Lyn Gardner's Weekly Picks
Published on 23 February 2026
Out of the gates this week come two shows: The Holy Rosenbergs at the Menier and Maria and Rosetta at @sohoplace. Both arrive tried and tested. Ryan Craig’s The Holy Rosenbergs was first seen at the NT in 2011 and tells of David, an Edgware Jewish patriarch whose life is unravelling. His successful catering business is on the brink of disaster after a scandal, his son is dead, fighting for the UDF in Gaza, and his daughter is a human rights lawyer investigating war crimes in Gaza, much to the disquiet of the local Jewish community. So, while The Holy Rosenbergs is 15 years old, it certainly should be topical, and Craig’s play harks back to the Arthur Miller tradition of playwriting with nods both to All My Sons and Death of a Salesman.
George Brant’s Marie and Rosetta was seen at the Rose Theatre in Kingston last spring and now roars into @sohoplace with Beverley Knight playing Sister Rosetta Tharpe, known as “the godmother of rock ‘n’ roll", and Ntombizodwa Ndlovu as Marie Knight, who Rosetta persuades to join her on a tour in the segregated states. The musical chemistry between the two is electrifying, and the singing should blow the roof off the theatre.
It’s your last chance this week to catch Sheridan Smith in Woman in Mind at the Duke of York's. Smith is always such a compelling performer, and she rises to the challenge of Alan Ayckbourn's comedy about a woman, Susan, who is losing her mind in a play written entirely from Susan’s perspective. It may not be Ayckbourn’s most approachable play, but Smith's performance ensures you won’t forget it. You shouldn’t overlook Anna Jordan’s Lost Atoms, which also finishes its run at the Lyric Hammersmith on February 28. A collaboration with Frantic Assembly, it’s a gorgeous play about love and memory written and performed with eggshell vulnerability.
Early next month the RSC is premiering a brand new musical, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. The RSC, of course, has pedigree when it comes to staging hit musicals, from Les Misérables to Matilda. So you should nab tickets for when this story, directed by Lynette Linton, which arrives at @sohoplace in April to tell the story of how a Malawian teenager brought hope to his village by building a wind turbine from scrap.
