Five star - Latest Top Rated Stage Reviews from the Guardian

random review – debbie tucker green’s knife-crime drama hits home
Kiza Deen excels in green’s heart-wrenching one-woman play about the killing of a black schoolboy - Clare Brennan
Pinter Seven review – Danny Dyer and Martin Freeman on fire in glorious double bill
Dyer and Freeman excel as gunmen in The Dumb Waiter and Jamie Lloyd’s staging of A Slight Ache, with John Heffernan and Gemma Whelan, is a revelation - Michael Billington
Until the Lions review – Akram Khan’s modern masterpiece
Khan performs in his intensely beautiful take on the Mahabharata for the last time - Sarah Crompton
Our Lady of Kibeho review – startling story of a heavenly 'visitation'
Royal & Derngate, NorthamptonKatori Hall’s astonishing drama, based on the alleged visions of three schoolgirls, explores the power of faith and miracles as Rwanda’s genocide looms - Michael Billington
A Christmas Carol review – a real Dickens cracker
Sound, light and sets brilliantly convey Scrooge’s turn from miserliness to philanthropy in Neil Bartlett’s joyous adaptation - Clare Brennan
Sweat review – breathtaking drama about life in the American rustbelt
Based on interviews with residents of small-town Pennsylvania, Lynn Nottage’s play vividly describes the betrayal and resentments of striking female factory workers in an era of industrial decline - Michael Billington
Bodies review – deft revival for adultery neurosis comedy drama
James Saunders’ impeccably performed 70s piece takes on big issues as two couples swap partners and explore the poetry of pain - Michael Billington
All in a Row review – autistic child puppet drama has warmth and truth
Good puppetry lends rich humanity to the central character of this subtle if controversial production about a boy set to leave home for a residential school - Miriam Gillinson
Good Dog review – tapestry of Tottenham life on the eve of riots
Kwaku Mills is a revelation as a boy growing up amid poverty in this touring revival of Arinzé Kene’s crackling, compelling monologue - Mark Fisher
Mother Courage and Her Children review – canny power from Julie Hesmondhalgh
Anna Jordan’s new adaptation sets Brecht’s anti-war play in a dystopian 2080 - Clare Brennan
How to Rule the World review – Nakkiah Lui hits the zeitgeist, and no one leaves unscathed
One of Australia’s most interesting writers continues to evolve, in this punchy, relevant play about power and race in Canberra - Larissa Behrendt
Berberian Sound Studio review – aural sex-drenched horror hits its targets
This fascinating adaptation of a film about a Foley artist creating sound effects for a horror movie attacks its targets – artistic responsibility and male power structures – with relish - Michael Billington
Sea Wall/A Life review – Jake Gyllenhaal dazzles with return to stage
The Oscar nominee and Tom Sturridge star in two one-act memory pieces that meaningfully explore birth, death, and fatherhood - Jake Nevins
You Stupid Darkness! review – cracking jokes as the world burns
Sam Steiner’s hilariously bleak show about helpline volunteers has a charming cynicism and moments of compassion - Kate Wyver
Much Ado About Nothing review – Shakespeare meets Dad's Army
Beatrice and Benedick engage in heartwarming hostilities in Northern Broadsides’ rich and rewarding production - Mark Fisher
Freestyle Love Supreme review – Lin Manuel Miranda's hip-hop improv
The Hamilton creator’s goofily entertaining show has been around since 2004 and in its new Manhattan home, it’s more fun than ever - Alexis Soloski
Rutherford and Son review – passion and power in Githa Sowerby's classic
Owen Teale and Laura Elphinstone are superb, as a patriarch and his daughter, in Caroline Steinbeis’s potent production - Michael Billington
Often Onstage review – radiates charm, fun and irony
From their half-baked moves to a fine display of stressful yoga, Figs in Wigs delight in making a virtue of their flaws - Ka Bradley
Blue review – Williams's Menagerie becomes a subtle tale of Welsh sorrow
A damaged Carmarthen family are shaken by a newcomer in this smart and superbly acted riff on the American classic - Gareth Llŷr Evans
Tilda Swinton Answers an Ad on Craigslist review – resplendent with movie-star magic
