Five star - Latest Top Rated Stage Reviews from the Guardian

Hamilton review – Broadway hit is now a breathtaking screen sensation
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical is smart, witty, funky and leaves us reflecting on America’s past and future - Arifa Akbar
Pass Over review – Spike Lee directs Antoinette Nwandu’s masterful tragedy
Lee’s 2018 film of Nwandu’s powerful play, written as a response to the shooting of Trayvon Martin, resonates after the George Floyd killing - Arifa Akbar
Wilkie Branson: TOM review – a sublime, slow-burn study of isolation
Part dance performance, part film, this solo show is a note-perfect portrayal of the all-consuming nature of loneliness - Lyndsey Winship
A Separate Peace review – Stoppard gem earns an ovation from the sofa
David Morrissey headed up a cast united on Zoom for a show that took on poignant new meaning and exuded theatrical joy - Mark Lawson
The Line review – moving drama pays tribute to pandemic first responders
The Public’s emotive and effective hour-long play uses actors, including Lorraine Toussaint and Alison Pill, to share powerful testimonials - Alexis Soloski
Toast review – a fresh twist on Nigel Slater's childhood tales
The chef’s mouth-watering memoir is now a ‘part radio play, part animated film’ in which even a biscuit is a trigger for grief - Arifa Akbar
Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran review – a world of excess
Performed live on YouTube and Instagram, this play’s study of bling, hedonism and vacuous consumption stands in starker relief than ever - Mark Fisher
Telephone review – dial S for stranger in a night of unexpected connections
Coney’s entrancing combination of storytelling and shared conversation celebrates the history of telecommunications - Miriam Gillinson
Lungs: In Camera review – Claire Foy and Matt Smith mix the personal and planetary
In a physically distanced stage production, performed live to a Zoom audience, Duncan Macmillan’s play acquires new pertinence - Chris Wiegand
work_from_home review – audiences become actors in witty Zoom show
Mixing existential soul-searching with wry comedy, this is an adventurous production starring its viewers - Mark Fisher
Rush review – Rupert Everett searches for the meaning of monogamy
A gay love triangle leads to a generational battle over over queer identity in a beguiling, Zoom-broadcast comedy of manners - Arifa Akbar
Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads review – still a masterclass in storytelling
Thirty-two years on, Bennett’s TV monologues have lost none of their impact – as Imelda Staunton’s menacing take on Patricia Routledge’s poison-pen shocker shows - Lucy Mangan
Eddie Pepitone: For the Masses review – cult angry comic on bracing form
The gruff comic from Brooklyn appals and entertains as he rages against the debauchery of modern America - Brian Logan
Show Me a Good Time review – an extraordinary 12-hour theatre marathon
Anglo-German theatre group Gob Squad take to the streets of Berlin, London and Sheffield with a 12-hour livestreamed feat of connection - Kate Wyver
Homemakers review – future dreams and present nightmares
Manchester’s Home stages a lockdown all-nighter exploring students’ dreams, alongside time-capsule plays about spiralling social media horrors and disrupted lives - Catherine Love
The Protest review – superb set of dramas for the Black Lives Matter movement
Pain, anger and everyday racism are examined in this powerful series of short films from the Bush theatre - Arifa Akbar
Rockets and Blue Lights review – swirling journey through black history
Winsome Pinnock’s play, responding to JMW Turner’s Slave Ship painting, is a timely contribution to the Black Lives Matter campaign - Mark Fisher
A Kind of Magic review – Magical Bones casts a spell during dazzling hour of Zoom tricks
Deception is rife and amazement is constant in this uplifting night of gripping tricks, full of audience interaction - Ella Braidwood
Continuity review – gripping study of Irish republican terror
In Gerry Moynihan’s monologue, recorded at the Finborough in 2017, Paul Kennedy gives a magnificent performance - Arifa Akbar
Plymouth Point review – dare you solve this thrilling mystery?
