Five star - Latest Top Rated Stage Reviews from the Guardian

Boland: Journey of a Poet review – a profound portrayal of Eavan Boland’s life
Drawing on her early writings, Colm Tóibín captures the essence of the late Irish poet in this transformative production - Clare Brennan
Kyle Abraham’s When We Fell review – study of stillness and isolation in black and white
The choreographer’s unhurried movements are rendered exquisitely on film by cinematographer Ryan Marie Helfant for New York City Ballet - Lyndsey Winship
Romeo and Juliet review – National Theatre's first film is an ingenious triumph
Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley are captivating as the star-crossed lovers in a wondrous, adventurous production - Arifa Akbar
William Forsythe: The Barre Project review – a half-hour of perfection
With Tiler Peck leading the line with absolute control, William Forsythe’s Zoom-coordinated new work reaps the benefits of creative limitations - Lyndsey Winship
Typical review – Richard Blackwood is mesmerising in poetic tragedy
This superb play draws on the final hours of Christopher Alder, who died in police custody in Hull in 1998 - Arifa Akbar
Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra review – an engrossing celebration of artistic creation
Wayne Blair and Nel Minchin’s beguiling documentary deepens the already magical experience of watching the Indigenous dance company perform - Luke Buckmaster
Weg met Eddy Bellegueule review – a four-way triumph
Playing multiple roles, four young actors dazzle in Eline Arbo’s superb staging of Édouard Louis’s brutal coming-of-age novel - Susannah Clapp
Fun Home review – Alison Bechdel memoir-musical adaptation burrows its way into your heart
Behind the image of a picture-perfect family is a father’s torment and an artist’s attempt to grasp at the truth - Debbie Zhou
New York City Ballet review – Sofia Coppola’s beautiful, intimate portrait
For the company’s spring gala, the director tracks dancers backstage and on stage as they perform Robbins, Balanchine and a new work by Justin Peck - Lyndsey Winship
Rocky Road review – a riveting cat-and-mouse thriller
Tyger Drew-Honey and Kirsten Foster star in Shaun McKenna’s noirish tale of crime and punishment - Arifa Akbar
Dutch National Ballet: Metamorphosis review – exquisite dancing in the dark
Set to Philip Glass’s music, choreographer David Dawson’s new piece – created mostly over Zoom – is a shimmering delight - Lyndsey Winship
The Visiting Hour review – Frank McGuinness’s moving care-home drama
Stephen Rea and Judith Roddy give beautifully nuanced performances as a father and daughter meeting during the Covid-19 pandemic - Helen Meany
TM review – will you be approved to join an international cult?
You are put through a cryptic interview in this ingenious show that tears up theatre’s rulebook to make the spectator the star - Mark Fisher
Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner review – a high-octane interrogation of racism and Twitter
Heavy-hitting issues are discussed at breakneck speed in Jasmine Lee-Jones’ award-winning play, whose Australian debut is directed by Shari Sebbens - Debbie Zhou
Distance Remaining review – pandemic drama takes an uplifting turn
A volunteer driver, a dog walker and an injured elderly woman fight personal lockdown battles – with playwright Stewart Melton’s welcome addition of the determination to prevail - Mark Fisher
Romeo & Juliet review – Jessie Buckley and Josh O’Connor are outstanding
Buckley and O’Connor head a terrific cast in this imaginatively pared down, made-for-TV production - Susannah Clapp
Because the Night review – choose-your-own Hamlet is immersive, enigmatic and just great fun
A reimagined Shakespeare, staged in a warren where the audience is free to wander. What’s not to like? - Stephanie Convery
Father the Father review – confronting a legacy of shame
Gilly Campbell’s autobiographical play about searching for her absent father may be a monologue, but it tells a story much larger than one person’s - Helen Meany
Rambert: Rooms review – thrilling glimpses of private lives
