Theatre review: Nero

Following Duncan Sheik's (music) sudden death two months ago, Nero could be his and Steven Sater's (book and lyrics) final musical together, unless there's something unfinished waiting in the wings that could be salvaged. In any case, how much this is even the Spring Awakening team's latest work has to be up for debate, as a version of this bizarre biography first premiered twenty years ago. They've evidently been tinkering with it ever since, but on the evidence of Lindsay Posner's production at Southwark Playhouse Elephant, the whole concept needed a lot more overhauling than it got. One of the most notorious of the mad Roman emperors, Nero (Andrew Barth Feldman) comes to power thanks to the machinations of his mother Agrippina (Sally Dexter.) And for "machinations" read "a series of politically advantageous marriages followed by multiple blatant murders."The latest of these was Emperor Claudius, whose last words gave the crown to his stepson Nero, over his biological heir…

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