UK Regional Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 13

BWW Review: RENDEZVOUS WITH MARLENE, St. George's, Bristol
by Shane Morgan - January 31, 2020

Rendezvous with Marlene started with a letter. A young Ute Lemper explodes onto the French stage playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret and the next day the French press proclaimed her, a?oeLa nouvelle Marlene!a??....

BWW Review: PERSONA, Riverside Studios
by Gary Naylor - January 30, 2020

Persona transfers somewhat uneasily from screen to stage in Paul Schoolman's new adaptation, but retains its intellectual heft and eerily subversive quality....

BWW Review: ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS, Bristol Old Vic
by Kerrie Nicholson - January 24, 2020

When Romantics Anonymous originally premiered at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in 2017, it received wonderful reviews and there was such a joyful buzz surrounding this show that I unfortunately didn't get to experience for myself. How lucky then, that the collaboration between Wise Children and Plush...

BWW Review: THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF SMACK AND CRACK, Bristol Old Vic
by Shane Morgan - January 23, 2020

In large part, Ed Edwards' class A drug odyssey The Political History of Smack and Crack does what it says on the tin. Steeped in social and political commentary, Edwards' piece steers us through the bumpy ride of addiction, from hospital room to street corner via a constitutional polemic that aims ...

BWW Review: THE CANARY AND THE CROW, Arcola Theatre
by Gary Naylor - January 21, 2020

Daniel Ward's autobiographical tale, told as gig theatre, has plenty to say and says it well - we would be wise to listen....

BWW Review: FADING INTO NOTHINGNESS, Merlin Theatre, Sheffield
by Ruth Deller - January 18, 2020

An assured and emotional debut from writer Theo Griffiths deals with a family in turmoil....

BWW Review: TWELFTH NIGHT, Jack Studio Theatre
by Gary Naylor - January 17, 2020

This no frills Twelfth Night rattles through Shakey's comedy getting laughs along the way, but includes some artistic decisions that didn't quite land as clearly as they were, perhaps, intended to....

BWW Review: ONCE, Ashcroft Playhouse Fairfield Halls
by Gary Naylor - January 10, 2020

Once shows all its crowdpleasing credentials in this new touring production with a tremendous cast doing full justice to its score and carrying a somewhat corny plot to a standing ovation curtain....

BWW Review: TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS, Union Theatre
by Gary Naylor - January 09, 2020

The Union Theatre's Essential Classics season kicks off with Phil Willmott's updating of a classic with much to say about England in 2020....

BWW Review: GUYS AND DOLLS, Crucible, Sheffield
by Ruth Deller - December 14, 2019

The Crucible takes us to New York's bustling backstreets in this joyous revival....

BWW Review: CINDERELLA, Fairfield Halls
by Gary Naylor - December 13, 2019

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....

BWW Review: CINDERELLA, Lyceum, Sheffield
by Ruth Deller - December 12, 2019

The latest Sheffield Theatres panto hits all the traditional panto beats....

BWW Review: WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, Union Theatre
by Gary Naylor - December 11, 2019

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....

BWW Review: DICK WHITTINGTON, Bristol Hippodrome
by Tim Wright - December 11, 2019

When on song, panto can be monumentally brilliant. An unpretentious form of theatre that can delight old and young alike. It's a shame then that this latest effort from panto behemoth Qdos is so tone deaf it makes your toes curl....

BWW Review: RAVENS: SPASSKY VS FISCHER, Hampstead Theatre
by Gary Naylor - December 06, 2019

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....

BWW Review: UNCLE VANYA, Old Red Lion Theatre
by Gary Naylor - December 05, 2019

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....

BWW Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Bridge House Theatre
by Gary Naylor - November 28, 2019

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

BWW Review: HUNGER, Arcola Theatre
by Gary Naylor - November 26, 2019

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....

BWW Review: PETER PAN GOES WRONG, Theatre Royal Brighton
by Fiona Scott - November 20, 2019

All it takes are some happy thoughts and fairy dusta??that's how the boy who never grows up is able to fly, at least. In Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Mischief Theatre's take on the JM Barrie classic certainly lifts your spirits, but mainly because not everything quite goes to plan for the young performers!...

BWW Review: FUNNY GIRL, Théâtre Marigny, Paris
by Tim Wright - November 20, 2019

The feeling you don't conform to the mould that society expects, is a feeling familiar to most of us in our lives at some point or another. Perhaps that is what makes Funny Girl endure and continue to pack out theatres....

BWW Review: WHAT'S IN A NAME?, Nuffield Southampton Theatres
by Jo Fisher - November 20, 2019

We all know that you should never judge a book by its cover a?' but should you ever judge a person by their name? This is the question posed to us in What's In A Name?, which has landed at Nuffield Southampton Theatres at the end of its first-ever UK tour....

BWW Review: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Wilton's Music Hall
by Gary Naylor - November 14, 2019

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....

BWW Review: MY MOTHER SAID I NEVER SHOULD, Crucible Studio, Sheffield
by Ruth Deller - November 13, 2019

Sheffield Theatres and Fingersmiths reinvent Charlotte Keatley's classic play about the lives of four women in one family....

BWW Review: THE WOMAN IN BLACK, York Theatre Royal
by Sarah Ryan - November 14, 2019

The theatrical phenomenon that is The Woman In Black began in 1987, when Stephen Mallatratt adapted Susan Hill's spine-chilling work of gothic fiction for the stage. Over thirty years and countless terrified audiences later the production is still going strong....

BWW Review: THE MATCH BOX, Omnibus Theatre
by Gary Naylor - November 02, 2019

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...