The Month in Theatre: Theatre Bee's Top Picks this Winter
As the Bee buzzes through London's theatre scene, it's time to share the most buzz-worthy plays and musicals on the horizon. These picks...
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Theatre Bee Reviews
Reflections on the latest plays and musicals at the West End, Off West End and fringe.
Harshini Shanker
- Oct 23
- 2 min
Review of The Boy at Soho Theatre - Just beautiful
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯 A Man, a Boy, and a Woman grapple with the abyss of loss. Themes of migration, identity, and the quest to belong come...
Harshini Shanker
- Jun 22
- 2 min
Review of The Return of Benjamin Lay at Finborough Theatre - Povinelli triumphs as Lay
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 Staged at the distinguished Finborough Theatre in London, The Return of Benjamin Lay made its debut last week. Despite the...
Theatre Bee
- Jun 21
- 2 min
Review - these words that’ll linger like ghosts till the day i drop down dead - Pleasance Theatre
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯 From the very first moments, these words that’ll linger like ghosts till the day I drop down dead presents itself as a...
Theatre Bee
- Jun 21
- 2 min
Review of Blueprints at Pleasance - Evocative, poignant and so pertinent for the AI age
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 A heartrending exploration of the age-old question, "what if we could predict our children's future?", the play Blueprints...
Theatre Bee
- Jun 12
- 2 min
Review of Snakehead at The Hope Theatre - Predictable yet powerfully poignant
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 Aptly titled, "Snakehead" weaves a cautionary tale of naivety and exploitation set against an original musical backdrop. The...
Theatre Bee
- May 23
- 4 min
Review of Dismissed at Soho Theatre - A bold, gripping moral quandary for modern times
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯 Highly gripping and thought-provoking, Dismissed is a play without a single dull moment An idealistic teacher, Ashley is...
Theatre Bee
- May 17
- 3 min
Review of Happy Birthday Sunita (on tour) - Funny and chaotic play about a funny and chaotic family
Rated 🍯 🍯 🍯 It's Sunita's birthday and it doesn't look like a happy one The Johals (mom, son, daughter-in-law, and mysterious surprise...
Theatre Bee
- May 3
- 2 min
Review of I Love You, Now What? at Pleasance Theatre - Absolutely riveting
Rated 🍯 🍯 🍯 🍯 I Love You, Now What? at Pleasance Theatre is a powerful and poignant play that explores the theme of grief with...
Theatre Bee
- Apr 25
- 3 min
Oklahoma at Wyndham's Theatre - Powerful voices and subtle sensuality uplift an otherwise bland show
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 Oklahoma! the musical playing at Wyndham's theatre is a bold and innovative take on the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein...
Theatre Bee
- Apr 20
- 2 min
Shewolves at Greenwich Theatre - A delightful, endearing tale of puerile innocence
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 Shewolves at Greenwich Theatre (now on tour around the UK -- please visit Shewolves Productions' official site for dates and...
Theatre Bee
- Apr 19
- 3 min
Review of Sugarcoat at Southwark Playhouse Borough - Bold, progressive, but lacks depth
Rated 🍯🍯 Sugarcoat is an amusing musical, but the bee was left wanting when it came to specifics The show tries to portray new and...
Theatre Bee
- Mar 23
- 3 min
Review of The Lehman Trilogy at the Gillian Lynne Theatre - Impressive detail but tedious at times
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 An intricately detailed epic on the Lehman brothers, The Lehman Trilogy has been a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic...
Theatre Bee
- Mar 22
- 2 min
Review of Accidental Death of an Anarchist at Lyric Hammersmith - An absolute hoot
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯🍯 What a riot! Absolute anarchy on stage! With not even one dull second in the 95 minute run, the show barely gives its...
Theatre Bee
- Mar 21
- 3 min
Review of Savage Heart at The Pleasance - A masterful blend of realism and symbolism
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯 Savage Heart is an ambitious and daring piece of theatre that tackles important issues with sensitivity and courage. It is...
Theatre Bee
- Mar 21
- 3 min
Review of The Great British Bakeoff Musical at Noël Coward Theatre - A half-baked hotchpotch
Rated 🍯🍯 It is ironic that a musical tribute to a TV series about decadent desserts and sweet treats should turn out to be so tasteless...
