Award-winning critic Matt Trueman joins WhatsOnStage team

We're delighted to announce that, from January, award-winning theatre critic Matt Trueman will be joining the WhatsOnStage editorial team. Working alongside Michael Coveney, he will be covering first nights in London and beyond and writing a weekly column.

"I'm thrilled to be joining WhatsOnStage," Trueman said today. "They believe in the value of rigorous criticism that benefits audiences and artforms alike and, at a difficult moment for arts criticism, that remains important.

"Having started out as an independent blogger, I've always believed in the possibilities offered by online criticism and I look forward to exploring them further with WhatsOnStage. To be doing so alongside Michael Coveney, one of the best British critics of recent decades, only makes the opportunity all the more exciting."

As a theatre critic and arts journalist, Trueman has written for the Guardian, Telegraph, Financial Times and Independent, as well as the New Statesman, Time Out, The Scotsman and The Stage. He is currently chief London critic for Variety, co-editor of Theatre Voice and also writes about theatre for Whitacker's Almanack.

He is a five-time winner of the prestigious Allan Wright award for Arts Journalists under 30 covering the Edinburgh Fringe festival.

Theo Bosanquet, editor of WhatsOnStage, said: "We're delighted that Matt is joining the WhatsOnStage team to work alongside our long-serving chief critic Michael Coveney. At this crucial time for professional theatre criticism we're proud to be giving a platform to one of the country's leading young critical voices."