Five of the best… theatre shows this week
1 Matilda The Musical
It takes years to develop a good musical but the RSC got it spot on with Tim Minchin and Dennis Kelly’s glorious version of the Roald Dahl story. Add to that a seriously smart production by Matthew Warchus that puts the children centre stage in their fight against the appalling head teacher Miss Trunchbull, and you have an evening of real musical vim and vigour.
Cambridge Theatre, WC2, to 15 Oct
2 World Without Us
This week is your last chance to see Ontroerend Goed’s haunting monologue, an elegy for a dying Earth that refuses to let the audience off the hook, as it takes us by the metaphorical hand and leads us through a scenario where every human being has vanished from the face of the planet. As the Earth reverts over centuries to a natural state, it becomes clear we will not be missed. It’s a timely reminder that we are now running out of last chances.
Theatre Royal: The Drum, Plymouth, to 26 Nov
3 One Night In Miami…
Activist Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke and American football star Jim Brown are in a hotel room in 1964 with new world champion boxer Cassius Clay (soon to be Muhammad Ali) in Kemp Powers’s play. This kind of speculative drama about what might have happened between celebrities behind closed doors is now a dramatic staple, but Powers gives it new life by honing in on a moment when the US civil rights movement was gathering momentum.
Donmar Warehouse, WC2, to 3 Dec
4 Harry Potter And The Cursed Child Parts I & II
With 60,000 new tickets going on sale this Tuesday, it’s worth remembering that JK Rowling’s continuation of the Harry Potter story, starting 19 years after the final novel left off, is the real deal: a pleasure for fully paid-up Potterheads and theatre enthusiasts alike. Playwright Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany honour the original but also create a genuinely magical evening full of wonder and unexpected depths.
Palace Theatre, WC2, to Feb 2018
5 King Lear
It’s been a terrific couple of years for gender parity on stage, with Maxine Peake playing Hamlet, Harriet Walter currently tackling Prospero and Glenda Jackson scaling the heights of King Lear. After 25 years away from the stage, some wondered whether Jackson might have lost the muscle that acting requires but she is quite extraordinary in Deborah Warner’s starry, modern-dress production. There is fine support, too, from Celia Imrie and Jane Horrocks as her she-wolf daughters.
Old Vic, SE1, to 3 Dec
Three of the best… dance shows this week
1 Cloud Gate 2
From the sister company of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, a triple bill of poetic, shape-shifting dance by young Taiwanese choreographers (pictured, above).
Sadler’s Wells, EC1, Mon to Wed
2 The Red Shoes
Matthew Bourne’s latest production is based on Powell and Pressburger’s movie masterpiece. His cast explore love, death and artistic obsession, accompanied by music from Bernard Herrmann.
Theatre Royal, Plymouth, Mon to 26 Nov; touring to 20 May
3 Hetain Patel
Wicked humour and dark fantasy as Patel explores the ways in which the internet shapes our identities.
Lilian Baylis Studio, EC1, Thu & Fri
