Luise Miller This is London

The Donmar's multi-award winning Artistic Director Michael Grandage scored a critical West End hit in 2005 with Don Carlos, Friedrich Schiller's 1787 study of power, passion and paternal disappointment.
He's struck gold again with this fine revival of the German playwright's slightly earlier drama (originally entitled ‘Love and Intrigue’) which has all the twists and turns of a hungry boa constrictor as the coils of court conspiracy tighten round socially mismatched young lovers Ferdinand and Luise (the court musician's daughter).
Mike Poulton's sharp, jaunty new version (he also collaborated with Grandage on Don Carlos) grips from the start as Paul Higgins' Miller frets about the problems inherent in the burgeoning romance between his pretty, strong-willed daughter (Felicity Jones) and the Chancellor's son. Ben Daniels' Machiavellian Chancellor isn't happy about it either – he plans to cement his own place at court by sacrificing Max Bennett's impetuous Ferdinand to a marriage with the ruling German Prince's English mistress (Alex Kingston). Stirring things up behind the scenes are John Light's devious, creepily malign (and very aptly named) Wurm who wants Luise for himself and David Dawson's camp Hofmarschall.
Unfolding on Peter McKintosh's darkly atmospheric, high-windowed set, Grandage's taut, finely acted production holds the attention from beginning to end. The plot owes something to both Romeo and Juliet and Othello, but Schiller (who was only in his midtwenties when he wrote it) turns his tale of young innocents at the mercy of practiced deceivers into the theatrical equivalent of an un-putdownable pageturner.
Highly recommended

Donmar to 30th July

Much Ado About Nothing ****

With David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the verbally sparring antagonists, Josie Rourke’s vibrant, sun-kissed revival of Shakespeare’s comedy, set in the 80’s, was bound to be a hot ticket.

There’s decent work in the supporting roles – from Jonathan Coy’s defensive father, Elliot Levey’s uncomfortable villain, and (making his professional debut) Tom Bateman’s hunky, jealous Claudio. But it’s impossible to take one’s eyes off Tennant’s mercurial Benedick who, with a broad Scottish accent and starched white uniform, arrives in a golf buggy (rather than the Tardis), covers his Superman T-Shirt in paint and sports a micro-mini skirt with aplomb before accepting that he does indeed love Beatrice.

And although Tate can’t match his range or subtlety, she successfully conveys the vulnerability beneath her sarcastic put-downs in this fast-paced, fun production.

Wyndhams, Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0DA (0844 482 5120) Tube: Leicester Square MuchAdoOnStage.com
Until 3rd September (£16-£61.00) (Day seat lottery 20 top price seats available at £10)

The Roar Of The Greasepaint - The Smell Of The Crowd ***

This 60’s musical by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley is a quirky – though enjoyable – oddity which is only now having its London premiere.

The tiny stage is transformed into a circus Big Top by designer Tim Goodchild, the floor marked out with a circular board game, where Sir and Cocky play out their Game of Life, observed by a singing, dancing sextet of Pierrot-like Urchins with little button noses and faces painted white.

There are no apparent rules – and that’s the point in this allegorical, somewhat absurdist, satire on the British class system in which the two main protagonists, who have obviously been playing the game for a long, long time - vie for supremacy. As in the real world, it’s portly, upper crust Sir who holds all the aces, changing the rules to suit himself so that shabby, working class Cocky doesn’t seem to have a hope, no matter how hard he tries.

But it’s probably best to forget the rather laboured message and just enjoy Ian Judge’s production for the individual musical numbers and likeable performances.

Matthew Ashforde brings a lanky determination to the role of Cocky, Oliver Beamish struts confidently as Sir. But it’s Terry Doe, making a brief appearance as The Negro, who not only gives Cocky a taste of power but proves the highlight of the evening with his heartfelt delivery of a single, show-stopping number – the bluesy “Feelin’ Good.”

Finborough, Finborough Road, SW10 9ED Tube: Earl’s Court (0844 847 1652) finboroughtheatre.co.uk Until July 2 (£17- £20)

Government Inspector ****

Government Inspector is a play which demands outsize performances and David Harrower’s lively colloquial version of Nikolai Gogol’s 1836 comic satire certainly delivers in Richard Jones’ often surreal production.

