Five star - Latest Top Rated Stage Reviews from the Guardian

The Nutcracker review – in every sense a delight
It’s an unhappy Christmas for the mice again, but otherwise the Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker is dreamlike perfection - Luke Jennings
Fiddler on the Roof review – Trevor Nunn's magnificent revival
With antisemitism on the rise, Tevye’s struggles with the tsar’s thugs are powerfully topical in this note-perfect production - Mark Lawson
Wendy and Peter Pan review – a blast of fairy dust
Ella Hickson’s adaptation of JM Barrie’s story is a funny and heartbreaking coming-of-age tale for its swashbuckling heroine - Mark Fisher
The Silver Tassie review – superb, fiery outing for Turnage's first world war masterpiece
This concert staging of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s opera based on Sean O’Casey’s play was forcefully conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth and sung by a consistently strong cast - Tim Ashley
The Watsons review – Austen heroine brought stunningly back to life
In Laura Wade’s bold and playful adaptation of Austen’s unfinished novel, the mutinous characters threaten to take control of the drama - Michael Billington
James Acaster review – a comedy genius at the peak of his powers
The standup refines his intricate tales with a note of personal poignancy for a set that will leave you drunk on its brilliance - Brian Logan
Snowflake review – Mike Bartlett's Christmas drama for a divided Britain
A masterfully written generational clash lies at the heart of this timely story rich in insight, poignancy and optimism - Michael Billington
Doctor Faustus review – devilishly smart show is a hell of a lot of fun
Jocelyn Jee Esien and Pauline McLynn are on glorious form and bring out the glee in Marlowe’s macabre classic - Miriam Gillinson
Mouthpiece review – provocative dialogue gives voice to working-class frustration
Kieran Hurley’s gripping Edinburgh-set two-hander confronts the economic divide in the city and the stranglehold the middle-classes have on the arts - Mark Fisher
The Model Apartment review – outrageously funny and breathtakingly horrifying
Diana Quick and Ian Gelder star as Holocaust survivors moving from New York to Florida in this superb production of Donald Margulies’s 80s black comedy - Clare Brennan
The Producers review – Brooks's bonfire of good taste still burns brightly
Raz Shaw’s riotous revival of Mel Brooks’s musical meisterwerk offers as much fun as you’ll find on a stage this Christmas - Michael Billington
Icon review – Antony Gormley's amazing feat of dancing, churning clay
GöteborgsOperans Danskompani paired the sculptor with choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui for this thrilling piece exploring how we mould and remould ourselves - Lyndsey Winship
The Model Apartment review – Diana Quick lifts up tale of broken American dreams
Donald Margulies’ exploration of a couple living with the lingering trauma of the Holocaust is profoundly touching - Kate Maltby
Phantom Rides Again! review – a grotesque return to the dawn of cinema
Performance stalwarts Good Cop Bad Cop present a wry, playful and genre-defying show based around the work of an early film director - Gareth Llŷr Evans
Dick Whittington review – a winning London fantasia
Cariad Lloyd and Jude Christian’s panto boasts a nice balance of trashy and innocent, a charismatic cast and a warm spirit of fun - Brian Logan
Darbar festival review – Akram Khan's spellbinding taster of Indian dance
Curated by Khan, this celebration of classical Indian music dips into dance forms boasting symmetry, balance and beauty - Lyndsey Winship
Torch review – so real it makes you want to reach out and help
This site-specific immersive theatre piece about local women’s lives across the decades inspires kindness and debate - Miriam Gillinson
The Knot review – till Instagram do us part
In puncturing the pomp of a wedding day, Didy Veldman also spotlights the biggest debate in ballet today - Luke Jennings
The Maids review – Jean Genet's would-be murderers set pulses racing
The playwright’s prison time inspires an all-male production that is dazzling, dangerous and captivatingly queasy - Catherine Love
