UK REGIONAL THEATER REVIEWS

I have spent a lot of time at the Bristol Hippodrome in the last couple of years and have seen a range of productions there, but never one on ice. The gentle sounds of Arctic winds met me as I entered the auditorium, and I felt instantly relaxed and ready for an evening of entertainment....

A play within a play is already a difficult concept - but a play within a play that goes wrong (in this case catastrophically so!) is ridiculously difficult to get your head around - but only from massive admiration for the actors who have to deliver such material....

Gary Naylor enjoys the multi-award winning show from the co-creator of The Book of Mormon set on a New York street populated by people (and puppets)....

Gary Naylor sees a show with a troubled history hit some high points but also fail to live up to its full potential. In the early 90s, Mike and Jim were inseparable mates, living the dream in a band, but the band was going nowhere....

Gary Naylor sees a show filled with songs from some of the last century's greatest singers - given full due by some of the West End's finest vocalists....

Gary Naylor sees a stripped-down version of Shakespeare's enduring tragedy that gets plenty right and little wrong. What will the Daily Mail make of it? Underage sex, gang murders, drugs... and poetry....

Gary Naylor sees a serious play about serious stuff that seems a little too locked in its time to reach successfully across the decades. Much has happened since Brian Friel wrote Translations (continuing at The Rose Theatre until 3 May...

The Birmingham Stage Company is held in fond regard by families across the country for their high standard of productions suitable for all ages. Their latest show, nearing the conclusion of its national tour, is Tom's Midnight Garden which I had the pleasure of seeing at the Belgrade Theatre in Cove...

Gary Naylor sees a musical very much set in its location in terms of its plot, but not in terms of its staging. As generations of English cricketers have discovered, Australia is a hostile environment....

Jonathan Watkins' moving dance adaptation of the Yorkshire classic soars in Sheffield....

Gary Naylor sees a classy production of Brecht's didactic play about politics, power and priests, that still has much to say in 2014....

Dirty Dancing is billed as being 'the classic story on stage', and it doesn't disappoint in its promise, bringing the characters of the ever-popular 1980s film to life for audiences across the UK. Highbrow theatre this is not. However, if you're looking for a fun night out at a show which doesn't ta...

Gary Naylor sees a script by Ben Elton and songs by Rod Stewart give a old school night's entertainment with Tonight's the Night....

It's hard to watch - it really is. David Ryall, now approaching 80, who plays the King who is losing his mind, is a real-life majestic actor who is, post chemotherapy, losing his memory - his reliance on a black book with the text highlighted may be a necessity, but it's a poignant reminder that Sha...

Is there room for another re-working of 'The Strange case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde'? I'd have said no. But Tony Rees and Gary Young thought otherwise and the result is 'The Man Inside', a musical delivered all through with the cast cut to the doctor/devil and two women who also represent opp...

Thanks to director Ray Rackham's gentle, uncluttered approach, a bouncy score played wonderfully by musical director Thomas Lees and a small but strikingly talented cast of four, this brisk 80-minute soujourn to the Big Apple is consistently and undeniably enjoyable....

Gary Naylor sees the Jedward de nos jours (well, not really - they're much batter than them) sing classics and charm old and young alike....

Hairspray seems to have been doing the rounds in the UK since it closed in the West End in 2010. It is a very popular show among audiences and although the last national tour is still fresh in our mind, the Curve's Artistic Director Paul Kerryson has decided his venue would do a brand new production...

Gary Naylor sees a very individual all-male production of Shakespeare's multi-layered comedy....

Gary Naylor sees a strange concoction of dance, drama, opera, poetry and music set on the seedier side of California - Bukowskiland, as it were....

Gary Naylor sees a technically impressive but strangely distant adaptation of Penelope Lively's Booker Prize winning novel of 1987....

Gary Naylor sees two operas (for the price of one) with plenty in common (and plenty not) in another highly innovative presentation from OperaUpClose....

Adapted from crime thriller novelist Peter James' incredibly successful book, The Perfect Murder has already taken over £1 million at the box office. Best known for his Roy Grace series of which he has sold over 15 million copies, this is the first time that his work has been produced for the stage...

Gary Naylor sees a technically perfect farce that gets plenty of laughs but leaves him a little cold...

The centrepiece of Sheffield Theatres' Brian Friel season is a thoughtful and sensitive take on his classic play about language and culture....