Noel Coward Theatre.jpg

Noël Coward Theatre

  • Theatre | West End
  • Covent Garden
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Time Out says

Expect a broad programme of productions at this long-standing, popular Covent Garden landmark. Originally known as the New Theatre, the tribute to playwright Noël Coward was paid much later in the theatre's history – though a young Coward did manage to present one of his own plays, 'I'll Leave It to You', on the theatre's stage in 1920, while several of his hits have been presented there in more recent times.

More typically host to limited runs of plays in recent times, you have to go back to 2006-9 to find its last real long-runner, the raucous puppet musical ‘Avenue Q’. However the hit Broadway musical ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ – due at the end of 2019 – will be hoping to make a good go of it.

Details

Address
85-88
St Martin's Lane
London
WC2N 4AU
Transport:
Tube: Leicester Square
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What’s on

The Importance of Being Earnest

4 out of 5 stars
  At the National Theatre last Christmas, Max Webster’s vividly queer take on Oscar Wilde’s magnum opus felt quite a lot like The Ncuti Gatwa Show. Back on stage for the first time since he hit the big time, the Doctor Who actor’s stupendously arch take on dashing young protagonist Algernon Montcrieff had an ultra-knowing quality that defined the production. It’s very, very obvious that in Webster’s take, Algenon and his cousin-slash-BFF Jack are meant to be closeted gay men (it begins with a dragged up Algie writhing away at a grand piano, and doesn’t get noticiably straighter). But whereas Gatwa’s sardonically adult interpretation of Algernon seemed very aware of his own sexuality, that’s not necessarily the case in the West End cast. Gatwa’s replacement is fellow Russell T Davies alumnus Ollie Alexander, and he plays Algie with a waspish dandyishness that feels childish, not adult, a little boy roleplaying his whirlwind romance with Jessica Whitehurst’s bolshy Cicily. Likewise, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett‘s Jack is basically a gigantic overgrown puppy, wagging his tail in delight at the attentions of Kitty Hawthorn’s Gwendolyn, but with zero sexual intent.  All four ‘lovers’ go about their relationships with the breezy silliness of a group of primary schoolers playing mummies and daddies. Webster’s interpretation amps up Wilde’s wit by unburdening it of any need for us to believe in the romance. Indeed, the contrived plotting – Bunburying, the women only being into guys...
  • Comedy

Dracula

Kip Williams is not a massive name in British theatre (yet), but the Aussie writer-director is starting to make some serious waves over her. His dizzyingly high tech, Sarah Snook-starring one woman Dorian Gray was a big West End hit last year, this autumn he directs a version of Jean Genet’s The Maids at the Donmar. It seems questionable as to whether we’ll get part two of his one woman Victorian horror trilogy over here – a version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde received mixed notices Down Under – but part three is coming our way in the new year as his take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula lands on our shores. In her first full London stage role since her career making turn turn in The Color Purple over a decade ago, Cynthia Erivo will return home to (hopefully) triumphantly take on 23 different roles in a tech enhanced solo romp through Dracula that plays clever visual homage to the early years of horror cinema.
  • Drama
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