Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 03/10/2026is Kellie Gough playing the same role in Desire Under the Elms at the Almeida that Denise Gough played in Desire Under the Elms at the Lyric 110
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 03/10/2026if anyone wants to read about how I stayed in a luxury-ish dinosaur-themed hotel suite then that is now an option fyi www.timeout.com/london/news/...timeout.comI stayed at the Natural History Museum’s new dinosaur-themed family hotel suite: this is what it’s likeTime Out got a sneaky preview stay in the Park Plaza London Riverbank’s fancy new suite 011
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 02/10/2026thanks! yeah it’s funny that never having done a show here before he's done three in three years, maybe he was waiting to really smash it, maybe he just really digs London 100
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 02/10/2026there’s one actually brilliant turn which is from Lucy Karczewski, who was great in Stereophonic and The Seagull last year and I imagine will end up being properly famous (worth idly noting that Patsy Ferran and Phoebe Waller-Bridge were both great in so so West End Cowards) 010
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Hay Fever at Wyndham’s: I don’t rlly get trad Coward in 2026 but a really stacked ensemble carries it off although alas Richard E Grant is merely content to provide support (and made me think wistfully of how Andrew Scott carried that entire Old Vic Present Laughter) www.timeout.com/london/news/...timeout.com‘Richard E Grant’s performance is only okay’: Hay Fever at Wyndham’s Theatre ReviewA brilliant ensemble cast lift a trad production of the Noël Coward classic, though big name Grant is the weakest link 131
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I feel like this might be divisive but I loved this off-kilter but intimate take on Albee’s Virgina Woolf: Gillian Anderson’s Martha is quite eccentric; Billy Crudup is great as George – his years of loitering around the West End have finally born fruit www.timeout.com/london/news/...timeout.com‘If Gillian Anderson is good, Billy Crudup is phenomenal’: Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf West End ReviewSensational turns from Anderson and Crudup are made even better the ultra-intimate staging. 121
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I think it was actually fine I just think in shows like This House or Quiz or Best of Enemies or even Ink he really drills brilliantly into a single very specific scenario in a way he never quite manages here 010
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 30/09/2026James Graham’s The Standard of Living is extremely enjoyable but it tries to be a takedown of the Bloomsbury Group, an Amadeus-style drama about Keynes’ rivalry with Hayek, and a passionate rallying cry for the value of art, and he should probably have picked just one www.timeout.com/london/news/...timeout.com‘Almost certainly the most enjoyable play about an economist ever written’ – James Graham’s The Standard of Living ReviewRory Kinnear is a delight as radical economist James Maynard Keynes in the latest from playwright Graham. 021
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Tru at the Menier Chocolate Factory has an immersive set that totally blew me away and is so so impressive; the monologue is absolutely fine but it’s a series of letters and diary entries stitched together – it doesn’t tell a ‘real’ story www.timeout.com/london/theat...timeout.comTru, Menier Chocolate Factory review: The stunning immersive set slightly upstages star Jesse Tyler Ferguson in this Truman Capote monologueThis revival of Jay Presson Allen’s 1989 Truman Capote monologue was initially staged in the stunning House of the Redeemer in New York, the sort of opulent old 021
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 24/09/2026holy shit new Caryl Churchill starring Kate O’Flynn www.timeout.com/london/news/...timeout.comBritain’s greatest living playwright Caryl Churchill has just announced a new play starring Kate O’Flynn‘Widow’s Bay’ star O’Flynn will head up the legendary writer’s new play ‘Triumph’ 072
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Sting’s The Last Ship is mostly a decent entry in the canon of 'nostalgic musicals about English deindustrialisation’ and has an incredible projected set from 59 Productions, but then the second half features some of the stupidest plotting I’ve ever seen in anything www.timeout.com/london/news/...timeout.com‘A plot that lurches from tender social realism to pure garbage’ – Review: Sting’s musical The Last ShipSting’s musical about the decline of the Tyneside shipyards finally makes it to London, with the man himself starring. 041
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 19/09/2026but yeah: the closure of War of the Words felt like the nail in the coffin of something that had peaked in the immediate pre and post pandemic years: why was there so much immersive theatre (in London, mostly, sorry), what happened to it all, what’s left and why 000
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 19/09/2026I had to submit in later July and might have made a few tweaks if it had been more recently, but it basically stands I think 110
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 19/09/2026oooh missed this being published - I did a big bit asking why the golden age of commercial immersive theatre ended and whether it’s changed into something else 120
