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 Friday, April 25 2025, 09:49
In the programme notes for THE BRIGHTENING AIR, playwright director Conor McPherson compares theatre to a pagan church. “…like a religious service, theatre is a distillation of the baffling privilege of being alive.”
Eimhin Fitzgerald Doherty (Brendan), Seán McGinley (Pierre), Derbhle Crotty (Elizabeth), Hannah Morrish (Lydia) and Chris O'Dowd (Dermot) in The Brightening Air at The Old Vic (2025). Photo by Manuel Harlan
By Stuart King Friday, April 25 2025, 09:40
When F Scott Fitzgerald’s third novel THE GREAT GATSBY was published in 1925, it was generally considered to be a weaker effort than his earlier works This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned. It wasn’t until distribution among American GIs during WWII that the novel gained widespread popularity and began to garner the reputation it holds to this day as a classic of American literature.
Frances Mayli McCann & Amber Davies in The Great Gatsby at the London Coliseum. (c) Johan Persson.
By Stuart King Thursday, April 24 2025, 09:33
Personal Values, marks Chloë Lawrence-Taylor’s Hampstead Theatre debut and occupies the smaller downstairs space until 17th May.
Holly Atkins as Veda and Rosie Cavaliero as Bea in Personal Values. Credit Helen Murray.
By Stuart King Friday, April 18 2025, 11:36
The Lyric Hammersmith’s new version of Ibsen’s GHOSTS proves less of a reworked adaptation and more of a dynamic transformation under Rachel O’Riordan‘s gripping direction.
Patricia Allison, Victoria Smurfit and Callum Scott Howells in Ghosts at the Lyric Hammersmith. Photo Credit Helen Murray.
By Stuart King Wednesday, April 16 2025, 08:35
When at a train station, a young woman kisses a much older woman on the back of the neck, the act becomes a catalyst for the development of a quirky friendship. Just how random is the circumstance of that first kiss, presents an altogether more interesting matter for speculation and conjecture.
Jenny Galloway and Faline England in Heisenberg at the Arcola Theatre. Credit Charlie Flint
« previous articles - page 1 of 97
