All stories by Libby Purves on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

ARCADIA Theatre Royal, Brighton and touring by Libby Purves

STOPPARD'S MASTERWORK ON THE ROAD AGAIN It's a play of dazzling ideas, scientific and philosophical: Tom Stoppard at his most provocative. In 1993 the NT production won an Olivier; for some …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:51PM[SHARE]

DIARY OF A NOBODY King's Head N1 by Libby Purves

THE POOTERS RIDE AGAIN, PUB STYLE I had some misgivings, since I know the 1892 book by George and Weedon Grossmithalmost by heart: born in an age whose Punch-ish humour does not always chime…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:54PM[SHARE]
Monday, February 2, 2015

ANYTHING GOES New Wimbledon theatre SW19 and touring by Libby Purves

A SHIPLOAD OF DELIGHT What can I say? Daniel Evans' production is delicious, it's de-lovely, a de-lirious succession of treats. There is always a fizzing joyful absurdity about Cole Porter's…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:55PM[SHARE]
Friday, January 30, 2015

MY NIGHT WITH REG Apollo, WC1 by Libby Purves

REMEMBERING REG…A REVIEW WORTH A  REMIX     Thought I should see how it feels in a bigger theatre, after writing at the Donmar that Kevin Elyot's 1994 play is "pretty much…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:04AM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 29, 2015

THE RULING CLASS Trafalgar Studios, SW1 by Libby Purves

OH FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE…   Sometimes in the reviewing business there's an almost irresoluble conflict between detached appreciation and wincing personal indifference: a temptat…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:16AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 28, 2015

THE HARD PROBLEM Dorfman, NT SE1 by Libby Purves

SIR TOM STOPPARD'S NEW PLAY. WOW.   Is there more to human beings than organic goo? Can brain imaging explain why we judge, reason, imagine, generate metaphor and language? That is the …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:02PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 27, 2015

DARA Lyttelton, SE1 by Libby Purves

THE MUGHAL EMPIRE:  MURDER, FAITH AND FAMILY     OK, I admit it, I feared "Important and Worthy". Or, possibly, important-worthy-yet-picturesque. A reasonable, if ungenerous fear,…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:25PM[SHARE]
Monday, January 26, 2015

TAKEN AT MIDNIGHT Theatre Royal, Haymarket SW1 by Libby Purves

A TERROR AND A TRIBUTE    "May the Master of Mercy shelter them in the shadow of his wings". A Holocaust prayer is on a slip in the programme for this eve of the Auschwitz liberation…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:46PM[SHARE]
Saturday, January 24, 2015

Alice in Wonderland: 150 years on, we still adore her marvellous adventure by Libby Purves

Damon Albarn's musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's story, Wonder.land, will remind us that its fantasy is genuinely timeless, writes Libby Purves

SOURCE: The Telegraph at 05:00PM[SHARE]
Friday, January 23, 2015

BAD JEWS St James' Theatre, SW1 by Libby Purves

BRAVE, BARNSTORMING AND CERTAINLY NOT BAD     With Holocaust Memorial day imminent, the Paris murders fresh in mind and anti-Semitism rising across Europe, can you really put on a …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:42PM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 22, 2015

OPPENHEIMER Swan , Stratford-upon-Avon by Libby Purves

THE BIRTH OF THE BOMB     This is what the RSC is for. Not mere Bardolatry, but to bring new work illuminated by the craft, humanity and wisdom which comes to those steeped in Shak…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:55PM[SHARE]

RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANET Theatre Royal Brighton & touring by Libby Purves

BLAST OFF INTO THE PAST…     Repolarize the rockanthemizer! Shakespearianize the iamb-ometer, fasten your retrocamp ironido-nebulized harness and prepare to be utterly weight…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:02AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 20, 2015

THE CHANGELING Wanamaker at Shakespeare's Globe, SE1 by Libby Purves

MURDER IN THE DARK      The gorgeous giltwood brooding atmosphere of the new Wanamaker playhouse has seen comedy in its candlelight – the bonkers Knight of the Burning Pes…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:04PM[SHARE]
Monday, January 19, 2015

ISLANDS Bush Theatre, W12 by Libby Purves

A CULPABLE, CLOWNISH WASTE OF DAVOS WEEK This week sees the World Economic Forum in Davos. Today Oxfam said that 1% of the world's people own nearly half its wealth. Tax havens – many …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:10PM[SHARE]
Friday, January 16, 2015

THE RAILWAY CHILDREN King's Cross Station theatre N1 by Libby Purves

IN WHICH YOUR REVIEWER CRACKS UP ENTIRELY     Tears are strange. They can fill the eye when witnessing not horror or sadness, but a sudden kindness. It is a kind of happy sorrow: m…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:08AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 14, 2015

