Sarah Crompton

London

Freelance Writer at Freelance

Theatre critic for WhatsOnStage. Dance critic for the Observer. Co-host of the WhatsOnStage podcast. https://t.co/aKGMkc6YNX

Articles

In Praise of Love at Orange Tree Theatre - review

3 weeks ago | whatsonstage.com | Sarah Crompton

ReviewsAmelia Sears’ revival of the Terence Rattigan classic runs until 5 July In Praise of Love was Terence Rattigan’s penultimate play, premiered in 1973, and watching this revival, you can see why it hasn’t become quite as regularly performed as The Deep Blue Sea or The Browning Version. Yet its theme is remarkably close to that of those two cast-iron classics: the English curse of being unable to admit emotion, and the warping unhappiness this tendency to secrecy can cause.
Is this a final theatre season to rule them all?

4 weeks ago | whatsonstage.com | Alex Wood |Sarah Crompton

Welcome to the latest episode of the WhatsOnStage Podcast!In the week director Rupert Goold announced his farewell programme at the influential Almeida Theatre, chief critic Sarah Crompton and editor-in-chief Alex Wood talk about why his choices reflect his bold approach – and outline the excitements in store. And as Patti Lupone stirs controversy, can the old-fashioned, no holds barred interview survive?
Elephant at Menier Chocolate Factory - review

4 weeks ago | whatsonstage.com | Sarah Crompton

There’s something about a piano. As Anoushka Lucas says at the beginning of this mesmeric, challenging monologue, when you hit a note, it makes the air vibrate. “We’re all vibrating together,” she says. You have to listen. Elephant, written, composed and performed by Lucas and developed and directed by Jess Edwards, was first seen at the Bush in 2022. Semi-autobiographical, it began as a short piece commissioned in 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd.
‘Stereophonic’ Is The ’70s Rock ‘N’ Roll Play That’s Got London Talking

1 month ago | vogue.co.uk | Sarah Crompton

“I’m having the best time of my life right now,” says Lucy Karczewski, smiling broadly. Sitting on the sofa beside her, Jack Riddiford agrees. “I feel so lucky.”The two actors are playing Diana and Peter, one of the couples at the centre of David Adjimi’s Stereophonic.
The Frogs at Southwark Playhouse Borough - review

1 month ago | whatsonstage.com | Sarah Crompton

Stephen Sondheim described the first production of The Frogs, his musical based on Aristophanes’s Greek comedy, as “one of the few deeply unpleasant professional experiences I’ve had”. The show opened in and around a swimming pool at Yale Repertory Theatre in 1974, where the acoustics and the water meant that no one could hear and everyone got wet.
A fine Ballet BC double bill

1 month ago | observer.co.uk | Sarah Crompton

Mysterious shadows inhabit Crystal Pite’s questing meditation on creation, while Johan Inger sparks laughter and tears Ballet BC: Frontier/Passing Sadler’s Wells, London EC1; touring until 11 JuneDark figures slink through the auditorium, their faces covered in black hoods. Slowly they roll up on to the stage like a film of black oil. It’s sinister but arresting – a dramatic start to an evening of dance that covers life, death, the universe, the whole darned thing.
Mrs Warren’s Profession with Imelda Staunton and Bessie Carter - West End review

1 month ago | whatsonstage.com | Sarah Crompton

Mother and daughter Imelda Staunton and Bessie Carter are playing Mrs Kitty Warren and her daughter Vivie in George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession. That’s the headline. The result is an extraordinary tour de force that brings the play to vivid and compelling life. They look entirely different.
The Fifth Step with Martin Freeman and Jack Lowden in the West End - review

1 month ago | whatsonstage.com | Sarah Crompton

A lot has changed since David Ireland’s The Fifth Step had its premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival last August. It’s still a play that teeters between comedy and dark horror, as it examines the relationship between Luka, a young man struggling to conquer his addiction, and James, the older man who becomes his mentor when he joins Alcoholics Anonymous. But it has been substantially rewritten and also recast.
Dance review: the wonder of Christopher Wheeldon

1 month ago | observer.co.uk | Sarah Crompton

The Royal Ballet celebrates one of its own, while Oona Doherty’s tale of a lost ancestor feels oddly bloodless Ballet to Broadway: Wheeldon WorksRoyal Opera House, London WC2; until 27 MayOona Doherty: Specky ClarkSadler’s Wells, London EC1It’s a wonderful quirk of fate that turned Somerset-born, Royal Ballet School-trained Christopher Wheeldon into the choreographer he is today.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry musical at Chichester’s Minerva Theatre - review

1 month ago | whatsonstage.com | Sarah Crompton

First a play, then a best-selling book, then a film starring Jim Broadbent and now a musical. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry continues its onward march. Rachel Joyce’s story of a man who – on impulse – seeks to solve the problems of his life by setting out on a walk from South Devon to Berwick-upon-Tweed where his friend Queenie is dying tugs quietly on many emotional strings.