The London Theatre Review

A bumper pod to end a bumper year of theatre! Nick, Nick and Nancy look back at their theatrical highs (and a couple of lows) of 2024. For their final trips of the year, they take in The Tempest at Theatre Royal Drury Lane starring none other than Hollywood royalty Sigourney Weaver, and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at the Almeida with Normal People star Daisy Edgar-Jones. Plus, Nancy talks to Bad Sisters star Anne-Marie Duff about The Little Foxes at the Young Vic. The London Theatre Review will return in 2025...londontheatrereview.co.ukInsta: @thelondontheatrereview

It's thirties week on the podcast as Nick and Nick and Nancy review the National Theatre adaptation of Noel Streatfeild's beloved 1936 children's book Ballet Shoes (spoiler: there's dancing, fossils, and lots of joy) and Lillian Hellman's savage 1939 drama The Little Foxes starring Anne-Marie Duff. Plus, Nick Curtis talks to Tracy-Ann Oberman about the return to the West End of her acclaimed Shakespeare adaptation, The Merchant of Venice 1936. And our competition winner is revealed! londontheatrereview.co.ukInsta: @thelondontheatrereview

Final chance to enter the LTR competition to win £200 of Theatre Tokens! Plus this week, the Devil's in the Dominion, as The Devil Wears Prada becomes the latest beloved film to receive a West End musical makeover, with music from Elton John and starring Vanessa Williams as fashion editor Miranda Priestly. Nancy and the Nicks give their verdict.They also discuss another musical, based on Rick Riordan's bestselling Percy Jackson books and set to a rock score. So how does The Lightning Thief musical strike them?And Nancy chats to triple Olivier Award winner Sharon D Clarke about playing Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, as well as four decades of acting, and her love of panto. Insta: @thelondontheatrereviewEmail: thelondontheatrereview@gmail.comCompetition T&Cs: The prize is non-transferable and non-refundable, and no cash alternative will be offered. The prize does not include any additional or external costs incurred by the winner, including but not limited to travel, accommodation and meals. If a prize is unavailable due to circumstances beyond the Promoter’s control, the Promoter reserves the right to provide a substitute prize. The Promoter reserves the right to hold void, cancel, suspend, or amend the promotion where it becomes necessary to do so. Full terms and conditions are here: https://www.theatretokens.com/terms-of-sale

COMPETITION TIME! Listen to this week's episode to find out how you can win £200 of Theatre Tokens...If that's not enough incentive to tune in, writer, actor, ghost, horrible historian and brilliant person Mathew Baynton is here! He talks about playing Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream for the RSC, running at London's Barbican. [Insert Bottom-related joke here]. Plus the triple Ns do a spot of Bunburying as they assess The Importance of Being Earnest at the National Theatre, starring the best one from Sex Education and the new one from Doctor Who, Ncuti Gatwa, alongside Sharon D Clarke as Lady Bracknell. [Insert handbag-related joke here]. And the gang review The Purists at the Kiln Theatre, a play about the collision of cultures, and the clash of hip-hop and musical theatre. [Insert something about Hamilton here]. Insta: @thelondontheatrereviewEmail: thelondontheatrereview@gmail.comCompetition T&Cs: The prize is non-transferable and non-refundable, and no cash alternative will be offered. The prize does not include any additional or external costs incurred by the winner, including but not limited to travel, accommodation and meals. If a prize is unavailable due to circumstances beyond the Promoter’s control, the Promoter reserves the right to provide a substitute prize. The Promoter reserves the right to hold void, cancel, suspend, or amend the promotion where it becomes necessary to do so. Full terms and conditions are here: https://www.theatretokens.com/terms-of-sale

Scrooge, carols, parachuting brussels sprouts...it's that time of the year again, as Nick and Nancy and Nick head to the Old Vic to see its annual production of A Christmas Carol, adapted by Jack Thorne and this year starring John Simm as the rotten old miser. Will the three of them keep Christmas in their heart always, or is it a load of humbug? As panto season gets underway, Nick Clark reports back from Aladdin at the Lyric Hammersmith, with a lot of love for Widow Twerky.All's Well That Ends Well at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse - or does it? The trio give their verdict on one of Shakespeare's weirdest plays. And the legend that is Sir Simon Russell Beale pops by to talk about House of the Dragon, what number to ring if you want to check you've received a knighthood, and tackling Latin love poetry in Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love at Hampstead Theatre.

Can you feel the love tonight? Nancy, Nick and Nick certainly can as they revisit one of London's most successful stage shows of all time, The Lion King - with an unexpected throwback to Nick Curtis's goth era. They also navigate the world of crypto in Beru Tessema's new play Wolves on Road at the Bush Theatre. And Nancy talks to John Heffernan, Aaron Krohn and Howard W. Overshown, who play the Lehman Brothers among 60-odd other parts in Sam Mendes's superb production of The Lehman Trilogy at the Gillian Lynne Theatre.