The audience enters Gogol’s world of corrupt bureaucrats via a snaking corridor, passing a card game and a potato-peeling serf along the way.

Once through the door, designer Miriam Buether gives us the acid-toned abode of the troubled Mayor of a provincial backwater. Rumour has it that a government inspector, travelling incognito, is on his way, and the burghers who’ve been lining their own pockets – the judge, the school superintendent, the head of hospitals, and the postmaster (a cross-dressed Amanda Lawrence with a toothbrush moustache and the inability to deliver any letter unopened) – are, to put it mildly, worried.

What follows is a farcical spiral of mistaken identity when they wrongly assume that Khlestakov (an impecunious clerk who’s gambled away all his money and can’t even settle his bill at the local inn) is the feared official.

Plied with bribes, fought over by both the Mayor’s wife (Doon Mackichan in a jewelled turquoise lampshade of a dress) and their nubile daughter, he’s treated like royalty - and Kyle Soller’s manic Khlestakov, with his shock of red hair, laps it all up with increasing glee.

There’s nothing subtle about this manic production. The pace rarely slackens, rats appear in the doorway, and Julian Barratt (of TV’s The Mighty Boosh) is both panicked and sinister as the Mayor at the heart of the corruption.

Young Vic, The Cut, SE1 8LZ Tube Southwark / Waterloo (0207 922 2922) youngvic.org Until 9th July (£10.00 - £29.50)

One Man, Two Guvnors ****

Richard Bean’s gag-filled script gives little indication that rollicking new comedy is actually an updating of Italian playwright Goldoni’s mid-18th century commedia dell’artee work.

The action is transposed to seaside Brighton in 1963, where, unbeknownst to each other, both public school toff Stanley (hilarious Oliver Chris) and his girlfriend (cross-dressed as her gangster twin brother whom he’s just killed) are holed up in the Cricketers’ Arms.

With a skiffle group, a buxom bookkeeper, a posturing would-be thespian and Tom Edden’s doddery waiter (he’s 87 and it’s his first day at work) thrown into the mix of farce and slapstick, Nicholas Hytner’s production whizzes along.

And at the heart of it, James Corden’s increasingly flustered, food-fixated Francis juggles two masters, his ravenous appetite – and a delighted audience – to absolute perfection.

Lyttelton at the National, South Bank, SE1 9PX (020 7452 3000) Tube: Waterloo nationaltheatre.org.uk Until September 19 (£12 - £45.00)

Chicken Soup With Barley *****

Although it’s over 50 years old, Arnold Wesker’s social drama - the first of a trilogy - still resonates today with its judicious intermingling of the personal and the political.

It follows the fortunes of the East End Jewish Kahn family as they react to historic events (from the antifascist protests in 1936, through the aftermath of the Second World War, to the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956) but is anchored by the indomitable Sarah whose belief in Communism remains unshaken throughout.

One by one, her disillusioned former comrades and her children desert the cause, but Sarah remains committed to her ideals, passionately declaring to her disenchanted son Ronnie (Tom Rosenthal) that “if you don’t care you’ll die.”

It may sound rather serious, but there’s humour as well as sadness in Dominic Cooke’s excellent production. And Samantha Spiro as Sarah (dishing out food and endless cups of tea over two decades) and Danny Webb as Harry (her weak, chronically work-shy husband whose health deteriorates cruelly in parallel with the loss of faith in Soviet ideology) give terrific performances which themselves alone more than justify the revival of this partly autobiographical drama which helped make Wesker’s name.

Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS Tube: Sloane Square (020 7565 5000) royalcourttheatre.com Until 9th July (£10-£28)

American Trade *** TNT

American Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size was one of the highlights of the theatregoing year in 2007.

A simply staged and sensitive exploration of brotherhood, it signalled the arrival of a new and original voice on the London stage. Then came another emotionally charged piece (In the Red and Brown Water) before McCraney changed tactics with the flamboyantly entertaining but loosely structured Wig Out!

American Trade, his new work as Playwright in Residence with the Royal Shakespeare Company, is as short as his breakthrough play, but - despite vivacity, pace and vivid performances - this relentless parade of characters on the make lacks substance.