Don't Forget the Birds review – mother and daughter tackle life after prison
Playing themselves with humour, grace and honesty, a former inmate and her daughter tell their story and reveal their bond - Mark Fisher
Royal Ballet: The Unknown Soldier / Infra / Symphony in C review – bittersweet beauty
Alastair Marriott’s evocation of conflict is caught between gracefulness and tragedy while Wayne McGregor and George Balanchine still shine - Lyndsey Winship
David O'Doherty review – delightfully daft tonic in troubled times
From imagining Enya as president to a disappointing encounter with Leonardo da Vinci, the Irish whimsy merchant delivers oodles of soothing silliness - Brian Logan
They Don’t Pay? We Won’t Pay! review – Dario Fo's farce for our times
Pantomime gags drive home the betrayal of the working class in this deft update of Fo’s comic caper - Clare Brennan
The Norman Conquests review – six hours with three very British comedies of domestic despair
Alan Ayckbourn’s trilogy can be seen in any order and is delivered with biting wit that’s always a knife edge away from tragedy - Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore
Hadestown review – musical Orpheus myth is a beguiling fable for today
There are some cracking songs in Rachel Chavkin and Anaïs Mitchell’s haunting journey through the underworld - Michael Billington
La Bayadère review – Ratmansky returns orientalist fantasy to its roots
Alexei Ratmansky’s reconstruction of Marius Petipa’s problematic ballet raises an uncomfortable question - Laura Cappelle
Pinter Three and Four review – terror from Tamsin Greig, and a hilarious Lee Evans
Greig shows nothing is now beyond her range while Evans’s physical comedy is a delight as this short-drama season highlights Pinter’s fascination with marital solitude - Michael Billington
La Bayadère review – moonlit heights from Nuñez and co
Visually intoxicating and beautifully danced – mostly – by the Royal Ballet, Petipa’s Indian romance remains problematic - Luke Jennings
The Madness of George III review – Mark Gatiss is sensational
Through Gatiss, the audience feels the agonies of Alan Bennett’s tormented monarch - Clare Brennan
Pop Music review – life throws shapes on the dancefloor
Anna Jordan tunes into intertwined lives and captures the oblivion and camaraderie of the dancefloor in her new drama - Mark Fisher
The Nightingales review – Ruth Jones on song in catty choir drama
A village choir’s harmony is upset by a sly newcomer in William Gaminara’s satire of snobbery, secrets and singing contests - Arifa Akbar
Don Quixote review – Italy's La Scala Ballet shimmers in Brisbane
Qpac, BrisbaneTeatro alla Scala Ballet Company’s Australian debut is silly, frothy and a crowd-pleaser - Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore
Still No Idea review – disability decoded with piercing honesty
Reviving their 2010 show, Lisa Hammond and Rachael Spence call on the inspiration of strangers to explore changing attitudes to disability - Brian Logan
Under Milk Wood review – Thomas's village moves to north-east England
Staged in the round, Elayce Ismail’s production relocates Dylan Thomas’s dramatic poem about the people of Llareggub - Mark Fisher
The Madness of George III review – Mark Gatiss delivers a tour de force
Gatiss and Adrian Scarborough are electric together in a technically striking outing for Alan Bennett’s modern classic - Kate Maltby
Rambert: Two review – spiky, sassy dancers seize the stage
Rambert showcases its new sister company in Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar’s knockout Killer Pig, plus work by Benoit Swan Pouffer and Rafael Bonachela - Lyndsey Winship
The Funeral Director review – sex, death and religious belief
Iman Qureshi’s award-winning play examines Islamic attitudes to same-sex relationships with grace and dignity - Michael Billington
Close Quarters review – a brave battle of preconceptions
Crucible, SheffieldA crack ensemble delivers Kate Bowen’s timely new play exploring identity and gender through female officers on their first tour of duty - Clare Brennan
Chekhov's First Play review – a pure theatrical thrill-ride
