UK Regional Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 51

BWW Reviews: ONCE WE LIVED HERE, King's Head Theatre, April 4 2014
by Gary Naylor - April 05, 2014

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....

BWW Reviews: KES, Crucible, Sheffield, 31 March 2014
by Ruth Deller - April 02, 2014

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

BWW Reviews: A LIFE OF GALILEO, Rose Theatre Kingston, March 25 2014
by Gary Naylor - March 25, 2014

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

BWW Reviews: DIRTY DANCING, Bristol Hippodrome, March 19 2014
by Kathryn Pintus - March 21, 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...

BWW Reviews: TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT, New Wimbledon Theatre, March 17 2014
by Gary Naylor - March 18, 2014

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....

BWW Reviews: KING LEAR, Cockpit Theatre, March 14 2014
by Gary Naylor - March 16, 2014

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...

BWW Reviews: THE MAN INSIDE, Landor Theatre, March 13 2014
by Gary Naylor - March 16, 2014

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...

BWW Reviews: ORDINARY DAYS, London Theatre Workshop, March 12 2014
by Kevin Sherwin - March 13, 2014

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....

BWW Reviews: RICHARD AND ADAM, Cadogan Hall, March 12 2014
by Gary Naylor - March 14, 2014

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....

BWW Reviews: HAIRSPRAY, Curve Theatre Leicester, March 10 2014
by Jenny Antill - March 12, 2014

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...

BWW Reviews: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM - PROPELLER, Rose Theatre Kingston, March 11 2014
by Gary Naylor - March 13, 2014

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

BWW Reviews: BUKOWSKI'S CASS, The Vaults, March 4 2014
by Gary Naylor - March 05, 2014

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

BWW Reviews: MOON TIGER, Rose Theatre Kingston, February 25 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 26, 2014

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

BWW Reviews: THE YOUNG WIFE AND DIDO AND AENEAS, King's Head Theatre, February 24 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 25, 2014

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

BWW Reviews: THE PERFECT MURDER, Belgrade Theatre, February 24 2014
by Jenny Antill - February 25, 2014

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....

BWW Reviews: DONKEYS' YEARS, Rose Theatre Kingston, February 18 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 19, 2014

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

BWW Reviews: TRANSLATIONS, Crucible, Sheffield, February 17 2014
by Ruth Deller - February 19, 2014

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

BWW Reviews: SUPERIOR DONUTS, Southwark Playhouse, February 17 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 18, 2014

Gary Naylor enjoys a slice of life from cold Chicago and is grateful for the sentimentality being reined in just sufficiently to get him through the play....

BWW Reviews: HMS PINAFORE, Hackney Empire, February 15 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 16, 2014

Gary Naylor finds that this bulked up, buffed up HMS Pinafore, currently voyaging around the country, is even more fun than when it launched from the Union Theatre last Autumn....

BWW Reviews: FINIAN'S RAINBOW, Union Theatre, February 14 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 16, 2014

Gary Naylor sees a neglected, problematic musical full of wonderful songs given new life, if not quite full life, at The Union Theatre....

BWW Reviews: THE FINAL REVELATION OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, Pleasance Theatre, February 12 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 13, 2014

Tim Norton revisits the gift that keeps on giving, Sherlock Holmes, to imagine his last case - he finds it's typically tricky, but sometimes funny too....

BWW Reviews: SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, New Alexandra Theatre, February 4 2014
by Jenny Antill - February 05, 2014

The last time I saw Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was during the 2006 UK Productions tour which starred Dave Willetts and Shona Lindsay; a production that is close to my heart as it is one of the shows that made me want to pursue a career in theatre....

BWW Reviews: THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG, Churchill Theatre Bromley, February 3 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 04, 2014

Gary Naylor sees one of his favourite plays from last year now delivered bigger, brighter and just as bungled, as the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society starts its UK tour. A&E departments - you have been warned!...

BWW Reviews: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Lyceum, Sheffield, 31 January 2014
by Ruth Deller - February 02, 2014

Propeller's A Midsummer Night's Dream (currently touring along with The Comedy of Errors) is a riotous spectacle of a production. The dreamworld is emphasised throughout with the fairies (all in white, wearing a combination of corsets and codpieces) providing visual and musical beats throughout - ...

BWW Reviews: BEAR, Old Red Lion Theatre, January 31 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 01, 2014

Through the haze of fatigue, parents can only just recall the early days of child-rearing. You expect, and get, the end of a previous life and the start of another, one full of nappies, sleepless nights and a continual planning ahead to make sure that at least one parent will be with the baby at all...