicks give their verdict. They also discuss another musical, based on Rick Rio...

COMPETITION TIME! Listen to this week's episode to find out how you can win £200 of Theatre Tokens... If that's not enough incentive to tune in, writer, actor, ghost, horrible historian and brilliant person Mathew Baynton is here! He talks about playing Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream for the RSC, running at London's Barbican. [Insert Bottom-related joke here]. Plus the triple Ns do a spot of...

Scrooge, carols, parachuting brussels sprouts...it's that time of the year again, as Nick and Nancy and Nick head to the Old Vic to see its annual production of A Christmas Carol, adapted by Jack Thorne and this year starring John Simm as the rotten old miser. Will the three of them keep Christmas in their heart always, or is it a load of humbug? As panto season gets underway, Nick Clark reports b...

Can you feel the love tonight? Nancy, Nick and Nick certainly can as they revisit one of London's most successful stage shows of all time, The Lion King - with an unexpected throwback to Nick Curtis's goth era. They also navigate the world of crypto in Beru Tessema's new play Wolves on Road at the Bush Theatre. And Nancy talks to John Heffernan, Aaron Krohn and Howard W. Overshown, who play the Le...

The wizened face of Brad Pitt is finally banished from Nick Clark's mind as he and the gang rave about a new musical adaptation of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button from Jethro Compton and Darren Clark, relocated to Cornwall and stuffed with stomping folk tunes. Nancy and the Nicks also review Why Am I So Single?, the new musical from the writers of Six, a banger-filled romp through modern datin...

It's the clash of the Netflix titans as Emily in Paris star Lily Collins and Money Heist man Alvaro Morte hit the West End in new play Barcelona - provoking strong reactions from Nancy and the Nicks. Plus, The Thick of It creator Armando Iannucci takes on one of the greatest films of all time with his stage adaptation of Dr Strangelove, starring Steve Coogan...and Steve Coogan...and Steve Coogan....

Nancy and the Nicks review The Duchess (of Malfi) starring Jodie Whittaker at the Trafalgar Theatre and The Other Place starring Emma D'Arcy at the National Theatre. Plus Nancy talks to Conclave and Gangs of London star Lucian Msamati about taking on the gruelling Samuel Beckett masterpiece Waiting for Godot alongside Ben Whishaw, and Nick Clark tells us about the dreams of Keanu Reeves. Hosted on...

Welcome to The London Theatre Review, your essential guide to the best (and worst) of London theatre. To kick things off, what did Nancy and the Nicks think of Oedipus at Wyndham's Theatre, starring Lesley Manville and Mark Strong, and Waiting For Godot at Theatre Royal Haymarket with Ben Whishaw and Lucian Msamati? Plus, Nick Curtis talks to outgoing National Theatre boss Rufus Norris about his f...