Dead Centre take a wrecking ball to poor 18-year-old Chekhov’s first work, in this wildly playful piece about the elusiveness of meaning - Miriam Gillinson
ear for eye – debbie tucker green's furious dissection of racial injustice
Generational friction, slavery laws and police protocol all come under fierce scrutiny in a stirring three-part study of oppression - Michael Billington
Clod Ensemble: Placebo review – medical science as hypnotic dance
Boundaries between fake and real are blurred and broken in this smart, contagious show that fuses science and art - Lyndsey Winship
Dealing With Clair review – Martin Crimp's fierce swipe at pious yuppies
This revival gains an eerie topicality, yet its ingenious study of moneyed hypocrisy makes it truly timeless - Michael Billington
The Waverly Gallery review – Elaine May dazzles in devastating dementia drama
Kenneth Lonergan’s personal play about a gallery owner losing her memory is a beautifully acted, quietly crushing tragedy - Alexis Soloski
The Unreturning review – three generations search for home
Traverse, EdinburghAnna Jordan’s four-hander for Frantic Assembly, unfolding across time to tell parallel war stories, is performed with heart and focus - Mark Fisher
Did Hans Christian Andersen keep a woman in cage? A Very Very Very Dark Matter review
Bridge theatre, LondonJim Broadbent is brilliantly buffoonish and sadistic in Martin McDonagh’s wildly inventive dismantling of the great Danish storyteller - Michael Billington
Sleeping Beauty review – futuristic panto for the Fortnite generation
Charles Perrault meets Doctor Who in this lively production about a cockney martial-arts princess who travels through time - Michael Billington
The week in theatre: True West; Hole; Fiddler on the Roof – review
Kit Harington and Johnny Flynn slug it out as Sam Shepard’s feuding brothers, women rabble-rouse at the Royal Court, and Trevor Nunn’s revival of Fiddler on the Roof misses its moment - Susannah Clapp
Uncle Vanya review – Terry Johnson brings brutality to Chekhov country
There are vibrant performances in this new version of the Russian masterpiece, directed and written by Johnson - Michael Billington
Hole review – history of female empowerment with heavy gravity
Ellie Kendrick livens up her inventive debut with astrophysics and ancient Greek myth – but it could use more concrete argument - Michael Billington
Hari Kondabolu review – standup's bid to step out of Apu's shadow
In his new show, American Hour, the comedian delivers barbed routines on race, religion and culture wars - Brian Logan
True West review – Harington and Flynn star as Shepard's warring siblings
Kit Harington and Johnny Flynn are good, if slightly mismatched, as the brothers in Sam Shepard’s haunting play - Michael Billington
The Cher Show review – Broadway musical is a mixed bag of pop excess
A jukebox ode to the megastar contains some dazzling numbers but suffers from some clumsy storytelling - Alexis Soloski
Burke and Hare review – a very merry romp about murder
With a cast of three playing multiple characters, this is an energetic telling of the cadaver-supplying criminals - Michael Billington
Jeannie review – return of a spirited Scottish Cinderella
Mairi Hawthorn really gets her teeth into the titular heroine in Aimée Stuart’s 1940 play that creaks with age at times - Michael Billington
Ralegh: The Treason Trial review – out of favour and up for the chop
This atmospheric recreation of Sir Walter Raleigh’s show trial set off many modern echoes and featured strong performances from Simon Paisley Day and Nathalie Armin - Kate Maltby
Billionaire Boy review – bring on the Mintybumfresh
Jon Brittain’s musical adaptation of David Walliams’s tale of Joe Spud, the richest boy in the country, has plenty to sing about - Clare Brennan
Goldilocks and the Three Bears review – a turbocharged panto with pizzazz
Placing the story in the context of two rival circuses, Michael Harrison’s show boasts jugglers, skaters and motorcyclists - Mark Fisher
Macbeth review – potent brew of monstrous majesty and sexual twists
The National Youth Theatre’s urgent, gender-fluid production bubbles with intimacy, brutality and fear - Natalie Haynes