Theatre Bee
- Mar 11
- 4 min
The month in theatre | What to watch this spring in London
Theatre Bee's watchlist for the season Feeling spoilt for choice? With an abundance of plays and musicals to choose from, you'll never be...
Theatre Bee
- Mar 10
- 5 min
Review of Brilliant Jerks at Southwark Playhouse - Aptly chronicles delusional Silicon Valley jerks
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯 A young entrepreneur starts an app that will become a multi-billion dollar ride-hailing firm in under a decade, with...
Theatre Bee
- Mar 10
- 2 min
Review of Dawn Again at King's Head Theatre - A rib-tickling piece
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯 If you find awkward, bungling characters in preposterous situations funny, Dawn Again will have you roaring with laughter....
Harshini Shanker
- Feb 5
- 3 min
Review of The Unfriend at Criterion Theatre - Stellar cast performances do not rescue banal writing
Rated 🍯🍯 On a cruise holiday, an English couple — Peter and Debra — meets an annoyingly talkative middle-aged American woman called...
Harshini Shanker
- Feb 3
- 4 min
The month in theatre | What to watch this February in London
Theatre productions the bee is most excited to watch this February, and the cheapest ways to get tickets If you're wondering what to...
Harshini Shanker
- Jan 31
- 3 min
Review of We Didn't Come to Hell for the Croissants at Riverside Studios - Delightfully subversive
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 When the bee stumbled upon ‘We didn’t come to hell for the croissants’, a wonderful one-woman play at Riverside Studios, it...
Harshini Shanker
- Jan 19
- 4 min
Review of Dare You Say Please at King's Head Theatre - An intricately layered mindbender
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯 In a dystopian society, you live freely until you turn 25. Then, you're forced into a room with a fellow 25-year old and...
Harshini Shanker
- Jan 16
- 3 min
Review of Hex at the National Theatre - Lisa Lambe delivers an outstanding performance
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯 Three things stand out in the National Theatre's production of Hex, the acclaimed adaptation of the classic fairytale,...
Harshini Shanker
- Jan 10
- 4 min
Review of Allegiance at Charing Cross Theatre - Bombastic musical does little justice to its cause
Rated 🍯🍯 "A Jap's a Jap" In the aftermath of Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, fearing a...
Harshini Shanker
- Jan 9
- 3 min
The month in theatre | What to watch this January in London
Are you looking for something to watch at the theatre in London this month? Theatre Bee is catching these shows this January
Harshini Shanker
- Oct 20, 2022
- 4 min
Review of The Moors at The Hope Theatre - Brilliant, terrifying, unforgettable
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯 Jen Silverman’s The Moors is among the vanguard of spooky plays that have hit London’s theatres for Halloween season. Just...
Harshini Shanker
- Oct 19, 2022
- 4 min
Review of The Canterville Ghost at Southwark Playhouse - Spooktacularly funny
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 What's not to love about a play within a play within a play? The charming cast of the latest Southwark Playhouse production...
Harshini Shanker
- Oct 14, 2022
- 3 min
Review of Eureka Day at The Old Vic - Let's all take a minute, step back and breathe before judging
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 What just happened?! Depending on how synced up you are with the whole liberal / woke / anti-woke / progressive /...
Harshini Shanker
- Oct 14, 2022
- 5 min
Review of Glitterball at Riverside Studios - What a wonderful surprise
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯 What a pleasant surprise Glitterball turned out to be! The teasers and promotions (and the name of the play) threw the bee...
Harshini Shanker
- Jul 21, 2022
- 6 min
Review of Park Theatre's The End of the Night - Ben Brown's script is intense and gripping
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯 Towards the end of Hitler's reign, one of the most powerful chesspieces of the oppressive and barbaric Nazi war machine...
Harshini Shanker
- Jul 15, 2022
- 5 min
Review of Julius Caesar at Shakespeare's Globe - A fun experiment with gender
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 The play opens with Brutus inspecting the statue of Caesar — the only thing to adorn the stage other than a purple carpet...
Harshini Shanker
- Jul 10, 2022
- 4 min
Review of Oklahoma! at The Young Vic - Reinvention ruins original for uninitiated
Rated 🍯🍯 It is impossible to enjoy the Young Vic’s revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Oklahoma! if one has not been exposed...
