Gary Naylor - Page 59

Gary Naylor sees one of his favourite plays from last year now delivered bigger, brighter and just as bungled, as the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society starts its UK tour. A&E departments - you have been warned!

It's back to the 80s (and the 50s, 60s, 70s, 90s and 00s) with a legend of the screen telling tales about some of the most famous names in entertainment. She may have played some bad bad women, but she is so lovely in real life - unless you're an ex-husband or a lawyer!

Through the haze of fatigue, parents can only just recall the early days of child-rearing. You expect, and get, the end of a previous life and the start of another, one full of nappies, sleepless nights and a continual planning ahead to make sure that at least one parent will be with the baby at all times.

Just before she hit it big (Dancin' Queen big) with Mamma Mia! (the Rocky Horror Show de nos jours), Catherine Johnson wrote Shang-a-Lang (revived at the King's Head Theatre until 15 February). So is it the 'Ring-Ring' that foreshadows 'Waterloo'? Well, maybe.

Pantomime, even fairy tales, are not known for their well-rounded characters - and the cookie-cutter bad girls, The Ugly Sisters from Cinderella, are no exceptions. But what if they were not men in drag, not just caricatures on envy, not just vicious bullies - what if they were real women?

There are - and you're going to have to believe me on this one - people who don't like musical theatre. They cite the preposterous plots, the sentimental manipulation, the overwhelming spectacle - and the ineluctable fact that people insist on bursting into song.

Though not among Shakespeare's more gory tragedies (competition is pretty fierce after all), Othello is surely his most brutal, a slow motion car crash, in which love and trust go up against cynicism and venality - and lose.

It is (natch) quixotic to stage a version of the mighty chronicle of the unhinged Spanish knight in a North London basement, but what's life (especially theatre) for if not such dreams?

One of the joys of a gig like mine is precisely the opposite of this piece's predicate - I do not look forward to productions at all, simply rolling with the flow and seeing what might come up.

Gary Naylor finds out more about the riding star of the stand-up circuit.

Gary Naylor sees a salute to lost innocence, one hundred years on.

Gary Naylor previews London Theatre's start to the New Year.

Four lads bicker on stage in a multiplicity of languages - like a bad night in the Green Room at the Eurovision Song Contest. There's a slightly bossy one, a tall one, a sensitive one and a feisty little one. And on that familiar structure, Folds unfolds its extraordinary hour of circus, music, dance and wonder.

Like a giant teddy bear in a red nose, the Yellow Clown chases a balloon one minute, kicks through snow the next and, occasionally, clambers into the audience. He's a clown, but often a sad one, alone at first, until... Mayhem!

So, 109 shows reviewed in 2013 (with a couple more to come) - how to choose the best from that lot! Of course, I can't, as the variety and quality of London's theatre make comparisons invidious.

Slava's Snowshow is back for a third winter in London, having continued its worldwide success since its creator first came to London in 2011. BWW's Gary Naylor spoke to the show's mastermind, Slava Polunin, before his London debut a couple of years ago and here's what he had to say.

Gary Naylor sees another madcap laugh-a-minute disaster.

Gary Naylor sees a traditional Wimbledon panto blockbuster.

Gary Naylor sees another Christmas Show triumph from the Charles Court Opera Company.

Gary Naylor sees another opera done Opera-Up-Close style.