The Maids review – Genet’s poetry breaks free
Director Lily Sykes comes close to the spirit of Genet’s play when she breaks free from her liberty-taking concept - Clare Brennan
Super November review – Josie Long in romcom turned fascist nightmare
Long wrote and stars in this likable genre experiment about mates whose lives take a very weird turn - Peter Bradshaw
The Kneebone Cadillac review – anarchy at the demolition derby
A daughter inherits her dad’s diary and prized car in Carl Grose’s tightly plotted episode of farcical intrigue - Mark Lawson
Russell Brand: My Life by William Shakespeare review – self-help from the Bard
Narrating his life via sonnets and speeches, the motormouth comic delivers a show that is both egotistical and endearing - Brian Logan
Cinderella review – a lovingly made dessert of a panto
Kevin Shaw’s colourful panto is an enjoyable sugar rush seemingly powered by E-numbers - Mark Fisher
Super Duper Close Up review – turning a lens on anxiety in the internet age
The latest from theatre company Made in China is an arresting monologue about an actor prone to panic attacks and phone addiction - Miriam Gillinson
Layla and Majnun review – to hell and Baku with Mark Morris
Morris’s dancers are consigned to margins as the Silkroad Ensemble and two of Azerbaijan’s greatest singers conjure lovelorn drama centre stage - Luke Jennings
Macbeth review – real-life husband and wife make a dynamic duo
Paul Ready and Michelle Terry work brilliantly to create a central relationship that feels intimate and believable - Miriam Gillinson
Love-Lies-Bleeding review – Don DeLillo play is a matter of life and death
The novelist’s drama opens up arguments about assisted death and the point at which life ceases to have meaning - Michael Billington
A Small Place review – Jamaica Kincaid's polemic staged with rage and humour
This inventive performance of Kincaid’s celebrated 1988 essay has the barbed satire and bold message of the original - Arifa Akbar
Skydiving from a Dream review – Scottish Ensemble add interest, if not coherence, to Bach
The string orchestra reunite with Andersson Dance to delve into the subconscious, via the music of Bach, Beethoven and Lutosławski - Rowena Smith
Layla and Majnun review – Yo-Yo Ma and Mark Morris's swirling tragedy
The cellist and choreographer present an ancient Persian love story with striking designs by Howard Hodgkin - Lyndsey Winship
Vessel review – let go and get lost in Sue MacLaine's meditative show
The feelings that words create, rather than their meaning, come to the fore in this quietly revealing piece - Miriam Gillinson
Stephen Fry Live! in Heroes review – myths and Melchett around the fire
Fry’s retelling of Greek myths makes for an engaging evening, but it takes Blackadder and Harry Potter to ignite the audience - Brian Logan
Lands review – romance is a jigsaw puzzle of bouncing trampolines
This initially charming and thoughtful take on a couple in trouble casts hobby-obsession as the villain of the piece - Miriam Gillinson
The Hoes review – Essex girls in Ibiza search for sex and security
Ifeyinwa Frederick’s debut play about three friends on holiday veers from comic to serious in a flash - Michael Billington
Lauren Pattison review – geordie comic's peppy tales of triumph
In her new show, Peachy, Pattison perkily traces her efforts to be young, free and single while coping with mental fragility - Brian Logan
Zoo review – soulmates, sloths and slutty penguins
A Florida zoo curator befriends a British bat enthusiast in Lily Bevan’s engaging pair of interwoven monologues - Michael Billington
White Teeth review – Zadie Smith's 'multiculti' melting pot boils over
Stephen Sharkey adapts Smith’s immigrant tale with zest but struggles to contain the novel’s dizzying temporal leaps - Michael Billington
The Mysteries review – six plays reveal the state of the nation
For this earnest but often profound cycle of plays, Chris Thorpe and Sam Pritchard quarried local experience around the UK - Kate Maltby
The Exorcism review – devilishly tricksy haunted-house tale
Shifting between eerie ghost story and broad comedy, Ross Sutherland’s intriguing solo show about demonic possession never quite makes its intentions clear - Brian Logan