The ethereal star – as seen in an exuberant drag act by Tom Lenk – becomes a spirit guide in this wry show about the role movies play in our lives - Kate Wyver
random review – debbie tucker green lays bare a family's unthinkable pain
This portrait of a family devastated by a random stabbing lands its blows with a heavy thud - Catherine Love
Woof review – intoxicating look at lust, pain and jealousy
Every emotion is tangible as Elgan Rhys’s play about a 30-something gay couple races to a violent climax - Kate Wyver
The Worst Witch review – a magical baddie makes the production fly
Dastardly Agatha Cackle’s attempts to make witching great again have the young audience almost levitating in their seats - Clare Brennan
Spring review – jugglers join dancers for joyfully hypnotic show
Gandini Juggling and Alexander Whitley’s collaboration is full of simple pleasures and intricate skill - Lyndsey Winship
Cost of Living review – Adrian Lester dazzles in stirring portrait of poverty
An impeccable cast play out dual narratives about life on the US breadline in a tough drama that earns its poignancy - Michael Billington
Father review – a harrowing, slapstick look at care-home life
Peeping Tom tackle old age with originality, warmth and humour in the second part of their eerie family-themed trilogy - Lyndsey Winship
Jack Lear review – Shakespeare gets a gripping sea change
Barrie Rutter revives Ben Benison’s reworking of King Lear set in a 21st-century fishing community with action-packed success - Clare Brennan
Leave to Remain review – spirited gay-marriage musical from Kele Okereke
In Okereke and Matt Jones’s play, directed by Robby Graham, the story, song and movement are seamlessly integrated - Michael Billington
Josh Glanc review – come and join the ringmaster of the ridiculous
Glanc’s big-hearted, puppyish persona is hard to resist, especially if you’re in the front row at this lovably silly show - Brian Logan
Dear Elizabeth review – poets bare their souls in a lyrical show
Jade Anouka and Jonjo O’Neill give first-rate performances reading the letters between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell - Michael Billington
Life By the Throat review – redemption story
One man’s life from cradle to grave is the subject of Eve Steele’s intense one-woman play - Clare Brennan
Alone It Stands: Munster rugby takes down All Blacks, moves on Manhattan
John Breen’s very Irish play, finally brought to New York, tackles the meaning of sport – and therefore life itself - Martin Pengelly
Trio ConcertDance review – Alessandra Ferri forges a new path for older dancers
The 55-year-old partnered with American Ballet Theater principal Herman Cornejo in thoughtful, poised interpretations of McGregor, Maliphant and others - Lyndsey Winship
Rosenbaum's Rescue review – riveting clash about escaping the Nazis
Two men compare fiercely different reckonings of the exodus of 7,500 Jews from Denmark in this gripping play - Michael Billington
Waltz of the Hommelettes review – beware of the bunny
Les Antliaclastes’ puppet show is a bewitching ride through the dark side of fairytales with close attention to detail - Kate Wyver
Fake News review – Trumped-up story fuels punchy media satire
A catastrophic fact-checking error that nearly breaks the internet cues Osman Baig’s expressive and energetic one-man piece about digital journalism - Mark Lawson
Hippity Hop review – rap show about a runaway pram gets kids freestyling
Sparky performances and multisensory skits make Oily Cart’s singing, dancing and rhyming show feel spontaneous and cheeky - Miriam Gillinson
Wanda Sykes review – tough anti-Trump tirade is a potent tonic
Life still holds surprises for a woman of 54, including the US presidency, and Sykes plays them for everything they’ve got - Brian Logan
The War of the Worlds review – smart take on today's 'fake news' invasion
Orson Welles’s radio adaptation of the sci-fi classic is given a new spin on stage with references to Trump and Brexit - Michael Billington
Transfiguration review – a hideous horror show you'll never forget
The French artist Olivier de Sagazan turns himself into a sculpture in this terrifying, visceral performance - Lyndsey Winship
Choir Boy review – Tarell Alvin McCraney hits high notes on Broadway