Scour the internet for clues in this hysterical whodunnit from two Punchdrunk alumni – which, for all its immersive trickery, is first and foremost a cracking piece of storytelling - Miriam Gillinson
About the Elephant review – tender duet shimmers in lockdown
BBC Young Dancer winners Connor Scott and Vidya Patel bring together two different styles in a compelling collaboration - Lyndsey Winship
Adventures with the Painted People review – Greig's romance has irresistible spark
A Roman soldier falls under the spell of a Pictish woman in this poetic radio play that holds up a mirror to modern Britain - Arifa Akbar
Comedy at the Covid Arms review – the perfect formula for lockdown standup
Consummate host Kiri Pritchard-McLean sets the stage for Frankie Boyle and others in a show with true comedy-club feel - Brian Logan
Jen Brister: Meaningless review – a furiously funny blast of rage
With weariness and seething frustration, the comedian sounds off in style about gender inequality and sexism - Brian Logan
Mata Hari review – seductive study of an irresistible woman
Anna Tsygankova is utterly graceful as the exotic dancer in Ted Brandsen’s fine ballet for Dutch National Ballet - Lyndsey Winship
Scenes for Survival review – Brian Cox is Inspector Rebus under lockdown
Ian Rankin’s stalwart detective struggles with self-isolation in one of six quarantine-themed short films from the National Theatre of Scotland - Mark Fisher
Groomed review – horrifyingly honest study of abuser and abused
Patrick Sandford makes an astonishing dramatisation of childhood abuse and its consequences over a lifetime in this eloquent film - Arifa Akbar
Hannah Gadsby: Douglas review – crusading comedy with great gags
Gadsby follows up her hit show Nanette with a swaggering set that blazes with well-earned confidence - Brian Logan
Unprecedented review – making gripping drama out of corona crisis
Headlong’s superb series explores lockdown life, with a cast including Alison Steadman, Katherine Parkinson, Lennie James and Gemma Arterton - Arifa Akbar
James Cousins review – power and creative vision in three short films
The award-winning Within Her Eyes and two more experimental dance works reveal the storytelling strengths of this talented choreographer - Lyndsey Winship
Love, Loss and What I Wore review – all dressed up by the Ephron sisters
A starry cast muse on first bras, prom dresses, marriage and motherhood in Nora and Delia Ephron’s magnificent celebration of clothes – and life - Arifa Akbar
End Meeting for All review – brilliant and bewitching Zoom dramas
Forced Entertainment improvise online conversations that cut to the confusion and frustrations of lockdown - Kate Wyver
Midnight Your Time review – Diana Quick's quietly tragic portrait of motherhood
The story of a woman in London trying desperately to connect online with her daughter in Palestine suits these isolated times well - Arifa Akbar
Flatpack screendance festival review – dance that leaps through the screen
These short works, which include performances by a dream lineup of choreographers, are an array of innovation - Lyndsey Winship
Coriolanus review – orgiastic frenzy in a modern-day setting
André Sills dominates the stage as a leader hungry for battle in Robert Lepage’s up-to-date take on Shakespeare’s tragedy - Mark Fisher
Jerry Seinfeld: 23 Hours to Kill review – sublime standup from Mr Generic
Finding a novel angle on everything from Pop-Tarts to the annoyances of modern technology, the American everyman is still on sparkling form - Brian Logan
Homemakers review – gothic horror and mascara-smeared meltdown
Ad Infinitum conjure a surreal world from the Covid-19 pandemic, while Bryony Kimmings unravels flamboyantly - Arifa Akbar
The Good Book review – a taut half-hour of dystopia
James Phillips’s clash of near-future and Arthurian legend imagines patriotic nostalgia taken to extremes, if your nerves can take it - Catherine Love
Maria Bamford: Weakness is the Brand – a comic totally in command
Therapy, foreplay and the nature of standup all fall into the crosshairs of a scattergun show that never fails to find its target - Brian Logan
Clowns review – a blast of bloodlust from the brilliant Hofesh Shechter
