Theatremonkey

26 November 2025

(seen at the afternoon performance on 25th November 2025) In 1985 Sheffield, Ros Wollen, Annette Williams and Roz Wall qualified as car mechanics. With both sexism and mass unemployment against them, they opened Gwenda’s Garage, a car repair workshop named for racing driver Gwenda Stewart. 40 years on, Val Regan, Nicky Hallett and Sheffield Theatres […]

Read more »

20 November 2025

(seen at the performance on 19th November 2025) Even with the presence of a few overseas acts, this smaller-than-usual scale show felt more British than ever. Compere Jason Manford is his usual affable self, his “my children are posh” routine connecting with the audience at the start. Later, his “Tribute to Pantomime” sequence had the […]

Read more »

17 November 2025

(seen at the performance on 16th November 2025) Now firmly in the monkey diary as a pre-holiday season treat, this live event recorded for radio continues to get even better each year. A stellar mix of favourite artistes singing a mixture of their own hits and Christmas songs played live by an excellent 11-piece on-stage […]

Read more »

15 November 2025

(seen at the afternoon performance on 15th November 2025) While “Wicked” turned out brilliantly, there is a long line of musicals about witches that have proven disastrous. “Which Witch” and “The Witches of Eastwick” to name but two, and for those who remember, “Into The Woods” went unrecognised on its first London outing as well. […]

Read more »

13 November 2025

(seen at the afternoon preview performance on 8th November 2025) This one has been many years arriving. Back in 1999, before Collins, Japanese journalist Koushun Takami wrote “Battle Royale.” A school bus is hijacked by the authorities. The children have remote-control explosive devices put around their necks, and are forced to fight to the death […]

Read more »

12 November 2025

(seen at the performance on 11th November 2025) Six months after her triumphant London Palladium show, Samantha Barks is off on a tour of UK Cathedrals. By popular demand, she kicks off with a tryout night at the Adelphi Theatre. To first tick something off the list: the monkey did the pre-show “meet and greet,” […]

Read more »

7 November 2025

(seen at the afternoon performance on 6th November 2025) Those of a certain age will remember that 7pm pre-“Coronation Street” slot on ITV. It was used for bright but witless sitcoms like “Tripper’s Day,” starring Leonard Rossiter – managing a hapless cartoon of a supermarket manager and its oddly behaving staff. If you added dance […]

Read more »

5 November 2025

(seen at the afternoon performance on 5th November 2025) Alan Hollinghurst’s novel on which this play is based passed the monkey by. The 1980s horrific loss of (mostly) young, gay men to A.I.D.S, and the callous manner in which they were treated by society, did not. From Jack Holden’s adaptation, it is clear why the […]

Read more »

31 October 2025

(seen at the afternoon performance on 30th October 2025) In 2015, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre produced a breathtaking “Peter Pan” set in World War One. Full of puppets and surprises, Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel created something so good that it was revived in 2018 to equal acclaim. That year also saw Mischief Theatre […]

Read more »

30 October 2025

(seen at the performance on 29th October 2025) Pantomime season arrives early this year at the Royal Opera House, complete with Oscar the pony – an on-stage feat the monkey hasn’t seen since “Cinderella” at the New Wimbledon Theatre in 2014. Beautifully behaved – “Basil the Brush,” who follows him with a bucket – not […]

Read more »