London theatre reviews

American writer Samuel D. Hunter’s 2015 play, making its UK debut at Trafalgar Theatre, isn’t big on laughs…

This all-singing adaptation of the blockbuster 2004 Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore romcom is written by cult US musical comedy duo Steve Rosen and David Rossmer, who have been admirably pragmatic in looking at the source movie and concluding that no, you absolutely cannot do a lot of that stuff in a modestly sized London theatre in 2025.

Pride and Prejudice will always be the most famous Jane Austen novel, but not only does Emma snap at its heels, it seems far more suited to modern updates – this year alone has given UK theatre the West End musical version of classic ‘90s adaptation Clueless, a more period accurate Emma in Bath, and this: a rip roaring modern update from rising star Ava Pickett.

Famous franchises aren’t just big business in Hollywood: they’re also the driving force behind much of London kids’ theatre. And source material doesn’t come much better known than We’re Going on a Bear Hunt…

Arguably the entire point of the first play to be programmed at the National Theatre by its new boss Indhu Rubasingham comes around five minutes from the end – after the actual plt has wrapped up – when Ukweli Roach’s Dionysus adds the mantle of ‘god of theatre’ to his celestial portfolio and dedicates the NT’s Olivier theatre to us. And if the hour and 40 minutes that precede this moment are messy, I’d say they are entertainingly messy. 

Joe Orton’s breakthrough play Entertaining Mr Sloane hasn’t been revived in London in almost 20 years, and on this showing you can kind of see why. His dark comedy about a middle aged brother and sister who both fall for a sexy lodger with a shady past caused outrage in its day. But in 2025 it’s unforgivably tame and unfunny. 

Irish writer Conor McPherson also directs this West End revival of the play that sent his career into the stratosphere when it opened at the Royal Court Theatre in 1997. It’s lost none of its gently haunting, melancholic pull in the intervening years. The Weir is a classic example of a play where nothing really seems to happen, but then you realise you’ve seen pretty much all of life pass by.

Since leaving the Young Vic in 2018, David Lan’s canvas may have changed but his principles certainly haven’t. Over 18 years in charge of the inflential Waterloo theatre he programmed bold work founded on unswerving morals, often foregrounding the lives of less fortunate people around the world…

Although Aussie director Simon Stone has staged only a handful of shows in the UK, it has to be said that you can see a pattern developing…

Despite an A-list cast of Bridgerton’s Golda Rosheuval and Letitia Wright of Black Panther fame, Not Your Superwoman feels like a wilfully scrappy note for Lynette Linton to end her exemplary reign at the Bush Theatre on – a fringey drama by a relatively obscure playwright (Emma Dennis-Edwards) that doesn’t at all feel like it’s being groomed for a West End transfer.