UK REGIONAL THEATER REVIEWS

Verse and music enhances a production that straddles millennia...

Directed by Miranda Cromwell and adapted by Nesrin Alrefaai and Matthew Spangler, The Beekeeper of Aleppo tells the story of Syrian refugees Nuri (Alfred Clay) and Afra (Roxy Faridany) as they flee their homeland. Lefteri based the original story on her experiences of meeting people in a refuge cent...

Delightful new musical (based on the much loved novel and film) that deserves a wider audience than its short run affords...

Billed as a romantic comedy, the eye-catching poster artwork courtesy of Oink Creative seems to promise a sort of European '9 to 5', but upon closer inspection the play scarcely lives up to this colourful concept. What's the French for beige?...

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is not an easy play to watch, rather a theatrical storm that must be endured with three contempt-filled acts making up a three and a half hour runtime....

What have I just witnessed? That was my overriding thought as I wandered out of the Theatre Royal Brighton, dumbstruck, baffled, fascinated and charmed by this extraordinary production of The Rocky Horror Show. ...

One of my favourite theatrical moments of the year at Theatre Royal Bath was Into the Woods: a trippy version of Stephen Sondheim's musical, thanks to Terry Gilliam's surreal Monty Python-esque imagination. This mind-bending show deserves space in the West End soon....

After Covid dealt a stuttering start to the year, 2022 brought some standout shows and performances. Here are some of our critics' highlights from the past twelve months....

While last week's snow may have melted away, there will still be a White Christmas in Liverpool thanks to the touring production of Irving Berlin's beloved Holiday classic....

Just over a year after the opening of its West End run at the Duke of York’s Theatre, the critically acclaimed production remains a singularly thrilling piece of storytelling....

Actions can speak louder than words - a proverb that's especially relevant with the new release of Deafinitely Theatre's final two films of its Talking Hands series....

As a self-professed panto enthusiast, Mother Goose has never been a favourite of mine...until now. This high profile production written by Jonathan Harvey is a super smart interpretation which has been updated sympathetically for 2022 without losing the original intent. ...

This small-scale production chimes with the spirit of Christmas in the Cratchit house by making the most of everything it has to create plenty of good cheer....

Goldilocks and the Three Bears is one of the lesser known titles in the pantomime collection, but it has seemed to find a recent resurgence; and the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich and Director Peter Rowe are known to enjoy dusting off the less-obvious names and giving it a rock’n’roll twist....

West of London, the Mill at Sonning is hugged on either side by the Thames and neighbours George Clooney’s 17th century mansion. The venue, which provides all its audience members with a sumptuous buffet dinner before the evening’s entertainment, is currently hosting a toe-tapping revival of Top...

Since it was released in 2009, the warm-hearted movie comedy Nativity! has been on many families' essential Christmas viewing lists. This festive season, the stage version of the film returns to Birmingham Rep, where it received its world premiere in 2017. Written, directed and composed by Debbie Is...

The cast and creatives attached to this production of Strictly Ballroom the Musical are enough to make any Strictly Come Dancing fan salivate. Yet despite what should be a winning team, this production fails to find all the right moves....

Way, way back, what back feels like, many centuries ago, an all-singing, all-dancing revival of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, directed by Laurence Connor, opened at the London Palladium in the summer of 2019....

A show full of good songs, fine singing and engaging characters doesn't quite live up to the sum of its parts...

It's a double first at Theatre Royal Bath with Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. Regarded as England's first opera when initially performed around 1688, it's also the first opera to be performed in the intimate Ustinov Studio....

Mischief's new catastrophe comedy, Good Luck, Studio, goes very wrong - but perhaps not in the way the Mischief team intended....

If the show lacks a little in power having been pared back, many more people will have a chance to enjoy a super show...

Audrey Brisson is a quirky intrigue at 4’10”. With little capacity to seem towering and imposing, Brisson has instead perfected the subtleties that are available to her, her ever widening eyes and steadily creeping sneer betray volumes about the conflict raging within the respectable Victorian g...

Nina Segal's new play is hamstrung by an old set up....

What did our critic think of DREAMGIRLS at King's Theatre, Glasgow?...