How the Barbican Theatre has rivalled the West End for four decades August 21, 2025 Our Toast the City Awards are celebrating the City’s top spots and takes place this October. This week: the Barbican Theatre. Think of the Barbican Centre and you might picture the lakeside suntrap or Brutalist passageways that feel purposefully designed to get lost in. You might not immediately think of the Barbican Theatre, but here’s why you [...]
‘Wonderfully weird’: 7 of the best Edinburgh Fringe shows to book now August 14, 2025 City AM’s theatre writers have been catching the very best of the shows at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. We’re only reviewing productions with London transfers in the autumn, so if you can’t make it to Edinburgh this August, everything you read here is coming to the capital at a later date. From Fleabag to Flight [...]
This Grease immersive show isn’t the one that I want August 7, 2025 Grease: immersive musical review: ★★ A Titanic experience where you’re aboard the ship as it sinks, the heavily-mocked Elvis show (that I actually loved), a new Traitors experience and similar ones for Squid Game and Friends. Whatever you want to call them, experiences or immersive theatre (categorising these experiences has instigated a fierce debate raging [...]
Goodnight, Oscar review: Will & Grace star Sean Hayes is magnetic August 7, 2025 Goodnight, Oscar review and star rating: ★★★★ It’s fairly obvious why writers turn to televisual ratings to source their intrigue: every scribe knows the pain of having their stories or subjects exploited to reach bigger audiences. File Goodnight, Oscar next to a litany of West End hits on the subject, including Network at the National [...]
7 amazing things to do in London this week, from new pizza to cocktails and the return of Secret Cinema August 4, 2025 7 amazing things to do in London this week, from the return of Secret Cinema with a hyped production of Grease to unusual pizza combos and fabulous cocktails As summer trucks on, more fabulous outdoor events demand your attention: this week sees the return of Cocktails in the City, and there’s a new immersive theatre [...]
James Olivas, Evita London’s leading man, on Jamie Lloyd’s radical new production July 8, 2025 Jamie Lloyd’s new production of Evita is commanding headlines for Rachel Zegler’s nightly balcony sing-a-longs, but the show’s portrayal of her husband is arguably deserved of the same level of attention. The show is inspired by the real life marriage between Zegler’s heroine, Eva Perón, and the Argentinian leader Juan Perón. In actual fact, Juan [...]
This Bitter Earth, Soho Theatre review: Billy Porter’s playful tragedy June 25, 2025 This Bitter Earth review and star rating: ★★★★ This Bitter Earth is the UK directorial debut of Pose star Billy Porter, which in and of itself makes this an incredible LGBTQ show to catch this Pride month – but the play is about more than just its starry parts. It’s a surprisingly playful and immensely [...]
Harry Potter and the theatre owner’s record profit June 24, 2025 The group which owns the theatre behind Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has achieved a record profit for its latest financial year. Nimax Theatres has posted a pre-tax profit of £10m for the 12 months to 29 September, 2024, new accounts filed with Companies House have revealed. The total comes after the business reported [...]
Stereophonic play review: Fleetwood Mac musical is a sensation June 15, 2025 Stereophonic play review and star rating: ★★★★★ Stereophonic is a mighty test of endurance. At three-and-a-half hours, there are points in the Herculean one-hour-fifty-minute first act where the audience unanimously agree to give up and start chatting. I’ve never seen so many people escape to the loo. On this level, Stereophonic is one great meta [...]
The Deep Blue Sea review: Tamsin Greig brings wit to okay drawing room drama May 14, 2025 Tamsin Greig is sharp as Hester, but this production does little of interest with okay drawing room drama The Deep Blue Sea.