Shechter’s work begins in Regency-esque civility and ends in an orgy of highly choreographed violence - Lyndsey Winship
The Way Out review – join Omid Djalili on a whirl through wonderland
The labyrinthine corridors of Battersea Arts Centre become a rabbit hole of live acts in this bewitching single-take film - Arifa Akbar
The Tempest review – interactive online production goes down a storm
Given a portal to Prospero’s island by Zoom, the audience become the most excited characters in this mischievous and magical version of Shakespeare’s fantasy - Miriam Gillinson
Now I’m Fine review – candid gem mixes standup and mesmerising music
Ahamefule J Oluo’s 2014 show about having an autoimmune disease is a moving hybrid of comedy, theatre and jazz - Arifa Akbar
Where Do We Go Next? review – theatrical idealism at a critical time
Bunker theatre’s six short films should inspire some fruitful reflection by the theatre industry during coronavirus lockdown - Arifa Akbar
L'École des femmes review – #MeToo times add bite to Molière comedy
A controlling fool in love comes across more like a sexual predator in this engagingly perceptive Stéphane Braunschweig production for France’s Théâtre de l’Odéon - Mark Fisher
BalletBoyz: Deluxe review – striking dances packed with talent
Michael Nunn and William Trevitt are characteristically unpredictable as they launch the Facebook Premieres series from Sadler’s Wells - Lyndsey Winship
The Seven Streams of the River Ota review – magic in motion
Robert Lepage’s extraordinary, seven-hour-long fusion of horror, romance and French farce - Susannah Clapp
Barefoot in the Park review – Neil Simon's newlyweds in a riveting ritual
Jessica Hardwick and Olivier Huband are compelling as a young couple facing harsh realities once their honeymoon ends - Mark Fisher
The Metamorphosis review – Kafka classic becomes metaphor for pandemic
Kafka’s story is given a chilling update that chimes with our times, referencing the migrant crisis, the gig economy and fear of the unknown - Mark Fisher
The Marriage of Figaro review – superb singing in hilarious staging
A simple yet effective conceit is one of the revelations in a production strong on witty detail and anarchic stylisation - Flora Willson
The Seven Streams of the River Ota review – pushes boundaries of theatrical possibility
Robert Lepage’s dazzling epic explores human resilience in the face of global trauma with elegance and imagination - Arifa Akbar
Northern Ballet: Geisha review – potent fusion of romantic dance and Japanese horror
This lavish production uses cinematic design to chilling effect and terrific choreography to drive the drama - Sanjoy Roy
Tylwyth (Kin) review – crowd-pleasing Cardiff drama revisits old friends
Daf James follows up his sensational 2010 play Llwyth with a return to its characters a decade on - Gareth Llŷr Evans
Love, Love, Love review – baby boomers v generation austerity
Mike Bartlett’s brilliant play follows a couple trying, and failing, to keep family together - Arifa Akbar
Jury Duty review – trial-by-audience is cheekily enjoyable
Working with other audience members, you decide whether a defendant is guilty of murder in this fun bit of lockdown theatre - Miriam Gillinson
Hannibal Buress: Miami Nights review – comic reflects on his arrest
Buress revisits the story of his 2017 arrest for disorderly intoxication in an enjoyable online set that uses technology creatively - Brian Logan
Meg Stalter: Little Miss Ohio review – happy parade of hopeless wannabes
In Stalter’s sharply observed, bittersweet character comedy, a string of awkward talkative types bare their souls - Brian Logan
Birdsong review – innovative lockdown staging of Faulks’s war saga
This socially distanced adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’s novel cleverly moves between times and places, with only an author narration striking a wayward note - Arifa Akbar
Razed and Confuzed Go Digital review – queer cabaret's night out at home
Drag artists play to an invisible audience in a series of recorded works that have a sense of protest at heart - Kate Wyver
The Last Five Years review – poignant deconstruction of a marriage
There are astute lyrics and energetic performances in this tale of a relationship, from first night to marriage to break-up - Arifa Akbar
