Gary Naylor - Page 35

Picking out the best of UK theatre over the past 12 months is a curious task - akin to judging avocado pears against conference pears, we're comparing like with like only in the broadest sense. So, with that necessary caveat, here are some of my nominations for the BroadwayWorld UK Awards 2017.

Gary Naylor sees another opera up close from the award-winning OperaUpClose, this time lacking a little in the clarity that has characterised previous productions.

A timely revival for one of Jack Rosenthal's celebrated TV plays of the 70s with much to say about the age of the Uber.

Britney Spears The Cabaret entertains and provokes with the story of the pop princess's life told through Christie Whelan Browne's comic cuts and wonderful singing.

Deadline Day has echoes of The Likely Lads in its humour, drawn from the clashing of cultures as a boy wonder footballer and his go-getting agent travel to London to sign for Chelsea.

Salad Days is easy to dismiss is the lightest of light entertainment, but has plenty of political punch under its joyous exterior.

Director, Amy Draper, packs plenty into realising writer Daniel Winder's ambitious take on the Grimm fairytale, but the show needs to be edited back to two hours maximum running time to succeed fully.

The Cunning Little Vixen is a opera favourite but no less fascinating for that, especially in this innovative and engaging production.

Long a star of Wicked, Willemijn Verkaik delivers a splendid one-off concert to her adoring fans.

The Marriage of Kim K is an innovative melding of musical genres, as three couples find life together more difficult than expected, their lives revealed in a very 21st century style.

I Loved Lucy returns to the West End with a change in tone, but retaining its charm and its pathos with another incandescent star performance from Sandra Dickinson.

La Voix Humaine, Poulenc's one act, one soprano opera based on a play by Jean Cocteau, is a visceral, demanding, rewarding evening, ferociously up to date in every sense.

King Kong (A Comedy) tries a little too hard for laughs, but captures some of the pathos of its 1933 movie inspiration in a breathless 80 minutes show..

A Macbeth that stays true to the 17th century origin of the play, yet feels bang up to date with plenty for teenage fans of Game of Thrones and Shakespeare veterans to enjoy.

Blondel The Musical has elements of pantomime and elements of the real punch of musical theatre in a show that works well only intermittently.

These Tress Are Made Of Blood tells the story of Argentina's Dirty War using cabaret as a vehicle to describe the horrors and the politics that drove it.

La Strada, adapted from the Fellini movie is a play with music that captures the style and ethics of a classic movie, indeed the Neo-Realism style.

Vixen updates Leos Janacek's opera for the victims of Generation Rent moving the action into the big city of 2017 with hi tech and great singing.

Annie Get Your Gun delivers wonderful, uncynical entertainment, the romance studded with some of the finest songs ever written for the theatre.

Jam, Matt Parvin's first play, shows promise but cannot overcome its structural and narrative problems to deliver its full potential.