The London Theatre Review

We’re back very soon, and kicking off our new season LIVE at the Chelsea Arts Festival.Join Nancy and the Nicks at the Saatchi Gallery on 19 September for the London Theatre Review LIVE.We’ll be reviewing two of the season’s biggest openings: the new musical adaptation of Thelma & Louise at the Young Vic, and Man to Man at the Royal Court, with Tilda Swinton returning to the role she first played 30 years ago.Plus, we’ll be joined by two very special guests: Indhu Rubasingham, Artistic Director of the National Theatre, and Samuel Barnett, ahead of his return to Pride the Musical at the Bridge Theatre.Come and be part of the live audience on 19 September, 12.15pm, Saatchi Gallery. Tickets available now at chelseaartsfestival.com.

Surprise! We told you it wouldn't be long before another episode dropped into your feeds, and here it is – a special bonus pod from a busy bar in the centre of Edinburgh, where Nancy and producer Tim grab 20 minutes of chat time before plunging back into the frenzy of a city filled with 4,000 Fringe shows, alongside the Edinburgh International Festival, the art festival, the film festival, the book festival and the TV festival...Tim talks us through some of the best things he's seen so far, including clowns and singing dogs, and what he's looking forward to. And Nancy chats to one of the most influential theatre producers in the world, Francesca Moody, who brought Fleabag and Baby Reindeer to Edinburgh before nurturing them to become global success stories. She tells Nancy about the changing nature of the festival, the ethos behind her brilliant new venue Shedinburgh, and how she spots a hit. Don't forget you can still get tickets to our live show on 19th September at chelseaartsfestival.com! And follow us on Instagram for all the latest LTR news @thelondontheatrereview.

It's the series six musical finale, and the team go out with a bang -- well, a damp squib and then a bang. First up, Nick, Nick and Tim review Trainspotting the Musical at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Irvine Welsh's adaptation of his own epoch-defining novel, now given the West End musical treatment...and possibly one of the most misconceived shows any of them have seen in a very long time. Then it's across town to the Menier Chocolate Factory for Midnight at the Never Get, starring Tony Award winner Ben Platt, and the verdict couldn't be more different.Nick Curtis also speaks to the brilliant Phelim McDermott, Olivier Award-winning director of My Neighbour Totoro, co-founder of Improbable, whose new show Tao of Glass is a love letter to Philip Glass and to theatre itself. And Natalie Kassanga answers our Five Questions ahead of the Jonathan Larson Project at Southwark Playhouse. Now we're on a break! The London Theatre Review will return in September for our live show at the Chelsea Arts Festival. But there may be a bit of surprise podding before then...Follow us on Instagram and watch us on YouTube @thelondontheatrereview.

This week Nick Clark and producer Tim are holding the fort while Nancy and other Nick are away, but to be fair to them they managed to bag some pretty great interviews before they disappeared...First up, Nick Curtis sat down with Aaron Sorkin — yes, the extraordinary writer of The West Wing, A Few Good Men, The Social Network, The Newsroom — ahead of his To Kill a Mockingbird adaptation returning to the West End. They talk about why his first draft was really bad, and whether the man who gave us Jed Bartlet's America still believes in it. Tim reviews The Oresteia at the Bridge Theatre, Simon Stone's long, blood-smeared, gleefully melodramatic update of the Greek tragic trilogy, set inside a glass box with David Morrissey, Mary-Louise Parker (also of West Wing fame!) and a scene-stealing Rosie Sheehy. Plus Nancy talks to John Studzinski about 25 years of the very influential and very necessary Genesis Foundation, the organisation that supported Ava Pickett in writing 1536, among many other early career artists and musicians...he also reveals what Katharine Hepburn told him about stage fright. Follow us on Instagram and watch us on YouTube @thelondontheatrereview.