Who's Your Baghdaddy review – a surreal, musical support meeting for Iraq war architects
Off-Broadway musical satire dives into Australian live-streaming with a cast of vocal powerhouses and no hint of video lag - Cassie Tongue
Declan review – stinging tale of loss, loneliness and sexual discovery
The absence of an audience increases the sense of desolation in writer-performer Alistair Hall’s compelling monologue - Chris Wiegand
WeRNotVirus review – responses to a pandemic of racism
Ten short plays responding to the rise in racist attacks since the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak have a cumulative power - Arifa Akbar
Gina Brillon: The Floor is Lava review – a deft dance across class divides
Quinoa, veganism and lakehouses are ticked off on the Bronx comic’s journey to affluence but her charm shines through - Brian Logan
Jigsy review – Les Dennis sheds tears of a clown for comedy's lost era
The scuzzy end of show business and all its sozzled, sentimental excesses are captured by the ex-standup in a heartfelt monologue - Brian Logan
The Time Machine: A Virtual Reality review – a sleek voyage through the fourth wall
HG Wells’ dystopian classic is recast as a live online event in this sleek telling that veers between hope and despair - Miriam Gillinson
Artificial Things review – Sophie Fiennes directs slow journey towards joy
Stopgap Dance Company’s disabled and non-disabled dancers create a mood of quiet suspension in an abandoned shopping centre - Lyndsey Winship
A School for Fools review – Belarus Free Theatre's audacious lockdown challenge
The company’s years of operating underground inform a dynamic approach to online drama that goes far beyond talking heads - Arifa Akbar
Smoking Gun review – week-long interactive whistleblower thriller
Participants delve into the dodgy dealings of a Tory MP and big pharma in this clever blend of theatre and gaming - Miriam Gillinson
Stamptown Comedy Night review – flying the flag for leftfield comedy
Live cabaret becomes alternative sketch show as the Stamptown gang make merry with Zoom-era laughs - Brian Logan
Good Girl review – one woman's quest to inhabit her body
Naomi Sheldon fuses comedy with candour as she tracks a woman’s sexual journey from liberated teen to anguished adult - Arifa Akbar
Anno Domino review – marital woe and toxic politics in Ayckbourn's lockdown play
The playwright and his wife, actor Heather Stoney, play all eight parts – from 70-somethings to teenagers – in his 84th drama - Arifa Akbar
Lenny Bruce is Out Again review – the sound of distilled provocation
Sixty years on, the taboo-busting comic can seem incoherent and insensitive but there’s no doubting his masterful wordplay - Brian Logan
Party Skills for the End of the World review – a wild night out … without leaving the sofa
Booze, music and martial-arts lessons are punctuated by existential musings in this delightfully strange virtual blowout - Arifa Akbar
What Do We Need To Talk About? review – addictive family drama
The Apple siblings from Richard Nelson’s quartet of plays return on a Zoom call to talk about life in lockdown - Arifa Akbar
What Once Was Ours review – voices of a disunited family and nation
The story of a pair of estranged siblings in the aftermath of the Brexit vote is brought to life by the startlingly honest views of a range of young people - Miriam Gillinson
Alonzo King Lines Ballet review – hot and cool moves from a master
Dust and Light, Triangle of the Squinches and Scheherazade showcase the elegant nature of King’s work, which pushes beyond classical ballet - Lyndsey Winship
Breaking Glass review – a suite of female composers smashing the mould for Australian arts
A showcase of four new operatic acts by women takes to the virtual stage, inspired by everything from Sylvia Plath to the eradication of wildlife - Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore
Zara review – giant baby leads her army into your living room
Mind the Gap’s enormous outdoor production boldly tackles the stigma faced by a mum with learning disabilities - Kate Wyver
Five from Inside review – the inner workings of the mind in isolation
From a violent prisoner to a haunted children’s entertainer, these up-close-and-personal new monologues by Rona Munro show us characters in retreat from the outside world - Mark Fisher
