Gary Naylor - Page 24

Oklahoma! stands at the very start of musical theatre's post-war re-invention on Broadway, Rodgers and Hammerstein's template for storytelling on show for two wonderful hours. However, this production raises some unexpected questions.

Our Church looks at how a moral dilemma impacts on a small community and at how pain can vibrate through decades before re-surfacing - and it avoids the glibness of a resolution founded in easy answers.

Jellyfish is a wonderful piece of writing brilliantly brought to life by a marvellous cast in which Sarah Gordy shines.

David Hare's updating of Ibsen's Peer Gynt has plenty to say about the world in 2019 - perhaps a little too much - but James McArdle's central performance and the sheer chutzpah of the concept and direction pulls it through.

One Giant Leap takes a good set up - a failing sci-fi show asked to fake the moon landings - but loses its way amongst predictable stereotypes and laughs that come few and far between.

BWW was impressed with the work of the young playwrights selected as winners of the National Theatre's annual New Views competition.

Summer Rolls takes us into the heart of a British Vietnamese family that is struggling to deal with the present, a consequence of the long shadow cast by the past.

Crooked Dances takes us deep into the French forest and deep into the mysteries of the occult, as go-getting journalist, Katy, learns more than she would like about reclusive pianist Silvia and her obsession with the music of Erik Satie.

Iris Theatre's summer season at St Paul's Church kicks off with an innovative Hamlet in which not all the bells and whistles work, but which boasts a fine central performance from Jenet Le Lacheur.

Julian Glover talks about his long life on stage and screen, and about his role in the new production of The Night of the Iguana at the Noel Coward Theatre

Barrie Kosky's Carmen returns to the Royal Opera House for a second revival and still chalks up as many misses as hits.

Arthur Pita adapts Hans Christian Andersen's The Story of a Mother for Natalia Osipova and Jonathan Goddard in a contemporary dance work that is unblinkingly clear and ferocious in its storytelling.

Illuminated by a masterful performance from Bryn Terfel, this production is a gruelling but rewarding, often stunning, revisit to the Musorgsky's original 1869 version.

Adam Guettel's extraordinary music, wonderfully played by the Orchestra of Opera North, is the best reason to revive a show that is hobbled by a pedestrian book and awkward stereotypes.

The one-time highly controversial David Hare play still packs a punch and a message that seems, if anything, even more insistent in these Austerity / Brexit days.

Brexit looks at, well, Brexit and finds comedy in the twists and turns it forces upon the new Prime Minister, Adam Masters - but the jokes could be funnier and the satire more biting.

Anna Morrissey talks about her work as a movement director and the challenges of making her directing debut with Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream

Force Of Nature gives us an unprecedented up close and personal insight of the work of Royal Ballet Principal, Natalia Osipova, but leaves us wanting to know more about the woman who animates the dancer.

Education, Education, Education presses a lot of nostalgia buttons to generate laughs, but leaves its strongest storyline relatively unexplored.

A somewhat disengaged staging is saved by wonderful music played wonderfully well and a distressing coup de theatre brothel scene.