Based on the iconic 1989 cult film starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, Heathers the Musical drops us into Westerberg High, a world where social standing carries the weight of life and death. Veronica Sawyer starts out invisible, just another student longing to matter, until the three glamorous but ruthless Heathers pull her into their…

Based on Steven Antin’s 2010 film of the same name, Burlesque the Musical has landed in Stoke-on-Trent as part of its first UK tour, arriving with all the promise of powerhouse vocals, jaw-dropping choreography and sequinned, underground-club glamour that made the original such a cult favourite. On the evidence of this performance, though, the show…

Ten years after it first opened on Broadway, Waitress rolls into Nottingham this week as part of its ongoing UK and Ireland tour, bringing Sara Bareilles’ warm, pie-obsessed score to the Royal Concert Hall stage. Before getting into how this production stacks up, it’s worth setting out what the show is actually about and where…

Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street tells the story of Benjamin Barker, wrongly transported to a penal colony by the corrupt Judge Turpin so that Turpin could pursue Barker’s wife. Barker returns to London years later under the name Sweeney Todd, consumed by grief and thoughts of revenge.…

Operation Mincemeat is, by now, a familiar kind of underdog story in British theatre, though no less remarkable for it. Landing in the West End at the Fortune Theatre in May 2023, where it picked up the Olivier and WhatsOnstage Awards for Best New Musical and racked up dozens of five star reviews on its…

Ten years after it first opened on Broadway, Waitress rolls into Stoke-on-Trent this week as part of its ongoing UK and Ireland tour, bringing Sara Bareilles’ warm, pie-obsessed score to the Regent Theatre stage. Jenna is a waitress and a genuinely gifted pie maker, stuck in a small town and an even smaller marriage. Her…

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has had a winding road to the stage. Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel was already a screen favourite long before it found its current musical form, most famously through the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The stage musical itself, with songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and…

Set firmly in the present day, this stage adaptation updates the classic psychological thriller for the social media age. Allie (Anna Ruben) is a recently divorced mother navigating single parenthood while attempting to launch her own tech start-up. Stretched financially and emotionally, she advertises for a lodger, and into her life steps the seemingly perfect…

Priscilla Queen of the Desert follows three drag performers, Tick (also known as Mitzi), Bernadette, and Adam (also known as Felicia), as they travel across the Australian outback in a battered bus, Priscilla, to perform a show in Alice Springs. Along the way, the trio encounter hostility, acceptance, humour and moments of genuine emotional connection,…