BAT BOY " THE MUSICAL Southwark Playhouse, SE1 by Libby Purves

AND YOU THOUGHT SPIDERMAN WAS CREEPY…     Imagine a rock-opera mashup of Frankenstein, Pygmalion and Dracula, hijacked by Marvel Comics and dressed up with cartoonish 1950s small…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:22PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 13, 2015

A SERIES OF INCREASINGLY IMPOSSIBLE ACTS Tricycle, Kilburn by Libby Purves

TEENAGE KICKS AND SORROWS    In the most genuinely engaging sequences of this odd improv-based show, two of the ten-strong cast get a mat out and wrestle, struggling to rip off one a…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:06PM[SHARE]
Monday, January 12, 2015

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN Playhouse, SW1 by Libby Purves

A FABULOUS FANDANGO OF FEMALE FURY…   Sing to the lunatic moon: Hispanic hysteria, hilarity, tangled lives, 48 hours of Madrid madness. I had my doubts about this one, as did many…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:56PM[SHARE]
Friday, January 9, 2015

DONKEY HEART Trafalgar Studios 2, SW1 by Libby Purves

SCARS OF THE SOVIET IN A MOSCOW HOME      There's a lovely, very Russian moment in Moses Raine's play (in from the Old Red Lion and directed by his sister Nina, author of Tig…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:56PM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 8, 2015

IVY AND JOAN Jermyn St Theatre, SW1 by Libby Purves

DROWNING NOT WAVING – TWO WOMEN ADRIFT     Lancashire Ivy is waiting for a bus to Manchester, refined Joan for a taxi to a psychiatric clinic. Neither is happy, and nor are t…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:44PM[SHARE]
Saturday, December 27, 2014

Theatre can make the dead walk before you by Libby Purves

The First World War centenary has been a fine year for the stage, which breathed life into a shattered generation, writes Libby Purves

SOURCE: The Telegraph at 02:35PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, December 16, 2014

CITY OF ANGELS Donmar, WC1 by Libby Purves

  Shabba-dabba-doo-wop! What a glorious evening. Grownup, dryly hilarious, sublimely jazzy. Josie Rourke's Donmar walks away with the palm for the season's top show. Or perhaps sashays …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:39PM[SHARE]
Monday, December 15, 2014

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE Almeida, N1 by Libby Purves

THE MERCHANT OF VEGAS RIDES AGAIN    Three years ago Rupert Goold reimagined Venice for the RSC, taking 'casino capitalism' literally, setting it amid decadent gilt arches and roulet…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:52PM[SHARE]

POTTED SHERLOCK Vaudeville, WC2 by Libby Purves

SUPERBLY SILLY BUT FAR FROM ELEMENTARY     In a beguiling 221b Baker Street set, referencing clockwork and tyrannized over by a brassbound Victorian video-countdown, Watson is talk…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:08AM[SHARE]
Sunday, December 14, 2014

BARBARA NICE'S CHRISTMAS CRACKER touring by Libby Purves

MINCE PIES AND MIDLANDS MERRIMENT     I caught this in its heartland, at the MAC in Birmingham. Half of the audience were clearly experienced followers of Janice Connolly's creatio…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:00PM[SHARE]
Friday, December 12, 2014

GOLEM Young Vic SE1 by Libby Purves

ANIMATED, ANIMATING, ADMIRABLE, ADORABLE        Let's be honest. It's nearly Christmas. You could flinch at the thought of staggering in after a day of guilty shopping to fac…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:42PM[SHARE]
Thursday, December 11, 2014

THE FROZEN SCREAM Wales Millennium Centre THIS IS NOT A REVIEW by Libby Purves

This is not a review, because the show is not offered for review until its transfer to Birmingham in January. I went because I had heard about its development. And hell, Rula Lenska is a sec…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:07PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, December 10, 2014

TREASURE ISLAND Olivier, SE1 by Libby Purves

YO HO HO –  PIRATES AND PARROTS ON A DEAD MAN’S CHEST The first thing to say is that the sets are extraordinary: magnificent, nightmarish, romantic. Lizzie Clachan makes drama…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:17PM[SHARE]

NOEL COWARD'S CHRISTMAS SPIRITS St James Theatre SE1 by Libby Purves

NOEL COWARD'S CHRISTMAS SPIRITS St James Theatre SE1 "I'll sing of home and love and work, Of Magna Carta and Dunkirk And Christmas bells and charity and pride…"     Who is this,…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:55PM[SHARE]

THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon by Libby Purves

CHRISTMAS 1914:  A TRIBUTE, A MEMORY, MANY QUESTIONS   That supermarket ad gives a potted version of the 1914 Christmas ceasefire in no-man's-land: British soldier gets parcel with c…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:34AM[SHARE]
Thursday, December 4, 2014

VISITORS BUSH THEATRE, W12 by Libby Purves

SO LIFE GOES BY, WITH MELANCHOLY BEAUTY…   Is there anything more healing, more reassuring of human kinship than the sound of an audience sighing together, murmurously anxious, fo…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 11:11AM[SHARE]

All that Chat