Welcome to a special edition of the London Theatre Review in association with Marquee TV, the expert curated streaming platform for arts and culture. We're back for another watch party, plucking a production from Marquee TV's huge catalogue, watching it, and discussing along with your thoughts.

This time it's the 2020 production of Vanya, adapted by Conor McPherson and directed by Ian Rickson, which was cut short by the Covid pandemic. The production stars Aimee Lou Wood, Toby Jones, Rosalind Eleazar, Richard Armitage and Roger Allam - an incredible cast for an incredible play.

Don't forget you can get a month's free access to Marquee TV at marquee.tv/ltr, or just use the code LTR at the checkout.

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It's power fo art under oppressive regimes week! First up is The Lives of Others at the Adelphi, Robert Icke’s adaptation of the film about a Stasi officer listening in on a playwright and his actress girlfriend in eighties East Berlin. Keira Knightley and Luke Thompson are the couple under surveillance, but it’s Stephen Dillane’s extraordinary performance behind the headphones that really gets the gang talking.

Then Nancy and Nick head to the Park Theatre for The Pianist, a new adaptation of Władysław Szpilman’s memoir of survival in wartime Warsaw. His own songs provide the score, but how well do they serve the story?

Plus, Nancy talks to Anne-Marie Duff, whose performance in Some Woman at the National Theatre left her awed.

And writer Scott Gilmour answers our five questions as Ceilidh, the musical he created with Claire McKenzie, gets audiences dancing at Shoreditch Town Hall.

Our second Marquee TV watch party takes on Uncle Vanya starring Toby Jones, with a special review episode coming this Wednesday, 4 November. Watch it and send your thoughts to thelondontheatrereview@gmail.com or via Instagram. Get one month free at marquee.tv/ltr or use the code LTR at checkout.

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This week, Martin Guerre comes to the Old Vic in a stripped-back, 90-minute version of the 1996 musical from the writers behind Les Misérables. Director Matthew Warchus has radically reinvented the show along with writers Claude Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil, swapping sweeping spectacle for folk horror. Nick Clark has had the songs on repeat ever since. Nancy would quite happily never hear them again. Can Nick Curtis broker a peace?

Then Nancy and Nick Curtis head to the Donmar Warehouse for Ilford Boy, Danny Lee Wynter’s play about a mixed-race teenager growing up in nineties East London.

Nancy talks to one of the pod's favourite people, the brilliant Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́, about Blood of My Blood at the Royal Court. And Bridgerton’s Isabella Wei answers our five questions as she stars in the horror comedy The Hungry Ghost at the Bush Theatre.

Our next Marquee TV watch party is Uncle Vanya starring Toby Jones. Watch it and send your thoughts to thelondontheatrereview@gmail.com or via Instagram for our special review episode on 4 November. Get one month free at marquee.tv/ltr or use the code LTR at checkout.

Follow us on Instagram and watch us on YouTube @thelondontheatrereview.

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This week, Nick, Nick and Nancy head to the Harold Pinter Theatre for The Cherry Orchard, starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Stephen Mangan. Conor McPherson and Ian Rickson give Chekhov’s crumbling aristocrats a good shake, while Nick Clark makes a confession: he’s somehow never seen a Chekhov play before. Will this one get him hooked?

Then Nancy and Nick Curtis review Some Woman at the National Theatre’s Dorfman. Anne-Marie Duff stars in Helen Edmundson’s play about a woman whose confrontation with a boy on a railway platform spirals horribly out of control. It leaves Nancy thoroughly shaken, and Nick feeling rather bad about his gender.

Plus, Nick Curtis talks to Doctor Who and The Diplomat star Pearl Mackie about returning to her Brixton birthplace for Baby at Brixton House. Clean Break’s solo show follows a woman fighting to be reunited with her daughter after prison, and Mackie explains how making it has reignited her love of theatre.

Nancy talks to Theatre Peckham’s artistic director Suzann McLean about its 40th anniversary, championing young Black voices and why access to the arts matters far beyond the stage.