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 18/09/2026oh my god RIP Duncan Sheik - such awful news www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/a...nytimes.comDuncan Sheik, Who Traded Pop Stardom for Broadway, Dies at 56Weary of the heartthrob label after his 1996 hit “Barely Breathing,” he pivoted to musical theater and won two Tonys for composing “Spring Awakening.” 031
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 17/09/2026looking at reviews of Thelma & Louise at the Young Vic a nagging 'are we the bad guys?' sense that female critics enjoyed more and male critics have been all 'wish it was faster and with more explosions’… nonetheless… I liked lots of stuff but thought it plodded www.timeout.com/london/theat...timeout.comThelma & Louise, Young Vic review: This musical adaptation of the feminist thriller is enjoyable but really needs to step on the gasThelma & Louise songwriter Neko Case interviewed: ‘the way we deal with sexual violence has gotten much worse’This musical version of Thelma & Louise has ma 011
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Clifford Odets had the misfortune to be writing smack in the middle of all the great C20th American playwrights at their absolute zeniths and Golden Boy is not A View from the Bridge but it is good and I loved Sam Yates’ ostentatiously string-swept Almeida revival www.timeout.com/london/theat...timeout.comGolden Boy, Almeida Theatre review: Josh O’Connor returns to the stage in this ravishingly string-swept revival of Clifford Odets’ American tragedyAlmost a century on and I think we can be adult about the fact that 20th century American playwright Clifford Odets was never in the same league as the older Eu 012
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 14/09/2026I honestly don’t see what it would achieve that’s good or useful? I’d rather rebrand the West Midlands as simoly the Midlands to stress that it is the most important one and indeed only one of note 000
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 14/09/2026spoke to Neko Case didn’t I? Spoke about Thelma & Louise, culture wars, and her love of Brixton www.timeout.com/london/news/...timeout.com‘The way we deal with sexual violence has gotten much worse’ – Neko Case on her ‘Thelma & Louise’ musicalThe alt-country superstar has written the songs for this season’s hippest musical 120
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Man to Man at the Court = good play but main thing is how good a stage actor Tilda Swinton still is – she’s not exactly wasted last 40 years but would have been nice if she’d have junked a couple of the more whimsical projects in favour of a play? BUT GREAT SHE’S BACK www.timeout.com/london/news/...timeout.com‘Tilda Swinton has still got it’: Man to Man at the Royal Court Theatre ReviewThe legendary actor returns to the stage after almost 40 years with her mind-bending ’80s monologue 173
Reposted by Andrzej ŁukowskiMikel Reparaz @wikiparaz.bsky.social · 11/09/2026PAUL: What’s in the box? REVEREND MOTHER: Pain. [PAUL hesitantly puts his hand in the BOX, then FROWNS IN CONFUSION. He pulls out A BAGUETTE.] REVEREND MOHER: Hōn hōn, 6276902022
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 11/09/2026also hard to overstate how mad it is that the first Mrs Rochester is played by a white actor! 000
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 11/09/2026I really love Jane Eyre which was probably the big problem when it came to Jane Eyre: A Musical, John Caird’s incredibly mid period romance take he’s been trying to make happen for 30 years www.timeout.com/london/theat...timeout.comJane Eyre, Southwark Playhouse Elephant review: This slick musical romance doesn’t capture the gothic darkness of Charlotte Brontë’s masterpieceHeavyweight director John Caird - most famous for the original production of Les Mis - has been trying and in many ways succeeding in getting his musical versio 110
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Ava Pickett was basically unknown two years ago and now she’s fired out her fourth banger – Bloodsport at Stratford East is very good and does not really go where you’re expecting at all www.timeout.com/london/theat...timeout.comBloodsport: After Helen of Troy, Stratford East review: Ava Pickett’s superb new play is a rip-roaring dark comedy set in the aftermath of a British Trojan WarTOWIE meets Blasted by way of the Iliad in this breezily provocative fourth play from rising star playwright Ava Pickett. Bloodsport is both fresh but also plea 063
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 10/09/2026loved Kimberly Akimbo: existential magical realism, John Hughes influence, banging score that occasionally sounds like of Montreal, none of the WE’RE ALL IN A MUSICAL LET’S BE KNOWING ABOUT IT that’s blighted quite a lot of recent Broadway import, plus Maria Friedman www.timeout.com/london/theat...timeout.comKimberly Akimbo, Hampstead Theatre review: Maria Friedman is sensational in this sweetly existential Broadway musical about a teen aging at four times the usual speedKimberly Akimbo has the sort of outlandish premise that makes you wonder if it’s going to be another entry in the annals of ‘mad things that only Americans are 031
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 10/09/2026quite a lot of previously announced stuff but strong looking 2027 from the Nash – the fact we’re getting Tracy Letts as Willy Loman has kind of blown my mind www.timeout.com/london/news/...timeout.com‘West Side Story’, Paul Mescal, Emilia Clarke, Tracy Letts and more: the National Theatre announces a year of programmingNT boss Indhu Rubasingham has laid out her plans for 2027 061
