The Potato Lab, Netflix review - a K-drama with heart and wit

★★★★ THE POTATO LAB, NETFLIX A K-drama with heart and wit

Love among Korean potato-researchers is surprisingly funny and ideal for Janeites

When the world’s darkness is too much, there is a Netflix rabbit-hole you can disappear down to a kinder place: the Korean romcoms section. This is a recommendation for romcom fans, a warm indulgent bubble bath of a watch. It's like turning the clock back to more innocent times, while full of contemporary pizzazz. 

Béatrice et Bénédict, Irish National Opera, National Concert Hall, Dublin review - sung and spoken triumph

★★★★★ BEATRICE ET BENEDICT, IRISH NATIONAL OPERA Sung and spoken triumph

Shakespeare from Fiona Shaw ballasts superbly performed Berlioz

As Fiona Shaw’s shiningly free and easy narration told us, Shakespeare’s sparring Beatrice and Benedick are merely counterpoint to a supposedly comic plot that becomes a potential tragedy, and tests the japers’ seriousness. Berlioz wanted none of that in his last opera, all southern sunlight and moonshine, caprice and reverie. Last night we got the best of all possible worlds in a concert performance that showed an ideal way forward for this beauty of a numbers opera.

42nd Street, Sadler's Wells review - musical extravaganza will knock your socks off

★★★★★ 42nd STREET, SADLER'S WELLS Glorious musical extravaganza

Old show sparkles in astonishing new production that dazzles from first to last

There are better musicals in town, but can you find me a more spectacular show in a more comfortable theatre? I doubt it. Not that Jonathan Church's new production at Sadler's Wells is flawless. It's a 90-year-old blockbuster so, for all its references to breadlines, insecure employment and heat-or-eat decisions, one wonders if so much effort might be better expended on something a little more recent, a little less bound by the cliches of musical theatre?

What's Love Got to Do With It? review - Jemima Khan's feelgood romcom

★★★ WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? Jemima Khan's feelgood romcom

Lively cross-cultural study of love and marriage

Here's a question. A romcom stars a man and woman, friends from childhood, both straight and with no romantic history. He's a Muslim and has decided to pursue an arranged marriage; she has a chaotic love life. What are the odds that they will end up together at the end of the film?

Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, Harold Pinter Theatre review - cool cast chills the drama

★★★ LEMONS LEMONS LEMONS LEMONS LEMONS, HAROLD PINTER THEATRE Cool cast chills the drama

West End transfer for Sam Steiner’s fringe classic does the play no favours

Culture which arrives from the margins to the mainstream is a classic phenomenon. In the case of Sam Steiner’s Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons it has taken almost a decade for this two-hander to make the journey from a student production at Warwick University, via the Warwick Arts Centre in 2015 – plus outings to the National Student Drama Festival and Edinburgh Festival – to the West End.

The Band's Visit, Donmar Warehouse review - still waters run bittersweet

★★★★ THE BAND'S VISIT, DONMAR WAREHOUSE Still waters run bittersweet

Feted Broadway musical finds an apt London fit

Not much happens but, in its way, everything does in The Band's Visit, the gentle, sweet-natured musical that rather unexpectedly stormed Broadway late in 2017 and is just now receiving a notably empathic London debut.

Much Ado About Nothing, National Theatre review - Shakespeare’s comedy goes Hollywood musical

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, NATIONAL THEATRE Simon Godwin delivers an unexpectedly conventional production, larky and fluffy

Simon Godwin delivers an unexpectedly conventional production, larky and fluffy

After gender-flipping the National’s Malvolio, the director Simon Godwin might have been expected to be equally bold with Much Ado About Nothing at the same address. A same-sex Beatrice and Benedick romance? Dogberry in bondage gear, zonked out on poppers? True, Godwin has been free with the text, cutting freely and turning Governor Leonato into a hotel owner with a wife instead of a brother, but this production is still unexpectedly trad.

The Lost City review - terrific odd-couple comedy

★★★★ THE LOST CITY Sandra Bullock & Channing Tatum star, Brad Pitt's cameo adds to the fun

Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum star, Brad Pitt's cameo adds to the fun

Sandra Bullock is on terrific form in this rollicking romcom in which she plays Loretta Sage, a historian who writes bestselling romance novels in which the heroine has adventures in exotic places with her lover, Dash. Now, still grieving the loss of her archeologist husband five years before, Loretta has been sent on a book-signing tour by her manager, Beth (Da’Vine Joy Randolph, giving it both barrels).