There’s bedroom farce, a lip-sync to Purcell, a Rubik’s Cube contest and much more in this brilliantly executed hour of dance by Jo Strømgren - Lyndsey Winship
Sadie review – lockdown Belfast drama is hilarious and harrowing
Provocative playwright David Ireland returns with a slow-burn character study screened as part of the BBC’s Lights Up festival - Mark Lawson
The New Gospel review – a thrilling and unsettling Easter story
Milo Rau’s film mixes a dramatisation of the crucifixion story with a real-life portrait of exploited migrant workers - Mark Fisher
Hamilton review – Australian cast shines bright and brilliant in blockbuster Broadway show
A triumphant performance as musical moves from Broadway and the West End to Australia - Cassie Tongue
Opera Ballet Vlaanderen: Palmos review – hypnotic instants of connection
Scored in a wash of electronica, Andonis Foniadakis’s technically impressive Palmos is a fantasy of close contact for the lockdown era - Lyndsey Winship
Working from Home review – Johnny Vegas's chaotic pub quiz is a winner
Just the Tonic’s three-hour standup sprawl comes close to the comedy club experience, featuring Matt Forde’s Boris tribute and Jason Byrne’s toilet trumpet alongside Vegas - Brian Logan
Appropriate review – STC production a grand family story in the tradition of Tennessee Williams
Roslyn Packer theatre, SydneyDirected by Wesley Enoch, US playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ tale of a ‘casually dysfunctional’ clan is deeply human and funny - Steve Dow
The Kindling Hour review – Arthurian legend meets Hitchcockian thrills
Audiences try to stop an ancient artefact from falling into the wrong hands in this interactive production - Mark Fisher
The Picture of Dorian Gray review – the ugly face of social media
Eternal youth and beauty exist only online in this thoroughly modern adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s fable, which counts Stephen Fry and Joanna Lumley among its impressive cast - Arifa Akbar
Yellow review – a gripping epic about fascism in Belgium
Part two in NTGent’s Sorrows of Belgium trilogy is a visually arresting account of the rise of the Rex party and the horror of the second world war - Arifa Akbar
Duchess! Duchess! Duchess! review – Meghan inspires explosive drama
In Steppenwolf theatre company’s creepy satire on palace life, two women have an intense teatime meeting - Arifa Akbar
One Hand Tied Behind Us: Betsy; Contactless review – emphatic monologues
Solo voices reverberate in Maxine Peake’s impassioned play about a woman in prison, and Ella Hickson’s roaming story of escape - Susannah Clapp
The Great Gatsby review – two-woman show is a cocktail of stage wizardry
Scenery, sounds, light and casting are treated with endless invention in this charmingly low-key take on Fitzgerald’s classic - Arifa Akbar
Some Old Black Man review – Wendell Pierce and Charlie Robinson are riveting
Intergenerational racism is explored in James Anthony Tyler’s gripping play, as a son and his father try to find a way to live together - Arifa Akbar
Late Night Staring at High Res Pixels review – moreish frenemies drama
As two women compete for the attentions of a middle-aged man, Athena Stevens’ production explores abuse and complicity - Arifa Akbar
Playing Beatie Bow review – oldest of stage tricks bring new Wharf Theatre to vital life
This adaptation of the classic Ruth Park novel feels like a promise that this is still a space for magic - Cassie Tongue
Hymn review – thoughtful black bromance shuns convention
Danny Sapani and Adrian Lester strike up true chemistry in a friendship-themed drama that wears its racial context lightly - Arifa Akbar
Uppercase Print review – a fierce denunciation of Ceaușescu's Romania
Radu Jude dramatises the case of a disenchanted teenager turned in to the secret police in 1980s Romania in this chilling work of filmed theatre - Peter Bradshaw
Good Grief review – tender film-play hybrid hits home
Sian Clifford and Nikesh Patel rehearsed for two days on Zoom before being filmed in a studio in Lorien Haynes’s impressively naturalistic bereavement story - Susannah Clapp
Once Upon a Bridge review – three worlds collide in near-death drama
