Dominion Theatre Whoopi Goldberg and Maggie Smith in a film about singing Nuns that grossed $231 million in 1992? Yes please said the world! Now a couple of years later we have a new interaction of the 2011 musical starring Alexandra Burke, Ruth Jones and Lemar restaged for the audiences of 2024. Grossing? I really couldn’t tell you, but I ...

Linbury Theatre In the “studio” of the Royal Opera House, sunken into the clay of Covent Garden the young, spritely dancers of The Next Generation Festival leap and lunge, in all their nauseating optimism.   The Linbury is the smallest space in the Royal Opera House, and today youth abounds – the air positively glinting with it – as the Next Generation Festival highlights ...

Stoke Newington ‘A boisterous, mezcal-fuelled good time’ Imagine, if you will, that the American film industry was not such an international juggernaut. Picture the Barbie movie if it had been made in the bustling studios of Tegucigalpa instead of the parched hills of Hollywood. Then imagine – I know I’m asking a lot – a restaurant created with that aesthetic in mind: ...

The Others, 6 Manor road, Stoke Newington, N16 5SA The old saying don’t judge a book by its cover sometimes comes into splendid poignancy. Not a person by their designer handbag, or a play by its assumed budget, and certainly not a super short film festival on its snooker-hall-grotty-locale. Wandering down an unfamiliar and neglected road in Stokey, closed shops ...

Bread & Roses Theatre Like a shared advert for Spareroom and Tinder over Pride: intense chats over coffee and evenings in with a bottle of wine blur the confusing rules of sexuality, friendship, and flat sharing for two twenty-somethings.   Now, I have lived with some deliciously odd humans: I think we all have, after years trapped in this renter’s ...

Hackney Wick ‘Charming and luxurious’ I love food with a side of history – pastries in front of the Parthenon, canapés in the catacombs. Closer to home, a short stroll away from Hackney Wick’s industrial magnificence, you have a floating restaurant whose timber bones were fused in the Edwardian period. Thankfully after quite the facelift, De Hoop, the boat now ...

New Wimbledon Theatre and Touring With one of the best origin stories of any book/film/musical, everyone’s favourite personality-filled car (apart from Lightning McQueen and Herbie) soars into the New Wimbledon Theatre. The story of a magic Mercedes chassis saving a single-parent family from a child-hating fictitious Eastern European monarchy still makes little sense, but does it need to? Ian Fleming, of ...

Ballet Black, Barbican Centre Everything is change, nothing in life stays the same. This is doubly true for the mayflower-like professional lives of dancers, and the turnover of a company’s members. Nobody, no matter how beloved is immune to this, not even Ballet Black. Cassa Pancho’s mold-breaking dance troupe is turning 23. A full adult’s lifetime of transforming the dance ...

Park Theatre ‘Entertaining and eye-opening’ Did you know that the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) has an erotic section of poems supposedly written by King Solomon? Maybe you did, you clever thing, but I certainly didn’t. The production giving life to this holy book, A Song of Songs, is making its UK premiere at the Park Theatre – educating, entertaining, and opening eyes ...

Barbican Centre Although pity might be thin on the ground for us critics, it is a balancing act of a job. Someone’s baby, their dreams and sometimes livelihoods are affected by our words. Although some would disagree, most of us are not unnecessarily cruel spiteful little sprites. Small-scale or fringe theatre particularly needs a lighter tone and delicate, kinder eye, ...