Alice Saville
@alicesaville.bsky.social
A surfeit of opinions. Theatre critic for The Independent. Words in Exeunt, FT, The Observer, Time Out & more. Commission me: alice.n.saville@gmail.com
A knockout staging of an odd, incomplete final Sondheim - I entirely get why they went for a reverential approach, but he often wrote to & supported younger musical theatre writers - would have been so interesting to invite other voices to finish it off...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta....
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta....
Here We Are is full of wit and flair, but Sondheim’s final musical feels incomplete
Familiar TV faces Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jane Krakowski, and Rory Kinnear make up a formidable if unlikely cast
www.independent.co.uk
May 9, 2025 at 10:41 AM
A knockout staging of an odd, incomplete final Sondheim - I entirely get why they went for a reverential approach, but he often wrote to & supported younger musical theatre writers - would have been so interesting to invite other voices to finish it off...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta....
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta....
Jessie Buckley was just wonderful in An Oak Tree - I love the way she balanced the vulnerability that comes with being pregnant on stage with cheekiness + clowning, throwing herself to her knees for a virtuoso air piano sesh [paywall - but currently only £1!]
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
Tim Crouch’s experimental play An Oak Tree is pure magic
This theatre landmark has been around for 20 years, but it still continues to create something new and uncomfortable
www.independent.co.uk
May 7, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Jessie Buckley was just wonderful in An Oak Tree - I love the way she balanced the vulnerability that comes with being pregnant on stage with cheekiness + clowning, throwing herself to her knees for a virtuoso air piano sesh [paywall - but currently only £1!]
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
Spent yesterday morning perched on a wall watching the Hastings Jack in the Green parade going by and already it feels like a dream - take me back!
May 6, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Spent yesterday morning perched on a wall watching the Hastings Jack in the Green parade going by and already it feels like a dream - take me back!
SO many unhinged choices in this Great Gatsby musical, the way it tramples over the novel would be kind of exciting if there was any particular artistic intention there beyond creating a fun + aggressively sexy 1920s romp [paywall]
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
This Great Gatsby musical lacks respect for F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic – review
As Gatsby, Jamie Muscato brings stupendous vocals and a jarringly approachable goofiness to the most elusive of literary creations
www.independent.co.uk
April 25, 2025 at 11:28 AM
SO many unhinged choices in this Great Gatsby musical, the way it tramples over the novel would be kind of exciting if there was any particular artistic intention there beyond creating a fun + aggressively sexy 1920s romp [paywall]
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
SO many unhinged choices in this Great Gatsby musical, the way it tramples over the novel would be kind of exciting if there was any particular artistic intention there beyond creating a fun + aggressively sexy 1920s romp [paywall]
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
This Great Gatsby musical lacks respect for F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic – review
As Gatsby, Jamie Muscato brings stupendous vocals and a jarringly approachable goofiness to the most elusive of literary creations
www.independent.co.uk
April 25, 2025 at 10:19 AM
SO many unhinged choices in this Great Gatsby musical, the way it tramples over the novel would be kind of exciting if there was any particular artistic intention there beyond creating a fun + aggressively sexy 1920s romp [paywall]
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
I can't summarise my thoughts on this examination of male violence in a pithy way, sorry, you're just going to have to read the review
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta....
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta....
Manhunt is an intense study of Raoul Moat, but its message is uncertain – review
Samuel Edward-Cook is effective as the prowling fugitive, but Robert Icke’s risk-taking production is not as compassionate as it makes itself out to be
www.independent.co.uk
April 9, 2025 at 9:44 AM
I can't summarise my thoughts on this examination of male violence in a pithy way, sorry, you're just going to have to read the review
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta....
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta....
Imagine how proud the creator of my local topiary peacock feels every April, when its tail and crest burst beautifully into bloom. You'd just never get over it. Carry pictures in your wallet.
April 6, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Imagine how proud the creator of my local topiary peacock feels every April, when its tail and crest burst beautifully into bloom. You'd just never get over it. Carry pictures in your wallet.
I miss getting to write about new writing/live art on small stages but the outlets for this are few - thinking of starting a substack with a weekly write-up if there'd be interest in that?
March 31, 2025 at 8:54 AM
I miss getting to write about new writing/live art on small stages but the outlets for this are few - thinking of starting a substack with a weekly write-up if there'd be interest in that?