The Oscar-winning Moonlight writer transfers his musical to a bigger venue and, while there are missteps, the songs bring the house down - Alexis Soloski
Pinter Five and Six review – starry cast bring shorter works into the spotlight
Jane Horrocks, Rupert Graves and others shine in Patrick Marber and Jamie Lloyd’s bold revivals of the playwright’s shorter plays - Michael Billington
The Wind in the Willows review – tales of the riverbank told with spirit and invention
An immersive show for the under-fives strikes gold and acts as a primer for Peter Leslie Wild’s inventive and boisterous main stage production - Mark Fisher
Les Patineurs / Winter Dreams / The Concert review – festive cheer and tears at the Royal Ballet
A fine take on Chekhov’s melancholy Three Sisters brings bite to this seasonal triple bill, before ice skaters and lovers restore the yuletide glow - Lyndsey Winship
The Wizard of Oz review – Toto, we're not in 1939 any more
This thrilling Oz of racial diversity, gender reversal and voguing androgyny is more current – and vibrant – than the MGM musical - Gareth Llŷr Evans
Blue Door review – family ghosts question blackness in bleak drama
Tanya Barfield’s 2006 play about a man meeting his ancestors asks: am I ever black or white enough? - Kate Wyver
Come From Away review – relentless niceness in tale of post-9/11 Canadian kindness
This musical about plane passengers diverted to Newfoundland on 11 September has plenty of heart but not enough bite - Michael Billington
9 to 5 The Musical review – slick and stylish Dolly Parton period piece
This beloved revenge fantasy is as subtle as a sledgehammer but its advocacy of workplace equality makes it hard to dislike - Michael Billington
Princess & the Hustler review – vibrant family drama has heart and purpose
As the British civil rights movement gathers momentum, racial tensions threaten a family in 1960s Bristol in this locally-gestated new play - Miriam Gillinson
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch: Since She review – dreamlike oddness
Choreographed by Dimitris Papaioannou, the company’s first new work since its founder died in 2009 is uncanny in its blending of his and her imaginations - Lyndsey Winship
Edward II review – Marlowe's murky drama of love, murder and a hollow crown
Nick Bagnall’s production ably draws out the parallels with Shakespeare’s Richard II and the cast speak the verse beautifully - Kate Maltby
Mother Courage and Her Children review – Julie Hesmondhalgh is the business
It’s 2080 and Europe is in shreds in Anna Jordan’s new version of Brecht’s play, which has a compelling central performance - Catherine Love
The American Clock review – Arthur Miller's snapshots of the 1930s
This vaudeville about the Great Depression showcases Miller’s capacity to capture the state of a troubled nation - Michael Billington
All About Eve review – classic Hollywood updated with technical wizardry
Gillian Anderson and Lily James give fine performances but this take on the 1950 film is arguably a little too clever for its own good - Michael Billington
James Cousins: Epilogues review – double acts with big ideas
An intriguing programme of three duets – comprising two new works and a revival of Within Her Eyes – is well performed but thinly stretched - Sanjoy Roy
Blue/Orange review – smarm, charm and raw emotion in gladiatorial mental health drama
Joe Penhall’s play about a young black patient caught between two clashing white doctors is incendiary, intellectually rich and ever topical - Arifa Akbar
New Work New Music review – Royal Ballet's short works are a step in the right direction
From Aletta Collins’ refreshing abstraction to Calvin Richardson’s human piñatas, these new works are just what the Royal should be doing right now - Lyndsey Winship
Cougar review – breathless scenes of sexual power games in luxury hotels
This unsettling portrait of a world and a relationship in crisis breezes through 80 scenes in 75 minutes - Michael Billington
Noughts & Crosses review – Malorie Blackman's tale is now a gripping play
Sabrina Mahfouz has impressively distilled the inspired novel about a world where the power rests with the black population - Mark Fisher
Superhoe review – frank and fragile account of sex work
