One Minute Theatre Reviews - Plays & Musicals on stage in London & UK

The Winter’s Tale (RSC / BBC) – review

SStratford production lets Shakespeare speak for himself ★★★★ The COVID-cancelled Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Winter's Tale has returned as a play for TV, as part of BBC4's Lights Up season of 'lost' plays. It is set in, or at least starts in, the 1950s. We find ourselves in ...
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Romeo & Juliet with Josh O’Connor & Jessie Buckley – review

Josh O'Connor & Jessie Buckley shine in fast-moving Shakespeare film ★★★ The National Theatre's Romeo & Juliet is another of the hybrids of theatre and film that have emerged during lockdown. In this case, William Shakespeare's play, directed by Simon Godwin, is a film but filmed in the Lyttleton Theatre ...
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Angela by Mark Ravenhill – review

Pam Ferris & Toby Jones perfect in audio play about a mother with dementia ★★★★★ I’ve listened to audio plays all my life, mainly on BBC radio, so, believe me, it means a lot when I say I have never heard a better audio play than Mark Ravenhill’s Angela. It ...
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Top 10 People of colour in Stage Musicals

Top 10 People Of Colour in Musicals The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation recently criticised the lack of opportunity given to black and minority ethnic performers in drama schools. If we don’t have more diversity in our theatres, we miss our opportunity to see the best possible shows on stage. So, ...
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The Picture Of Dorian Gray with Fionn Whitehead – review

Joanna Lumley & Alfred Enoch add gloss to digital Oscar Wilde ★★★ Despite it being co-produced by five regional theatres with the involvement of many more, The Picture Of Dorian Gray is not theatre. It’s not filmed theatre. It’s not a theatrical film. It’s not a theatre-film hybrid. It’s a ...
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Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – review

Chadwick Boseman gives towering performance in film of August Wilson's play ★★★★ Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom starring Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis is a film of a play written by August Wilson in 1984. Denzil Washington is one of the producers and he is known to be determined to bring ...
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Richard Blackwood in Typical – review

Richard Blackwood exceptional in Typical ★★★★★ Typical offers us a day in the life of an ordinary man, a typical man, but the question is, is he a typical black man? He gets up and gets dressed. He’s looking forward to the weekend, when he’ll see his boys. He fancies ...
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Hymn starring Adrian Lester – review

Adrian Lester & Danny Sapani give an acting masterclass ★★★★★ Hymn, although it’s not spelled 'him', is a play about two men, two sons, and two brothers as it turns out. A bare stage with two actors provide possibly the best piece of streamed theatre I’ve seen. It begins with ...
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Good Grief with Sian Clifford – review

Subtle Performances in comedy about bereavement ★★★★ Lorien Haynes’ play Good Grief lasts less than an hour but in that time it follows two people on an emotional rollercoaster as they suppress and express their feelings through various stages of grief. The two, played by Sian Clifford (Claire in Fleabag) ...
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The Top Ten Best Selling Stage Musicals of all time

The Top Ten Bestselling Stage Musicals as featured on Box Office Radio This top ten doesn't go by the money the productions have taken at the box office or length of run or all the different productions added together. This list is based on the number of tickets sold worldwide ...
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Theatre To Watch At Home

The Best Stage Shows Online or on TV Let’s face it, for many of us, the only way we’re going to get to see some theatre in the foreseeable future is on a screen, either online or on TV. So here are the best theatre shows that you can watch ...
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Crave by Sarah Kane at Chichester – review

CFT production goes to the heart of Kane's scream of despair ★★★★ Four actors are standing on four travelators which are in reverse so their characters are constantly having to move forward. While in constant motion, they face front and speak, usually in a staccato sound, often in short single ...
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Faith Healer at Old Vic – review

Great play, great cast but a strain on the eyes. ★★★★ First things first, Brian Friel’s 1979 play Faith Healer is a masterpiece. The question is, did this production streamed live from the Old Vic via Zoom do it justice? Sadly, the answer is, no. Not because the acting wasn’t ...
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Sleepless with Jay McGuiness & Kimberley Walsh – review

Sleepless Is A Romance About Musicals ★★★ If you’re worried that a musical couldn’t do justice to the classic film Sleepless In Seattle, don’t be. Sleepless does pretty much all you would hope from it and more. Okay, Jay McGuiness and Kimberley Walsh are not Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan ...
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Andrew Scott in Three Kings – review

Andrew Scott rules in monologue live streamed from Old Vic ★★★★ So it’s back on the sofa to watch Three Kings with Andrew Scott streaming live on Zoom from the Old Vic stage. It wasn't the same as being there but there was something exciting about knowing you’re watching Mr ...
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Ralph Fiennes in Beat The Devil – review

Ralph Fiennes mouths David Hare's righteous anger at Boris Johnson ★★★★ After five months of being deprived of live theatre, I say all hail the Bridge Theatre for being, as far I’m aware, the first to put on an indoor show. How wonderful I thought not only to see Ralph ...
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Mike Bartlett’s Albion – review of BBC live recording

Victoria Hamilton blooms in Mike Bartlett's play about loss ★★★★ Sometimes you watch the first act of a play and it’s just the setup and you really want to get it over with so you can move on to how it's all going to work out. Not so with Mike ...
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Hamilton – film review

The best film of a live stage show I've seen ★★★★★ Hamilton was filmed during the initial Broadway run. The recording of the live show was meant to saved for later but with theatres dark, the creator Lin-Manuel Miranda decided to make it available now. After some intense bidding, it ...
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5 Shows That Revolutionised Musical Theatre

How musicals came to dominate theatre for 90 years Musical theatre has dominated Broadway and West End stages for nearly a hundred years but there are five musicals that shaped the modern musical. In choosing these five musicals what I’ve tried to look at is not their quality or success ...
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Groomed by Patrick Sandford – review

An important play about the lasting damage of child abuse ★★★★★ ‘The adult tries so hard to forget, but the child always remembers,’ says the protagonist in Groomed, written and acted by Patrick Sandford. I am sure you will be as sad and angry as I was by the end ...
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