Since retiring as a musical theatre performer, Stuart has maintained a busy professional career in commercial sectors ranging from media and sport, to risk management. As a member of the Critics’ Circle, he regularly attends and reviews press nights for drama productions, musicals, opera and dance.
By Stuart King Thursday, December 26 2024, 10:46
Our Head Reviewer Stuart King looks back over a dynamic and impressive year for London’s theatreland.
The Tales of Hoffmann at Royal Opera House.
By Stuart King Saturday, December 21 2024, 17:53
THE TEMPEST — Thunderous rumbling and ethereal wailing welcomes the audience at Drury Lane for Jamie Lloyd’s rendering of Shakespeare’s mystical tale of shipwreck, vengeance and island life. So, does Sigourney Weaver’s much-anticipated West End debut as gender swapping Prospero live up to expectation?
Sigourney Weaver (Prospero) in The Tempest at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Credit - Marc Brenner
By Stuart King Friday, December 20 2024, 10:31
Tennessee Williams, a man who himself tangoed dangerously with drugs and alcohol, produced sufficient Southern stories involving unhealthy relationships, substance abuse and dirty secrets, to fill a rock star’s memoir. Rebecca Frecknall directs one of the playwright’s most renowned, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF for the Almeida, but with underwhelming results.
Daisy Edgar-Jones in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Almeida. Credit Marc Brenner
By Stuart King Tuesday, December 17 2024, 21:19
English poet A. E. Housman received the inimitable Stoppard treatment, in Sir Tom’s 1997 work THE INVENTION OF LOVE, which is widely considered one of his most profoundly esoteric. Under Richard Eyre’s direction, the original play won awards, transferred from the National to the West End and then went on to Broadway. Here, for Hampstead Theatre’s new iteration, director Blanche McIntyre takes the reins.
Dickie Beau as Oscar Wilder and Simon Russell Beale as A E Housman. Credit Helen Murray
By Stuart King Sunday, December 15 2024, 12:04
The Young Vic’s somewhat surprising Christmas offering is Lillian Hellman’s 1939 Southern States family drama THE LITTLE FOXES (a title suggested to her by Dorothy Parker purportedly taken from the biblical Song of Solomon). The play first appeared on Broadway with Tallulah Bankhead and later as a film starring Bette Davis.
The cast of The Little Foxes at the Young Vic. Photography by Johan Persson.
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