Nicôle Lecky’s astute one-woman show, punctuated with rap, pins down the financial and moral dilemmas of her peers - Kate Wyver
Beast on the Moon review – portrait of a marriage and a massacre
Richard Kalinoski’s deeply touching play is about the fraught relationship between two escapees of the Armenian genocide living in 1920s Milwaukee - Michael Billington
Ken Cheng review – fringe's 'funniest joke' teller is a calculating comic
In Best Dad Ever, the ex-poker player and maths nerd has constructed a meticulous show of well-turned gags - Brian Logan
The Orchestra review – Jean Anouilh's band clash over sex and politics
A team of musicians create discord as the neglected playwright’s short, sharp drama is given a stylish revival - Michael Billington
Matt Forde: Brexit Through the Gift Shop review – headline punchlines
Comedy’s rational surveyor of the political scene fires a centrist shot at easy targets from Boris Johnson to Jeremy Corbyn - Brian Logan
Cuzco review – romance left in ruins on the Inca trail
Víctor Sánchez Rodríguez’s play stylishly shows how confrontation with the colonial past can lead to self-discovery - Michael Billington
Jack Lear review – Shakespeare, shanties and a raging Barrie Rutter
Dementia drama and Jacobean bloodbath sit uneasily alongside each other in a reworking of King Lear during the fishing industry’s dying days - Mark Fisher
No Show review – a sparky riposte to sexism in circus
Five female performers are doing things on their own terms in a show that shuns spectacle and takes apart circus tricks - Lyndsey Winship
Opal Fruits review – sweet and chewy lecture on working-class stereotypes
Holly Beasley-Garrigan didn’t want to perform a show about being a gay working-class woman, she tells her audience … that’s just how arts funding works - Kate Wyver
When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other review – it's explicit but hardly shocking
Cate Blanchett and Stephen Dillane add some heft to an uninspired exploration of modern sexual mores - Michael Billington
Push festival review – dispatches from dystopia and punchlines of pain
Cuts of the Cloth explores a family torn apart by the state while storyteller Conor A offers an account of chronic illness - Catherine Love
The Dark review – dangerous escape from Idi Amin's Uganda
Nick Makoha’s fragmented and vertiginous account of his treacherous journey to Britain is a story of our times - Arifa Akbar
Royal Ballet: Asphodel Meadows/The Two Pigeons review – beauty and whimsy
Liam Scarlett’s 2010 work is as lyrical as ever, while strong performances and a live pigeon can’t save Frederick Ashton’s cutesy romcom - Lyndsey Winship
Stop and Search review – stories collide on the road to nowhere
Gabriel Gbadamosi’s oblique new play follows three encounters, but too many layers of intrigue throw it off course - Miriam Gillinson
Approaching Empty review – Iron Lady drives a wedge between cabbies
Ishy Din’s new play, set in the aftermath of Margaret Thatcher’s death, explores the impact of her legacy on two immigrants - Michael Billington
Aspects of Love review – Andrew Lloyd Webber’s most beguiling score
Love has one too many aspects in Jonathan O’Boyle’s spirited revival, which badly needs a librettist to trim the untidy narrative - Michael Billington
In Lipstick review – glittery comedy with shades of darkness
Two women blot out life’s blemishes with feather boas and Shirley Bassey songs until their friendship begins to sour - Kate Wyver
Coming Clean review – revival of pioneering play of a gay love triangle
Sexual freedom and emotional commitment clash in Kevin Elyot’s debut exploring sexual deception in a gay relationship - Michael Billington
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory review – too much empty sugar and not enough flavour
For a show so predicated on the expansive power of ‘pure imagination’, the musical based on the beloved children’s book feels impossibly small - Cassie Tongue
Anomaly review – how a movie mogul's misconduct impacts his family
Liv Warden’s play explores what happens to the daughters of a powerful man who is charged with GBH - Arifa Akbar
Sindhu Vee: Sandhog review – marriage as a battle of wits
The standup’s debut show insightfully dissects the travails of long-term commitment and the tsunami of having children - Brian Logan
