Articles Christmas Culture LGBTQ+ Theatre News Originals Pantomime Performance Theatre West End

Beauty and the Beast panto keeps the yuletide very gay indeed this festive season – review

If you weren’t already aware that He’s Behind You! make queer, adults-only pantomime, the subtitle for this year’s show, Beauty and the Beast, is ‘A Horny Love Story’ – which would probably give the game away. Set in the (sadly) fictional Scottish town of Lickmanochers, which of course neighbours Suckmacoch, it is a loose retelling of the classic tale, which many will be familiar with from the 1991 Disney movie. Of course, there’s a fair amount of artistic licence in this adaptation, written by Jon Bradfield and Martin Hooper. We’re…

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Articles Culture Musical Theatre News Originals Performance Southbank Centre Theatre

Revival of Top Hat falls flat despite some impressive choreography – review

We’d been very much looking forward to Top Hat, which has arrived at London’s Southbank Centre this Christmas as part of a national tour. The original 2011 stage adaptation of the classic Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie swept the Oliver Awards, picking up Best New Musical; this revival, first produced earlier this year at the Chichester Festival Theatre, opened to rave reviews. It’s also directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Kathleen Marshall, who was responsible for the incredible choreography we saw in the dazzling revival of Anything Goes at…

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Articles Culture National Theatre News Originals Performance Theatre

End draws David Eldridge’s trilogy to a satisfying conclusion at the National Theatre – review

It’s taken us about eight years, but we have now finally completed David Eldridge’s trilogy of plays exploring love and relationships. Like its predecessors Beginning and Middle, End is a two-hander which plays out as a real-time conversation. The focus of Beginning was on two young lovers on the night they met at a house party, while in Middle we met two people in an established relationship which had begun to go south. The narrative of End – as you may already have guessed – looks at two people who…

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Articles Culture National Theatre News Nicola Coughlan Originals Performance Siobhán McSweeney Theatre

Nicola Coughlan and Siobhán McSweeney star in revival of The Playboy of the Western World – review

When the National Theatre’s revival of JM Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World was announced, it grabbed headlines for starring not one, but two of the cast of the iconic Derry Girls: with Nicola Coughlan as the young Pegeen Mike and Siobhán McSweeney as the older Widow Quin, they take on two of the three lead roles (the trio being completed by Éanna Hardwicke who plays love interest Christy Mahon). Going into the theatre we didn’t really know anything about the show, beyond the attention-grabbing casting – so what…

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Articles Culture National Theatre News Originals Performance Theatre

Ballet Shoes tells a heartwarming tale at the National Theatre this festive season – review

We were really rather taken with Ballet Shoes when we caught it at the National Theatre last Christmas – so much so that when we were offered an opportunity to review it again this year, we leapt at the chance. Kendall Feaver has adapted Noel Streatfeild’s beloved children’s novel for the stage, and it is playing once again at the Olivier Theatre – the largest of the three spaces within the National Theatre. So how does this year’s production fare? Unsurprisingly it’s very similar – some of the cast has…

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Articles Culture News Originals Performance Theatre West End

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold makes for compelling viewing at the @sohoplace theatre – review

You may already be familiar with The Spy Who Came In From the Cold – John le Carré’s seminal spy novel from 1963 was swiftly adapted into a major film in 1965 starring Richard Burton – although somewhat surprisingly, none of the author’s stories have ever made it to the stage. Until now, that is: adapted by playwright David Eldridge, this production was first staged in 2024 at the Chichester Festival Theatre and has now transferred to London’s West End at the @sohoplace theatre. It is directed by three-time Olivier…

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Articles Christmas Culture News Originals Performance The Old Vic Theatre

A Christmas Carol returns with a hearty dose of festive cheer at The Old Vic Theatre – review

We’ll start with the same caveat we did last year: we’ve already seen this production of A Christmas Carol and we already know we like it. This is the ninth time that Jack Thorne’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic tale has played at The Old Vic Theatre – we’ve not seen it every year (this is our fifth time) but it doesn’t really change much year on year. That’s absolutely fine by us, however – it’s a charming production sure to delight children and adults alike. If it ain’t broke,…

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Articles Culture Musical Theatre News Originals Performance Stephen Sondheim Theatre

Kate Fleetwood steals the show in delightfully daft revival of Into the Woods – review

We’d never actually seen a production of Into the Woods – Stephen Sondheim’s musical hasn’t played in London for many years – so we were excited to pay a visit to the Bridge Theatre to check out Jordan Fein’s new staging of the classic show, which will be celebrating its 40th anniversary this coming year. If you’re not familiar with the musical, fear not, because much of the material is well-known; Into the Woods intertwines a whole series of fairytale storylines. Favourites including Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood and…

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Articles Community Long Reads News Originals Uncloseted Uncloseted Media

From Alabama to Alberta: How Canada is pulling from America’s anti-trans playbook

An Uncloseted Media investigation finds that Alberta’s government is using many of the same tactics that were used to pass anti-LGBTQIA+ bills in the Deep South. WORDS BY EMMA PAIDRA, UNCLOSETED MEDIA Jay, a 24-year-old trans man who immigrated from East Africa to Canada in 2016, used to think of Canada as a safe place for queer people. But with Alberta—arguably Canada’s most conservative province—attempting to pass the country’s first gender-affirming care ban, he doesn’t feel this way anymore. “It’s really heartbreaking as a person who, back home, would not…

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Articles Christmas Culture Films LGBTQ+ Films Long Reads Movies News Originals

13 films that will provide you with all the festive queer this Christmas

Yuletide? Yeah, let’s make it gay! WORDS BY SAM DAMSHENAS Although Christmas is camp as tits, holiday films have been surprisingly slow to embrace queerness. No more! In recent years, the yuletide has been delightfully queerified, with networks and streaming services putting LGBTQIA+ stories front and center in Mariah Carey’s annual holiday season — from Netflix’s Single All The Way to Lifetime’s The Holiday Sitter and Hulu’s Happiest Season, the latter making history as the first gay Christmas film released by a major studio. If you’re tired of watching Will…

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