Alfred Hickling
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Ashes review – an honest look at a couple's failure to conceiveDavid Thacker revives David Rudkin’s rarely performed 1970s play about an infertile Ulsterman and his English wife
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Eric Idle's The Owl and the Pussycat review – Python primer for kids is a hootThis musical adaptation of Idle’s take on Edward Lear’s much-loved poem is a hummable defence of the spirit nonsense
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Hedda Gabler, This is Not a Love Story review – Hedda get your gunAs the heroine of Ibsen’s psychodrama, a pistol-packing Victoria Elliott rages against corseted constriction in Selma Dimitrijevic’s adaptation
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Cinderella review – effervescent Rossini for a Strictly Dancing eraAletta Collins plays to her strengths as a choreographer with a sparkling new Opera North production that’s as much for dance fans as opera buffs
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Made in India review – surrogacy drama is a race against timeSatinder Chohan’s compelling play about a woman desperate to become a mother draws intense performances from its cast
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The Transports review – extraordinary richness of Botany Bay convicts' storiesPeter Bellamy’s 1977 ballad opera is expanded into a stunning, fully staged folk suite featuring the Young’uns, Nancy Kerr, Faustus and Rachael McShane
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A folk opera about mass migration? Let the Young'uns transport youPeter Bellamy’s classic concept album The Transports read like a who’s who of the 1970s scene. Now an A-list cast is reviving the ‘ballad opera’ for a tour
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'I've spent the last year in a dream state': virtuoso mandolinist Chris ThileHe has taken the mandolin where it has never gone before, even using it to record Bach. Now he’s teamed up with jazz giant Brad Mehldau and is promising to write a topical song every week
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The Great Gatsby review – get immersed in jazz-age hedonismF Scott Fitzgerald’s novel comes to life in the Guild of Misrule’s fancy-dress interpretation, though you may be too busy playing spin the bottle to hear the whole story
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Annie Get Your Gun review – dynamite lead blows holes in original's sexismPowered by Anna-Jane Casey’s explosive central turn, this version of Irving Berlin’s musical wisely tones down the misogyny and racism
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The Twits review – panto pranks in Roald Dahl's anti-beard manifestoDavid Wood sensibly doesn’t try to overextend what is one of Dahl’s most concise works, but he does keep the audience – especially the bearded members – on their toes
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The Star review – Merseyside music hall reopens with bizarre billThis celebration of the 19th-century Star theatre is neither boring nor educational – just as Ken Dodd advised its writer, Michael Wynne
The Explosion Chronicles by Yan Lianke review – boomtime in rural China