Falsettos, The Other Palace review - affecting search for the new normal

★★★★ FALSETTOS, THE OTHER PLACE Affecting search for the new normal

This ambitious musical tackles the changing forms of family, romance and faith

William Finn and James Lapine’s musical – which combines two linked one-acts, March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, set in late 1970s/early 1980s New York – picked up Tony Awards in 1992 for its book and score, and was nominated again in 2

Betrayal, Harold Pinter Theatre review - Tom Hiddleston anchors a bold, brooding revival

★★★★ BETRAYAL, HAROLD PINTER THEATRE Tom Hiddleston anchors a bold, brooding revival

Jamie Lloyd locates the radical soul of a classic work

The grand finale of Jamie Lloyd’s remarkable Pinter at the Pinter season is this starry production of one of the writer’s greatest – and certainly most personal – works, inspired by his extramarital affair with Joan Bakewell.

Booby's Bay, Finborough Theatre review - a bit fishy

Play about the Cornish housing crisis isn't so swell

Carry on out of London past the Finborough Theatre and you hit the A4. Follow it east as it becomes the M4, take a southern turn at Bristol for the M5 and you’re in the West Country. Bude and Bodmin, Liskeard, St Austell, Padstow, Mousehole, Newquay and Newlyn. Out here are fishing villages, tin mines, granite churches, wide seas, surfers, pixies, low mental health indicators, and a great deal of unemployment.

Julian Barnes: The Only Story review - passion, pain and sorrow in Surrey

★★★★ JULIAN BARNES: THE ONLY STORY Passion, pain and sorrow in Surrey

Love across the generations, from tennis-club tryst to romantic tragedy

From his debut Metroland, right up to the Man Booker-winning The Sense of an Ending, the prospect of a road not taken has haunted the mild and mediocre narrators of Julian Barnes’s novels. Like Tony Webster in The Sense of an Ending, “average at life; average at truth; morally average”, they tend to prefer, or at least settle for, a comfy seat in the stalls as life’s high dramas unfold in front of them.

Apple Tree Yard, BBC One

APPLE TREE YARD, BBC ONE Dr Yvonne Carmichael discovers the cost of careless rapture in finely-drawn thriller

Dr Yvonne Carmichael discovers the cost of careless rapture in finely-drawn thriller

Only the final 60 seconds of this first episode of Apple Tree Yard could have been described as a psychological thriller. We know Dr Yvonne Carmichael is in the dock – the genetic scientist was shown handcuffed in a prison van right at the start – but we don’t know what she is supposed to have done. The remaining 55 minutes comprised a familiar tale of middle-class adultery and low-lit longing.

Love, Art and Rock 'n' Roll, Rambert, Sadler's Wells

LOVE, ART AND ROCK 'N' ROLL, RAMBERT, SADLER'S WELLS Dancers shine in two new works and a rocking old favourite

Dancers shine in two new works and a rocking old favourite

A good triple bill should have something for everyone, so Rambert have all bases covered with their latest: rare must be the person who likes neither love, nor art, nor rock 'n' roll. In fact, it's a safe bet that most people like all of them, and so last night's programme at Sadler's Wells was something of a crowd-pleaser – no mean feat for an evening with two new works, created for this season and here receiving their London première.

The Scandalous Lady W, BBC Two

THE SCANDALOUS LADY W, BBC TWO Notes on an 18th century scandal, with visuals dominating over character

Notes on an 18th-century scandal, with visuals dominating over character

What exactly do we expect when a drama opens with the declaration, “This is a true story”? The Scandalous Lady W, based on Hallie Rubenhold’s biography Lady Worsley’s Whim, brought us some unusual 18th century marriage shenanigans that ended in one of the most scandalous court cases of the era. But, despite its central legal scenes, “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” wasn’t the order of the day.