Gary Naylor - Page 54

Gary Naylor has a lot of fun with Fashion Victim, a satire on popular culture with songs, dance, some terrible plotting and some good jokes, but is left wondering if it shouldn't be a lot more.

Gary Naylor sees a long, but rewarding adaptation of Joseph Heller's notoriously unadaptable anti-war novel, Catch 22. Fifty-three years on, its message is still as relevant today as ever.

Gary Naylor sees an evocation of a Seventies superstar in a jukebox musical that delivers all the crowdpleasing moments one could hope for, if ultimately feeling a little light on dramatic tension.

Gary Naylor sees a beautiful but sad cabaret based on the life of Mata Hari the woman shot by the French Army for spying whose short life contained more dramas than a hundred others.

Gary Naylor sees a play overly determined by its length and its extreme loudness, a victim of the ambition of a young company that will come back stronger and wiser for the experience.

Gary Naylor sees a slice of London's Victorian underbelly brought back to life in a play that packs less punch than it might do despite some committed performances and a fascinating set-up.

Gary Naylor sees a delightful resurrection of one of English comedy's founding fathers - the coarse, warm, funny Tristram Shandy, the creation of Irish clergyman Laurence Sterne.

Gary Naylor sees a terrifyingly uncompromising play about women held away from their hopes, their dreams, their desires, distinguished by some brilliant acting and fine use of the venue's tiny, oppressive, space.

Gary Naylor sees a Lear who walks among us as her (yes, this Lear is a woman) mind comes and goes and her daughters squabble over the prizes she so foolishly has allocated. There are lessons too - for state and family - today.

Gary Naylor sees a new play, with lots of music, dancing and singing, set in a traditional Lancashire village as love blossoms, war looms and everyone pays a price.

Gary Naylor sees an epic production of Antony and Cleopatra dominated by the two lead actors and the extraordinary, unique, chilly Globe Theatre, down by the Thames, somewhere about 1606 - or so it feels.

Gary Naylor sees a production of a play about what the United Kingdom means to its peoples, the first London production for 37 years, but timely in 2014 when such questions arise again, albeit in a completely different context.

Gary Naylor sees a timely revival of Bradley Rand Smith's adaptation of Dalton Trumbo's cri-de-coeur novel centred on a soldier left with just a mind and a torso by a shell on the battlefield of 1918. 70 minutes of intense exploration of a broken man's mind follows.

Gary Naylor sees an ambitious, clever and tremendously rewarding adaptation of Hilary Mantel's award-winning historical novels, transferred from the RSC's Stratford-upon-Avon home to the West End for a summer season.

Gary Naylor sees an ambitious, clever and tremendously rewarding adaptation of Hilary Mantel's award-winning historical novels, transferred from the RSC's Stratford-upon-Avon home to the West End for a summer season.

Gary Naylor sees one of Shakespeare's greatest plays told from the perspective of the women and finds that they are rather different when talking amongst themselves than when they speak to their menfolk.

Gary Naylor sees a musical comedy that delivers as good a night's entertainment as any available in London, packing in jokes, songs and a few tugs at the heartstrings when we go backstage with the Ushers.

Gary Naylor sees Sharon Sexton's fabulous performance that brought Liza Minnelli to London in spirit, if not in person, after her cancellation of a summer tour. Well worth spending some of the refund at the Landor Theatre.

Gary Naylor sees one of Sir Noel Coward's less performed works staged in exactly the right venue for its mix of light comedy, gentle suspense and tremendously witty songs.

Gary Naylor sees a German play that provokes thought, disgust and a certain admiration, but proves very hard work with such an uncompromising script and such committed performances.