Aliya Al-Hassan - Page 4

Studio Ghibli’s Oscar-winning Spirited Away, created by legendary animator and director Hayao Miyazaki is re-imagined for the stage by Olivier and Tony award-winning director of Les Misérables, John Caird. The original Japanese cast perform this extraordinary production with wildly imaginative puppets, dazzling set and costume designs and a live orchestra playing the magnificent original film score by Joe Hisaishi.

Pub garden theatre specialist Open Bar Theatre has returned for a spring season with a deft and slightly chaotic version of William Thackeray's Vanity Fair. Dealing with the fortunes of two young women, the story explores early 19th-century English society, specifically how money and ambition can define a person's fate. 

Mark sits in a white box on a red chair. He is dressed in a grey t-shirt and jeans. With the exception of sporting a red cape, he is nondescript, ordinary, normal. In the next 65 minutes, we are taken on an emotional ride through Mark's experiences of love, parenthood and devastating loss, all while he flits between being a superhero and a very average man.

As delicate and fragile as one of the glass creatures that are collected, Tennesse Williams' beguiling story of memory, The Glass Menagerie combines themes of hope, rejection, disappointment and profound sadness.

Last seen in London nearly a decade ago, Ushers, the show putting the front of house staff upon the stage is back. A musical with its tongue set firmly in its cheek, this is a fun and frothy production with some very strong and vibrant performances.

Bringing together Shakespeare's two great history plays, Player Kings is now open at the Noël Coward Theatre. Ian McKellen plays Falstaff in a new version of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, adapted by the award-winning writer and director Robert Icke. A divided country, leadership crumbling, corruption in the air. 

Mix a classic spy novel with the genius of Alfred Hitchcock, add a dash of Monty Python and you have The 39 Steps. With a history spanning over 100 years, John Buchan’s 1915 novel was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock which then went on to become a stage play in 1996, adapted again in 2005 by Patrick Barlow to become the an international smash.

Alistair McDowall’s critically acclaimed Captain Amazing opens this May at Southwark Playhouse. The production will see the original creative team of actor Mark Weinman, and director Clive Judd reunite to mark an incredible 10 years since the show first blew audiences away. Here Mark and Clive talk about reuniting after decade, the joy of the ordinary and shining a light on the 'quiet' people.

The Emmy, Golden Globe and Olivier award-winning actor Brian Cox, has made his return to the London stage in Jeremy Herrin’s new production of Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

A cringy boss, a pricky employee and an annual review that goes rather wrong. Tim Marriott's sharp two-hander, Appraisal, now comes to the Tabard Theatre.

The multi-Tony Award®- winning musical MJ has now opened at the Prince Edward Theatre.

Now a stage musical, John Cassavetes’ 1977 film Opening Night was a commercial flop when it was released, later becoming something of a cult classic of American independent cinema. Director Ivo Van Hove specialises in bringing work to the stage that may be called “challenging”. Challenging can be hugely successful, but I’ve rarely seen a production more determined to confuse and frustrate an audience.

A production that promises to be a 'fresh take' on one of Shakepeare's most famous plays is apt to produce a weary sigh or two. After previously playing at Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum last February, Zinnie Harris now brings her promising yet unfocused version of the Scottish play to the Rose Theatre.

The challenge of updating theatrical classics has led to some truly stunning theatre, such as the sell-out Cabaret and last year’s darkly stark OKLAHOMA! Frank Loesser’s 1950 musical comedy about sin and romantic salvation during the height of Prohibition was ripe for an update and Nicholas Hytner’s immersive production of Guys & Dolls has been thrilling critics and audiences alike since it opened last year.

Michael Sheen is Nye Bevan in this surreal and spectacular journey through the life and legacy of the man who transformed Britain’s welfare state. Written by Tim Price and directed by Rufus Norris, the National Theatre's production of Nye is now open.

The multi-award winning new musical Standing at the Sky’s Edge – winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Musical, UK Theatre Award for Best Musical Production, and the South Bank Sky Arts Award – transfers to the West End following sold-out runs at the National Theatre and Sheffield Theatres.

Keeley Hawes and Jack Davenport, make their long-awaited returns to the London stage in The Human Body; a story of political and private passions from writer Lucy Kirkwood. In his final production as Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, Michael Longhurst directs together with Ann Yee, with whom he previously collaborated on Next to Normal and Caroline, or Change.

Hadestown, the acclaimed Broadway musical phenomenon by singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell and director Rachel Chavkin has made its long-awaited West End premiere at the Lyric Theatre.

Making his West End debut, celebrated director Thomas Ostermeier‘s iconoclastic production of An Enemy of the People plays at the Duke of York’s Theatre is now playing for a strictly limited run.

Kip Williams' adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray has now opened in London's West End, running until 11 May. This ground-breaking production delivers an explosive interplay of live performance and video in an astonishing collision of form. So what did the critics think?