Sarah Snook put Succession behind her, Hofesh Shechter found horror in Albion and Rhod Gilbert was ecstatic to be alive, in our critics’ picks of the best stage shows of the year
Review
Road Show review – huckster brothers chase the American dream in little-known Sondheim musical
Review
The Tempest review – Sigourney weaves weird magic in West End debut
The Invention of Love review – Simon Russell Beale yearns from the underworld
Alan Hollinghurst’s new novel is a sharp account of British theatre – and even pastiches my criticism
Michael Billington
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 review – terrific riff on Tolstoy
Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.
Ballet legend Peter Wright: ‘Margot Fonteyn was cold as ice. Rudi Nureyev was a bit of a pain’
At 98, the choreographer has lost none of his love for dance – or his scathing wit. As his famous Nutcracker is performed again, he talks about grit, the ‘rubbish’ classics and directing a historic duo
Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.
I went to see two very different pantos this week. Here’s what I learned
Zoe Williams
‘An act of rebellion’: Haitian theatre persists amid political crisis and violence
Ewan McGregor returns to the West End in new play My Master Builder
Rupert Goold is an audacious innovator. He will make waves at the Old Vic
Michael Billington
Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.
From the archive
‘They changed my ending, I felt aghast’: how we made Wicked
‘I once performed Defying Gravity at the White House within spitting distance of the Obamas,’ says Idina Menzel. ‘In fact, I might actually have spat on them’
Pictures & video
The Nutcracker ballet in Nairobi
Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam morphs into a Wayne McGregor ballet
A co-production between the Royal Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada, MaddAddam opens at the Royal Opera House, London
2:01
Vladimir Shklyarov: a look back at the career of the acclaimed Russian ballet dancer – video
Shklyarov joined Mariinsky Theatre in 2003, became its principal dancer in 2011 and went on to perform all over the world
We Did Not Consent: a restaging of Britain’s undercover police scandal
Timothy West – a life in pictures
Face value: the masterly theatrical masks of Kitazawa Hideta
Behind the scenes with The Lion King in London at 25
Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.
You may have missed
‘Very generous and utterly terrifying’: novelist Edward Carey on Pinter, puppets and his spell living in a theatre
Sigourney Weaver’s West End debut as Prospero evokes a storm of past Tempests
The Hollywood star is to appear at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in Shakespeare’s late play about sorcery. But what is the secret to playing the great magician?
The best theatre to stream this month: Hot Orange, The Warriors and Macbeth
Come out to play with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis’s star-studded concept album or enjoy an improvised movie from the Goes Wrong team
‘I feel I’ve upset a few people over the years’: actor Brian Cox on overrated co-stars, charmless politicians and the joy of smoking weed
‘It’s an outrage’: stars join fight against cuts as Welsh arts go into meltdown
Samuel Beckett smoking a French cigarette: John Haynes’s best photograph
The circus that bought a tiny California town: ‘We’re creating our own Disneyland’
Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.
