The 1977 Tony winning Broadway musical may be more than a little bit old-fashioned and even corny, but it wears its sincerity totally on its heart; and director Nikolai Foster honours that sentiment (and sentimentality) with real integrity...
Read more

An ingenious jigsaw-like design and strong performances lift this revival, but the main draw, Miranda Hart, is just too likable and the politics seem dated.
Read more

If Annie is in some ways an enduringly safe bet – this isn't a show that would benefit from Donmar-style deconstruction – its strength lies in an open-faced, full-throated compassion...
Read more

But ‘Annie’ has its own charms, and though I suspect this production may not survive Hart’s departure on September 17, there is definitely more to it than celebrity casting.
Read more

Perfect, then, as anticipated, for the summer and the school-holidays but, more unexpectedly, for these jittery, fear-filled times too; a potent juvenile rallying cry to resist hard-knocks and fight back.
Read more

This production, fluently directed by Nikolai Foster, who previously directed a touring version, also has the benefit of a kind of rough theatrical magic. Its scale fits perfectly into the relatively compact Piccadilly...
Read more

[Miranda Hart] gets top billing, but really it’s a colourful cameo. The show is the star. And its mixture of open-heartedness, wit and pizzazz enables the little orphan inside us all to see off our enemies.
Read more