Inspired by a real incident where a woman was barged into the path of an oncoming bus, Sonya Kelly’s play explores proximity and distance - Helen Meany
Romeo & Juliet review – Verona is a dystopia in trailblazing tragedy
Sam Tutty and Emily Redpath star in an ambitious new version of Shakespeare’s play created with digital wizardry - Arifa Akbar
Dancing Nation review – a powerful reminder of what we're missing
Botis Seva’s BLKDOG, Matthew Bourne’s Spitfire and Shobana Jeyasingh’s Contagion are just three highlights in this celebration of UK dance-making - Sarah Crompton
Fangirls review – delightful musical homage to fandoms, screaming very much encouraged
Seymour Centre, SydneyWitty and agile with a powerhouse cast, Yve Blake’s musical balances serious social reflections with a loving twinkle in its eye - Cassie Tongue
Earwig review – weightlifting, witches and one high-stakes curry
A trip to the gym for some metaphysical exercise opens the Tron theatre’s fascinating series of experimental audio dramas - Mark Fisher
Tim Key review – banter, bathing and terrific poems about our new normal
Key and sidekick Edward Easton deliver a delightful housebound hour of shtick, backchat and verse - Brian Logan
The History of Sketch Comedy review – Keegan-Michael Key's love letter to laughter
The comic actor’s exuberant 10-part history unpicks the nuts-and-bolts of what makes a sketch funny, from overlooked past acts to SNL, and British favourites including the Two Ronnies - Brian Logan
Dancing Nation review – Sadler's Wells extravaganza stretches across three hours
Akram Khan and Natalia Osipova’s poetic duet and Shobana Jeyasingh’s Contagion are highlights in a festival from BBC Arts - Lyndsey Winship
The Inquest review – tangled cold case enthrals amateur sleuths
Viewers collaborate to chase clues and solve a deadly mystery in the follow-up to last year’s Jury Duty - Catherine Love
A Killer Party review – Jason Manford hosts cheery, tuneful murder mystery
The cast of a whodunnit are all suspects when an impresario is found dead in this likably silly, hummable show - Brian Logan
Tennis Elbow review – a nonstop rally of jokes
John Byrne revisits the terrain of his 1977 hit spoof Writer’s Cramp to follow the fortunes of artist Pamela Crichton Capers - Susannah Clapp
Listen Up review – a standup, a rapper and a playwright in a lonely theatre
Lauren Pattison, Kay Greyson and Richard Boggie deliver audio plays about stage disasters, a sobering drinks interval and playing to an audience of none - Brian Logan
Tennis Elbow review – rambunctious ride through an awful artist’s life
In a twist on John Byrne’s debut Writer’s Cramp, this is a fast-paced spoof hagiography of pulpy romance author Pamela Crichton Capers - Arifa Akbar
Money review – find a way out of capitalism’s moral maze
This ingenious show featuring Mel Giedroyc casts its audience as board members of a charity and presents them with a dilemma - Catherine Love
Love in the Lockdown review – a virtual romance drawn with emotional subtlety
This moreish serial drama finds new terrain with excellent performances from Rachael Stirling and Alec Newman - Arifa Akbar
Aviva review – an experimental study of love, sex and gender
Director Boaz Yakin explores through dance the male and female aspects of his central characters, each played by both a man and a woman - Cath Clarke
The Winter’s Tale review – RSC and BBC film is a purist version of theatre on screen
Covid-postponed production moves the play to the 1950s but lacks the inventiveness of the National’s recent Romeo and Juliet - Arifa Akbar
A Splinter of Ice review – Graham Greene and Kim Philby clink glasses
Ben Brown’s new play imagining the author’s Moscow meeting with his former MI6 colleague fails to truly chill - Susannah Clapp
Starstruck review – Rose Matafeo stars in a millennial fairytale
Co-written by the standup and Alice Snedden, this series about a struggling twentysomething who has a one-night stand with a film star is both improbable and rather enjoyable - Lucy Mangan
Ghosts review – writing the enslaved back into Glasgow’s past
Adura Onashile’s app-based walking tour, created with the National Theatre of Scotland, explores the city’s historical ties to the slave trade - Mark Fisher
