Apollo Theatre

The Truth opens with a classic farce set-up: a rumpled bed from which the rumpled head of Stephen Mangan's Michel emerges, looking roguishly pleased with itself, next to the equally rumpled but less satisfied head of Alice (Sarah Hadland) who is, we soon discover, Michel's best friend's wife. Over the course of 90 tightly-plotted minutes, it becomes enjoyably clear that neither Michel, Alice nor their cuckolded spouses Paul and Laurence, would know what the truth was if it came and bit them on the bottom.  There is plenty to laugh at and to like about Lindsay Posner's production, which was a hit in 2016 at the Menier Chocolate Factory and is now revived, with extra star power, for the West End. It's a concise evening of polished, satisfyingly light entertainment, with a strong cast, an early finish time, and fairly reasonable ticket prices. Mangan fans won't be disappointed, his performance is more than worth the entry fee. He is fantastically enjoyable as Michel, bringing irresistible hangdog charm and ageing himbo vibes to the character who believes he is successfully deceiving everyone around him. His epic tantrum on discovering that he is the more deceived is hilarious: utterly hypocritical, and heartfelt. Michel's arc is the driving force of the story and when Mangan commits to his outrage, it lifts the comedy to the next level and really makes it grip. A comic ensemble often finds a deeper groove during a show's run. On opening night, it stopped just short of being...

Birmingham Stage Company’s theatrical versions of Terry Deary’s lurid history books have now been kicking around for 20 years now, and as a celebration they’ve cobbled together a new Barmy Britain show that’s a compliation of the best bits of all the many, many other Barmy Britain shows. Expect a barrage of lurid facts on everyone from Boudica to Burke and Hare.  For ages five plus.

This review is from the Garrick Theatre in October 2022. My Son’s A Queer returns for its final West End run in 2026. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more joyous, life-affirming show in the West End right now than this one. Even its journey – via this year’s Edinburgh Fringe – into the bright lights of central London after debuting at the small Turbine Theatre in Battersea last year feels a little fairy-tale. Personally, as a gay man, there’s also something wonderful about seeing the word ‘Queer’ emblazoned so proudly above the venerable Garrick Theatre. This one-person show revolves around the amateur childhood stage productions of its charismatic and funny writer and performer Rob Madge. They talks to us from a set that functions as a heightened version of the Coventry front room we watch in grainy VHS footage on a screen above the stage. Through video snippets from the late 1990s and early 2000s, we see a very young Madge – a child star of West End mega-musicals ‘Les Misérables’ and ‘Mary Poppins’ – enlist their dad in homemade stagings of Disney films like ‘The Little Mermaid’. These clips – which Madge first released on the social media platforms where the non-binary actor and writer is a hugely popular presence – are, first off, extremely funny. They’ll resonate with anyone who’s dreamed of being a star in their living room. The little Madge is hilariously perfectionist, demanding that their dad endlessly repeat scenes, criticising line deliveries and dropping a...