Danielle Goldstein

December 21, 2023

Reviews, Theatre

Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig ★★★★

Danielle Goldstein

December 21, 2023

Reviews, Theatre

Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig ★★★★

Panto has long been a staple of the Christmas season, but what of Hanukkah? JW3 has just the ticket! The north London Jewish cultural centre has not only put on a cracker of a show (running until early January, including…

Danielle Goldstein

September 25, 2023

Reviews, Theatre

Ruby Wax: I'm Not as Well as I Thought I Was ★★★★

Danielle Goldstein

September 25, 2023

Reviews, Theatre

Ruby Wax: I'm Not as Well as I Thought I Was ★★★★

Shortly before the breakout of World War II, Ruby Wax's parents, both of whom were Jewish, fled Vienna and arrived in America in 1938. Less than two decades later, Wax was born in Evanston, Illinois. But she has never felt truly…

Danielle Goldstein

February 2, 2022

Reviews, Theatre

Dr Semmelweis ★★★★★

Danielle Goldstein

February 2, 2022

Reviews, Theatre

It is just 172 years this year since Dr Ignaz Semmelweis, a brilliant but conflicted Hungarian Jewish obstetrician working in Vienna, first shared a shocking discovery and made public his passionate exhortation to his colleagues in three words that are currently all too familiar: “Wash…

Danielle Goldstein

November 17, 2021

Reviews, Theatre

A Merchant of Venice ★★★

Danielle Goldstein

November 17, 2021

Reviews, Theatre

Adaptor/director Bill Alexander describes his relationship with The Merchant of Venice as "obsessive" and he's directed acclaimed productions at the RSC and Birmingham Rep. He flags up his intention to rethink Shakespeare’s problematical comedy by paring the cast…

Danielle Goldstein

September 15, 2021

Reviews, Theatre

Indecent ★★★★★

Danielle Goldstein

September 15, 2021

Reviews, Theatre

From the moment the actors and musicians rose to their feet in joyous dance to the band’s plangent klezmer sound, I felt at one with an audience leaning in to share "the true story of a little Jewish play" – these words projected in English and Hebrew-charactered Yiddish. Six actors…

Danielle Goldstein

September 1, 2021

Reviews, Theatre

Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied Tunisia ★★★★

Danielle Goldstein

September 1, 2021

Reviews, Theatre

Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied Tunisia ★★★★

A schematic pitiless sun glares down on levels of woodblocks, standing in for sand as designed by Max Johns, on an unfortunate man apparently buried up to his neck. The figure standing over him explains that he has been…

Danielle Goldstein

July 28, 2021

Reviews, Theatre

Pippin ★★★★

Danielle Goldstein

July 28, 2021

Reviews, Theatre

One of my first forays back into live theatreland – having run the gauntlet of heat, crowds and delays on the tube – and it was a relief to find myself in the intimate air-conditioned Charing Cross Theatre. And what a joy to be whirled back in time, though not to the Middle Ages of…

Dani Silver

July 26, 2019

Theatre, Reviews

Oklahoma! ★★★★

Dani Silver

July 26, 2019

Theatre, Reviews

Richard Rodgers’ and Oscar Hammerstein’s first great collaboration was a sensation when it premiered in in New York in 1943 at the height of the War. The duo of upper middle-class Jewish New Yorkers hit a nerve when they reimagined Lynn Rigg’s 1931 play Green Grow the Lilacs…

Judi Herman

October 31, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Company ★★★★★

Judi Herman

October 31, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

The 1970 London production of Company was my first experience of a Sondheim musical and for me a revelation and a game-changer. I was enchanted by the marriage of music and words, the sophistication of both and the wit and precision of the man’s lyrics (he once said…

Judi Herman

May 11, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Life and Fate ★★★★★

Judi Herman

May 11, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Love’s victory over totalitarianism is a total theatre triumph. Vasily Grossman’s 855-page account of life across the Soviet Union during World War II has been compared to Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Adaptor/director Lev Dodin and his Maly Drama Theatre company from St Petersburg have honed…