Sitemap - 2025 - The Crush Bar
There is a lot to look forward to
As a theatre journalist, you see the industry at its optimistic best and exploitative worst
"I am used to taking risks as a producer. I’m addicted to it, in fact."
Five talking points from Indhu Rubasingham's first National Theatre season
"I met Caryl Churchill in a café in Hackney. She was cooler than everyone else there."
Songs in shows can be devastatingly effective
What is with all these plays about men behaving badly?
"The British Museum really pissed me off. That anger became the motivation behind this play."
Are A-list actors saving theatre or spoiling it?
"Nikesh Patel described it as the result of putting Severance and PhoneShop in a blender."
4000 subscribers, 200 issues, and a new way for organisations to support this newsletter
Your favourite TV series was built on a bedrock of theatrical talent
What do this year's Edinburgh festivals have in store?
What went wrong at the Royal Exchange?
The Crush Bar does Only Connect (again)
"I masqueraded as a property developer who wanted to build a theatre."
A golden age of American propaganda and AI-generated musicals awaits...
Chatting about theatre is just the best, right, guys? Guys?
Trigger warnings are not the problem. The conversation around them is.
"I have nightmares where I look out into the audience and see his face."
What is with all these terrible Greek tragedies starring Hollywood A-listers?
"I think self-indulgence can be really radical."
Shouts and Murmurs - February 4, 2025
Are things really better for the performing arts in Ireland?
Shouts and Murmurs - January 28, 2025
I want to see a new theatrical movement. Someone start one.
Shouts and Murmurs - January 21, 2025
"We wanted to make a big show in a small space."