Nick Curtis is Chief Theatre Critic of the Evening Standard, a feature writer, columnist and award-winning interviewer. For the paper he has reported on mayoral campaigns, terror attacks and the 2012 Olympics, recreated the first scheduled commercial flight in a biplane, and opened Tower Bridge....
Nick Curtis is Chief Theatre Critic of the Evening Standard, a feature writer, columnist and award-winning interviewer. For the paper he has reported on mayoral campaigns, terror attacks and the 2012 Olympics, recreated the first scheduled commercial flight in a biplane, and opened Tower Bridge.
It’s a Sin’s Lydia West brings vulnerability and likeability to her stage debut
Ivanno Jeremiah delivers a performance of great strength and delicacy as the pioneering actor
The script feels as if it’s constantly, energetically changing shape, often shooting off at random tangents that never reach resolution
Compilation musicals have had a bad press, but this is a hugely superior example of the genre.
The Secret Life of Bees embraces many troubling tropes, mixes them all up in a musical bran tub, and - I think - synthesises something new
Even if you missed all the subtext, this show would still delight in its acute depiction of family dynamics
This show was clearly planned as a crowd-pleaser, a reappraisal of a classic and a star vehicle, but it doesn’t fully satisfy on any of those counts
From musicals to Shakespeare, performances of all stripes are being interrupted by booze-fuelled and up-for-a-party audiences. So is good etiquette a thing of the past? Nick Curtis reports
This play has fallen prey to Hampstead Theatre’s many woes
Though relentlessly bleak, this is a superb piece of theatre
This play puts a human face on momentous events outside the usual concerns of British theatre
This show transposes the off-key weirdness of the original, but the story could use more jeopardy, darkness and more of the monsters
This aimless musical is more a minestrone of ideas than a bunga-bunga romp
Marjorie Prime offers stimulating ideas and some great acting, but it’s not a great play
This near-flawless revival boasts excellent leads, astonishing choreography and gorgeous costumes
It reminds us that hard-won liberties can be summarily rolled back
This Broadway musical is too glib to be serious and too po-faced to be a spoof
This is low-level entertainment for the undemanding, with brainless characters and unremarkable choreography
A glorious young cast brings authentic energy to a coming of age tale of female friendship
It’s great to see her back on stage