Winged Bull in the Elephant Case review – dancers take over the National Gallery
Paintings are given elastic life in this energetic showcase, which reimagines the collection’s extraordinary wartime evacuation to a Welsh slate mine - Lyndsey Winship
Americana Kamikaze review – film noir and Japanese horror chill reality into a dream
Temporary Distortion’s stage scarer uses filmic elements to gripping and claustrophobic effect in a story of infidelity and murder - Arifa Akbar
Alice Fraser: Savage review – artful comedy from private trauma
With this adroit and thoughtful show about death and sadness, the Australian standup has her audience in tears - Brian Logan
New Movement Collective review – eerie journeys into Auster and Homer
There are striking moments in the films of this dance group’s performances, inspired by New York Trilogy and The Odyssey - Lyndsey Winship
The Beast Will Rise review – intense solos for a world in isolation
Gators and Zarabooshka, the first instalments in a new 14-part series of monologues by Philip Ridley, feature anxious characters marooned in confusing times - Arifa Akbar
Mushy: Lyrically Speaking review – smart musical about Educating Yorkshire star
This touching show about the schoolboy and reality TV stand-out Musharaf Asghar is compellingly performed - Arifa Akbar
Sincerely Louis CK review – standup returns with not-quite apology
The comedian’s first comedy special since he was disgraced in 2017 is heavy on self-pity and won’t appease those outraged by his behaviour - Brian Logan
Crossings review – unlikely friendships help heal war's horrors
Deirdre Kinahan’s touching drama about homosexuality and women’s lives celebrates song, dance and the comfort of theatre - Arifa Akbar
Hamlet review – the Wooster Group resurrect Richard Burton's Dane
John Gielgud’s 1964 production of Shakespeare’s play haunts this meta-spectacle that questions the nature of performance - Kate Wyver
The Croft review – a contagion story with uncanny resonance
Moving between three timelines of women who go against the grain, Philip Franks’s haunted-house production cranks up the tension - Arifa Akbar
Bubble review – Facebook furore is perfect fit for lockdown era
This experimental piece plays out in comment threads delivered direct to camera and raises important questions about theatre on the internet - Catherine Love
Stay at Home festival review – Mark Gatiss's dystopia flashbacks kick off comedy series
The Sherlock star joined Robin Ince and Josie Long’s daily online broadcast to self-isolated comedy fans – and the results were rallying - Brian Logan
Coriolanus review – a vivid, fast-flowing production
Robert Hastie makes the most of the now-nostalgic shared space between audience and cast - Clare Brennan
The Wicker Husband review – puppets weave a feisty fable for our times
This folk musical about a lonely fisherwoman looking for love boldly puts a puppet in the role of the leading man - Arifa Akbar
The Special Relationship review – compelling tales in Trump cabaret
Six almost-Americans narrate stories of cruelties inflicted when being expelled from the US - Brian Logan
Six review – Henry VIII's wives bring empty pop spectacle to Broadway
A flashy, concert-style musical offers some virtuosic performances but also a rather shallow take on female empowerment - Alexis Soloski
Nixon in Agony review – Berkoff gets inside disgraced president's head
Richard Nixon’s downfall may be resonant with our age, but in Adam Donen’s experimental sound dramatisation the psychological noise drowns out the story - Arifa Akbar
Steven Berkoff's Tell Tale Heart review – voraciously hammy gothic
There are fine grisly moments and a creepy score, but Berkoff’s lurid performance stymies the horror of Poe’s murder tale - Cath Clarke
Mrs Puntila and Her Man Matti review – socialist satire starved of humour
The comic talents of Elaine C Smith and Steven McNicoll can’t save Denise Mina’s stilted, gender-switching adaptation of a Bertolt Brecht comedy - Clare Brennan
Afterplay review – Brian Friel's Chekhovian parlour game
Friel’s mashup of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya and Three Sisters is an exciting prospect, but this production lacks chemistry - Arifa Akbar