Our experts round up the best plays and musicals
CRITIC’S CHOICE How To Hold Your Breath Just a few months after playing Hamlet at the Royal Exchange Manchester, Maxine Peake has headed down south, exchanging Shakespeare for a new play, albeit one with more than a touch of Marlowe about it. The shadow of Doctor Faustus looms over How To Hold Your Breath, which centres on a stylish “customer relations” expert who’s seized by a waking BEST OF THE REST 84 Charing Cross Road It’s a risk to revisit a past success, but that’s what director James RooseEvans has done. In 1981, he adapted a volume of post-war letters between Helene Hanff, a bibliophile in New York, and Frank Doel, the obliging manager of an olde-worlde London bookshop. In this mistyeyed revival, Roose-Evans and designer Norman Coates beautifully evoke two worlds divided by the Atlantic but united by a passion for the literary. DC Salisbury Playhouse, until Feb 28; 01722 320 333, salisburyplayhouse.com Taken at Midnight Mark Hayhurst’s fine debut play is about Hans Litten, nightmare that begins with a fling with a demon. Said demon seemingly orchestrates the social and economic collapse of Europe to bring about her ruin. Does this sound ludicrous? The ingenuity of Zinnie Harris’s play is that it works on multiple levels – including, at a time of Grexit talk and eurozone ills, a highly topical one. Dominic Cavendish Royal Court, London SW1, until Mar 21; 020 7565 5000, royalcourttheatre.com the German lawyer who subpoenaed and crossexamined Adolf Hitler in 1931 only to pay a full price later in life, once the latter had become Führer. Martin Hutson shows quiet dignity in the lead role, but it’s Penelope Wilton, as his mother Irmgard, who steals the show, striving to gain justice for Litten in the face of proliferating danger. DC Theatre Royal Haymarket, London SW1, until March 14; 020 7930 8800, trh.co.uk BOOK AHEAD Death of a Salesman In Gregory Doran’s revival of Arthur Miller’s gem, Antony Sher plays disillusioned Willy Loman and Harriet Walter his hard-pressed wife. RSC, Stratford upon Avon, Mar 26 until May 2; 0844 800 1110, rsc.org.uk