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 10/09/2026a man in Tesco with a ‘dead paedophiles don’t reoffend’ t-shirt which seemed a bit much for 7.55 in the morning 031
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 10/09/2026I’m sure you’re right but I can find nothing I’ve been sent saying that’s the case plus I’m too tired to read a review 010
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 09/09/2026I loved its stupid cramped building that incongruously clung on in Notting Hill for 40 years - I understand accessibility was an unsolvable problem there and who knows if it really matters in the end, but nagging sense bad luck/timing (pandemic, Dorries) played a big role in demise 010
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 09/09/2026a sad farewell to the Gate Theatre: the writing had very clearly been on the wall since it lost its ACE funding (if not before tbh) but fair play to them for making some good shows on the way out rather than just rolling over www.timeout.com/london/news/...timeout.comOne of London’s most beloved off-West End theatres has closed for goodThe Gate had struggled on without a building or an artistic director in the post-Covid era 156
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 07/09/2026hmm yeah I guess… they’re big old theatres for non musicals through you’re right that hunger games has hung on 000
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 07/09/2026ANOTHER SUBSTACK THING: what is going on with the Bridge Theatre/why critical consensus and the Edinburgh Comedy Award seem at odds/general musings on being old in theatre years andrzejlukowski.substack.com/p/what-is-go...andrzejlukowski.substack.comWhat is going on with the Bridge Theatre/the Edinburgh Comedy Awards/my inexorably advancing years?It’s a round-up of bloglets addressing the issues of the day!! 123
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 07/09/2026does anyone know what is actually supposed to be going into these enormous new Troubadour theatres? isn’t there an enormous Greenwich one due to open next year? 101
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 07/09/2026I caught up with Lyndsey Turner’s take on A Month in the Country at the Donmar which does spend at 10-15 minutes giving you Chekhov deja vu but really does take flight, in large part thanks to Sophie Okonedo www.timeout.com/london/theat...timeout.comA Month in the Country, Donmar Warehouse review: Sophie Okonedo is superb as a jaded aristocrat slowly ripping her own world apart in Lyndsey Turner’s take on the Russian classicIf it looks like a Chekhov play and it pines wistfully in the pre-revolution Russian countryside like a Chekhov play… that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a Chekh 020
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 05/09/2026for whatever reason somebody young asked me if I played Pac-Man when I was young today and I was like ‘no it was before my time’ and he somehow misunderstood and thought I was saying I was a child pre Pac-Man and he said I looked amazingly young and then got shitty with me when I corrected him 000
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 04/09/2026oh sorry i didn't read what you were quoting properly! Hadn't been since the name change and had assumed the worst but had vaguely hoped the new name and website was just an elaborate ruse and it was still mental 020
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 04/09/2026I loved the brown derby of yore but I’m fairly sure it’s been reinvented as a very normie looking pub simply called the derby 100
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 04/09/2026also a point too arcane to include: there is a really naff looking depiction of the inside of a car used a couple of times, but there is also AN ENTIRE ACTUAL CAR on stage that probably appears for about 30 seconds, surely these things are connected 000
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 04/09/2026I think part of the problem is that it’s only semi-interested in journalism and its somewhat implausible depiction of a ’00s paper (based on an ’80s incident) is exacerbated by it having nothing to say about the current crisis in US regional journalism, though as a journalist maybe I would say that 110
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 04/09/2026I found The Story at the NT thrilling but also fairly preposterous www.timeout.com/london/theat...timeout.comThe Story, National Theatre Olivier review: Letitia Wright heads up the cast of this gripping but overwrought journalistic thrillerTracey Scott Wilson’s US newspaper drama The Story is definitely more red top than broadsheet in tone. But there’s always a place for some thrills in the theatr 111
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 03/09/2026reviewed the bayeux tapestry didn’t I www.timeout.com/london/news/...timeout.com‘More penises than expected‘: The Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum reviewOf course the world’s most famous tapestry lives up to a millennium of hype. 021
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 02/09/2026sorry to be dense about something probably said many times elsewhere but is this instead of the coffee table/visual type book you’ve talked about in the past? 110
Andrzej Łukowski @mrlukowski.bsky.social · 01/09/2026although are Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford free 150
