Our experts round up the best plays and musicals
CRITIC’S CHOICE The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ – The Musical Turning one of the most widely read, most cherished books of the Eighties – Sue Townsend’s sequelspawning The Secret Diary… – into a musical? That’s a big risk. So is foisting the main responsibility for getting it right on the night onto teenage shoulders. So it’s an unexpected BEST OF THE REST Game Arriving so swiftly after King Charles III, Game further accelerates Mike Bartlett’s progress up the ranks of British theatre’s big guns. This is a short, sharp, satirically pulsequickening evening. Its primary conjecture is that owning property might soon become so unaffordable that, to secure a place to live, a young couple might be given a house on the proviso their every move be tracked by surveillancecamera – Big Brother-style. The audience watch via TV monitors, and headphones relay voice-simulated instructions. It’s guiltmakingly compelling. DC Almeida, London N1, to Apr 4; 020 7359 4404, almeida. co.uk/event/game pleasure to report that this all-singing, all-dancing Mole comes up trumps. It may lack the tunes of a Matilda or Billy Elliot; likewise, it doesn’t break any musical moulds. Yet the evening, delivered by a tireless company of just 10, does that rare thing: it both makes you laugh and tugs at your heartstrings. Dominic Cavendish Curve Theatre, Leicester, to April 4; 0116 242 3595, curveonline.co.uk Let It Be Nobody could call this celebration of the Fab Four inventive. But in sticking to the crudest idea of a “jukebox musical” and simply rattling through 40 of the best Beatles songs using accomplished lookalikes and soundalikes, the show lets the music speak for itself. DC Garrick, London WC2. Tickets: 0844 412 4662, LetItBeLive.com BOOK NOW The Audience Peter Morgan’s hit play returns, with Kristin Scott Thomas taking over as the Queen, in the role first played by Helen Mirren. Apollo, London W1, from May 5; 0844 482 9671, nimaxtheatres.com