Gary Naylor
Bio

I turned down The Beatles. Well, not exactly, but on seeing Blood Brothers in 1982, I said it would never sell outside Liverpool - too sentimental, thought I.

Obviously, I grew up to be a theatre reviewer, writing here and for BroadwayWorld since 2009. I also write a weekly cricket column for The Guardian and I podcast about old football at Nessun Dorma. 

I'm a member of the Critics' Circle and the Cricket Media Club and I serve on the committee of the Society for Theatre Research in my capacity as Joint Administrator for the Theatre Book of the Year Award. I have a particular interest in initiatives that address Impostor Syndrome's deleterious effect on young people accessing culture. 

If I'm not watching or writing about a play, an opera, a movie, the cricket or the football, I'm probably asleep - but do check my pulse, just to be sure...

articles by Gary Naylor

latest in today

We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts…
After his record-breaking and warmly remembered Love On Tour, Harry Styles is back with a fresh, slightly more experimental twist on…
You’d watch Hamnet for the visuals alone, director Chloé Zhao and cinematographer Łukasz Żal flooding the screen with lush greens and…
Spielberg’s new close encounter of the third kind asks for faith in humanity and extraterrestrial life which it struggles to earn, his old…
For many years Paul Weller had a conflicted relationship with the oldest parts of his back catalogue. It was rare to hear more than one of…
Reader, I confess that I entered the dark space of Pélleas et Mélisande at Snape Maltings with a prior conviction: that, although musicians…
It’s tempting to focus on the peripheral aspects of Olivia Rodrigo’s career, dissecting who a particular song is about in relation to her…
“John Coltrane, he’s a major influence on this record. The instrumental on the A-side is an abstraction of the jazz musician named John…
Rambert is celebrating its first 100 years with a triple bill that emphasises the youthful vitality of the company. “We’re 100, and we’re…
The finale of the Royal Ballet’s 2025-26 programming is an extraordinary sight. At the curtain call for Salle de danse, a world premiere…