Every Dollar is a Soldier/With Money You’re a Dragon review – haunting history
This promenade performance contrasts the fortunes of a millionaire with the lives of less privileged Chinese migrants - Lyndsey Winship
Miss Julie review – Strindberg spiked with the politics of empire
Playwright Amy Ng adds issues of imperial exploitation and race by moving drama of wealthy woman and servant to Hong Kong in 1948 - Mark Fisher
Meet the Richardsons review – sofa, so good for this comedy couple
Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont’s domestic mockumentary returns for a second series, with fewer meta jokes but just as much fun - Rebecca Nicholson
Stuttgart Ballet review – Beethoven trio plays with desire and despair
The premiere of Mauro Bigonzetti’s Einssein is one of a trio of pieces set to sonatas and showcasing suffocating relationships - Lyndsey Winship
Meet Jan Black review – touching tribute to theatre's lost year
Johnny McKnight’s warm-hearted play, live-streamed from the Gaiety theatre in Ayr, reflects on what we’ve missed most about performance - Mark Fisher
Aljaž & Janette: Remembering the Oscars review – Strictly stardust at the movies
The TV pro couple’s take on favourite routines delivers fans a fizzing taste of the full-length stage show waiting in the wings - Lyndsey Winship
Inside review – trio of anxious lockdown studies
Deborah Bruce’s grief-stricken monologue Guidesky and I is the pick of the Orange Tree theatre’s introspective bunch - Arifa Akbar
Angela review – Mark Ravenhill's tale of dance and dementia
The playwright takes us inside the mind of his late mother in a poignant audio play that dramatises her shifting sense of self - Arifa Akbar
Stop Girl review – journalist Sally Sara's debut play crawls into the dark heart of trauma
Semi-autobiographical stage work from Walkley-winning foreign correspondent is smartly structured but almost too grounded - Cassie Tongue
Adventurous review – Zoom dating drama is warmly witty
Ian Hallard’s entertaining romance is full of conversational crossed wires and social awkwardness - Arifa Akbar
All on Her Own Review – a curio of repressed emotion
Janie Dee impresses in a smart production of a Terence Rattigan solo work bound up in class issues - Susannah Clapp
The Band Plays On review – a celebration of songs forged in Sheffield
Chris Bush’s community play uses local music and family histories to explore the city’s resilience, hope and determination - Mark Fisher
Oh Woman! review – much-needed tribute to six extraordinary women
While outrage against misogyny flares up once more, this collection of audio works by the Royal Exchange theatre celebrates marginalised and unsung female figures - Catherine Love
The Christopher Boy’s Communion review – Mamet's warped drama of motherhood and murder
David Mamet’s new play, adapted as an audio drama, follows an indomitable Manhattanite willing to sacrifice everything to save her murderer son - Arifa Akbar
Funny Festival Live review – BBC series puts standups back on stage
This chance to see new comedy faces, including Judi Love, Michael Stranney and Toussaint Douglass, reaps easygoing rewards - Brian Logan
San Francisco Ballet review – vintage glamour and Cheever's Swimmer reimagined
Danielle Rowe’s new work amps up the fizz, while archive pieces by Alexei Ratmansky and Yuri Possokhov offer dreamlike diversions and sleek stylings - Lyndsey Winship
Sarah Silverman review – after a year of exile from the stage, a standup looks inward
Silverman shifts away from shock-peddling and scripted jokes in a Q&A that comes alive when she reflects on comedy itself - Brian Logan
The Lucky Ones review – can you unravel this seven-day mystery?
A conspiracy unfolds across a week with clues arriving by post, phone and email in an interactive online adventure from Riptide - Mark Fisher
Redemption Room review – fear is the winner in scary celebrity gameshow
Disgraced stars must plead for the audience’s forgiveness – or suffer a nasty fate – in a show that prizes horror over interaction, yet delivers a satisfying adrenaline high - Arifa Akbar
Sherlock Holmes: An Online Adventure review – it's so fun who cares whodunnit?
