Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ★★★★ Almeida Theatre | Dec 10, 2024 - Feb 1, 2025


Big Daddy's birthday is a night to remember! There are some strong performances in Tennessee Williams' classic, but it does seem like an unnecessarily drawn out affair. Daisy Edgar-Jones takes on the role of Maggie the cat, and she does a lot of cat-like crawling to make sure we get it. She is matched in these feline frolics by Seb Carrington who plays the ghost of Skipper, the real love of Maggie's husband, Brick. However, the constant stage presence of Skipper's spirit does seem an unnecessarily heavy-handed way of reminding us of his haunting importance. While Edgar-Jones' portrayal manages to wring a lot of the fury and frustration out of the role of Maggie, her scenes with husband, Brick, played by Kingsley Ben-Adir, never quite rise to the emotional intensity of his interaction with Big Daddy in Act II. It is notoriously difficult to play drunk, and Ben-Adir does so in a masterful performance that is wonderfully understated. His searing, soul-baring, exchanges with Lennie James' Big Daddy are absolutely spellbinding. As Big Mama, Clare Burt neatly prefigures what Maggie will become, and her vain protestations of love and hollow pretences of normalcy ring achingly aspirational. However, it is unclear, why Director Rebecca Frecknall, who emended Willams' text elsewhere, left in so many references to Big Mama's being fat, when Burt so clearly is not. Plaudits must also go to Ukweli Roach and Pearl Chanda as Brick’s brother, Gooper, and his greedy, ingratiating wife, Mae. They are quite sublime embodiments of that mendacity which Brick and Big Daddy so insistently deplore. This is a family affair that's full of regrets, recriminations, and revelations, but Big Daddy's birthday also proves to be a nice present for those who appreciate powerful theatrical moments.

Rated: ★★★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Marc Brenner

Want to save on tickets? See our Tips page.

When, Where, Getting there:
Map & Location: Almeida St, London N1 1TA, UK

Most Popular

José María Velasco: A View of Mexico ★★★★ The National Gallery | Mar 29 - Aug 17, 2025

Image
This exhibition is a fine introduction to a 19th Century painter who is well-known in Mexico, but who has been under-appreciated outside of his native country. The academic style of José María Velasco fell out of favour in Europe with the growing influence of the Impressionists, and his reputation was also eclipsed by the great Mexican muralists who followed him. This current display of his work does justice to the subtlety and genius of this artist and is a wonderful invocation of his country at a turning point in its history. Velasco celebrates the natural world while he hints at the changes to be wrought by the oncoming industrial reality. We are moving from an agricultural society with humans living in harmony with nature to an industrial model and the subjugation of the natural world. Velasco lived in a world that was not only on the cusp of enormous social change however. It was one that was also facing a profound reassessment of its values. The artist himself was both a man of f...
Full Details »

Supersonic Man ★★★★ Southwark Playhouse, Borough | Apr 9 - May 3, 2025

Image
Based on the true story of Peter Scott-Morgan, who with his partner, Francis, became the first gay couple to be married in England, Supersonic Man tells the story of Adam who, like Scott-Morgan, decides to fight his motor neurone disease through robotics and radical surgery. It is an inspiring tribute to someone who boldly faced life and its challenges on his own terms, and it is an interesting insight into the media mechanics that can make such a decision possible. Like the protagonist of this musical, Scott-Morgan harnessed the power of the media through the creation of a television documentary which chronicled his medical journey. The show's smart mocking of the manipulative cynicism that lies just behind our culture of celebrity, plus the resilient wit and self-deprecating humour of Adam himself largely save this piece from falling into becoming simply an exercise in suffocating sentimentality. While the show succeeds in portraying the real pain and mood swings of the sufferer...
Full Details »

Midnight Cowboy - A New Musical ★★ Southwark Playhouse, Borough | Apr 4 - May 17, 2025

Image
James Leo Herlihy's novel of 1965, which was later made into a very successful film, tells the story of naïve young man, Joe Buck, who comes to New York City to get rich as a gigolo. He discovers that his chosen career path is not as simple to pursue as he thought, and he ends up being taken advantage of by both his clients and by his new acquaintance, Ratso. The latter is a disabled survivor who knows how to work the streets and who is as shrewd as Joe is gullible. Oddly enough, despite their initial differences, these two outsiders become friends. They start to depend on each other and come to share a dream which is to escape their current hardship and to flee to the paradise of Florida. Herlihy's book and the film neatly contrasted the shocking grittiness of life on the streets and the touching relationship of the two broken dreamers. It was a sentimental tour de force , but it is not an easy balance to achieve – and it doesn't quite work here. While Max Bowden gets it l...
Full Details »