Commonism review – the quest for common ground in a turbulent time
Andy Smith and Amund Sjølie Sveen imagine a future of radical equality and freedom in a performance that comes with its own manifesto - Gareth Llŷr Evans
Paradise review – Sara Kestelman is superb in sunset drama
Dusty Hughes’s play about two mischief-making gardeners living in a retirement home is stoic about ageing - Michael Billington
Time Is Love/Tiempo Es Amor review – betrayal in the barrio
Ché Walker’s enigmatic drama, set in Los Angeles, is the theatrical equivalent of film noir - Michael Billington
Swan Lake review – pretty on top but nothing below the surface
English National Ballet’s revival of Derek Deane’s 1997 staging has a flock of well-schooled swans and some standout solos, but there is a lack of chemistry between the leading couple - Lyndsey Winship
Aladdin review – deadpan dame Paul Merton leads panto supergroup
Magician Pete Firman conjures up laughs, while Blue singer Lee Ryan joins the fun in this uplifting 3D panto - Paul Fleckney
Royal Ballet: Les Patineurs, Winter Dreams, The Concert review – dreams and misdemeanours
Delight and despair fight it out to the last as our dance critic of 13 years signs off - Luke Jennings
Nativity! The Musical review – season's greetings from Dani and Danny Dyer
The father-and-daughter duo add self-deprecating cheer, alongside Jo Brand, to this feelgood fairytale - Michael Billington
The Scarlet Pimpernel review – madcap fun with a guillotine
French poodles face a dastardly end unless our swashbuckling heroes come to the rescue in this high-energy kids’ version of the classic adventure story - Chris Wiegand
Hansel and Gretel review – kids' house party with sweet beats
It’s bright and bouyant and the music, influenced by Afrobeat, is excellent but Vicki Igbokwe’s fairytale has problems in tone - Lyndsey Winship
Harvey review – Steven Berkoff explores Weinstein's psyche
This attempt to delve into the disgraced movie mogul’s mind finds rage, denial and hate - Arifa Akbar
Dracula review – Stoker's chiller returns to library where it was written
A cast of two do their best to breathe cohesion into a play full of sex, shrieks and floating eyes … but without a vampire in sight - Michael Billington
Salaam review – faith and the fallout of London terror attacks
A mother and daughter have profound discussions about identity but this drama is still searching for its centre - Arifa Akbar
Welcome to the UK review – fancy a game of Home Office bingo?
The Borderline theatre group’s timely satire is well-intentioned, but its funfair setting reduces it to baggy vaudeville - Michael Billington
True West review – Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano go south in mediocre drama
Sam Shepard’s most popular play hits Broadway yet again but with underwhelming results - Alexis Soloski
Violet review – Fun Home duo's road trip gets lost in music
Kaisa Hammarlund impresses but Jeanine Tesori’s musical has a trite message and gets an over-amplified production - Michael Billington
Keep review – want a list of every single thing in Daniel Kitson's house?
The standup and storyteller sets out to list all 20,000 of his possessions in a show that misfires despite some delightful apercus - Brian Logan
The Dame review – tears and greasepaint in Blue Peter star's panto tragedy
Peter Duncan gives an earnest performance in his daughter’s play about a music-hall legend with a dark past - Arifa Akbar
Ned: A New Australian Musical review – false notes sound from under Ned Kelly's fake beard
New Theatre, NewtownWith cartoon villains, clunky dialogue and some wincingly poor performances, this not-actually-entirely-new musical’s saving grace is its memorable songs - Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore
The Tragedy of King Richard the Second review – Simon Russell Beale's king sold short
Joe Hill-Gibbins’ stripped-back production delivers a forceful royal downfall, but leaves little space to explore the power plays behind it - Michael Billington
Rumpelstiltskin review – on mute, it could be fantastic
A king’s daughter sells her unborn baby to a wicked fashion designer in a patronising show with abrasive songs - Kate Wyver