The Theatre Reviewer is now named The Performance Critic and can be accessed via my website: leejamesbroadwood.com/tpc All publications are now released via this platform, meaning that this WordPress site is now inactive. To contact me for critical analyses, please send me an email at: contact@leejamesbroadwood.com For more information, visit The Performance Critic’s FAQ Page: leejamesbroadwood.com/tpc-faqs. Thank you ..read more

To visit The Performance Critic, please click here or copy and post the following link into your browser: www.leejamesbroadwood.com/tpc The Theatre Reviewer, now called The Performance Critic, has a new home on my website. For this reason, this specific site now serves only to redirect readers and will eventually be discontinued. Review requests are still being accepted! To request a review for your London-based live performance (or streamed UK performance), please send your official press release to: lee.james.broadwood@hotmail.com For more information on the reviews offered by Lee James Broa ..read more

Please be aware that this site, now called The Performance Critic, has a new home on my website, via which all reviews will now be published: www.leejamesbroadwood.com/tpc NB: Lucy Loughnane both co-wrote and performs in this semi-autobiographical play. The character she has written is also called Lucy. To distinguish these three, mentions of ‘Lucy’ will refer to the character with which we are presented; ‘Lucy Loughnane’ or ‘Loughnane’, however, refer to the artist as a performer uniquely; and any considerations of the artist as the co-playwright will be further specified in the text. This re ..read more

Please be aware that this site, now called The Performance Critic, has a new home on my website, via which all reviews will now be published: www.leejamesbroadwood.com/tpc Readers should note that the solo performer of this play shares his name with the main character. Therefore, to distinguish the two, mentions of ‘Alex’ will refer to the character, whereas ‘Alexander Millington’ or ‘Millington’ will refer to the actor himself. This review will consider I Heart Michael Ball, a play written and performed by Alexander Millington and directed by Helen Millington. One notably successful element o ..read more

Please be aware that this site, now called The Performance Critic, has a new home on my website, via which all reviews will now be published: www.leejamesbroadwood.com/tpc This is a truly excellent play, wonderfully written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, and expertly cast, with direction by Wendy Bollard. Comedy is instrumentalised well in the former portion of this text, with quick-witted quips, character idiosyncrasies and the general disparity between the two coaxing us to connect, understand, bond with and enjoy each of the characters respectively. Having drawn us in with such comedic devices, w ..read more

Please be aware that this site, now called The Performance Critic, has a new home on my website, via which all reviews will now be published: www.leejamesbroadwood.com/tpc This performance has seen quite a drastic transformation since I was asked to review it back in 2021, and it is always a pleasure to see how artists refine and reshape their work. I will not treat this review as a study of the performance’s ‘progression’ or ‘development’ from this former version to the current, however. Instead, I will treat this as a unique performance in its own merit, only referencing some notable in-/eff ..read more

Please be aware that this site, now called The Performance Critic, has a new home on my website, via which all reviews will now be published: www.leejamesbroadwood.com/tpc We are presented with a pretty and clean set design (by Georgia Wilmot) as we enter the house, but its relevance to the performance remains entirely questionable, from the colour scheme to the incorporation of the LED lights (lighting design by Laura Howard). Costume, however, whilst perhaps unimaginative to some degree, is coherent and well designed. As for the text itself, this performance suffers a great deal from superfi ..read more

Please be aware that this site, now called The Performance Critic, has a new home on my website, via which all reviews will now be published: www.leejamesbroadwood.com/tpc I found these creatives and their work to be most endearing, and their purpose and incentive honourable. Personally, I had a pleasant evening watching them perform. However, my personal enjoyment of this performance must be distinguished from my critical view of it, hence my writing below. The performers have an excellent chemistry, from encouraging moments of eye contact and smiles at one another, to George’s (Lennan) and C ..read more

Please be aware that this site, now called The Performance Critic, has a new home on my website, via which all reviews will now be published: www.leejamesbroadwood.com/tpc NB: The onstage persona of solo performer Maria Caruso will be referenced in this review as ‘Maria’; any mentions of ‘Maria Caruso’, or simply ‘Caruso’, refer to the real artist herself. What we are presented in this performance is not so much a metamorphosis, or a growth through the various stages of life, as solo performer Maria Caruso explains is her intention, but an impermanent assumption of another identity. This was s ..read more

Please be aware that this site, now called The Performance Critic, has a new home on my website, via which all reviews will now be published: www.leejamesbroadwood.com/tpc This review will consider Bliss, a play written by Phoebe Mills, directed by Léoni Hughes, and currently being staged at the Etcetera Theatre. This is an excellent performance, well-conceived, well written and marvellously performed — perhaps the best cast I have seen in a while, in fact. The story with which we are presented has good intrigue and is coherent and well structured, if slightly predictable, and characters are a ..read more