Inspired by Restoration comedy and fed by McCraney’s own observations during his time over here, it follows mixed-race hustler Pharus from New York to London where he flees to escape the unwanted attentions of record mogul Jules.

Taken under the wing of his white great aunt (Sheila Reid) - who runs a PR agency but wants to expand into the world of modelling - he recruits his own ragbag of multiracial hookers, putting his cousin’s nose out of joint in the process as they vie to inherit the business.

McCraney makes the point that people aren’t always what they seem to be – and there’s intermittent wit as well as the occasional hint of a poetic voice in the dialogue. But although Tunji Kasim’s Pharus radiates enough charm to explain his appeal to both sexes, Jamie Lloyd’s colour-block production feels more like an assault than an amusing evening out and it’s ironic that McCraney previously found more fruitful inspiration in the deprived, muddy backwaters of Louisiana than he has in the gaudy excesses of the metropolis.

Hampstead, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU (020 7722 9301) Tube: Swiss Cottage hampsteadtheatre.com Until 18th June (£22-£29)

Pygmalion **** TNT

Strictly Come Dancing winner Kara Tointon shines as Eliza Doolittle, the flower-girl transformed from “guttersnipe” to lady in Philip Prowse’s swift, enjoyable revival of George Bernard Shaw’s 1912 comedy satire of the British class system.

Rupert Everett’s Higgins is rather too dangerously dark – and too little the confirmed bachelor - as the phonetics professor who takes her into his Wimpole Street home with no thought of what might become of her once the experiment is over and her screeching vowel sounds are as melodious as a duchess’s.

Peter Eyre adds a note of well-mannered urbanity as his colleague Colonel Pickering, and, in the role of Higgins’ shrewdly tolerant mother, ex-Avenger and 60’s Bond girl Diana Rigg, DBE, proves that, when it comes to class, there really is nothing like a dame.

Garrick, Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0HH (0844 412 4662) Tube: Leicester Square pygmaliontheplay.com Until September 3 (£25.00 - £49.50)

Haunting Julia ** TNT

This is the second time in recent months that an Alan Ayckbourn “ghost” play has received its London premiere.

Almost all of this prolific playwright’s plays (and he’s written over seventy of them) premiered in Scarborough, and many of them have made their way south to considerable critical and public acclaim. So if it’s taken since 1994 for this supposedly spooky tale to get here, there’s always the suspicion that it isn’t one of his best.

Sadly, despite a promising opening scenario, that misgiving proves justified.

It’s been twelve years since his musically gifted daughter Julia died at the age of 19, and in that time a still grieving Joe Lukin has transformed the attic flat where she lived as a student into a combination of shrine and music centre. He can’t get to grips with the death by overdose (was it suicide, accident or murder?) of the girl who had been hailed as “Little Miss Mozart” and has brought her then boyfriend Andy (now a married father) and mortuary attendant and self-proclaimed psychic Ken to see the memorial he has created and show them how he believes she is trying to contact him from beyond the grave.

The trouble is, none of it is particularly interesting – we soon get the message that Joe was an inadequate father, that Andy has a reasonable explanation for everything Joe tells him, and that Julia didn’t always find it easy being a prodigy.

For all the talk that comes before, the surprises, when they come, aren’t at all shocking. That old standard of books tumbling off a shelf really won’t wash anymore and, disappointingly, this dramatically inert offering neither engages the emotions nor sends shivers up the spine.

Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, W6 9RL (020 8237 1111) riversidestudios.co.uk Tube: Hammersmith Until July 3 (£15 - £25)

The Cherry Orchard **** TNT

Apart from some jarring colloquialisms in Aussie Andrew Upton’s sprightly new version, Howard Davies’ production of Chekhov’s 1904 comedy is a treat.

The faded wood of Bunny Christie’s design opens out to expose the sadness beneath the extravagance of Zoë Wanamaker’s bankrupt landowner, the emergent power of the lower classes is signalled by the telegraph wires overhead and, in a large cast, there isn’t a single dud performance.

