Playhouse
The Book of Mormon
★★★☆☆ Problematic
The juggernaut that is The Book of Mormon rolls into the Playhouse in all its filthy excess for an extended stay until Saturday 8 October, 2022.
Billionaire Boy
★★☆☆☆ Unfocussed
The Birmingham Stage Company’s adaptation of David Walliams’ Billionaire Boy splutters into the Playhouse for a half dozen performances, wearing its fun on its sleeve but failing to fizzle as it might.
Footloose the Musical
★★★☆☆ Still Rockin’
Footloose The Musical at the Edinburgh Playhouse has audiences kicking off their Sunday shoes all week, or at least until this Saturday 27 July, in the return of this big touring production.
The Lion King
★★★★☆ A roaring success
Disney’s The Lion King, at the Edinburgh Playhouse until July 2, is a sensory feast of colour, music and puppetry. Whether you have seen the classic Disney movie numerous times or never before, it is a spectacular musical that does not disappoint.
Derren Brown: Showman
★★★★★ Personal
Derren Brown is at the Playhouse all week with Showman, his first new show for six years and, without doubt, a different show to the one he might have been planning on staging before Covid.
Dreamgirls
★★★★☆ Enduring success
The plot of Dreamgirls, which arrives that the Playhouse for an extended fortnight run until April 16, could be an instruction manual for music moguls.
Hairspray
★★★★☆ Pump up the volume
Unlikely civil rights heroine Tracy Turnblad dances her way to a social justice triumph as Hairspray returns to the Playhouse for a week until Saturday and comes back to Glasgow at the end of the month.
Bat Out of Hell
★★★★☆ The Bat is Back
Three weeks after the death of Meat Loaf, Bat Out Of Hell, the musical based on the album and songs that made him a household name, roars onto the Playhouse stage for a fortnight’s residency.
School of Rock – The Musical
★★★★☆ Belting
Heads up pop pickers! School of Rock – The Musical, which grooves onto the Playhouse stage for a week until Saturday, is a big fat bundle of anarchic rocking-out and feel-good wish-fulfilment.
White Christmas
★★★★☆ Big and bright
The Curve Theatre’s big touring production of White Christmas brightens the Playhouse stage like a clear sky after a night fall of snow, bringing both warmth and crisp definition in its wake.