Spotted some beautiful botanical b-sides and rarities at Museum of the Home: daffodils that exploded like fireworks or honked like ducks bills, snakes head fritilleries and glowing golden ferns
March 29, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Spotted some beautiful botanical b-sides and rarities at Museum of the Home: daffodils that exploded like fireworks or honked like ducks bills, snakes head fritilleries and glowing golden ferns
Wow the NYT review of Operation Mincemeat is absurd and humourless. Its main criticisms:
1) the show jokes about too many different things
2) the people it's about would NOT have been so larky and silly in real life (otherwise how would they have won the war 😤)
1) the show jokes about too many different things
2) the people it's about would NOT have been so larky and silly in real life (otherwise how would they have won the war 😤)
March 22, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Wow the NYT review of Operation Mincemeat is absurd and humourless. Its main criticisms:
1) the show jokes about too many different things
2) the people it's about would NOT have been so larky and silly in real life (otherwise how would they have won the war 😤)
1) the show jokes about too many different things
2) the people it's about would NOT have been so larky and silly in real life (otherwise how would they have won the war 😤)
The second I finished this list I thought of at least three London theatres that should be on it... what can I say, my brain has been permanently addled by exposure to dizzying amounts of gilt and velvet www.timeout.com/london/theat...
Ranked: the most beautiful theatres in London
The show doesn’t begin when the lights go down
www.timeout.com
March 21, 2025 at 2:05 PM
The second I finished this list I thought of at least three London theatres that should be on it... what can I say, my brain has been permanently addled by exposure to dizzying amounts of gilt and velvet www.timeout.com/london/theat...
Returning to freelancing after mat leave feels a bit like being the baker of Pudding Lane returning to the ashes of his ruined kitchen BUT we shall rebuild!
And if you need an arts writer or editor, I'm at alice.n.saville[at]gmail.com
And if you need an arts writer or editor, I'm at alice.n.saville[at]gmail.com
March 17, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Returning to freelancing after mat leave feels a bit like being the baker of Pudding Lane returning to the ashes of his ruined kitchen BUT we shall rebuild!
And if you need an arts writer or editor, I'm at alice.n.saville[at]gmail.com
And if you need an arts writer or editor, I'm at alice.n.saville[at]gmail.com
This is defo on the better end of the current never-ending supply of teen movie remakes - first act is uncanny valley central, its young cast lab-grown imitations of the OG, then it gradually gets a mind and heart of its own.
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
Clueless the Musical – a cynical knockoff? As if!
Original writer Amy Heckerling returns to adapt her iconic Jane Austen remix for the stage
www.independent.co.uk
March 14, 2025 at 2:50 PM
This is defo on the better end of the current never-ending supply of teen movie remakes - first act is uncanny valley central, its young cast lab-grown imitations of the OG, then it gradually gets a mind and heart of its own.
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
I knew I'd love Thomas Ostermeier's The Seagull when it opened with a Billy Bragg song and it only got better from there, with its adolescent skulking and self-obsession and big rants about theatre and art (no paywall)
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
The Barbican’s star-studded The Seagull is an utterly engrossing update of Chekov
Cate Blanchett stars in a three-hour production of the classic play that’s languid, thoughtful, and often hilarious
www.independent.co.uk
March 7, 2025 at 7:14 AM
I knew I'd love Thomas Ostermeier's The Seagull when it opened with a Billy Bragg song and it only got better from there, with its adolescent skulking and self-obsession and big rants about theatre and art (no paywall)
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
I fell in love with Richard II as a student ("I wasted time, now time doth waste me" felt v relatable as finals loomed) - so I was captivated by this production, and Jonathan Bailey's whimsical performance, lightly edged with cruelty and madness
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
Jonathan Bailey is charismatic as the queer-coded despot of Richard II – review
The ‘Wicked’ star delights in the extravagant speeches of Shakespeare’s homoerotic text
www.independent.co.uk
February 19, 2025 at 7:53 AM
I fell in love with Richard II as a student ("I wasted time, now time doth waste me" felt v relatable as finals loomed) - so I was captivated by this production, and Jonathan Bailey's whimsical performance, lightly edged with cruelty and madness
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
I know I shouldn't but I love the chaotic slapstick ballet that unfolds when rollerbladers get into London Bridge and station staff try and catch em, solid team lanyard against liquid limbs
February 18, 2025 at 8:55 PM
I know I shouldn't but I love the chaotic slapstick ballet that unfolds when rollerbladers get into London Bridge and station staff try and catch em, solid team lanyard against liquid limbs
Did all the theatre companies form a little huddle sometime in 2022 in order to dub this The Long Grim Winter of Greek Drama, for reasons unknown?
OR is this a horrible accident, where theatrical soothsayers misread the entrails of birds & told each director their production would stand alone?
OR is this a horrible accident, where theatrical soothsayers misread the entrails of birds & told each director their production would stand alone?
February 4, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Did all the theatre companies form a little huddle sometime in 2022 in order to dub this The Long Grim Winter of Greek Drama, for reasons unknown?
OR is this a horrible accident, where theatrical soothsayers misread the entrails of birds & told each director their production would stand alone?
