Gary Naylor - Page 21

BWW Reviewer Gary Naylor picks his 2019 highlights

Cinderella delivers a true family pantomime that mixes spectacular sets and costumes with plenty of laughs in a show that doesn't push back any boundaries, but delivers what its audience wants at Christmas.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane offers a spectacular theatrical experience, but may leave some viewers cold with its whimsy and unwillingness to explore human relationships in depth.

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.

Two years on, Otello is revived in all its austere majesty, albeit a majesty that can be demanding to watch across a three hours running time.

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.

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.

Sam Ra's updating of Anthony Shaffer's much produced and adapted Sleuth takes it into the 21st century without really adding much save some difficulties that are not fully resolved.

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

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.

David McVicar's compelling new production of Benjamin Britten's last opera is an extraordinary tour-de-force that takes you inside a troubled mind and leaves you as ill-at-ease as you might expect, but strangely uplifted too, the beauty present in even a dying world underlined and celebrated.

Kwami Odoom talks about his life as an actor and about his role in Hunger, at the Arcola Theatre until 21 November.

La Clique is a fast-paced spectacle that astonishes and entertains in equal measure, making for a good night out on the town.

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.

Reputation has its flaws, but it also has some wonderfully worked songs, well sung by a talented cast.

A big Harry Potterish serpent, a Salad Daysy enchanted glockenspiel, a Scooby-Dooish birdman, a pre-Ford Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and enough underground conspiracies to keep the most fervent follower of QAnon frothing at the mouth - what's not to like?

UK Theatre in 2019 was like a box of choccies made by Mr Wonka - a delightful set of surprises, with just a hint of menace to keep you on your toes. Many tremendous achievements did not make the BroadwayWorld shortlist, but many did, and here's my pick of them.

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

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.

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.