Impressive comic contributions come from Tim McMullan’s visiting neighbour (a Russian Hooray Henry without any funds) and Pip Carter’s clumsy estate manager, whilst Mark Bonnar’s perpetual student and Claudie Blakley’s unhappy Varya add, respectively, political passion and poignancy.

Most rounded of all, Conleth Hill’s awkward Lopakhin conveys all the contradictory emotions of a self-made serf whose wealth only partially counterbalances his background.

Olivier at the National Theatre, South Bank, SE1 9PX (020 7452 3000) Tube: Waterloo nationaltheatre.org.uk
Until August 13 (£12 - £30 as part of the Travelex season)

The Acid Test **** TNT

It’s less than a year since the opening of Spur of the Moment, Anya Reiss’s debut play which garnered a clutch of awards. She’s still several months away from her 20th birthday, but her second play, proves she’s no one-hit wonder.

Reiss stays on similar turf in her latest 90 minute portrayal of dysfunctional middle class life, but this time she’s moved her characters out of a family environment and into the London flat shared by three young women in their very early twenties, fresh from uni and still carving out an identity for themselves.

21 year old Ruth is distraught because she’s just broken up with her serious boyfriend (the oddly named and unseen Twix who dyed his hair green for a party rally and couldn’t get it back to normal). Dana (just a year older, but considerably more cynical) maintains that sex is much like the validation of a parking ticket as she debates whether sleeping with her boss will further her career.

Completing the trio is Ruth’s girlhood friend, Jessica (Lydia Wilson), who’s still a virgin and upsets the dynamics of the flatshare by bringing her father, Jim, back to sleep on the sofa when he’s chucked out of the marital home and replaced by the roofer.

In the course of a Friday night and Saturday morning of excessive smoking, swearing and heavy drinking, inhibitions are dropped and home truths spilled and Jessica’s antagonistic feelings towards her father are given full vent. Despite her growing embarrassment, her flatmates think he’s great, and there’s the intermittent possibility of boundaries being crossed which really should be steered well clear of.

Simon Godwin's production confirms that Reiss has a fine ear for fast, comic dialogue and is well served by designer (Paul Wills’ set leads us through a long communal corridor into the girlie clutter behind their front door) and cast, with Denis Lawson’s 57 year old Jim relishing the unexpected female attention lavished upon him by Phoebe Fox’s flaky Ruth and Vanessa Kirby’s sexy blonde Dana as his own daughter becomes increasingly alienated.

Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS Tube: Sloane Square (020 7565 5000) royalcourttheatre.com Until 11th June (£10-£20)

Lord Of The Flies *** TNT

Not so long ago, the idyllic setting of Regent’s Park was the regular host to a pretty Midsummer Night’s Dream and a feel-good summer musical. Under artistic director Timothy Sheader, the opening production of the 2011 season couldn’t be more different.

Jon Bausor’s set is the undoubted star of the show – the splintered shell of a crashed aircraft, an avalanche of baggage pouring from its shattered frame, dominates the tree-encircled island beach where a clutch of British schoolboys find themselves stranded without adult supervision in Nigel Williams’ 1995 stage adaptation of William Golding’s 1954 novel.

As Alistair Toovey’s fundamentally decent Ralph and more dangerous choir leader Jack (James Clay) vie for leadership, argue over priorities and finally lose sight of their objectives, the squabbling candidates of The Apprentice temporarily come to mind. But the stakes here are much higher and it doesn’t take long for the veneer of civilisation imposed by rule and order to wear thin.

Faces are ritualistically smeared with blood after they kill a pig, and bodies daubed with tribal paint to hunt the feared symbolic beast which, in reality, is the darkness inside each one of them. The young cast acquits itself well – George Bukhari’s asthmatic, myopic Piggy (with his futile attempts to be make the others listen to reason) is particularly impressive, as is 9 year old Harrison Sansostri who shares the role of bewildered "littlun" Perceval.

But the script is functional rather than inspired and can take little of the credit for the growing sense of menace which descends as the night sky darkens overhead.

Open Air Theatre Inner Circle, Regents Park, NW1 4NR (0844 826 4242) Tube: Baker Street openairtheatre.org £19 – £39 (premium seats £46) Until 18th June