OR is this a horrible accident, where theatrical soothsayers misread the entrails of birds & told each director their production would stand alone?
This is v fair. I'm kind of fed up with the West End box office equation of weird play + massive star, because avant garde theatre fans who might appreciate the production (however flawed) can't get seats, while celebrity chasers who go all out for tickets are feeling tricked
ICYMI: Composer and singer Rufus Wainwright has blamed the premature closure of his West End musical Opening Night on excessive “pressure on Sheridan Smith to sell tickets” and a marketing strategy that left audiences feeling “duped” 👇 #TheatreNews #TheatreSky
Rufus Wainwright: Audiences coming to Opening Night felt ‘duped’
The composer and singer says the marketing strategy for his West End musical Opening Night starring Sheridan Smith was partly to blame for its premature closure
www.thestage.co.uk
February 2, 2025 at 11:31 AM
This is v fair. I'm kind of fed up with the West End box office equation of weird play + massive star, because avant garde theatre fans who might appreciate the production (however flawed) can't get seats, while celebrity chasers who go all out for tickets are feeling tricked
You can tell a lot about the mental state of the world from the middle isle of Lidl... & right now apparently everyone just wants to curl up on the floor like sad old dogs
February 2, 2025 at 11:20 AM
You can tell a lot about the mental state of the world from the middle isle of Lidl... & right now apparently everyone just wants to curl up on the floor like sad old dogs
A great read! And a reminder that arts criticism is necessarily a subjective, human, awkward thing - feeling out the space between artists' imaginings and audience experience
From the pleasures of feeling part of a community to awkward conversations and hostile glares after a lukewarm review… @fergusmorgan.bsky.social, @traceysinclair.bsky.social, Frank Peschier and @hollywilliams.bsky.social on what it’s like to be a critic within a small theatre scene
'It feels like punching a pal'
Four writers on what it's like to be a critic in a close-knit theatre community
exeuntmagazine.substack.com
January 29, 2025 at 1:23 PM
A great read! And a reminder that arts criticism is necessarily a subjective, human, awkward thing - feeling out the space between artists' imaginings and audience experience
Words cannot express how much I love Dave Malloy's experiments in dragging musical theatre somewhere new and strange (but I did nonetheless try quite a few different ones in this review)
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
Timothy Sheader’s EDM-fuelled Tolstoy rock opera is a thing to marvel at – review
After a decade of anticipation, the much talked-about musical arrives in London
www.independent.co.uk
December 17, 2024 at 4:16 PM
Words cannot express how much I love Dave Malloy's experiments in dragging musical theatre somewhere new and strange (but I did nonetheless try quite a few different ones in this review)
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
Such an intriguing play (and thanks to its probably-Communist author, one with a harsher perspective on white Southern women's culpability than Tennessee Williams' misty-eyed visions)
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
Anne-Marie Duff is fascinatingly nasty in Lyndsey Turner’s Little Foxes – review
Duff’s Regina is such a monster in this production that it’s hard to feel any kind of surprise or sympathy, as she manipulates and is manipulated in turn
www.independent.co.uk
December 12, 2024 at 3:32 PM
Such an intriguing play (and thanks to its probably-Communist author, one with a harsher perspective on white Southern women's culpability than Tennessee Williams' misty-eyed visions)
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
Local hardware store have turned their famous mascot into Santa - maybe he'll fix our dodgy plumbing for Christmas
December 12, 2024 at 1:28 PM
Local hardware store have turned their famous mascot into Santa - maybe he'll fix our dodgy plumbing for Christmas
Oh I loved this outpouring of Wicked nerdery - it's high time you signed up to Exeunt's Substack, for theatre chat in your inbox twice a week
What is this feeling? Hailey Bachrach gathers a group of critics with backgrounds from the Wicked-positive to ambivalent for their reactions to the new Jon M. Chu adaptation, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Here they stand, in the light of day - our first paid article is not to be missed!
What is this feeling? On loving and loathing the new Wicked
Exeunt writers discuss queer representation, ableism, and Ariana Grande defying expectations in the ultimate millennial musical
exeuntmagazine.substack.com
December 7, 2024 at 11:47 AM
Oh I loved this outpouring of Wicked nerdery - it's high time you signed up to Exeunt's Substack, for theatre chat in your inbox twice a week
What a lovely thing the NT's Ballet Shoes is - fun and magical, while also quietly celebrating difference and the power of chosen family
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
If you see one show this Christmas season, make it the effusive, lovable Ballet Shoes
Leaping between its period setting and the present, Kendell Feaver’s adaptation of Noel Streatfeild’s 1936 book is as delicately balanced as a dancer en pointe
www.independent.co.uk
December 6, 2024 at 1:16 PM
What a lovely thing the NT's Ballet Shoes is - fun and magical, while also quietly celebrating difference and the power of chosen family
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...