UK / WEST END THEATER REVIEWS

Gary Naylor sees the kind of show that will never will never appear in the nominations for prestigious awards, but was an ideal way to spend a Friday night up West....

Playwright Alistair McDowall has been hailed as one to watch out for in British theatre. His production of Pomona last year at the National Theatre was championed by critics and theatre-goers and so there is much anticipation surrounding his latest play, X currently being staged at the Royal Court's...

First performed in 1969 and fast becoming a hit, Alan Ayckbourn's second play 'How the Other Half Loves' has returned to the West End at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Infidelity, lies, misunderstandings and hilarity unite to create a revealing insight into the married lives of three work colleagues a...

Gary Naylor sees a play that makes for uncomfortable viewing but raises questions about the way we lived in 1996 and the way we live now....

Gary Naylor sees a starry French farce with plenty of the traditional laughs for those who buy in - but you do need to buy in!...

Gary Naylor sees a comedy full of laughs and energetic performances that draw on plenty of familiar characters, but is no less funny for that....

Gary Naylor sees a comedy that rates high on ambition but disappointingly low of laughs....

Set in Atomic City, USA (otherwise known as Las Vegas), Miss Atomic Bomb at the St James Theatre transports its audience back to 1952. A time when atomic bombs were regularly tested in the desert outside of the city, it focuses on Utah sheep-farmer Candy, played by Florence Andrews in her first lead...

Nearly two years after its Almeida premiere,  King Charles III has lost some of its topicalality - but none of its satirical punch as it continues its national tour in Manchester....

Gary Naylor sees a spectacular tribute to Maya Plisetskaya, an icon of Russian Ballet, who died in May 2015, aged 89....

Following its hugely successful premiere in Bath and sold out shows in London at the Tricycle and Wyndham's Theatre last year, Florian Zeller's The Father has returned to the West End for a second time. Having just been nominated for three Oliviers, the production focuses on eighty-year-old Andre an...

Gary Naylor sees a searing drama brilliantly written and performed which acts as a call to action as this must surely never be allowed to happen again....

Gary Naylor sees Wagner's Ring Cycle done in two hours in a production that doesn't quite locate its target audience....

Gary Naylor sees a gig, a story and a vision of a dystopian nightmare all in one from Dom Coyote and his band of fine musicians....

When Jeff Wayne decided to write a musical version of HG Wells's sci-fi classic The War of the Worlds, he could have had no idea that 40 years later his score would be performed in a West End theatre. It tells the tale of a journalist who witnesses the Martians' descent to earth - and their subseque...

Robert Askins' Hand to God has been raking in the stars on Broadway, and now this controversial new play and its demonic hand puppet have swift footed over to hijack the Vaudeville Theatre, West End. There is no doubting this play is base, vulgar and utterly outrageous, but when the puppetry make...

Gary Naylor sees a fine reconstruction of two episodes of Round The Horne, performed with great skill and vim, giving us a window on a show the influence of whicht echoes across half a century....

The first major touring revival of Peter Whelan's THE HERBAL BED debuts at Northampton's Royal and Derngate. BroadwayWorld's Verity Wilde was there....

It's been 13 years since Matthew Perry was last in a West End production, and The End of Longing marks his playwriting debut. Currently running at The Playhouse Theatre, it tells the story of four friends in their late 30s living in LA, whose lives become entwined after meeting at a bar....

Gary Naylor sees a 21st century circus with plenty of links to the traditions of the past....

Gary Naylor sees a wonderful play written and acted with great skill that left him with a skip in his step and a paragraph for his Best Of Theatre 2106 already....

Gary Naylor sees a showcase performance of Muted, a rock musical in its development phase....

Gary Naylor sees the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company's production of Red Velvet raise questions about ethnicity and art that resonate through the generations....

Gary Naylor gets an insight into one of British comedy's great eccentric talents, whose life was blighted as much as celebrated by his success....

Gary Naylor sees a new comedy that pleases without ever really convincing - a play rather too middle-class and (surprisingly) too middle-aged to hit the funny bone with a smack....