Michael Billington

Vicky Jones’s production and Isobel Waller-Bridge’s sound design enhance the performance by their essential simplicity and, although the show has been over-hyped, it is still quirky and original. Full Review

Where the play succeeds is in demonstrating Elizabeth’s skill in countering male manoeuvres. Vividly staged, the play reignites one’s interest in Elizabeth without persuading one of the contemporary parallels.' Full Review

The production and the performances are first-rate, and the house rose spontaneously at the end of a long evening. Yet I still wish Ellams had been even more ruthlessly radical in rewriting Chekhov.' Full Review

A daring challenge to the white gaze...Directed by Nadia Latif, this Pulitzer prize-winning play by Jackie Sibblies Drury is definitely one to see – and argue over.' Full Review

for a previous production Everything, in fact, is expertly done but, if I didn’t totally surrender to the show, it is because it lacks the courage to admit that high anxiety is not so easily cured. Full Review

A delightfully tuneful adaptation of the Broadway musical returns the unlucky-in-love record-shop owner to his London roots... The chief pleasure...lies in the music and the production.' Full Review

Cheeky political lesson makes waves...A mix of gig and lecture and running just over an hour, it is driven by a strong anti-imperialist urge and informs even as it entertains.' Full Review

...A riotously busy, squealing farce. It’s enjoyable on its own terms and boasts a fine performance from Stephen Mangan but it lacks the Ealing touch. Full Review

It reaches a terrific climax but the journey there is somewhat laborious...I still found myself wishing that Fugard’s self-flagellating play told us less about Master Harold and more about the “boys”.' Full Review

...for all the play’s illogicalities, Nicholas Hytner’s production is pleasant to watch and boasts two strong performances. Zoë Wanamaker captures to perfection Helen’s bristling anger...' Full Review

Pioneering gay drama still packs a punch... Matthew Needham stars with tremulous assurance as the witty, sharp-tongued drag queen of Harvey Fierstein’s 70s drama.' Full Review

Blanche McIntyre’s hectic production attempts to convey the riotous vice of Ben Jonson’s Jacobean London fair, but falters in translation to modernity.' Full Review

Sober musical take on tale of late-flowering love...With two excellent lead performances at its heart, Trevor Nunn’s production of the musical version of the bestselling love story is focused and honest.' Full Review

for a previous production Occasionally John Cameron’s orchestrations drown the lyrics and one or two ideas, such as guitar-wielding statues, prove there is no lack of corn in Egypt. But this is an ebullient production... Full Review

while Jack Thorne’s new play is avowedly personal, always interesting and beautifully staged by John Tiffany, it left me wishing for a deeper connection between the family foreground and the historical background.' Full Review

John Malkovich works overtime to squeeze depth into David Mamet’s predatory Hollywood tycoon Barney Fein. Full Review

Festive fun, ear-nibbling and high-wire antics infuse Nicholas Hytner’s startling role-reversal production...I would have enjoyed it still more if it released the microscopic beauties of Shakespeare’s text...' Full Review

Roger Allam is magnificent in Edwardian classic...It is a richly detailed performance and Justine Mitchell is equally excellent... If any Edwardian play has stood the test of time, this is unforgettably it.' Full Review

A racist ad, and a bracingly funny corporate satire...Anchuli Felicia King’s Singapore-set drama brilliantly unpicks hypocrisy and the base values of the beauty business.' Full Review

This has been dubbed Ibsen’s darkest and most complex play...Ian Rickson’s breathtaking production does justice to its passion and politics, and boasts stellar performances from Hayley Atwell and Tom Burke. Full Review

for a previous production Sally Field and Bill Pullman deliver a Miller for our times...In an era of fake news and moral uncertainty, this fine production of Arthur Miller’s play rings as true as ever.' Full Review

Humane, funny and perceptive two-hander written by John Godber and performed by him and his wife, Jane Thornton. This is certainly the first play I’ve seen that seeks to explain why so many people voted leave. Full Review

...while I admire the show’s sympathy with the less fortunate, it is caught in a bind...It’s a perfectly likable show, but one that nibbles at the excesses of American capitalism without ever baring its fangs.' Full Review

