‘”Magical” monogamy’ The quintessential folk heroine Barbara Allen gets an Appalachian love affair in this new romantasy promising “Twilight meets Romeo and Juliet”. Mawkish doesn’t even begin to cover it. Welcome to the year… well, here is where we run into rather serious contextual problems. There is none. A blast of Doc Martens, long denim skirts and other 90s accessories ...

“On stage are some of the most enthralling creatures you will ever witness” “I’ll try anything once” is an appropriate statement, in this setting, but I’m talking theatrically, and the Ladyboys of Bangkok are a new experience for me. There is still the inherent whiff of impropriety about the troupe; discussing with friends I found myself blushing, almost unable to ...

“Sexy and frightening” Billed as “not a stand-up” this show features a lot of the genre’s tropes: standing up, dad jokes, shaggy dog stories, aloneness and personal revelation. However, to call it simply thus would be like calling the River Thames a stream or calling Titus Andronicus a bit violent. Both of the above references are particularly pertinent: the mudflats ...

‘All complicit’ How did you kick off Pride Month? Did you watch Mean Girls? Did you tell the office homosexual he looked thin? Did you buy a rainbow flag on Temu? NOT GOOD ENOUGH! I, on the other hand, whipped (pun intentional) the season into shape, celebrating the end of Queer East Festival with a two-hour durational theatrical experience involving ...

‘Porterian Frankenstein’ Good things are said to come in threes: meals, times of day, the very structure of literature. And yet the Furies are three – bloodthirsty, vengeance-seeking, wild – so make of that what you will. The Barbican is certainly hoping for the former. Anything Goes returned twice and moved to the West End, and Kiss Me, Kate was ...

‘Playfully morphing between modes’ I thankfully have no children but have observed my friends that do, say that their changeable little goblins are difficult to entertain and appease. With war, sex and the stock market easily accessible through those magic mirrors we keep giving them, how does one engage such overstimulated offspring? Circus is a common answer, but suppose you ...

‘Effective situational comedy’ As a reviewer, you are often asked to appraise shows built for audiences very unlike you. A musical all about F1 drivers? Burger restaurants? Anything with children on stage? Empathy, as much as criticism, makes this job such a surprising joy. With that in mind, I wound my way through the dripping heat of London’s mini-May El ...

‘A rounded portrait of a woman on the verge of dissolution’ Transformation is arguably the keystone of drag. Yet the genre is often accused of lacking subtlety, tending towards mockery and salaciousness. That is, until now. Vests and muscles ripple; serumed and plumped faces turn this way and that; the place reeks of Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male. A sea ...

‘A thousand butterflies’ “Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking!” Despite snippy Devil Wears Prada quotes, it really is. Anne-Sophie Mutter in a voluminous flowered dress celebrates her 50 years on stage, hacking away at the violin, as fresh as a daisy. The programme is passionate, precise and wide-ranging. A bit for everyone, as we watch slack-jawed as such a petite, pointed woman makes such ...

“Alternatives to the gruff and bluff of traditional masculinity”  I was 7 in 2001 when Michael Nunn (now OBE) and William Trevitt (OBE) astounded the ballet world with their gamble-show Pointless at The Camden Roundhouse. That’s less of a flex and more of a statement on the legacy of these fellows, almost a whole lifetime of work, rightly celebrated. After ...