UK Regional Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 17

BWW Review: WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, Union Theatre
by Gary Naylor - December 11, 2019

Sasha Regan revisits her 2015 production of the 1996 musical to deliver a splendid show for Christmas, with a relevance and harder edge that was missing a little four long years ago....

BWW Review: DICK WHITTINGTON, Bristol Hippodrome
by Tim Wright - December 11, 2019

When on song, panto can be monumentally brilliant. An unpretentious form of theatre that can delight old and young alike. It's a shame then that this latest effort from panto behemoth Qdos is so tone deaf it makes your toes curl....

BWW Review: RAVENS: SPASSKY VS FISCHER, Hampstead Theatre
by Gary Naylor - December 06, 2019

Ravens: Spassky vs Fischer takes us to Iceland in 1974 for the World Chess Championship, a clash between two very different men and two very different systems but with much that is not so different to the politics of today....

BWW Review: UNCLE VANYA, Old Red Lion Theatre
by Gary Naylor - December 05, 2019

This production pares back Chekhov's original text and foregrounds key themes with just a hint that Vanya even has something to say about the key political issue of the day....

BWW Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Bridge House Theatre
by Gary Naylor - November 28, 2019

Scrooge, the ghosts and a very Tiny Tim just an arm's length away in a fine adaptation of Dickens' timeless tale....

BWW Review: HUNGER, Arcola Theatre
by Gary Naylor - November 26, 2019

Hunger, adapted from controversial Norwegian, Knut Hamsun's, early career novel, brings us a man alienated from an uncaring world - as much a fixture on the fringes of our city some 130 years since the book was published....

BWW Review: PETER PAN GOES WRONG, Theatre Royal Brighton
by Fiona Scott - November 20, 2019

All it takes are some happy thoughts and fairy dusta??that's how the boy who never grows up is able to fly, at least. In Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Mischief Theatre's take on the JM Barrie classic certainly lifts your spirits, but mainly because not everything quite goes to plan for the young performers!...

BWW Review: FUNNY GIRL, Théâtre Marigny, Paris
by Tim Wright - November 20, 2019

The feeling you don't conform to the mould that society expects, is a feeling familiar to most of us in our lives at some point or another. Perhaps that is what makes Funny Girl endure and continue to pack out theatres....

BWW Review: WHAT'S IN A NAME?, Nuffield Southampton Theatres
by Jo Fisher - November 20, 2019

We all know that you should never judge a book by its cover a?' but should you ever judge a person by their name? This is the question posed to us in What's In A Name?, which has landed at Nuffield Southampton Theatres at the end of its first-ever UK tour....

BWW Review: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Wilton's Music Hall
by Gary Naylor - November 14, 2019

Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory have a lot of fun with their London transfer of Shakespeare's battle of the sexes, but not every decision pays off and they need to be more sympathetic to the unique pros and cons of this remarkable venue....

BWW Review: MY MOTHER SAID I NEVER SHOULD, Crucible Studio, Sheffield
by Ruth Deller - November 13, 2019

Sheffield Theatres and Fingersmiths reinvent Charlotte Keatley's classic play about the lives of four women in one family....

BWW Review: THE WOMAN IN BLACK, York Theatre Royal
by Sarah Ryan - November 14, 2019

The theatrical phenomenon that is The Woman In Black began in 1987, when Stephen Mallatratt adapted Susan Hill's spine-chilling work of gothic fiction for the stage. Over thirty years and countless terrified audiences later the production is still going strong....

BWW Review: THE MATCH BOX, Omnibus Theatre
by Gary Naylor - November 02, 2019

Frank McGuinness's play is never less than engaging, Angela Murray tremendous as the woman left alone after her daughter is shot, but it's an unrelenting and demanding watch...

BWW Review: I DO! I DO! Upstairs at the Gatehouse
by Gary Naylor - October 31, 2019

I Do! I Do! even with this updated book, is an old-fashioned two-hander musical that never fails to please, without ever challenging the traditional approach to the union between a man and a woman....

BWW Review: TOAST, Theatre Royal Brighton
by Fiona Scott - October 30, 2019

Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger is a best-selling memoir novel from the renowned Observer food columnist, Nigel Slater. It was adapted into a film in 2010 and has now been reworked for the stage, premiering at The Lowry in Manchester in 2018. The show is currently running at the Theatre Royal in ...

BWW Review: EDRED, THE VAMPYRE, The Old Red Lion Theatre
by Gary Naylor - October 30, 2019

Edred, The Vampyre is a lot of fun with its fair quotient of chills thrown in and a fine example of how to stage horror, a tricky genre for theatres....

BWW Review: A MUSEUM IN BAGHDAD, Swan Theatre, Stratford upon Avon
by Gary Naylor - October 23, 2019

Hannah Khalil's new play grapples with some big issues for over two hours, but the biggest issue of all for any play - the drama between the characters - is absent for much of that time....

BWW Review: FRIENDSICAL, Nuffield Southampton Theatres
by Jo Fisher - October 22, 2019

This year, the ever-popular sitcom Friends turns 25 years old; and what better way to celebrate than by seeing it memorialised on stage in musical form?...

BWW Review: THE ENTERTAINER, Theatre Royal Brighton
by Fiona Scott - October 22, 2019

Roll up, roll up, it's a revival of John Osbourne's The Entertainer. Shane Ritchie takes the mic as washed-up entertainer, Archie Rice. Osbourne's play shows the drama of his life a?" both on- and off-stage back home....

BWW Review: FLEDGLINGS, Nuffield Southampton Theatres
by Jo Fisher - October 18, 2019

Change can be tricky - not least when you're a teenage girl going through puberty, loss, and friendship trouble. Written by Tamsin Daisy Rees, directed by Emily Collins, and produced by Holly Mitchell, Fledglings is a touching tale of birds, best friendships and blossoming young women....

BWW Review: OUT OF SORTS, Theatre503
by Gary Naylor - October 16, 2019

Danusia Samal's award-winning play packs plenty of issues, perhaps too many, into its drama but says important things about the way young Muslim women are expected to behave, as they navigate the first generation immigrant experience....

BWW Review: ASSASSINS, Watermill Theatre
by Gary Naylor - October 15, 2019

Assassins is never less than engaging and interesting, for all its structural flaws. Worth the ticket price just to see the virtuosity of this super-talented cast....

BWW Review: SH*T-FACED SHAKESPEARE: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Nuffield Southampton Theatres
by Jo Fisher - October 14, 2019

William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream doesn't really need an introduction. It's a magical, mystical, mirthful favourite....

BWW Review: EXTRAORDINARY WALL (OF SILENCE), Bristol Old Vic
by Shane Morgan - October 11, 2019

1880 was something of a watershed moment in the history of the Deaf community. It was during a conference in Milan that it was decreed the oral method of instruction for the deaf was the way forward thereby setting in stone a method that would last for nearly 100 years and define what it was to be d...

BWW Review: MAME, Hope Mill Theatre
by Emma Kershaw - October 16, 2019

Hope Mill Theatre is known for its excellent musical theatre revivals, and the current production of MAME is no exception. In 1969, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's production graced the West End, starring Ginger Rogers; 50 years on, MAME has become one of the lesser-known musicals....