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Nick Curtis

ABOUT

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.... MORE

ABOUT
VIEW

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.

Theatre

A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction: provocative but preachy

It’s a Sin’s Lydia West brings vulnerability and likeability to her stage debut

Apr 28, 2023
Theatre

Retrograde at the Kiln: Ryan Calais Cameron’s latest is electrifying

Ivanno Jeremiah delivers a performance of great strength and delicacy as the pioneering actor

Apr 27, 2023
Theatre

Dixon and Daughters at National Theatre review: intriguing and odd

The script feels as if it’s constantly, energetically changing shape, often shooting off at random tangents that never reach resolution

Apr 26, 2023
Theatre

Ain’t Too Proud review: Temptations musical rolls out hit after hit

Compilation musicals have had a bad press, but this is a hugely superior example of the genre.

Apr 24, 2023
Theatre

The Secret Life of Bees at Almeida Theatre: captivatingly odd

The Secret Life of Bees embraces many troubling tropes, mixes them all up in a musical bran tub, and - I think - synthesises something new

Apr 21, 2023
Theatre

Dancing at Lughnasa at the National Theatre: powerfully moving

Even if you missed all the subtext, this show would still delight in its acute depiction of family dynamics

Apr 19, 2023
Theatre

Private Lives at the Donmar review: joyless affair fails to spark

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

Apr 14, 2023
Insider

Sex, violence and singalongs: how theatre crowds forgot how to behave

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

Apr 11, 2023
Theatre

Sea Creatures at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs: aimless and shapeless

This play has fallen prey to Hampstead Theatre’s many woes

Apr 6, 2023
Theatre

A Little Life at the Harold Pinter review: James Norton is astonishing

Though relentlessly bleak, this is a superb piece of theatre

Apr 5, 2023
Theatre

You Bury Me at Orange Tree Theatre: flawed, beguiling storytelling

This play puts a human face on momentous events outside the usual concerns of British theatre

Mar 31, 2023
Theatre

My Neighbour Totoro at the Barbican review: easier to admire than love

This show transposes the off-key weirdness of the original, but the story could use more jeopardy, darkness and more of the monsters

Mar 30, 2023
Theatre

Berlusconi – A New Musical at Southwark Playhouse Elephant: no (a)more

This aimless musical is more a minestrone of ideas than a bunga-bunga romp

Mar 30, 2023
Theatre

Marjorie Prime at Menier Chocolate Factory: Anne Reid is magnificent

Marjorie Prime offers stimulating ideas and some great acting, but it’s not a great play

Mar 15, 2023
Theatre

Guys & Dolls at the Bridge Theatre review: blissful and exhilarating

This near-flawless revival boasts excellent leads, astonishing choreography and gorgeous costumes

Mar 15, 2023
Theatre

After the Act at the NDT review: engagingly scrappy, righteously angry

It reminds us that hard-won liberties can be summarily rolled back

Mar 9, 2023
Theatre

Bonnie & Clyde at Garrick Theatre review: a criminal lack of focus

This Broadway musical is too glib to be serious and too po-faced to be a spoof

Mar 9, 2023
Theatre

The Great British Bake Off Musical at Noel Coward Theatre: half-baked

This is low-level entertainment for the undemanding, with brainless characters and unremarkable choreography

Mar 7, 2023
Theatre

Sleepova, Bush Theatre: you’ll fall in love with this exuberant show

A glorious young cast brings authentic energy to a coming of age tale of female friendship

Mar 2, 2023