Richard Eyre’s production, elegantly designed by Fotini Dimou, is spacious, unhurried and text-driven...Penelope Wilton gives a fine turn as an understated heroine in this revival...' Full Review

Covering race, class and educational bias, this is a play guaranteed to make white liberals shift uneasily in their seats. Full Review

This is the Royal Court at its best, giving us an uncompromisingly honest account of multicultural modern Britain...What is especially heartening is Bhatti’s ability to convey the complexity of all her characters.' Full Review

The result is a startlingly vivid account of the civil war and a direct assault on British neocolonialism. I just wish Ellams had been less faithful to Chekhov. Full Review

for a previous production But I found myself gradually warming to this radical deconstruction of Rostand’s heroic comedy and totally captivated by James McAvoy’s performance as the swaggering Gascon. Full Review

An exuberant jaunt to the Riviera...This pitch-perfect revival of Sandy Wilson’s 1953 musical is a positive invitation to dance.' Full Review

for a previous production Travers scholars may still miss the darkness of the books, but for the rest of us the show is an unassailable treat and Eyre’s production has acquired the heart to go with its art. Full Review

Siobhan Redmond is impressive as a tyrannical mother trying to rescue her debt-ridden family in Tinuke Craig’s strangely rootless production Full Review

Penned by the regular actor-writer team of Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, it proves fitfully enjoyable but is overshadowed by works that have ploughed the same theatrical furrow. Full Review

Peter Nichols' classic has rare truth...There are excellent performances from a cast including Toby Stephens and Claire Skinner, in a fine revival of Nichols’ humane play.' Full Review

Caryl Churchill's compelling quartet...The latest from the daring playwright is a fascinating four-part exploration into our appetite for blood-soaked myth.' Full Review

Like the writing, the acting is observant rather than demonstrative....there is exemplary work from the whole cast...In the end, this is that rare thing: a necessary play...' Full Review

Lucy Prebble's Litvinenko drama fascinates...Prebble once again...tells a complex story with great clarity and adopts a variety of techniques... to create a uniquely theatrical spectacle.' Full Review

Although Ziegler raises the question of how to define the point at which sex ceases to be consensual and suggests that campus committees are inadequate to the purpose, her play does little to clarify a burning issue. Full Review

...this may not be vintage Williams, but it survives through its opportunities for actors and the author’s boundless charity. Full Review

David Hare brings modern madness to Ibsen's epic... Hare updates Ibsen’s 1867 dramatic poem with wit and ingenuity, resulting in a sharp satire on contemporary mores.' Full Review

Andrew Scott dazzles in Coward's classic comedy...Scott is richly funny as a peacocking Peter Pan whose theatrical bohemia is threatened by outsiders.' Full Review

for a previous production ...a work of real substance and even if, at three hours length, the drama is slow-burning, it eventually catches fire...Nancy Medina’s production is full of heat and fury and signally well acted.' Full Review

for a previous production ...McKellen treats the audience not as passive spectators but as one half of a double-act in an evening that becomes a form of acted autobiography....At heart McKellen is a missionary with the technique of a vaudevillian. Full Review

Sam Yates directs with due care but, for all its perceptiveness, I felt Lonergan’s play would work even better on the screen. Full Review

Hattie Morahan and Seth Numrich help breathe new life into Williams’ strange and clumsy southern gothic...the power of the acting overcomes the willed poeticism of Williams’s writing.' Full Review

Even Danielle de Niese’s fine voice can’t save ENO’s out-of-sync commercial collaboration – no matter how many times they play The Impossible Dream. Full Review

Maggie Smith shines as Goebbels' secretary,,, Smith returns to the stage in triumph as she relives one woman’s extraordinary experience in Nazi Germany.' Full Review

for a previous production ...much as I love Churchill’s play, a big theatre and an epic cast do it few favours...It’s still a wonderful piece but at times it seems as if we’re watching three separate plays.' Full Review

for a previous production ...there is a visceral power to the performances under Pam MacKinnon’s direction. Francis Guinan is outstanding as Fred... Norris has opened up a controversial subject...' Full Review

Yet the revelation of this excellent production is its reminder that betrayal is never-ending and that the one deceived forever haunts the imagination. Full Review

If one definition of a first-rate Shakespeare production is that it makes one view the play afresh, this pioneering show eminently passes the test. Full Review