This week Nick, Nick and producer Tim (filling in for Nancy who's on the other side of the Atlantic) sort the divine from the infernal in London theatre, starting with the resurrection of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar at the London Palladium, starring Eurovision runner-up Sam Ryder alongside Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family) as the first in a roster of celebrity Herods. Then it's over to the Royal Court for Archduke, Rajiv Joseph's tragicomic fever dream about the teenage assassins who accidentally started the First World War. Grace Mouat, alumna of Six the Musical and currently appearing in Death Note at the Barbican, answers our five questions including an off-tune on-stage mishap.And Nick Curtis sits down with the legendary Harry Shearer - best known for his 23-odd voices in the Simpsons and for playing Derek Smalls in This Is Spinal Tap - alongside veteran sitcom writer Tom Leopold of Cheers and Seinfeld fame to talk about their new comedy musical Here Comes J. Edgar. There may be an appearance from C Montgomery Burns himself... Follow us on Instagram and watch us on YouTube @thelondontheatrereview.

This week Nick, Nick and Nancy head to the National Theatre's Dorfman for Pride, Steven Beresford and Matthew Warchus's musical adaptation of the beloved 2014 film about the unlikely alliance between gay activists and Welsh miners during the 1984 strike. Then it's off to the Noël Coward for the RSC's transfer of Cyrano de Bergerac, with Adrian Lester in glorious form and Susannah Fielding turning Roxanne into something the gang have never seen before - hear her interview in episode three of this season. Nick Curtis talks to Anna Zavelson, the 22-year-old Texan who had never left North America before landing the role of Christine in Phantom of the Opera at His Majesty's Theatre. And Henry Lewis from Mischief Theatre answers our Five Questions ahead of The Comedy About Spies returning to the West End. Follow us on Instagram and watch us on YouTube @thelondontheatrereview.

For this special bonus episode of the pod, Nancy went to talk to writer/performer Jordan Luke Gage and director Paul Foster about the new musical Redcliffe running at Southwark Playhouse. Jordan has spent the last three years writing the show, and he also stars in it - musical theatre fans will have seen his amazing performances in Bonnie and Clyde, Heathers, &Juliet and Titanique.Set against the backdrop of 18th Century England, the musical is based on the true story of William Critchard and Richard Arnold who met in Redcliffe, Bristol. It's an epic, funny and moving tale of forbidden love during the persecution people faced for hundreds of years.Plus you can hear Jordan sing one of the beautiful songs from the show, Void of Love.You can find out more about the show on Instagram @redcliffemusical and find us @thelondontheatrereview.

This week is French translation week as Nick, Nancy and Tim took refuge in the blissful air conditioning of London's theatres to review The Misanthrope at the National — Martin Crimp's rhyming-couplet update of the Molière play with Sandra Oh on ferocious form — and The Truth at the Apollo, Florian Zeller's gleefully French sex comedy starring Stephen Mangan, Janie Dee, Ardal O'Hanlan and Sarah Hadland. Plus Nick spoke to playwright Rajiv Joseph about Archduke at the Royal Court and working with Robin Williams. And Desmonda Cathabel answered our five questions ahead of playing Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar. Follow us on Instagram and watch us on YouTube @thelondontheatrereview.

We have a pretty special guest interview this week: somehow we got Willem Dafoe on the phone from Venice, where he's now in his second year as artistic director of the Biennale Theatre Festival. Long before Spider-Man villains and Wes Anderson ensembles, Dafoe was a downtown New York theatre kid, spending four decades with the experimental Wooster Group, and he is as brilliant on the subject of live performance as you'd hope. He also tells Nick Curtis why he's 'very turned on right now'...In reviews, the Old Vic's all-female Glengarry Glen Ross gives us plenty to chew over — is gender-swapping David Mamet's toxic-masculinity classic illuminating or just a clever exercise? — while A Fine Idea at the Arcola tackles the murky world of international aid with righteous research.The delightful and ridiculously versatile Paul Chahidi talks about playing opposite Sandra Oh in Martin Crimp's reimagined The Misanthrope at the National.And we dig into a stacked week of theatre news: a new James Graham play about Keynes (John Maynard, not Milton), the Shaftesbury Theatre's renaming in honour of Judi Dench, and Ian McKellen's much-anticipated return to the stage at The Yard.Talk to us on Insta and watch us on YouTube @thelondontheatrereview.