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FIVE BEST PLAYS

Aspects of Love (Menier Chocolate Factory, London)
This brilliant little revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical is a mini-masterpiece, with a score of insinuating beauty and real emotional muscle in which the characters, in a daisy chain of love across the French Pyrenees, in Paris and Venice and first in Montpellier, express their passions and yearning in a through-sung melodic melisma. Michael Arden, a young Broadway singer sings beautifully as the hero, and he’s well matched by Katherine Kingsley as Rose, Dave Willetts as old George, and Rosalie Craig as Giuletta. (020 7907 7060) to 26 Sept

Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 (Shakespeare’s Globe, London)
It’s always a joy to see these marvellously plotted plays together. Dominic Dromgoole’s company of 20 actors does sterling work in the doubling department: William Gaunt, for one, is both a dignified Worcester and a hilariously whinnying Shallow. The unbuttoned, sometimes casual style at the Globe suits these plays very well, and helps release them into a new democracy beyond the RSC. (020 7401 9919) to 3 Oct

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Chichester Festival Theatre)
Howard Brenton’s adaptation of Robert Tressell’s epic novel about a group of decorators doing up a house bought by the town’s mayor. Christopher Morahan makes deft use of his versatile ensemble cast, led by a quietly dignified Finbar Lynch as a muralist who attempts to instill some socialist principles into his fellow painters. (01243 781312) to 26 Aug

Welcome to Thebes (NT: Olivier, London)
Moira Buffini is only the second woman to have a new work staged in the Olivier and no one could accuse her of failing to rise to the challenge, with her exploration of the plight of a female protagonist who becomes the first democratic president of a third-world country that is emerging from a brutal civil war. It’s premiered in a vivid, expertly marshalled production by Richard Eyre. (020 7452 3000) to 19 Aug

Legally Blonde (Savoy Theatre, London)
Sheridan Smith is brilliantly warm, winning, witty and all-round adorable as Elle, who proves not to be the airhead she is taken for when she goes to Harvard Law School in this is ridiculously enjoyable musical. (0870 871 7687) to 20 Feb