UK Regional Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 47

BWW Reviews: THE MAN INSIDE, Landor Theatre, March 13 2014
by Gary Naylor - March 16, 2014

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 opp...

BWW Reviews: ORDINARY DAYS, London Theatre Workshop, March 12 2014
by Kevin Sherwin - March 13, 2014

Thanks to director Ray Rackham's gentle, uncluttered approach, a bouncy score played wonderfully by musical director Thomas Lees and a small but strikingly talented cast of four, this brisk 80-minute soujourn to the Big Apple is consistently and undeniably enjoyable....

BWW Reviews: RICHARD AND ADAM, Cadogan Hall, March 12 2014
by Gary Naylor - March 14, 2014

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....

BWW Reviews: HAIRSPRAY, Curve Theatre Leicester, March 10 2014
by Jenny Antill - March 12, 2014

Hairspray seems to have been doing the rounds in the UK since it closed in the West End in 2010. It is a very popular show among audiences and although the last national tour is still fresh in our mind, the Curve's Artistic Director Paul Kerryson has decided his venue would do a brand new production...

BWW Reviews: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM - PROPELLER, Rose Theatre Kingston, March 11 2014
by Gary Naylor - March 13, 2014

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

BWW Reviews: BUKOWSKI'S CASS, The Vaults, March 4 2014
by Gary Naylor - March 05, 2014

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

BWW Reviews: MOON TIGER, Rose Theatre Kingston, February 25 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 26, 2014

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

BWW Reviews: THE YOUNG WIFE AND DIDO AND AENEAS, King's Head Theatre, February 24 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 25, 2014

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

BWW Reviews: THE PERFECT MURDER, Belgrade Theatre, February 24 2014
by Jenny Antill - February 25, 2014

Adapted from crime thriller novelist Peter James' incredibly successful book, The Perfect Murder has already taken over £1 million at the box office. Best known for his Roy Grace series of which he has sold over 15 million copies, this is the first time that his work has been produced for the stage....

BWW Reviews: DONKEYS' YEARS, Rose Theatre Kingston, February 18 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 19, 2014

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

BWW Reviews: TRANSLATIONS, Crucible, Sheffield, February 17 2014
by Ruth Deller - February 19, 2014

The centrepiece of Sheffield Theatres' Brian Friel season is a thoughtful and sensitive take on his classic play about language and culture....

BWW Reviews: SUPERIOR DONUTS, Southwark Playhouse, February 17 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 18, 2014

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....

BWW Reviews: HMS PINAFORE, Hackney Empire, February 15 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 16, 2014

Gary Naylor finds that this bulked up, buffed up HMS Pinafore, currently voyaging around the country, is even more fun than when it launched from the Union Theatre last Autumn....

BWW Reviews: FINIAN'S RAINBOW, Union Theatre, February 14 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 16, 2014

Gary Naylor sees a neglected, problematic musical full of wonderful songs given new life, if not quite full life, at The Union Theatre....

BWW Reviews: THE FINAL REVELATION OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, Pleasance Theatre, February 12 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 13, 2014

Tim Norton revisits the gift that keeps on giving, Sherlock Holmes, to imagine his last case - he finds it's typically tricky, but sometimes funny too....

BWW Reviews: SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, New Alexandra Theatre, February 4 2014
by Jenny Antill - February 05, 2014

The last time I saw Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was during the 2006 UK Productions tour which starred Dave Willetts and Shona Lindsay; a production that is close to my heart as it is one of the shows that made me want to pursue a career in theatre....

BWW Reviews: THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG, Churchill Theatre Bromley, February 3 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 04, 2014

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!...

BWW Reviews: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Lyceum, Sheffield, 31 January 2014
by Ruth Deller - February 02, 2014

Propeller's A Midsummer Night's Dream (currently touring along with The Comedy of Errors) is a riotous spectacle of a production. The dreamworld is emphasised throughout with the fairies (all in white, wearing a combination of corsets and codpieces) providing visual and musical beats throughout - ...

BWW Reviews: BEAR, Old Red Lion Theatre, January 31 2014
by Gary Naylor - February 01, 2014

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...

BWW Reviews: CARTHAGE, Finborough Theatre, January 30 2014
by Adrian Bradley - February 01, 2014

Is someone born bad, or does society make them that way - Who's to blame? That's the big question underpinning CARTHAGE, which had its world premiere at the Finborough Theatre last night....

BWW Reviews: WEST SIDE STORY, Bristol Hippodrome, January 29 2014
by Kathryn Pintus - January 31, 2014

I will probably be thrown into the darkest depths of Musical Theatre Purgatory for saying this, but…West Side Story has never been a favourite of mine. However, bear with me. I vaguely remember watching the film in my early years of secondary school, and wasn't particularly enamoured by it, so it w...

BWW Reviews: PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT, Wolverhampton Grand, January 27 2014
by Jenny Antill - January 28, 2014

Having seen Priscilla Queen of the Desert in the West End a few years ago, I was very interested to see how the production had been adapted to tour. A technical tour de force; there have been mishaps aplenty along the way due to the bus automation issues and flying (or not-flying) divas in visiting ...

BWW Reviews: THE LIFE AND LOVES OF A NOBODY, Crucible Studio, Sheffield, January 22 2014
by Ruth Deller - January 24, 2014

Third Angel's latest production is a thoughtful presentation on what it means to have an 'ordinary' life, slightly marred by a clumsy ending....

BWW Reviews: THE GAY NAKED PLAY, Above the Stag, January 21 2014
by Adrian Bradley - January 22, 2014

Following the success of its annual panto, David Bell's Off-broadway farce THE GAY NAKED PLAY (also known as THE PLAY ABOUT THE NAKED GUY) continues the first season in Above The Stag's new Vauxhall home....

BWW Reviews: SHANG-A-LANG, King's Head Theatre, January 24 2014
by Gary Naylor - January 25, 2014

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....