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Top Shows to See

Akhnaten

LONDON COLISEUM

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La bohème

LONDON COLISEUM

This performance marks the fourth revival of Sir Jonathan Miller's La bohème. It also comes conveniently in time to mark 40 years since Miller's directorial debut at the ENO. This production of La bohème is an intricate weaving of details which piece together to make a remarkably naturalistic and simple, yet wonderful, masterpiece.

Company

GIELGUD THEATRE

​Marianne Elliott's production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Company stars Rosalie Craig, Patti Lupone and Mel Giedroyc. With a couple of gender swaps here and there, resulting in a female lead, a gay couple, and a stay at home dad married to a career driven woman, the musical has been revamped so that it feels as contemporary and relevant today as it must have done for its original audience.​

42nd Street

THEATRE ROYAL DRURY LANE

42nd Street has been open at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane for little over a year and I have recently been lucky enough to see it.
Lulu has just joined the cast, in the iconic role of Dorothy Brock, and she will be performing in that role until 7th July.

Caroline, Or Change

HAMPSTEAD THEATRE (transferring to the West End)

Caroline, Or Change has been such a roaring success that it is almost impossible to get a ticket other than a return for its run at the Hampstead Theatre. I was lucky enough to get such a ticket, and it was well worth the wait.

Nine Night

NATIONAL THEATRE (​now at Trafalgar Studios)

Natasha Gordon's play Nine Night is, I believe, the perfect play to be putting on at the National Theatre - the theatre that is for everyone.

Now In Archives

Lucia di Lammermoor

LONDON COLISEUM

​The ENO's production of Lucia di Lammermoor is returning after 8 years. It isn't difficult to understand why there has been such excitement around this opera; its story line is easy  to understand, the music is beautiful and the production's design makes it arresting and deeply poignant.

ear for eye

ROYAL COURT THEATRE

debbie tucker green's ear for eye (all intentionally lower case) is a punchy play in three parts, lasting just over 2 hours without an interval. It storms against racial injustice in the UK and the US, and shows the fire in young black people who are fighting relentlessly for change, as well as showing the roots of racial segregation and discrimination.​

Porgy and Bess

LONDON COLISEUM

​​Host to some iconic songs such as 'Summertime' and 'It Ain't Necessarily So', the Gershwin brothers' Porgy and Bess is being performed by the ENO for the first time in history. When I have seen Porgy and Bess before it has been in a musical version, with spoken text and then the main tunes sung. Here, at the London Coliseum, it is being performed in all its original operatic glory.

Salome

LONDON COLISEUM

The story of Salome is rather intriguing, and its somewhat scandalous subject matter is part of the cause for it's success. Strauss' opera is as shocking now as it would have been when first performed in 1905. The opera is based off a book of the same name by Oscar Wilde and is set in Ancient Judaea. 

I And You

Review by Upstaged Reviewer Charlotte C
HAMPSTEAD THEATRE

​Going to see new plays in off west end theatres is always thrilling and the Hampstead Theatre was certainly alive! There was a bustling, feverish atmosphere with people chatting excitedly about this new play written by Lauren Gunderson, the most produced playwright in America of 2017. I And You stars Maisie Williams as Caroline whose previous work includes Game of Thrones, and Zach Wyatt as Anthony.

The Woods

ROYAL COURT THEATRE

​The Woods by Robert Alan Evans is certainly an interesting play. While I'm not entirely sure what exactly it was about, the production itself was quite breath-taking.

Twelfth Night

YOUNG VIC

To kick off Kwame Kwei-Armah's first season as artistic director of the Young Vic is a musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. It is imaginative, fun and vibrant, set in the run up to Notting Hill Carnival in a West London street between two rows of brightly coloured terraced houses. Costumes are bright and colourful and the stage is busy and buzzing with energy.

Eugenius

THE OTHER PALACE

​Eugenius! has been billed as the "most hotly anticipated new musical" of the year and is returning to The Other Palace after a highly successful run earlier this year! The Other Palace is the home for new and developing musicals, and Eugenius! has landed here after first being performed at The London Palladium back in June 2016.

The King and I

THE LONDON PALLADIUM

Arguably the most hotly anticipated Musical of the summer. This show stopping production of The King and I has officially landed with its two famous Broadway stars in tow.​

National Theatre. New Views -
If We Were Older

NATIONAL THEATRE

New Views is the National Theatre’s annual playwriting competition for 14 to 19-year-olds, where students in schools and colleges around the UK have the opportunity to take part in an online writing course, visits to productions at the NT and workshops with professional playwrights, with the aim of writing their own 30 minute plays.

Little Shop Of Horrors

REGENT'S PARK OPEN AIR THEATRE

In the middle of a black and white set, three girls dressed in green come onto stage and burst into song. Renee Lamb, Christina Modestou and Seyi Omooba are fantastic as the street urchins Chiffon, Ronnette and Crystal. Each equipped with a fabulous voice and some sharp choreography, they kick the show off to a fiery start. 

Pericles

NATIONAL THEATRE

Shakespeare's Pericles, here in a version by Chris Bush with music by Jim Fortune, is the first Public Acts production with a cast of over 200 people from local communities, including only a handful of professional actors and actresses. The company are of all different ages, shapes and sizes, coming from a vast range of different cultural and religious backgrounds. 

Pressure


David Haig's play is another transfer from Chichester and is, like many others before it, West End bound. It tells the largely unknown story of Dr James Stagg, one of the unsung heroes of World War 2. As Chief Meteorological Officer for the Allied Forces , it was down to him and fellow American meteorologist Colonel Irving Krick to forecast the weather for D-Day - Monday 5th June 1944 - a job that would determine the fate of thousands of soldiers.

The Turn of the Screw

REGENTS PARK OPEN AIR THEATRE

​On the website of Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, it says that the opera will be starting at 8 o'clock as it has a running time of 2 hours; slightly shorter than usual. This is to allow for the sun to set, and to provide a suitably eerie atmosphere for the spooky content of the play. And boy was it worth it!​
Read previous reviews from productions that have now come off.

 About Upstaged

 Upstaged is a new performing arts magazine and website for people in secondary school. I started it to encourage more people my age to go to the theatre and explore the wealth of productions that are available in London. I have had a love of the theatre my whole life and wanted to continue to learn new things about the industry as I got older. I felt that there was a gap in the market for reviews by and for young adults and decided that by starting Upstaged I could continue learning and discovering new things about the theatre whilst filling that gap! From a young age I would cry at the end of a show because I didn't want it to finish! Upstaged gives me, and hopefully other young people in the future, a platform to express all the thoughts, emotions and ideas after a show, of which there are usually a multitude!

Get in touch here!