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Michael Billington

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Amanda Holden's got talent but she can't make Shrek a monster hit

15.06.11
There's plenty to savour in this jaunty Shrek story about the soft-heartedness of a bile-green ogre. The spirit is largely that of pantomime, with an extra layer of good-natured knowingness... more

Much ado about Dr Who stars' time as the Bard's spiky lovers

02.06.11
David Tennant and Catherine Tate have won over both critics and the audience by reigniting Shakespeare with their 'Doctor Who chemistry' ... more

Thrilling Kinnear claims his crown as Spooks take over Elsinore in Hamlet

08.10.10
Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy fails or succeeds on the strength of the performance in the title role, and in Rory Kinnear the National Theatre has a stunning new Hamlet... more

Oh! what a triumph for the TV Nancy

15.01.09
Jodie Prenger, the people's choice for the part of Nancy, was cheered to the rafters at the opening night of Oliver!... more

Theatre

08.10.08
Big musicals may dominate the West End and box office receipts, but straight drama continues to thrive. These are the key people who make this city the global capital of theatre. ... more

Crowds go wild for Hartnett's Rain Man

22.09.08
Whenever Hollywood star Josh Hartnett finishes a performance of Rain Man, a crowd of a hundred or more is standing to thank him for taking the time... more

Capturing the big bad Woolf

20.08.08
If ever there was a work suited to the theatre director Katie Mitchell's distinctive style of radical reinterpretation it is Virginia Woolf's The Waves, starting its second National Theatre run.... more

'Subtle', 'surreal' and the 'best in years'... David Tennant's Hamlet wins over the critics (mostly)

06.08.08
Doctor Who star David Tennant's long-awaited appearance as Hamlet in a Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production has received a mixed critical reaction.... more

Can, my dear, Gone With The Wind survive?

25.04.08
The critics have savaged Trevor Nunn's £4.75m Gone With the Wind. How did such a shambles make it to the stage? And can it survive such a mauling?... more

Look back in laughter at a dark knight in history

03.03.08
Standard critic Nicholas de Jongh's first play explores ignorance and intolerance in the Fifties.... more

The making of a great Othello

07.12.07
Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Moor in the Donmar Warehouse’s production has been hailed as one of the best ever. Experiencing a ‘memorable jealousy’ gave him the necessary inspiration.... more

The return of the King

20.11.07
The West End transfer of Sir Ian McKellen's debut as King Lear is already a sell-out.... more

Kylie's stylist raises Rent

03.08.07
William Baker, the man who helped make Kylie Minogue sexy, is revamping the hit musical Rent for the West End.... more

A heavenly triumph of kitsch and camp

18.07.07
Lee Mead, winner of the BBC's Any Dream Will Do, flaunts quite the smallest ego of any Joseph Nicholas de Jongh has seen.... more

What on Middle Earth?

20.06.07
People said it couldn't be done - and they were right. The Lord of the Rings at the Theatre Royal is a costly, messy folly that will appal Tolkien fans..... more

Theatre wars - the dead white male hits back

15.05.07
The National's director Nicholas Hytner has attacked London's theatre critics for their alleged misogyny. The Standard's man in the stalls could not disagree more.... more

Now theatre critics are panned

14.05.07
The head of the National Theatre has launched an astonishing attack on critics as "dead white men".... more

Pinter awarded honorary degree

13.04.07
Harold Pinter, considered by many to be Britain's greatest living playwright, is to receive an honorary degree.... more

The man who made this Cabaret go round

13.10.06
Cabaret may have received rave notices, but Nick Curtis finds director Rufus Norris's next project is to re-establish his own work-life balance.... more


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