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Same but indifferent: Laughing Boy @JStheatre

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Stephen Unwin's Laughing Boy, adapted for the stage from Sara Ryan's Justice for Laughing Boy, is a powerful and moving story about a mother and a family that keeps asking questions despite the victimisation and harassment from the institution - the NHS - that was supposed to protect her son. It's a moving, celebratory account of a life cut short due to indifference held together by a remarkable performance by Janie Dee as Sara. It's currently playing at the Jermyn Street Theatre .  Sara's son, Connor, is a little different to others. He is fascinated by buses and doesn't like things like loud noises. But as he becomes an adult, his seizures and unexpected outbursts mean the family turn to their local NHS for support. Little did they realise they would receive such little care from a service that was institutionally incompetent and covered up thousands of unexplained deaths of people with disabilities, including Connor's. The search for answers about why he
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You gotta get a gimmick: Hand to God @handtogodlondon

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Hand to God has landed in the West End after a successful run on Broadway. It's been described as Sesame Street meets the Exorcist but something seems lost in translation in its trip across the pond. The comedy seems forced and the attempts to shock seem like they miss the target for London audiences. After all, this is a city where its buses advertised that God probably doesn't exist. Fanaticism and seeing things only in black and white is not really what we do over here. It's a shame as while there is a heavy handed preachy message that misses its mark, there are also some great performances. And some very funny use of sock puppets.
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Meanwhile in SW13: Dress Rehearsal @OSOArtsBarnes

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Backstage antics at a pub theatre in Barnes never felt so mild or bemusing in Dress Rehearsal. But while the drama is a little flat the music and production values make up for it. It's on for a short run at the OSO Arts Centre . Dress Rehearsal follows five performers and their rivalries, failures and ambitions. What happens backstage spills onstage as the drama leads into music and then back into more drama.
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Windmills of your mind: The Memory Show @DraytonArmsSW5

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The transformation of a mother daughter relationship as a daughter becomes a carer is at the heart of The Memory Show. It's a new musical with book and lyrics by Sara Cooper and music by Zach Redler. It is having its European premiere at the Drayton Arms Theatre in South Kensington, for a very brief period. Alzheimer's has inspired many creative works. From the book and film Still Alice and the recently produced play The Father . Here the same story is told, but with music. And it gives the piece a heightened sense of reality and emotion. And the natural performances from the two leads ground the piece and have you transfixed watching their journey.
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Topical Manhandling: Red Velvet @BranaghTheatre

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Red Velvet tells the story of Ira Aldridge , a black actor who plays Othello at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden in 1833. It's fascinating to watch Adrian Lester , playing a man playing Othello. And it's evocative seeing the drama unfold in a theatre close to the period that it adds to the drama. The piece is set at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden in 1833. Edmund Kean, the greatest actor of his generation, collapses on stage while playing Othello. As a result of too much hard living. His son who is playing Iago expects to step up into the role. But impresario Pierre Laporte gives the role to Aldridge, who had been touring in London.
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Meanwhile somewhere in rural England: Weald @Finborough

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Weald, the new play by Daniel Foxsmith  currently playing at the Finborough Theatre , is a funny and   intriguing piece about rural life in England and the bond between men. The premise is that Jim arrives home after six years away in need of work at a livery yard. It is only temporary as he needs the work. Sam, the older man and father figure to him, reluctantly agrees. As they get back to work, it is as if they were picking up where they left off. But in the years since Jim left, both have changed. The harsh economic realities for both of them mean that things are going to be as they were before.
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Make a pot roast: The World Goes 'Round - the songs of Kander and Ebb @St_JamesTheatre

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After catching The World Goes Round, it is easy to appreciate the breadth of writing from composers and lyricist John Kander and Fred Ebb . In the days since catching it, many of the songs have become ear worms. Who would have thought a song about two women comparing their lives (and singing about pot roast) could do that? No doubt it is due to the fine music making on stage. The show includes songs from their best known works, Cabaret and Chicago. But it also includes many other songs from lesser known shows. And songs that might have been lost are now given the chance to shine. It is a lot of songs in to get through in one evening but the show never drags during its nearly two hour duration. Helping the proceedings along are the performers assembled for the evening and each are given their moment.
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Blowing off steam: One of Those @TristanBates

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It all happens on the mid-morning train to Cornwall in One of Those , in this funny and fresh piece of new writing by Tom Ward-Thomas . A train ride to Cornwall is full of connections, and not just of the rail kind. The play's title comes from the false assumptions that people make at first meeting and how this influences how they behave.
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Pillow talk: Jeepers Creepers @lsqtheatre

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Life is a series of bedroom scenes in this tribute to comedian Marty Feldman, Jeepers Creepers. It's playing downstairs at the Leicester Square Theatre through to 20 February. And while you learn a bit about the man from East London who found fame in Hollywood, you never really understand what made him so funny in the first place.
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Let's talk about stuff: Clickbait @theatre503

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Clickbait is a comic new play about society’s attitude to porn and the women who make it for themselves. But it is hard to know exactly what to make of it. There is enough material for several plays here; attitudes to pornography, how to set up a sex empire, concepts of consensual sex. They are all explored, but all too briefly to make much sense. The play follows Nicola (played by Georgia Groome ) who, threatened with the release of an amateur sex video, makes a snap decision to post it online herself.
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Lighter shades of grey: The Picture of Dorian Gray @Trafstudios

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Something seems missing in this new adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, currently playing at Trafalgar Studios. Missing is any sense of excitement or thrills you would expect from Oscar Wilde's story about a beautiful man's hedonistic descent. The story was a scandal when it was first published. This new adaptation by Merlin Holland (Wilde's grandson) and John O'Connor, restores some homoerotic passages from the original manuscript. But as fascinating as they are, the overall piece is a bit of a damp squib.
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