Private Lives ★★★★ Ambassadors Theatre | Aug 31 - Nov 25, 2023


Noël Coward's delicious mixture of wit and sentiment still provokes laughter and delight in this beautifully polished production directed by Christopher Luscombe. The first rate cast headed by Nigel Havers as Elyot and Patricia Hodge as Amanda manage to squeeze every nuance out of Coward's arch commentary on the pleasures and perils of lives lived passionately. As the divorced couple who accidentally meet while they are honeymooning with new partners, Havers and Hodge display virtuoso skills as they deliver Coward's intricately crafted dialogue. They also skilfully manage to communicate the barely controlled ardour that underlies their brittle interactions. Supporting these bravura portrayals, and playing the new spouses of this tempestuous pair, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart as Victor and Natalie Walter as Sybil also put in first rate performances. They are spot on as the conformist and unimaginative foils to the volatile duo. If there is any issue here, it is when Coward's characters move from repartee and bickering to physical abuse. The audience laughed when Amanda broke some records over Elyot's head, but gasped when he retaliated and when the amusing sniping became a physical altercation. It is rather difficult to restore the lightness of mood after this scene, and some emendation might have been in order. Taken as a whole, however, this is a stellar production with some award-worthy performances.

Rated: ★★★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Tristram Kenton

Want to save on tickets? See our Tips page.

When, Where, Getting there:
Map & Location: West St, London WC2H 9ND, UK

Most Popular

St. Martin in-the-fields: Lunchtime Concerts ★★★★ FREE

Image
Maybe the best musical value in London. The lunchtime concerts at St. Martin's are always a wonderful way to escape the hustle and bustle that is London and the sensory overload that is Trafalgar Square. This is a beautiful setting with great acoustics, and a church pew hard enough to make sure you don't nod off. Reviewed by J.C.  Our score:    ☆☆☆☆  WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE: Mon & Fri: 1 pm - 1:45 pm ( occasionally Tues & Thurs)  St. Martin in-the-fields, Trafalgar Square Nearest tube: Charing Cross https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/whats-on
Full Details »

Canned Goods ★★★ Southwark Playhouse, Borough | Jan 16 - Feb 8, 2025

Image
Erik Kahn's Canned Goods recounts the story of the false flag operation that Hitler used as an excuse to invade Poland in 1939. The "canned goods" are three prisoners who will be used to impersonate Polish soldiers who attack a German radio station, thus providing an excuse for the Reich to retaliate. The prisoners who will be exploited in this gambit are a Polish farmer, a Jewish intellectual and a German petty thief. They are, no doubt, intended to be representative of the people Hitler used to his advantage in his plan to assert the Nazi hegemony. In prison confronted with an unknown and uncertain fate, the captives' conversations take a philosophical bent, questioning the purpose of suffering, the intervention of God in human affairs and the presence of evil. These existential and political meditations, along with the exposure of Hitler's theatrical propaganda and manipulation of public opinion, are clearly intended to resonate with current world events, and...
Full Details »

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank ★★★★ Marylebone Theatre | Jan 20 - Feb 15, 2025

Image
Debbie and Shoshana were friends at school, but they later drifted apart, taking very different paths in adult life. Debbie and her husband, Phil, are now secular Jews living in Florida when they suddenly learn that they are going to be visited by the Hasidic Shoshana and her husband, Yerucham, who are visiting from Israel. Even before these visitors arrive, the combative liberal, Phil, masterfully played by Joshua Malina, is preparing to take on the unanticipated guests and their views. Indeed, as the play opens, wife Debbie (Caroline Catz) is commenting on his inappropriate shorts and warning him not to mention the war. However, no topics are off the table when the guests arrive. In a discussion peppered with zingers and fuelled by vodka and marijuana, Playwright Nathan Englander's characters debate faith, culture, politics, child-rearing and even what keeps them together as couples. This a no-holds-barred look at contemporary political issues, such as the Israeli-Palestinian con...
Full Details »

Kyoto ★★★★★ @sohoplace | Until May 3, 2025

Image
Otto von Bismarck once said, "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." The challenge for the theatre in presenting such events is that the process is not only messy, it can also be both time-consuming and tedious. However, Kyoto does the next to impossible. It takes the audience inside the procedures of developing an international climate protocol, and it manages to make the dry arguing about language and the Byzantine political strategies absolutely fascinating. Stretching over years of negotiations, it exposes the dark interests at play in a game of political chess that affects everyone of us, while simultaneously presenting the manifold complexities of developing international agreements. To focus this rather abstract and convoluted tale, playwrights Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson have honed in on the character of Don Pearlman, who served in the Reagan government and who became a lobbyist for the major oil companies known as the seven sisters. Pearl...
Full Details »

