Gary Naylor - Page 8

Chris England's warm show is funny and clever and unafraid to pose some difficult questions

If you come to opera via film musicals and, later, stage shows, Tosca is amongst the most accessible. The story of the lovers and the evil apparatchik is told at a furious pace, trauma after trauma piling up as the emotional heft becomes all but unbearable. There’s no standing about for twenty minutes while someone sings stage left, no mythical dwarves hiding gold, no magical toymaker. Nor, as early critics were quick to point out, is there a whole lot of poetry either in Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa adaptation of Victorien Sardou’s sensational play. However, there are compensations…

Putin, Chekhov, Trump, art, principles, punishment, love, hate and that iconic, topless-on-a-horse photo of Mad Vlad. And much, much, more.

From the writer of Journey's End and The Dam Busters

Super one-man show that does what its subject intended - makes its audience happy

Long forgotten talkshow guest has plenty to say about culture today

Fine singing and pleasant songs, but the book needs work and the staging kills the energy

Lovely one man play that will delight Wodehouse fans - present and future

Jennifer France gives everything in a role demanding bel canto singing and bloody revenge

It's a long way from Santiago to the West End. Isabela Díaz explains how she did it and what the Jette Parker Programme means to its artists

Meta comedy never settles on its tone nor its focus, and runs out of steam long before the end

Turns out that The Revolution is Televised after all - and beamed back into the theatre

Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller's play has lots of good ideas but needs a more solid structure to succeed fully

La Dormer beams with five star wattage as the doomed Anna

Martyn Jacques brings his unique sound and sensibility to a wonderful addition to London's panoply of theatres

David Shopland's new dramedy is flawed by its lack of focus

Mark Addy and Jenna Russell lead a super cast in a show based on Rachel Joyce's runaway bestseller

Beautifully performed, but somewhat vanilla, Richard Bean's adaptation lacks a necessary bite