Harshini Shanker
- Jul 1, 2022
- 2 min
Review of Britannicus at Lyric Hammersmith - An appealing modern take on a beloved classic
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 It is easy to go wrong with Jean Racine’s Britannicus. First, it is hard to design a set that’s redolent of ancient Rome, a...
Harshini Shanker
- Jul 1, 2022
- 3 min
Review of Jitney at The Old Vic - Strikingly evocative, absolutely unmissable
Irresistibly rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯🍯 August Wilson’s Jitney at The Old Vic, masterfully directed by Tinuke Craig, is a bold and beautifully...
Harshini Shanker
- Jun 26, 2022
- 7 min
Review of That Is Not Who I Am - Royal Court shenanigans
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯 Before you read, the bee recommends that if you haven't watched the show yet but plan to, then stop right here! Go in with...
Harshini Shanker
- Jun 25, 2022
- 4 min
Review of The Glass Menagerie: A little too gentle to be evocative
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 Set in St. Louis in 1937, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie is called a memory play, ostensibly because all its action...
Harshini Shanker
- Jun 23, 2022
- 5 min
Review - A Doll’s House Part 2 - Lacks novelty and depth
Rated 🍯🍯 If the bee had to pick its least favourite play among everything it has ever watched in London, sorry folks, but this one...
Harshini Shanker
- Jun 18, 2022
- 7 min
Review - 13 by Mike Bartlett - Thought-provoking despite some pointless elements
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 Say we are in the early twentieth century, and you spot a ten-year old Hitler playing in your yard. You have the gift of...
Harshini Shanker
- Jun 12, 2022
- 7 min
Review - The Gunpowder Plot - Fails to rouse despite high production value
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 After the relentless hounding of Catholics in 16th century England under Elizabeth I who reigned for 45 years... ...her...
Harshini Shanker
- Jun 11, 2022
- 9 min
Review - To Kill A Mockingbird - Reflections on justice vs the right thing
1 June 2022. Gielgud Theatre. Rating: 🍯🍯🍯🍯🍯 Spoiler warning. This piece is not so much a review of the production (which is...
Harshini Shanker
- Jun 2, 2022
- 4 min
Review - 2:22 A Ghost Story - Spooky enough but I can't stop scratching my head
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 The bee went to 2:22 A Ghost Story with its lovely human friend who noticed we were sitting in the same row as the lovely...
Harshini Shanker
- Jun 2, 2022
- 5 min
Review of Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, Playhouse Theatre - Reflections
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 The bee spent many days trying to piece together what felt like a disjointed sequence of scenes and songs in this musical...
Harshini Shanker
- May 28, 2022
- 7 min
Review - House of Shades - Absolutely hair-raising
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯 This is not so much a review as a reflection about the big questions explored in this play. Spoilers abound. The...
Harshini Shanker
- May 27, 2022
- 6 min
Review - The Father and the Assassin - Eerily topical but lacks ambition
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 Growing up in India in the 90s, I was conditioned to see Mahatma Gandhi as a venerated saint, the great freedom fighter who...
Harshini Shanker
- May 19, 2022
- 2 min
Review - Back to the Future - Olivier award well-deserved
Irresistibly rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯🍯 An absolutely electrifying show. The Bee was full of child-like wonder at how immersive it was. As you can...
Harshini Shanker
- May 19, 2022
- 3 min
Review - My Fair Lady - A feel-good but forgettable musical
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 Watching a musical from the last row of a theatre as large as the London Coliseum (meant for the opera, really, and too big...
Harshini Shanker
- May 19, 2022
- 2 min
Review - Six - Garish and lacks substance
Rated 🍯🍯🍯 A rather odd show, in Theatre Bee’s humble opinion. The costumes are garish, outlandish, over the top, even comical, not to...
Harshini Shanker
- May 18, 2022
- 3 min
Review - Straight Line Crazy - Ralph Fiennes kept me hooked
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯🍯 The Bee always wanted to go and watch Ralph Fiennes on stage and would have gone sooner if it had been able to get...
Harshini Shanker
- May 17, 2022
- 3 min
Review - Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Pure magic on stage!
Rated 🍯🍯🍯🍯🍯 This was of the most memorable and joyous theatre experiences the Bee has ever had! (Creatives spoiler). Flawless...
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