One of the best and bravest decisions that Nicholas Hytner has made as head of the National Theatre is to give director Katie Mitchell free rein.

Though this has acquired the status of a modern classic, Martin McDonagh’s play is a black and bilious satirical assault on the very idea of an Irish classic play.

Katie Mitchell’s staging of Thomas Heywood’s rarely revived Elizabethan tragedy, static and over-busy, robs something of the script.

While retaining the blood and veins of the story, the musical-theatre version of Ghost brings with it impressive special effects and a serviceable score.

This ambitious enterprise from Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman has been trying to find the right pitch for its song for more than a decade. 

Although classic screen musicals such as this can never be satisfactorily made for the stage, this production is not without its highlights.

After a half century away from the stage, Chicken Soup comes storming back to rage against fascism.

Never before staged in English, Jonathan Kent’s viscerally thrilling production boils down this epic into three and a half heart-pounding hours.

Unlike the garish version being performed in the West End, this Much Ado relies on the text and the acting. And it works.

It’s doubtful we’ll see a finer, more vital Richard III in a decade.