THEATRE REVIEWS

Photography Credit: Graeme Braidwood 02 December 2025 I 19:15 I Derby Theatre ⭐⭐⭐ I PR - Invite A Victorian realist drama that features an orphaned workhouse boy groomed into the criminal underworld... Dickens' social protest novel Oliver Twist isn't your average Christmas show! Diverting from Lionel Bart's musical Oliver! , Derby Theatre reimagines the novel combining carols, folk song and original music with an actor-muso company of performers. We might question the r

Photography Credit: Marc Brenner 27 November 2025 I 19:00 I Curve Theatre, Leicester ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I PR - Invite Succeeding last year's Christmas spectacular My Fair Lady , the Curve Theatre's '25/26 winter warmer comes in the form of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sound Of Music. Nikolai Foster's direction is earnest and warm in its musical familiarity while acknowledging the impending unease of the Nazi regime. A bleak overcast may not suit a merry family outing, yet the product

17 November 2025 I 19:30 I Buxton Opera House ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I PR - Invite Infamous for its rotating cast of celebrities, Matthew Dunster & Gabriel Vega Weissman's sell-out production 2:22 A Ghost Story arrives to haunt the Buxton Opera House this week. With a compelling debate on the psychology of the supernatural, dialogue is the foundation to this thriller's success, opposed to special effects. Environmentally similar to The Weir (McPherson), the concept of a comfortable soci

11 November 2025 I 19:30 I Theatre Royal, Nottingham ⭐⭐ I PR - Invite With ever-increasing demand for the jukebox musical, Here & Now follows in the footsteps of Mamma Mia and more recently Get Down Tonight to pump theatres across the UK with energetic, feel-good pop tunes. As platinum-selling band Steps base tonight's score, Rachel Kavanaugh's production imagines the Better Best Bargains supermarket and its workers, soon threatened with closure. What follows is a spi

04 November 2025 I 19:30 I Royal & Derngate, Northampton ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I PR - Invite Death on the Nile sails into Northampton's Royal & Derngate this week in a sublime rendition of Agatha Christie's great mystery. From intricate costuming to the moral ambivalence of characters, this performance is morbidly satisfying as the truth unravels. This production opens with brief narration from our detective Poirot, played by Mark Hadfield. He is a fascinating figure as he sometimes si