UK Regional Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 15

BWW Review: KISS ME, KATE, The Watermill Theatre
by Gary Naylor - July 31, 2019

The vivacity of this production of Kiss Me, Kate hits you even harder than the gifts of the multi-talented cast. Just what you need to escape these troubled times....

BWW Review: STONES IN HIS POCKETS, Theatre Royal Brighton
by Fiona Scott - July 30, 2019

There's always a buzz of excitement when a film crew come to your home town but is it always a positive impact on the community? Marie Jones' multi-award winning comedy, Stones in His Pockets, is currently touring the UK and is making its stop in Brighton's Theatre Royal this week....

BWW Review: VIOLETTA, Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre
by Gary Naylor - July 30, 2019

Violetta kicks off the Grimeborn Festival with a perfect example of how to pare back a grand opera and make a fine chamber piece that is played and sung beautifully....

BWW Review: WAR AND PEACE, Royal Opera House
by Gary Naylor - July 24, 2019

This epic WNO production captures the scale of Prokofiev's ambition with a chorus that, like the Russian winter, just keeps coming....

BWW Review: OKLAHOMA!, Chichester Festival Theatre
by Gary Naylor - July 23, 2019

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....

BWW Review: OUR CHURCH, Watermill Theatre
by Gary Naylor - July 18, 2019

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....

BWW Review: LIFE OF PI, Crucible, Sheffield
by Ruth Deller - July 09, 2019

This stunning new adaptation of Yann Martel's much loved novel is a must-see....

BWW Review: DEAD DOG IN A SUITCASE (AND OTHER LOVE SONGS), Bristol Old Vic
by Tim Wright - July 05, 2019

'Bring it down, bring it all down' is the anarchic cry from Macheath in Kneehigh's take on The Beggar's Opera. John Gray's original is given the full Kneehigh treatment- the original is not a constraint but a jumping off point. Perhaps the slide in the middle of Michael Vale's set is the physical ma...

BWW Review: ONE GIANT LEAP, Jack Studio Theatre
by Gary Naylor - July 05, 2019

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 Review: TWELFTH NIGHT, Shakespeare's Rose Theatre, York
by Sarah Ryan - July 05, 2019

Staging a production in an open-air Elizabethan-style theatre such as Shakespeare's Rose is a feat rife with both challenges and potential. Joyce Branagh's jubilant adaptation of Twelfth Night fulfils that potential and then some, in a triumphant production that pulses with brightness and energy fro...

BWW Review: THE TEMPEST, Shakespeare's Rose Theatre, York
by Sarah Ryan - July 04, 2019

Philip Franks' take on The Tempest is one of four productions playing in rep at the theatre over the summer (the others being Hamlet, Twelfth Night and Henry V). Franks builds on the magic and mystery at the heart of The Tempest in a production which takes a while to find its groove but is not witho...

BWW Review: MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
by Liz Cearns - July 05, 2019

'Measure still for measure': justice is still a tricky concept. Gregory Doran's insightful realisation of Shakespeare's notorious 'problem play' highlights Measure for Measure's enduring, perhaps even increasing, relevance....

BWW Review: SUMMER ROLLS, Park Theatre
by Gary Naylor - June 28, 2019

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....

BWW Review: CROOKED DANCES, The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon
by Gary Naylor - June 27, 2019

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....

BWW Review: A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, Nuffield Southampton Theatres
by Jo Fisher - June 27, 2019

More than a decade after Khaled Hosseini's best-selling novel was published, the same much-adored story has taken to the stage....

BWW Review: ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI, Bristol Old Vic
by Tim Wright - June 26, 2019

It's 1964 and Cassius Clay has just beaten the odds to become Heavyweight Champion of the World. But, instead of celebrating on the town, he's in a hotel room star NFL running back Jim Brown, soul icon Sam Cooke and Muslim minister and activist Malcolm X....

BWW Review: THE POPE, Royal and Derngate, Northampton
by Verity Wilde - June 21, 2019

The world premiere of Anthony McCarten's (The Theory of Everything, Bohemian Rhapsody, Darkest Hour) play The Pope at Royal and Derngate looks at a turning point moment in the Catholic Church - the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI and his replacement with Pope Francis. Two popes living, but more than...

BWW Review: PLENTY, Chichester Festival Theatre
by Gary Naylor - June 14, 2019

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....

BWW Review: DRIVING MISS DAISY, York Theatre Royal
by Sarah Ryan - June 13, 2019

Driving Miss Daisy, Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer-winning 1987 play made famous by a 1989 film adaptation starring Morgan Freeman, is brought back to the stage in a new production by York Theatre Royal....

BWW Review: BREXIT, King's Head Theatre
by Gary Naylor - June 13, 2019

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....

BWW Review: THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW, Grand Opera House York
by Sarah Ryan - June 11, 2019

Richard O'Brien's Rocky Horror Show has had audiences worldwide shivering in 'antici...pation!' for more than 40 years, and shows no sign of stopping with its 2019 world tour....

BWW Review: FORCE OF NATURE NATALIA, Curzon Mayfair
by Gary Naylor - June 08, 2019

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....

BWW Review: BLACK TEETH AND A BRILLIANT SMILE, The Ambassador Bradford
by Sarah Ryan - June 04, 2019

Adapted by Freedom Studios from Adelle Stripe's critically acclaimed novel of the same name, Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile is a fictionalised account of Dunbar's brief but turbulent life. Adapted by screenwriter Lisa Holdsworth and directed by Kash Arshad, the play is performed by an entirely fe...

BWW Review: VENICE PRESERVED, Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
by Gary Naylor - May 31, 2019

Prasanna Puwanarajah's revival of Venice Preserved brings the look of the show right up to date - its narrative is very 21st century, so needed nothing....

BWW Review: THE AUDIENCE, Nuffield Southampton Theatres
by Jo Fisher - May 30, 2019

As the United Kingdom waits to see who will be the next prime minister, a production focusing on the relationship between PM and the Queen could not be more perfectly timed....