Lyn Gardner's Weekly Picks
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Let a little sunshine into your life with [*La Fille Mal Gardée*](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/dance/la-fille-mal-gardee-tickets) the Royal Ballet’s sublime revival of **Frederick Ashton**’s delightful comic romcom, which returns this week and runs into June. It’s billed as a ballet of pure sunshine, and so it proves in a show that mixes silliness and tenderness to create a light-as-air confection. In previous iterations the show featured a real-life pony. But in the era of *War Horse, Paddington*, and more, in this revival wooden automata will make its debut, replacing the traditional white Shetland pony.
If you enjoyed the recent BBC’s adaptation of *The Other Bennet Sister,* a sideways look at Pride and Prejudice through the overlooked sister, Mary, then you may also like **Adrian Lukis’** [*Being Mr Wickham*](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/play/being-mr-wickham-tickets), which slips into the Garrick for one night this week. **Lukis** played the dastardly Wickham in the 1995 TV version of *Pride and Prejudice* (the one with **Colin Firth**), and now he returns to the rogue who is now past 60 and wants to tell his side of the story, the one that **Jane Austen** didn’t write.
It’s almost last orders for [*Teeth n Smiles*](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/play/teeth-n-smiles-tickets), which finishes at the Harold Pinter Theatre on June 6th. **David Hare**’s play about the fag end of the 1960s and the realisation that post-war optimism and radical politics had changed nothing may not have quite stood the test of time, but it’s a rousing evening and comes with a performance from **Rebecca Lucy Taylor** (aka **Self-Esteem**) which is quite as memorable as **Helen Mirren** was in the original Royal Court production 50 years ago.
Interesting to see that [*Jesus Christ Superstar,*](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/musical/jesus-christ-superstar-tickets) which is playing a limited summer season at the London Palladium, will return in the autumn heading into the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in October. **Timothy Sheader**’s production, first seen at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in 2019, has been a gift that keeps on giving. No surprise, it’s a terrific package of design, choreography and insight which turns water into wine, offering, on one level, a simple retelling of a familiar story but, on others, a biting examination of religious and political fanaticism and state expediency. In **Drew McOnie**’s choreography, Jesus’ followers often appear like the jerking inmates of a mental asylum.