Crazy for You

The gorgeous finale adds a touch of night-time magic to Timothy Sheader’s classy revival of the Gershwin brothers’ 1930 escapist musical froth about NY banker and aspiring hoofer Bobby who falls for a gal (Clare Foster) in a Nevada backwater.

American Sean Palmer exudes easy charm as he sets out to save her theatre by impersonating David Burke’s badger-coiffed impresario, and, with a host of hits – including Someone to Watch Over Me and an irresistibly choreographed I Got Rhythm - this big-hearted show is guaranteed to please.

Open Air Theatre, Inner Circle, Regents Park, NW1 4NR (0844 826 4242) Tube: Baker Street openairtheatre.org Until September 10 (£22.50 - £49.50)

Top Girls

Nearly 3 decades since he directed its premiere, Max Stafford-Clark successfully revisits Caryl Churchill’s seminal and unconventionally structured play in which Suranne Jones’ career orientated Marlene hosts a surreal dinner party for half a dozen historical women (including a Victorian traveller, a 13th century Japanese concubine turned nun, and a female Pope) all of whom paid a price in a man’s world.

More realistically, we then see her at the employment agency where her tough Thatcherite creed and shoulder pads have propelled her to the top.

And finally, in a confrontation with the sister (Stella Gonet’s disgruntled Joyce) left behind in rural Suffolk to pick up the domestic pieces and raise a backward child, Churchill makes it clear that for many, the power-obsessed 80’s still held little prospect of fulfilment.

Trafalgar Studios 1, Whitehall, SW1A 2DY(0844 871 7632) Tube: Charing Cross ambassadortickets.com/trafalgarstudios Until October 29 (£35- £45)

Don Giovanni

Last year, OperaUpClose scooped the Olivier award for Best New Opera from under the noses of the Royal Opera House and English National Opera with Robin Norton-Hale’s small scale, vigorously updated version of Puccini’s La Bohème which briefly moved action and audience into the downstairs bar area for an added touch of realism, affording those who hadn’t managed to get a ticket a tantalising glimpse through the street level window.

Now she’s turned her attention to Mozart’s popular tale of a serial philanderer, changing the immoral 18th century lothario into a ruthless city trader, Johnny, in the cash-rich noughties.

His address book (assiduously updated by his increasingly worried intern) boasts 1003 conquests in London alone, he’s got more money than he knows what to do with and he’s not afraid to kill to get himself out of a tight spot.

Sung in colloquial English and given a lively contemporary slant, in some ways it’s the perfect way to get a handle on a not always accessible (and often pricey) medium.

That said, there are limitations to the strength of the comparatively young voices, and a single piano – even with the addition of a live electronic score incorporating R & B and dubstep – can’t match the emotional power of an orchestra.

But it’s definitely entertaining and decently sung by rotating casts, with (on the night I went) Martin Nelson particularly imposing as a murdered barrister come back from the dead and Paul Carey Jones giving Johnny an arrogant insouciance as he parties from Sloane Square to Soho, seducing as he goes.

Soho Theatre, Dean Street, W1D 3NE (020 7478 0100) Tube: Tottenham Court Road sohotheatre.com Until September 17 (£10.00 - £29.50)

The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Darkly comic, deeply poignant and acted to perfection, Joe Hill-Gibbins’ knockout revival of Martin McDonagh’s 1996 portrayal of rural Irish stagnation returns (predominantly recast) for another well-deserved season.

Rosaleen Linehan reprises her role as the malevolent mother from hell – emptying her chamber pot down the kitchen sink and doing her utmost to scupper the last chance of her 40 year old daughter Maureen (Derbhle Crotty) to find happiness with Frank Laverty’s gentle Pato, whilst his bored younger brother Ray (Johnny Ward) stomps around in frustration at the limitations of Connemara life.

Cruel, black, bitterly funny – and not to be missed.

Young Vic, The Cut, SE1 8LZ (0207 922 2922) Tube: Southwark/Waterloo youngvic.org Untill September 3
(£10 - £29.50)

Ghost the Musical

Though unlikely to tug at the heartstrings, Bruce Joel Rubin’s musical stage version of his 1990 cinematic tearjerker is well worth seeing - not because of the fairly forgettable songs from Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, but for the juddering choreography and video projections which conjure up the anonymous bustle of New York, for the ingenious body-evaporating illusions and for an outsize performance by Sharon D Clarke as the phoney psychic who turns out to have real powers.

Reluctantly cajoled by the ghost of murdered Wall Street trader Sam into protecting his sculptor girlfriend Molly (and yes, she does throw a pot on stage) Clarke’s a larger than life force and impossible to resist.

Piccadilly Theatre, Denman Street, W1D 7DY (0844 871 7618) Tube: Piccadilly Circus ambassadortickets.com/ghost (£25-£67.50) Until October 13

Parade

If you like your musicals with a bit of bite, head straight for the Southwark Playhouse to catch Thom Southerland’s revival of this engrossing 1998 award winner by Americans Jason Robert Brown (music and lyrics) and Alfred Uhry (book). Set in Atlanta almost a century ago, it’s based on the real-life case of a 13-year-old factory worker, Mary Phagan, who was found raped and murdered on the premises.

Suspicion fell initially on the black night-watchman, Newt Lee, and then on Leo Frank, the well-educated superintendent. Despite having married a well-connected Southern girl, Jewish New Yorker Frank still remained something of an outsider and the ensuing public reaction to the killing exposed deep seams of anti-Semitism and racism still rife in the Deep South five decades after the end of the Civil War.

The prejudice, the politics and, centrally, the personal relationship between Frank and his loyal wife are all exposed as the case goes to court and beyond.

The production sometimes veers towards the over-busy and the sound balance needs drastic attention (does the traverse staging really necessitate mics?) but the dramatic story and lead performances more than compensate. Alastair Brookshaw’s Frank is all quivering nervousness as he insists on his innocence, whilst Laura Pitt-Pulford raises the emotional stakes as his loyal wife Lucille.

There’s smooth politicking from Mark Inscoe’s prosecutor (who isn’t above a bit of witness coaching to get the result he wants) and David Haydn’s Governor turns out to have a strong moral streak as well as an easy charm.

But once again it’s Terry Doe (just a year out of drama school) who takes the production to another level. Grizzled as the original suspect Newt, show-stopping as the ex-con janitor Jim Conley – he steals an already compelling show every time he appears.

Southwark Playhouse, Shipwright Yard, SE1 2TF (020 7407 0234) Tube: London Bridge southwarkplayhouse.co.uk Until September 17 (£10-£22.50)

A Woman Killed With Kindness

Updating Thomas Heywood’s 1603 domestic tragedy to 1919, director Katie Mitchell’s visually mesmerising production (the text substantially cut) plays out main and sub plot side by side on a vertically split stage.

Scurrying servants signify the contrasting changes in fortune of adulterous Anne (banished for her infidelity) and virtuous Susan (pimped by her debt-ridden brother) in a stylised interpretation which, with the exception of Gawn Grainger’s tale-telling retainer, places more emphasis on movement than dialogue.

The result is intriguing but sacrifices emotional involvement for artistic concept.

Lyttelton at the National, South Bank, SE1 9PX (020 7452 3000) Tube: Waterloo nationaltheatre.org.uk Until September 11 (£12 - £30.00)