Michael Billington | The Guardian

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Medea in mid-air: how Syracuse’s Greek theatre keeps the classics alive

Published: 16 May 2023
4 out of 5 stars.

The Coronation review – immaculately rehearsed, touching and Shakespearean
4 out of 5 stars.

Published: 7 May 2023

Somerset Maugham: a wily playwright of light dramas and weighty morals

A new revival of The Circle is a reminder of a dramatist who smuggled vital messages into broad crowdpleasers

Published: 24 Apr 2023
Murray Melvin obituary

Published: 17 Apr 2023
A wordless death, a dazzling new talent and a 50-day squat: is Athens the hotbed of European theatre?

Published: 6 Apr 2023

Musicals are having an exceptional moment – but classic plays are vanishing from UK stages

There are invigorating versions of Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma! and Cabaret in London – and some enticing new dramas coming up – yet theatre risks being cut off from its past

Published: 24 Mar 2023

Published: 24 Mar 2023
Noël Coward was not just an amiable jester but a scathing social satirist

He presented himself as a message-free entertainer but, 50 years after his death, it is time to reconsider the variety of the great playwright’s work

Published: 21 Mar 2023

Published: 21 Mar 2023

Punched, insulted and excoriated in song … our critics on the artists who hit back

In a shocking attack, the ballet director Marco Goecke smeared dog excrement in the face of Wiebke Hüster in retaliation for her review. Yet it isn’t the first time an artist has assaulted a critic. Our writers share their worst moments

Published: 15 Feb 2023

Depriving London’s theatres of funds is not ‘levelling up’ – it shortchanges us all

Pitting the capital against the regions is a cynical political ploy and the Arts Council’s cuts are a catastrophe for new writing – as well as the entertainment industry

Published: 8 Dec 2022

Published: 8 Dec 2022

3 out of 5 stars.

The Yeomen of the Guard review – tonal uncertainties but G&S update has plenty to enjoy
3 out of 5 stars.

Jo Davies’ 1950-set staging of the late G&S opera may not fully cohere but musically we’re in excellent hands and Richard McCabe’s is a moving – and sweatily desperate – Jack Point

Published: 4 Nov 2022

Re:Imagining Musicals at the V&A celebrates the fantastical, famous and forgotten

Costumes, props, posters and archive video footage all feature in an expansive exhibition that leaves you itching to see some shows again

Published: 17 Oct 2022

Batting for Godot: the play about Beckett and Pinter teaming up for a game of cricket

The two titans of modern drama were both cricket obsessives. What if they had faced the fast bowlers together? Playwright Shomit Dutta explains why he made it happen – with darkly comic drama Stumped

Published: 8 Aug 2022

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