The Bowie Show ★★★ Lyric Theatre | February 10, 2025 & UK Tour

Image
The Bowie Show covers over twenty of the star's legendary songs, and it is not so much a tribute show as an attempt to create a rock concert experience. Indeed, the audience etiquette is definitely the latter. Loud talking, open mobile phones and walking about during the performance are all part of the ambience. The music itself is blasted out without attempting to achieve any of the nuance that characterises some of Bowie's work, and unfortunately the words are often lost in the cacophony. The experience features three singers, eight dancers and a five-piece band, plus some superb video work. In fact, it is the videography that carries, and almost steals, the show. The choreography is fun and nicely inventive while also clearly referencing the era. The costuming is terrific in numbers such as "China Girl" and then just becomes weirdly distracting on other occasions. There were some moments that hit the mark like "Rebel Rebel" and others that missed it like...
Full Details »

FIREBIRD ★★★★★ King's Head Theatre | Jan 9 - Feb 9, 2025

Image
The late 1970s were the height of the Cold War between America and the Soviet Union. However, set against the backdrop of this simplistically bipolar world, FIREBIRD relates a love story that ultimately questions the binaries that are often equally, naively imposed on relationships. As the impulsive, charismatic and enigmatic fighter pilot, Roman, Robert Eades puts in a performance that beautifully captures all of those qualities. He is both daring and disarming, and ultimately opaque, as he relishes taking chances both personally and professionally. Eades' presentation nicely contrasts to the more timid and grounded Sergey played by Theo Walker, and the chemistry between the two of them is thoroughly credible. In this highly charged atmosphere, Sorcha Kennedy successfully manages to hold her own in the rather challenging role of Luisa. She succeeds in creating a character who is strong, resilient and an equal force in the triangle that emerges, although we never see her intimate...
Full Details »

Macbeth ★★★★ Donmar Theatre | Cinemas from February 5, 2025

Image
If you missed the Donmar Warehouse's ground-breaking production of Macbeth with the incomparable David Tennant and a wonderful Cush Jumbo, it is now coming to the cinema screen. Tennant's Macbeth roars and rages, and Jumbo's Lady Macbeth is seductively sinister. Both actors put in compelling performances that are satisfyingly supported by Benny Young's sensitive Duncan, Cal MacAninch's steadfast Banquo and Noof Ousellam's steely Macduff. Part of the power of the original production was the use of binaural headphones to channel the sounds of the play and create an immersive involvement that, unfortunately, is largely lost in this cinematic version. Nevertheless, the performances shine, and we were captivated by Jumbo's purring persuasiveness and terrified by Tennant's ruthless ambition. The decision to project the voices of the witches as they echo in Macbeth's mind works exquisitely to heighten the eeriness of the situation, but the decision to rewr...
Full Details »

A Good House ★★★★★ Royal Court Theatre | Jan 11 - Feb 8, 2025

Image
When a shack appears in the midst of the upper middle class neighbourhood of Stillwater, the residents of this enclave of suburban serenity are concerned. Will the appearance of these squatters depress property values or will their mere presence lower the tone of the community? How to deal with these interlopers raises questions about the values and the prejudices of the current dwellers in this bourgeois haven. What really are the ties that bind this community, and what are the compromises one should make to be part of it? Amy Jephta thoughtfully strips away the self-deceptions and hypocrisy of all of her characters forcing them, and the audience, to realise that community is a concept based on compromise and that by definition, it means that there are others who are outsiders. The bonds that bind people together are frail and the line between the assertion of identity and bigotry is not always as clear as we might like to pretend. As the manipulative and maladroit instigators of the ...
Full Details »

Scissorhandz – A Musical Reinvented ★★ Southwark Playhouse, Elephant | Jan 23 - Mar 29, 2025

Image
Tim Burton's film Edward Scissorhands is the retelling of Mary Shelley's story of Frankenstein's monster who is rejected and persecuted by an intolerant society simply because he is different. The story is particularly poignant in today's challenging times, and in this version, the 'monster' becomes representative of the non-binary community. While the touching parable of its predecessors is still the basic plot of this musical version, the narrative is now told by incorporating a number of popular tunes – twenty-three in all. The resultant need to get through all these songs unfortunately leaves little room for real character development, and any empathy with the outsider's plight is overwhelmed by one unnecessarily loud musical number after another. Indeed, you know the volume has reached the truly excessive when your devices start to throb with the message "dangerous noise level." Among others in the golden oldies list being blasted out are tra...
Full Details »

The Maids ★★★ Jermyn Street Theatre | January 9 - 22, 2025

Image
Jean Genet based his 1947 play, The Maids , on the real story of an infamous 1933 murder in Le Mans when an abusive mistress and her daughter were killed by their two maids. This co-production between Jermyn Street Theatre and Reading Rep, which transfers to Reading at the end of January, captures all of Genet's absurdist horror, but it wavers uneasily between the realistic and the mannered in its presentation of this narrative of brutal social stratification and existential alienation. Anna Popplewell as Solange, the elder sister in service, brings a nicely restrained menace to her characterisation, and Charlie Oscar as younger sister, Claire, does a fine job of alternating between vulnerability and volatility as the two participate in the ceremony of dressing up as their employer and acting out her murder. Carla Harrison-Hodge hits some humorous notes as the obtuse, self-absorbed mistress of the household, but it is a performance that borders on parody. It reflects the kind of in...
Full Details »

The City Life Magazine | Reviews & Ratings