Gary Naylor - Page 59

Gary Naylor sees a play that has that touch of Marmite about it - you'll love it or you won't! It's hard to get a grip on the Constitution of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - Brits may have written plenty of constitutions around the world, but they didn't write one for themselves.

To The Garrick Club where, in one of its opulent rooms ('It's like Downton Abbey,' I overheard one overawed guest remark), Dame Gillian Lynne told us of her secret to a long life. Turns out that if you want to look like you're in your mid-fifties when you're in you're mid-80s, exercise is the key!

Gary Naylor sees Chekhov's classic updated, but diminished, saved by wonderful performances and the Russian's genius.

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.

The word 'epic' is derived from Ancient Greek via Latin, but it really should come from Russian - just ponder the vastness, the history, even the National Anthem! Nobody does epic like Russia.

Gary Naylor sees a wonderfully entertaining musical about young love - and the X Factor - with an hilarious book from Harry Hill.

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

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 Shakespeare captured mankind, and not merely a man, in his writing.

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 opposite natures.

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.

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

Gary Naylor sees Mozart's most popular opera stop in downtown Hackney on its national tour in rep with King Priam and Paul Bunyan.

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

Gary Naylor sees a long play, full of good intentions, about the aftermath of World War I and its portents for the future.

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

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

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

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.

Gary Naylor enjoys a conversation with John Travolta that could have delivered more, but probably shouldn't have - an evening for fans, not investigative journalists.