Juniper Blood review at Donmar Warehouse: Mike Bartlett’s climate change play lacks heat August 27, 2025 Juniper Blood review and star rating: ★★★ Mike Bartlett‘s play Cock starring Jonathan Bailey and Taron Egerton became one of the most expensive plays in West End history in 2023 when seats went for north of £400. That play, like Unicorn, looked at changing attitudes towards sexuality, but another of Bartlett’s recurrent themes is climate [...]
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 [...]
London ‘staring down the barrel’ of £2bn hit from higher business rates August 14, 2025 London is set to take a massive blow from changes to business rates when the tax increases next April. Business rates could rise by an estimated 26 per cent across the capital, from £9bn to £11bn, according to the Heart of London Business Alliance (HOLBA). “Businesses in the West End and across London are staring [...]
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 [...]
More West End streets to be pedestrianised under Crown Estate plans July 3, 2025 Plans to pedestrianise more streets in London’s West End have been proposed via a partnership between King Charles’ property firm and a local authority. The Crown Estate and Westminster City Council intend to turn Regent Street St James’s into a traffic-free space while greatly enlarging the pedestrian area at Piccadilly Circus. The proposals also include [...]
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 [...]
Business rates to hammer the West End: ‘This whole policy is nuts’ June 16, 2025 A rise in business rates for more expensive properties is set to hammer valuable areas like London’s West End, a leading investment firm has warned. The policy, which aims to bring down business rates for small properties by raising them for large properties, has been slammed as “unlikely to save the high street” and likely [...]
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 Brightening Air: Unbearably tense and brilliantly acted April 29, 2025 After seeing The Brightening Air at the Old Vic, I left the theatre with the overwhelming urge to seize control of my own destiny. It follows an extended family as they prepare to meet after a long time apart. The occasion: the birthday of the blind ex-clergyman Father Pierre. It is a play in which [...]
Tourist tax: Lisa Nandy says Labour may ‘explore’ restoring VAT free shopping April 16, 2025 Lisa Nandy has said the government “could explore” restoring VAT free shopping after hearing “very loud and clear” the calls from the industry to scrap the so-called tourist tax. The culture, media and sport secretary told Elle UK magazine that fashion was in the “soul of the nation” and ministers recognised its “centrality” to the [...]