And musical theatre royalty Maria Friedman answers our five questions as Kimberly Akimbo extends its run at Hampstead Theatre. Expect Sondheim, Angela Lansbury and an unfortunate encounter with a horse’s bottom...

Our Marquee TV watch party continues with Uncle Vanya starring Toby Jones. Watch it, then send your thoughts to thelondontheatrereview@gmail.com or via Instagram for our special review episode on 4 November. Get one month free at marquee.tv/ltr or use the code LTR at checkout. And catch up with our first watch party episode on Macbeth with David Tennant and Cush Jumbo.

Follow us on Instagram and watch us on YouTube @thelondontheatrereview.

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This week, the gang gets to grips with economics, ballet and the Bloomsbury set as James Graham’s new play The Standard of Living comes to the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Rory Kinnear plays John Maynard Keynes, with star ballerina Natalia Osipova as his wife Lydia Lopokova. Producer Tim joins Nancy and Nick Curtis for the review, but does it all add up?

Then it’s back to nineties New York for Rent at the Tom Stoppard Theatre, 30 years on from Jonathan Larson’s musical taking Broadway by storm. Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo stars, with Paddington director Luke Sheppard bringing the show to life.

Nick Curtis talks to another Stranger Things star, Linnea Berthelsen, about making her stage debut in Darkling at the Bush Theatre, a one-woman show set around the Bhopal disaster. They discuss leaving drama school for a Netflix phenomenon, giving everything on stage and having an emotional climax interrupted by a packet of crisps.

And Jamel Westman answers our five questions as he stars in Table 17 at the Kiln, including what happens when you forget your words in Hamilton and have to improvise...

Our first Marquee TV watch party is coming on Wednesday and it's the Donmar’s Macbeth with David Tennant and Cush Jumbo. Keep an eye out on the feed. There are more watch parties to come: get one month free at marquee.tv/ltr or use the code LTR at checkout.

Follow us on Instagram and watch us on YouTube @thelondontheatrereview.

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This week, two starry openings in the West End: Christine Baranski and Richard E Grant bring Noel Coward's frothy classic Hay Fever to the Wyndham's and Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup slug it out in Edward Albee's masterpiece Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Plus Game of Thrones star Wilf Scolding and Orange is the New Black star Lorraine Toussaint talk about The Story at the National Theatre - with another excellent onstage mishap.

And Liv Andrusier, about to appear in the reworked version of Martin Guerre at the Old Vic, answers five questions.

Don't forget to sign up to Marquee TV for our first watch party, where we'll be chatting about Macbeth featuring David Tennant and Cush Jumbo. Sign up at marqueetv.com/ltr or use code LTR at checkout for a month's free access, watch the show, and send your thoughts by email to thelondontheatrereview@gmail.com or Instagram @thelondontheatrereview by Wednesday 7 October and we will include them in our discussion.

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This week, the team travels from ancient Troy via modern Essex to the boxing rings of Depression-era New York.

First up is Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy at Theatre Royal Stratford East. Ava Pickett relocates the aftermath of the Trojan War to a Towie-style living room, with Michelle Dockery playing a bloodied and deeply complicated Helen. After the huge success of 1536, can Pickett produce another modern classic?

Then it’s Golden Boy at the Almeida, starring Josh O’Connor as a gifted young violinist forced to choose between his music and the money, danger and broken fingers of professional boxing. It's got a formidable supporting cast including Daniel Mays, Hayley Squires and the deeply unsettling Zubin Varla.

Plus, Sierra Boggess celebrates 40 years of The Phantom of the Opera. She has appeared as Christine Daae several times over the years, and is now seen as the 'mother goose' of Christines. She tells producer Tim about being part of this show for half its lifetime, and returning to the show not as Christine this time, but as Carlotta for the 40th anniversary West End cast.

Also the great Greg Hicks answers our five questions ahead of starring in The Master Builder at the Arcola.

And we launch our Macbeth watch party with Marquee TV. Get one month free at marquee.tv/ltr or use the code LTR, watch Macbeth with David Tennant and Cush Jumbo, then send us your thoughts by 7 October.

Find us on Instagram and YouTube @thelondontheatrereview.

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