THISISPOPBABY - WAKE ★ Sadler's Wells Peacock Theatre | April 2 - 5, 2025

Image
This show promises to be a riff on an Irish wake. Apparently, it is intended as a celebration of life, but it unfortunately does not rise up to that billing. Although we are told at the beginning that we are in for what will literally be a life changing experience, the show proves to be considerably less than that. The production is a hodgepodge of various acts which oversells itself and really doesn't deliver. The spoken word intervals which are probably meant to tie things together thematically are just insistently pretentious and way too lengthy. And, what a man vainly attempting to windmill tassels from his naked bottom, while singing "Seduce Me," has to do with an Irish wake is far from clear. There is a smattering of breaking, some reasonably well-sung songs and a lot of mediocre choreography. Also on offer are some fairly competent step dancing moments, plus a couple of not very original gymnastics' and aerial acrobatics' routines. The low point is definite...
Full Details »

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 »

Cartier ★★★★ Victoria & Albert Museum | Apr 12 - Nov 16, 2025

Image
At the beginning of the 20th century, the three grandsons of the jeweller, Louis-François Cartier, set out to create a global brand. They established branches of the family business in New York, London and Paris, and while this exhibition celebrates their company's craftsmanship and imagination, it also presents what has been a masterpiece of marketing. From the beginning, the Cartiers courted the royal and the rich in order to establish their brand, and they cleverly moved with the times to embrace the patronage of film stars and pop idols when these nouveaux riches became the emerging market. Of the over 350 objects on display, we have pieces created for several royal families and the likes of the Duchess of Windsor and Princess Margaret. There are pieces worn by Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly and more contemporary celebrities such Rihanna and Kim Kardashian. From garish tiaras and gaudy broaches to the more elegant tank watch and popular 1969 Love bracelet, Cartier's creatio...
Full Details »

The Carracci Cartoons: Myths in the Making ★★★ The National Gallery | Apr 10 - Jul 6, 2025 (Free Entry)

Image
This free show features two of the cartoons, or large charcoal drawings, created by the Carracci brothers, Annibale and Agostino, for the decoration of the Roman residence of the young cardinal Odoardo Farnese (1573-1626). Both works are actually attributed to Agostino Carracci with possible input from Annibale. Made on paper, the two large drawings were conceived as working tools intended for use in preparation to paint the fresco which was to decorate the ceiling of the Palazzo Farnese. They were designed to be used for the transfer of sections of that complex composition onto fresh plaster, and they offer a unique insight into the working practices of a Renaissance artist. The cartoons, which have long been the property of The National Gallery and have not often been on display, represent two scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses : "Cephalus carried off by Aurora in her Chariot" (about 1599) and "A Woman borne off by a Sea God" (about 1599). They have been interpr...
Full Details »

The Inseparables ★★★ Finborough Theatre | Apr 15 - May 10, 2025

Image
Grace Joy Howarth's adaptation of Simone de Beauvoir's posthumously published memoir/novel about the author's powerful childhood friendship takes us back to the more innocent, and also more restrictive, time which formed the great feminist thinker. It is a celebration of a profound relationship between two intelligent young women who in different ways both struggle with the limited roles assigned to them in pre World War II France. Although the rebellious Andrée smokes and kisses a boy, she remains deeply religious and socially conformist, while her soulmate, Sylvie is actually more revolutionary. She rejects the notion of God and manages to avoid the requirement to marry. The latter character is based on de Beauvoir herself, and this is a touching portrait of the formative female relationship that contributed to the development of the writer who would later pen The Second Sex . Howarth's adaptation and the sensitive performances of Lara Manela as Andrée and Ayesha Ostl...
Full Details »

Apex Predator ★★★★ Hampstead Theatre | Mar 22 - Apr 26, 2025

Image
A ten year-old son who is in trouble at school; a husband who is away, working day and night on a mysterious project; a baby who cries constantly while an upstairs neighbour plays his music too loudly; plus, on top of all this, a rude and threatening stranger on public transport and an exhibitionist in the park: Mia has lots of reasons to feel both victimised and stressed out. When she meets her son's new teacher, however, she may finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. The mysterious and quirky Ana radiates a sense of empowerment and confidence that is both bewildering and beguiling. John Donnelly has written a neat little thriller that grips the audience from its opening scene. It is ominous and delightfully spooky, while touching on a number of issues that could have been more fully developed. Although the notion of climate change and species extinction is referenced in the title and elsewhere, it could have been clarified and expanded to provide a more interesting themati...
Full Details »

Manhunt ★★★ Royal Court Theatre | Mar 28 - May 3, 2025

Image
Based on the true story of Raoul Moat who in 2010 killed one person and maimed his girlfriend and a police officer, this powerful recreation of the incidents and the ensuing manhunt focuses on the forces that made Moat into the raging inferno that he was. Abandoned by his father and abused by his mentally ill mother, he was then raised in care, and from his perspective, was abused by all the bureaucratic entities that intervened in his life: the social care system, the police and various legal proceedings. Moat saw himself as a victim, and although Robert Icke's play is largely presented from Moat's point of view, the author strives to balance this and to avoid any appearance of justifying Moat's behaviour as he uncovers its sources. Indeed, a long period in which the audience is in darkness, probably to replicate the blinding of one of Moat's victims, plus the detailed recounting of that victim's story are no doubt intended to serve this purpose. However, despite s...
Full Details »

The City Life Magazine | Reviews & Ratings