Theatre reviews for you, by you. If you would like to review for us,
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Writer: Arthur Laurents Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim Music: Leonard Bernstein Director: Ben Hunt Reviewer: Michael Hunter The Public Reviews Rating: We all know the premise of ‘West Side Story’ – Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ with guns, the odd laugh and a cracking soundtrack. This time it is the turn of Newcastle’s Nice Swan Theatre Company to add their contemporary [...]

Nice Swan Theatre Company was established in 2009 as a way of providing a stepping stone from amateur to professional theatre productions for talented under-25-year-olds in the North East. They have earned themselves a reputation for staging the highest-quality productions and continue to grow and evolve. STEVE BURBRIDGE found out more from Jamie Gray, the [...]

Music: Duncan Sheik Book & Lyrics: Steven Sater Director: Pete Gallagher Reviewer: Malcolm Wallace The Public Reviews Rating: Based on the controversial 1891 German play of the same name by Frank Wedekind, new rock musical Spring Awakening was showered with awards during its two year Broadway run and won excellent reviews at its West End premiere in 2010. [...]

When times are tough, sometimes there’s nothing for it but to bring out the show tunes. Nothing raises the spirits quite like a good musical and there’s a toe-tapping show out there for every taste. We take a look at some of the must-see musicals up and down the country this week, from the brand [...]

In the loud, boisterous world of theatre, the smaller projects often don’t get a look in. But away from the glitz of the West End and the headline-grabbing producing houses, there’s a vibrant fringe world. There’s the pub theatre showcasing international plays, the small venue run on love – and not much else, the director who isn’t in it [...]

Book & Lyrics: Steven Sater Based on the play by: Frank Wedekind Director: Ben Hunt Reviewers: Steve Burbridge The Public Reviews Rating: ‘Spring Awakening’ is a vibrant and poignant story, set in the late nineteenth century, about a brilliant young student, Melchior (Dylan Stafford), his troubled friend Moritz (Thomas Whalley), and Wendla (Bethany Walker), a beautiful teenage girl [...]

By Catherine Love This Saturday, by pure chance, I picked up The Independent. Pure chance because I usually read The Times at the weekend, more out of habit than anything else, and the only reason I was flicking through the pages of The Independent was because the local shop had sold out of my newspaper [...]

Original Book by: Erich Segal Music: Howard Goodall Book and Lyrics: Stephan Clark Director: Rachel Kavanaugh Reviewer: Jim Nicholson The Public Reviews Rating: I certainly do not give five star ratings to shows lightly, in actual fact, on this site, this is my first ever. I have seen literally hundreds of shows over the years, including every major [...]