Seven Days on Stage

As the news broke that Hollywood might make a movie about his life, Carlos Acosta was dancing at Sadler's Wells in London with guest artists from the Nacional Ballet of Cuba. Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Judith Mackrell was disappointed by Acosta's show and labelled it 'a showcase of very bad ballet'. Part of the problem is that the evening is dominated by the repertory of choreographer Alberto Méndez whose work 'looks at best quaint, at worst an embarrassment'. Photograph: Tristram Kenton

At the Union in London, Terror 2007 presents an evening of five plays in the grand guignol tradition. For Lyn Gardner, the pick of the litter was Ripper by Mark Ravenhill: 'a new twist on the theory of royal involvement in the Ripper murders'. Photograph: Tristram Kenton

The Union's Terror 2007 lineup includes Noel Coward's The Better Half. It's 'a brittle tale of an upper-class bitch taking revenge on her appallingly smug husband,' says Lyn Gardner. Photograph: Tristram Kenton

ENO has suffered some rocky reviews in recent months. Andrew Clements was less than ecstatic about the colourful new production of Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea. Director Chen Shi-Zheng's 'fatuous staging ... turns the whole work into a parade of caricatures,' wrote Clements. Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Kate Royal 'certainly looks good in a bikini,' wrote Andrew Clements, but ENO's Coronation of Poppea 'gives her no latitude to show us what drives this ruthlessly ambitious woman'. Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Golden oldies ... From Here to Maturity, who performed at London's Purcell Room, are an intriguing dance company whose youngest member is 54 years old. Photograph: Tristram Kenton

From Here to Maturity's performance revealed, for Judith Mackrell, 'a unique combination of unselfconsciousness and expertise - the two bonuses of age'. Photograph: Tristram Kenton

At London's Hampstead theatre, Lyn Gardner enjoyed Flower Girls - 'an unashamedly old-fashioned tale' about a mission for destitute women. Photograph: Tristram Kenton

At the Royal Court in London, Michael Billington tucked into Kebab. But this grim slice of urban angst, by Romanian writer-director Gianina Carbunariu, left a bad taste in his mouth: 'I wish young writers would escape the drama of hermetic misery and realise there is a world elsewhere.' Photograph: Marc Brenner

Big mouth strikes again ... Sandra Bernhard was in Woking this week on a tour that includes stops in Huddersfield and Croydon. Brian Logan thought her observations on fame and glamour were 'casually tossed off ... a karaoke sing-along to a half-full theatre in a town Bernhard confesses she has never heard of'. Still, Logan admitted that the comedian still prowls like a lioness... Photograph: PR

There were two musicals about Tony Blair on the Edinburgh Fringe this year, and now a third has opened at the Hen and Chickens in Islington. Blair on Broadway lacks edge and originality, wrote Michael Billington: 'This show has no visible political convictions and nothing to say except that Blair was a born thesp.' Photograph: Tristram Kenton