It’s a ball playing sleuth – with Dr Watson’s help – even if you don’t identify the killer in this interactive show - Arifa Akbar
Young Frankenstein review – Mel Brooks' cult classic gets clever, camp revival
There are plenty of belly laughs and a stellar lead but Alexander Berlage’s take on the original text lacks the nuanced meta-commentary he usually excels at - Cassie Tongue
Barnes’ People review – angsty monologues raging against life and death
Peter Barnes’s spellbinding play about class as seen by a Buckingham Palace footman is the pick of these four single-handers - Arifa Akbar
Crips Without Constraints review – five duos deliver sharp satire and tender drama
Harriet Walter, Cherylee Houston and Sharon D Clarke star in the second collection of shorts in Graeae’s series of dramas - Arifa Akbar
All on Her Own review – denied love explodes with a voice beyond death
Janie Dee stars as a newly bereaved Hampstead widow in this poignant, ventriloquising monologue by Terence Rattigan - Arifa Akbar
After Hours with Margaret Cho review – say it with sexual adventure
Cho’s live-streamed Valentine’s Day sex advice workshop encompassed BDSM, bestiality and the fun that can be had with ‘pervertible’ household objects - Brian Logan
Comedians Telling Erotic Stories review – first snogs, orgies and a come-on from Boris
Rachel Fairburn’s showcase aroused funny bones, if not G-spots, with Shappi Khorsandi, Lou Sanders and Will Duggan - Brian Logan
If It Were Love review – a dance doc powered by the exuberance of youth
Patric Chiha’s film follows a troupe rehearsing a major production and draws its charm from the carefree energy of its performers - Peter Bradshaw
Leicester Comedy festival review – gags, groans and heckling gremlins
Felicity Ward and Tony Law star in the event’s opening cabaret, First Night Funnies, with false starts and flat-out laughs - Brian Logan
Simple Passion review – sensitive French study of erotic obsession
Laetitia Dosch is sensational as a lecturer passionately embroiled with Sergei Polunin’s reptilian Russian diplomat - Peter Bradshaw
Birds (Or How to Be One) review – flighty avian-themed drama-doc
Babis Makridis takes to the sky with an experimental and sometimes difficult to watch manifesto inspired by Aristophanes’s play The Birds - Phil Hoad
Manipulate festival review – visual theatre experiments on a different stage
Denied live performance, creators slip its boundaries to explore screen trickery in this stimulating festival of storytelling, puppetry and animation - Mark Fisher
The Virt Locker review – new comedy show addresses the elephant in the Zoom room
Banter and live laughter help NextUp’s show – featuring a grumpy Jen Brister, a lovable Sarah Keyworth and more – replicate in-person comedy - Brian Logan
Mischief Movie Night In review – make a musical with the masters of impro
Sofa-bound audiences help the team behind The Play That Goes Wrong to create spontaneous and funny stories on screen - Brian Logan
The Poltergeist review – you are invited to a new circle of hell
Joseph Potter summons enough characters to fill the stage in Philip Ridley’s dark comedy of manners about family dysfunction and wasted talent - Arifa Akbar
Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation review – reverently unrevealing
This documentary about two of the deep south’s most celebrated gay writers fails to illuminate their sometimes troubled friendship - Peter Bradshaw
The Motherhood Project review – difficult choices, disparate voices
This set of 15 monologues – from writers including Lemn Sissay, Jodi Gray and Juno Dawson – is heartfelt but feels underpowered - Arifa Akbar
Graham Greene’s showdown with Soviet spy Kim Philby: A Splinter of Ice review
Available online A meeting between the writer and the double agent, once colleagues at MI6, is strong on friendship and betrayal – but takes us no closer to the heart of either man - Arifa Akbar
General Secretary review – satire of world politics misses its targets
Not sure what you would do if you were given absolute power? Unfortunately, nor do the duo Thick’n’Fast in this lightweight fantasy - Brian Logan
Tom & Jerry The Movie review – sanitised relaunch of the cat and mouse combatants
Uninspiring fights and sketchy rules of engagement mean this lazy reprise won’t excite real aficionados of the eternally warring pair - Benjamin Lee
LAUGHNow Comedy Club review – gremlins mess with the joy of jokes
Russell Kane saves the day with energetic Covid gags as technical issues and uninspired material blight the first edition of a new standup series - Brian Logan
Gatecrash review – opaque auto-accident drama
A car crash provokes a torrent of toxic masculinity, but this strange film is neither surreal nor psychologically insightful enough - Leslie Felperin
The Color Purple review – musical romance rings hollow from a distance
Covid guidelines and clunky camerawork sadly undermine the ebullient performances in this digital adaptation of Alice Walker’s modern classic - Arifa Akbar
Wild Mountain Thyme review – Emily Blunt in an awful Irish stew
This bucolic romance, co-starring bashful Jamie Dornan, is awash with whimsy, wonder – and laughable accents - Peter Bradshaw