UK REGIONAL THEATER REVIEWS

Gary Naylor sees Judy Garland brought back to life by three very fine performances in a show that is at its best when the songs are being sung....

Old favourite Jack and the Beanstalk is Lichfield Garrick's pantomime this year; jam-packed full of content, comedy and catchy musical numbers delivered by a talented, enthusiastic ensemble cast. Ian Adams returns once again to write, direct and star as Dame Trixie Trott this festive season....

Gary Naylor sees another fine seasonal offering from Chickenshed that entertains and, ever so gently, educates kids (and adults) about a better world....

Last night featured my first pantomime of this year's festive season, the unconventional Beauty and the Beast at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. There is the usual rotation of pantomimes that many theatres alternate; most commonly Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty and Dick...

C.S.Lewis' timeless story The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is a perfect fit for the festive season. It has had several stage reincarnations over the years and the fact that it has been revisited again at the Birmingham Rep is a testament to its appeal. The theatre last staged the show in 2009 as...

THE SNOW QUEEN is the first of Royal and Derngate's two pantomimes to open - Verity Wilde was there to review for BroadwayWorld....

Guys and Dolls has a long musical history. Originating and premiering on Broadway in 1950 and winning the Tony Award for Best Musical the following year, the show was soon turned into a film starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, which it is most fondly recognised for. There have been a multitude...

Birmingham's Old Rep Theatre are staging a brand new take on the classic Robert Louis Stevenson tale, Treasure Island, as their Christmas show this year - the first sizeable run the theatre has had since Birmingham Ormiston Academy became their creative partner. Because of this, a handful of BOA stu...

Gary Naylor sees a remarkable adaptation of Medea, one that allows the children to tell the story of their tragic fate....

Amongst the ongoing change and turnover in the West End, Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap has always been solid and constant. After a short UK tour, the show set up camp at the Ambassadors Theatre in London in 1952 where it played for 22 years before moving to the bigger St Martin's Theatre where it ...

There isn't a bad performance in the Orange Tree Theatre/Sheffield Theatres production of Deborah Bruce's The Distance, currently playing at the Crucible Studio....

William Golding's epic novel Lord of the Flies may have been published over sixty years ago but its themes and content are still supremely relevant today. This was reflected last night at Birmingham Rep with a virtually full house, consisting of many school parties. The book still remains on the sch...

Shakespeare's bloodiest drama is playing at the New Wimbledon Studio for one more week....

Revived again, the touring favourite Hairspray is again packing out theatres across the country.  This new production delivers some impressive performances and a fun evening, if not quite living up to dancing in the aisles quality of the West End original....

Gary Naylor sees an innovative take on Romeo and Juliet which gets plenty of laughs early on before a descent to murder and suicide....

Meera Syal's debut novel, Anita & Me, receives its world stage premiere at the Birmingham Rep this month. Famously autobiographical, this coming of age tale follows Meena, a 13 year old 'naff and uncool' daughter of the only Punjabi family in the mining village of Tollington. As the summer holidays ...

Gary Naylor sees a scaled-back adaptation of Sondheim's A Little Night Music that manages to capture all (well, almost all) of the appeal of the West End show....

Gary Naylor sees a scaled back but utterly compelling version of Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, that makes the occasional compromise with the stories, but none at all with the quality of the singing nor the sets....

Gary Naylor sees a scaled back Werther that still packs an impressive punch, as two lives fall apart caught between love and duty....

Gary Naylor sees a demanding, but rewarding, cinema presentation of Mozart's enduring comic opera, The Marriage of Figaro....

Peter Darney's verbatim tale of chill-outs and sex parties - 5 Guys Chillin' makes an impressive transfer from the Brighton Fringe - and holds a mirror to some of the seedier parts of the party scene....

Based on Ian Serraillier's popular children's novel, Belgrade Theatre Coventry and Sell A Door Theatre Company have produced a musical adaptation of The Silver Sword which debuted in Coventry last week. It is now embarking on a short tour across the country for the next four weeks....

They say death is easy, comedy is hard. It should almost be noted that if comedy is hard, farce is even harder. It needs to look like chaos and work like clockwork....

Gary Naylor revels in an extraordinary day at the theatre, an epic presentation of Shakespeare's account of what his royal family, the Tudors, inherited from the chaotic rule of the Houses of York and Lancaster....

Gary Naylor sees a fine production of a classic Ben Jonson play illuminated by a fine central performance by Pip Brignall....