American Son review – excruciatingly relevant race drama
Kerry Washington plays a mother whose son goes missing in a tough, timely play about the dangers of being young and black in America - Alexis Soloski
Placebo review – the feeling is mutual
Clod Ensemble’s latest medical meditation asks audience members to monitor their own reaction to the show - Luke Jennings
Bury the Dead review – fallen soldiers refuse to lie down
Six dead men do not want to be buried in Irwin Shaw’s expressionist but schematic anti-war play from 1936 - Michael Billington
La Bayadère review – Marianela Núñez dances with heart-rending beauty
The loose plotting of the love story is offset by performers who elevate the melodrama to mesmerising levels - Lyndsey Winship
Dave Gorman review – nitpicking fury of a PowerPoint maestro
The comic is on solid form as he deploys graphs, data and ruthless over-thinking to rage against life’s tiny details - Brian Logan
The Wolves review – swaggering, tender tales of women's football
Teenaged soccer players in the US suburbs laugh, gossip and fight in Sarah DeLappe’s play - Arifa Akbar
Birmingham Royal Ballet: Fire and Fury review – flaming hot dancers
Fire ripples through dancers’ bodies in Juanjo Arqués’ vital new work, while David Bintley rekindles his Sun King spectacle - Lyndsey Winship
Soldier On review – veterans and actors join forces to tell military tales
Ex-service personnel work alongside professional actors in Jonathan Lewis’s ingenious piece of meta-theatre - Michael Billington
Ali Siddiq review – charisma and hard-won authenticity from an ex-con
The US standup, who spent six years in a Texas prison, delivers an accomplished set drawing on his misspent youth - Brian Logan
Clear White Light review – Edgar Allan Poe meets the NHS
A fantastical reworking of The Fall of the House of Usher set in a Tyneside psychiatric ward hits all the right notes - Clare Brennan
Medusa review – snakes with overbite
A retelling of the Greek myth for the #MeToo generation makes some clever points but clobbers them home - Luke Jennings
Clear White Light review – a gem of psychiatric gothic-horror folk-rock
The Fall of the House of Usher is restaged in a Tyneside mental hospital in a poignant and politically charged musical - Mark Fisher
Aftermath review – giddy, ridiculous and amusing two-hander
Dancers Eleanor Sikorski and Charlotte Maclean weave patterns of wit and absurdity in Eva Recacha’s quietly radical show - Lyndsey Winship
I and You review – Maisie Williams blazes with a craving for life
Hampstead theatre, LondonThe Game of Thrones star plays a surly death-haunted 17-year-old whose life is changed by a book of poems and an unlikely friendship - Michael Billington
HQ: (I Feel So Mezzaniney) review – follow the warped French maids!
Disaffection trumps dynamism in Steven Warwick and Carlos Maria Romero’s site-responsive piece staged in a co-working space - Lyndsey Winship
The Unknown Soldier review – when ballet loses its way
Alastair Marriott’s new work underlines the difficulties of translating the horrors of trench warfare into dance - Luke Jennings
Dystopian Dream review – climbing the walls with Nitin Sawhney
Choreographers Sébastien Ramirez and Honji Wang interpret a pained but pretty soundtrack of electro-chill loops - Lyndsey Winship
Marcus Brigstocke review – horned comic fails to give devil his due
The comedian performs in the guise of Lucifer on his latest tour, but the material is standard snark - Brian Logan
Forgotten review – troubled tribute to the Chinese erased by history
Daniel York Loh’s twin tale of the Chinese Labour Corps members who head to Europe during the first world war has emotional resonance but fails to come alive on stage - Arifa Akbar
Over the Top review – suffragettes panto staggers from music hall to front line
A well-intentioned comedy show about female war heroes unintentionally undermines its own ambitions - Kate Wyver
King Kong review – Broadway kills the beast in monstrously bad musical
Despite the spectacle of a 2,400lb puppet, a shambolic production doesn’t know what to do with him and any magic quickly evaporates - Alexis Soloski