News, reviews, features and podcast on theatre across the UK
The British Theatre Guide Newsletter
No 1258: 5 April 2026
Editorial
After Storm Dave abated this morning, it left us with a fairly nice Easter Day here up north, although I believe it will be nicer tomorrow—we may even be able to sit out in the garden.
As a northerner, Philip Fisher’s feature for us this week hit on a few of my pet peeves, although it begins even further north, in Scotland in fact, where none of the country’s critics were invited to a new musical, One Day, visiting the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh as the producers didn’t want any reviews until the show went to London.
This is something I’ve experienced quite a lot, actually, here in the North West of England. If the show isn’t ready to be seen by critics, that means it is still in previews, but companies aren’t keen on calling them that as audiences may then expect to pay preview prices for their tickets.
Some producers make a concession for what they call ‘local’ reviewers, which seems to misunderstand the nature of the web—the Manchester Evening News has a much bigger global online following than the British Theatre Guide but would be regarded as ‘local’, whereas we are ‘national’. One actually said they didn’t want publications sending their London critics to their show, as though only London critics’ views are important or worth reading. That certainly isn’t the case at BTG—we have some very good reviewers all over the UK so have no need to ship anyone in from the capital.
There is a separate issue of our local ATG theatres in Manchester no longer inviting us to any of their visiting shows, even though we used to be there all the time. This can’t be a company policy as our reviewers visit ATG theatres in other parts of the country, and I don’t remember doing anything to upset them, but I’ve heard similar complaints from other Manchester-based reviewers.
Philip also mentions that I “regularly note”—others may less politely say I am “always banging on about”—the London-centric nature of the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards. This year, the acting chair of the Theatre Section, Mark Lawson—whom I greatly admire as a critic—confirmed to me that this year, only productions that have appeared in London were being considered, but my suggestion of renaming it the Critics’ Circle London Theatre Awards to be honest about that to the public was not taken up. Perhaps we should have a separate awards ceremony for productions that have never been seen in London, voted on only by critics who haven’t voted in the main awards.
One of our non-London reviewers, Andrew Cowie, is currently in New York, and has reported on the theatre he has found there. It seems that there is little on Broadway that you can’t see in London for half the price, at least at the top prices for each show, but he managed to pay a lot less off-Broadway for a more interesting range of plays, and gives his views on what he has seen.
Finally, you still have chance to enter into a draw for a £400 gift card if you buy something from Bookshop.org this bank holiday weekend—under the slogan “supporting bookshops, not Bezos”. Note that buying from them using the links in this newsletter or our web site does give us a small commission, that contributes towards the running of our web site.
I hope you have a lovely, relaxing Easter weekend, or what remains of it.
Matthew Warchus's acclaimed production of A Christmas Carol, adapted by Jack Thorne, in its tenth year in London, will play its first UK dates outside the capital.
Matthew Warchus's acclaimed production of A Christmas Carol, adapted by Jack Thorne, in its tenth year in London, will play its first UK dates outside the capital.
Matthew Warchus's acclaimed production of A Christmas Carol, adapted by Jack Thorne, in its tenth year in London, will play its first UK dates outside the capital.
John Proctor Is the Villain Royal Court Theatre, Wagner Johnson Productions Wessex Grove, Sonia Friedman Productions, Runyonland and John Mara Jr at Royal Court Theatre, London (Downstairs)
Top Hat Kenny Wax, Jonathan Church Theatre Productions and Chichester Festival Theatre at The Lowry, Salford
Kinky Boots ROYO, Runaway Entertainment and Curve at London Coliseum
Romeo and Juliet Empire Street Productions at Harold Pinter Theatre
FRIENDS! The Musical Parody (Mark Goucher, Matthew Gale and Oskar Eiriksson in association with The Barn Theatre Cirencester) - Grand Opera House, Belfast, –
