News
November
Several spooky productions were reviewed in October, and these will appear in the latest issue to be published on the 5th. One such production is 'The Monkey's Paw' seen at the Hope Theatre in London. On the other hand, there is also 'Wendy & Peter Pan ' in a retelling by Ella Hickson at the Barbican, although that has dark touches. There are some powerful plays in the mix too, with 'Don't Look Now' at The New Wolsey in Ipswich, 'The Unbelievers' at the Royal Court in London and 'Eureka Day' at the Playhouse in Nottingham.
This month I saw the NT live cinema screening of Inter Alia by Suzie Miller, which was superb. I agree with a lot of the reviews, in that it was very fast paced, but it was an 'absolute banger' as Robert Gore-Langton said in his Mail on Sunday review.
I have also been adding more backlog to add to the search engine. 1990 is now fully searchable and I was interested to read in issue 5 about the opening of the West Yorkshire Playhouse with a production of 'Wild Oats' by John O'Keeffe. At a cost of £13 million it was Britain's largest theatre complex to be built since the National. Ian Herbert as editor, certainly published many interesting facts and opinions as part of his 'Prompt Corner' pieces in each issue too. In issue 5 there is a piece at the beginning called 'Arts without Frontiers - 101 things you ought to know'. It's all so interesting, and I'm really enjoying going through the whole backlog.
We're continuing to make small improvements to the website, and as ever, do let me have any comments or suggestions.
Enjoy reading all the reviews in the October issue, and enjoy any theatre you see this month.
Sat 04 Oct 2025
October
As autumn rolls in, here at Theatre Record we have started work on the Christmas productions, as panto season is almost upon us. Starting at the beginning of November will be A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic with Paul Hilton as Ebenezer Scrooge this year. We'll aim to add all of the other Christmas listings during this month, and as ever, there will be a separate issue for all of the Christmas productions at the end of the year.
We've also added some more of the archive, so more is now fully searchable. 1989 is now on and it's nice to know we're now working on the 90's. I've just worked on issue 5 of 1990 which saw the opening of the West Yorkshire Playhouse. I often stop and read as I'm going through, as there's such a fascinating history contained within every issue.
This month there's lots to look forward to in London and around the regions, and as ever we'll cover as much as we can. September's issue will be ready to view from the 5th, but of course you can still read it all by looking at the list of 'latest reviews'. Enjoy reading all the reviews, and enjoy any theatre you see this month.
Wed 03 Sep 2025
September
September has arrived and the Edinburgh Festivals are all but over. You can see that the Edinburgh issues are out, but there may be a few yet to add.
There were 1018 listings for the Fringe this year, and 576 of them have been reviewed. A total of 1150 reviews were added in total. The production with the most reviews was 'Lost Lear' with 14 reviews. It was a busy time for the reviewers, as there are 171 venues across 55 theatres to cover. It's a lot to get around. In Theatre Record this August we have put on reviews from 95 different reviewers. No wonder there are so many.
August still produced a fair few productions to cover in London and the regions too, and you'll see 30 of them in our August issue.
As things are now slightly less busy for us here at Theatre Record in September, we'll continue to make improvements to the site and continue with entering the archive, so it's fully searchable. 1981 up to 1989 (apart form a very few odd bits which we are still working on) is now fully searchable. We're cracking on with 1990.
As always, do let me have any comments or suggestions at editor@theatrerecord.com