Our experts round up the best plays and musicals
CRITIC’S CHOICE Donkey Heart Do walls still have ears in modern Russia? Moses Raine’s funny, touching and continually involving domestic drama, set in a Moscow flat, recalls a past of state eavesdropping and pervasive suspicion and sets that against a world in which much has changed, but not masses – where family tensions and mistrust obliquely reflect a body politic that allows BEST OF THE REST Tree As an antidote to the January blues, check out the debut stage play of comedian Daniel Kitson, who takes a simple scenario – two characters, one at the foot of a tree, the other at its top – and scales heights of wit and warmth. DC Old Vic, London SE1, to Feb 22; 0844 871 7628, oldvictheatre.com Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown A musical comedy based on a cult Pedro Almodóvar film about a bunch of women going doolally over a cheating middle-aged cad? A show, moreover, that flopped on Broadway? Fret not: this is an absolute joy. Thanks to a smart book little room for personal freedom. The tough man of the house, Ivan, appears to be cheating on his nervously sniffing wife Zhenya – at least so their son and daughter believe, as they snoop on his every move. One might have liked more of the chill air of the Putin era to intrude, but this is still authentic, atmospheric stuff. Dominic Cavendish Trafalgar Studios, London SW1, to Sat; 0845 505 8500, trafalgar-studios.co.uk by Jeffrey Lane, the gag count is high, and Tamsin Greig – as the dumped television actress Pepa – has us hooked on every astonished and distressed look, oscillating between resignation and rage. DC Playhouse Theatre, London WC2N, to Apr 9; 0844 871 7631, playhousetheatrelondon.com BOOK AHEAD The Life and Times of Fanny Hill Caroline Quentin stars in April de Angelis’s new adaptation of John Cleland’s infamous novel Fanny Hill – published in 1748 and banned soon afterwards – charting one woman’s fall into prostitution and then rise to notoriety. Bristol Old Vic, Feb 5 to Mar 7; 0117 987 7877, bristololdvic.org.uk