2020: Show Highlights

For the first 73 days of the year, theatres were operating at their absolute peak. Audiences were packed into auditoriums, watching world-class theatre. As we neared the 16th of March, we knew a shutdown was coming. 

Broadway had closed and the U.K knew that we would likely go dark. But no one could possibly have predicted that we'd end up with a year like we've had.

But before the shutdown, and now during it, there have been some shows that I wanted to highlight as having meant something personally to me.
There are some great productions that don't make the list which I loved - like Sally Cookson's beautiful production of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Kings of Broadway at the Palace (just after the second lockdown) and Fourth Wall's stunning cabaret series at the Hippodrome - but some shows this year just hit home to me and I wanted to make a note.

None of these are in an order, it's just a list.

                       

A Christmas Carol @ Old Vic

I wasn't sure what I was expecting to get out of A Christmas Carol, but it was a whole lot more than I expected.

I had a Christmas day in January and saw this and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe in the same day. In the audience at both shows were large groups of school children. Normally this fills me with dread (bad behaviour, teenagers generally being disruptive) but I  couldn't have been more thrilled with them. 
Getting to watch a group of young people (a lot of whom I imagine didn't go to the theatre any other time of the year) experience the magic of a proper piece of theatre was really wonderful. 

It was also really wonderful to see the Old Vic revive the show again as part of their In Camera series in the last few weeks. It translated to screen wonderfully, with the brilliant Andrew Lincoln as probably the best Scrooge the Old Vic have produced yet.

I hope it continues to be a staple of Christmas at the OV for years to come.

Pantoland at the Palladium

So, my last London show of the year (due to a Tier increase) was this year's Palladium Panto.

Being honest, I went expecting to have a bit of a giggle and see a few friends for the last time this year. But I ended up having one of the most fun nights at the theatre I've had in years (probably ever.)

There wasn't an ounce of plot in this show, but I think that's pretty standard for a Palladium Panto. What there was, however, was every Panto gag and routine, huge musical numbers and dance routines, and FILTH, all in the space of two hours.

Julian Clary is a genius, and made life hysterically difficult for the rest of the cast. Beverley Knight kept coming on to sing her face off. Elaine Paige was CAMP and delivered two of her biggest hits. Gary Wilmot sang every tube stop to the tune of the can-can. Nigel Havers and Paul Zerdin were just comedy stars. Charlie Stemp and Jac Yarrow had virtually nothing to do, but made the most of the moments they did. Diversity were great.

But the thing I will remember most from that night is the audience reaction at the end. 
We all knew it was the last time we were going to be in a theatre for a while, and we were all very emotional as a result. I'm not sure I can remember an evening where an audience was so vocal with their appreciation at the end of a show before. The cast had to take eight bows, as we applauded and cheered for over six minutes. A thousand people made the noise of double that in the historic London Palladium.

To know it was the final night of theatre for a while (again) hit hard. But we will be back, brighter and shinier than ever before.

The Last Five Years @ Southwark Playhouse

The Last Five Years really is one of my favourite musicals. I'm a big fan of the reverse timeline plot and the way things are revealed within it. 

Saying that though, I've never seen a production that I was totally happy with. I've never bought the way of doing it where Jamie and Cathy aren't present in each others stories. Its a reason I think the film is the superior version of the show (with two fantastic performances). 

But it was the Southwark Playhouse production that returned in October after being cut short that finally gave me the complete production. The actor-muso element of the production works so well because it has Molly Lynch and Olly Higginson playing each other's songs. Having Jamie on stage whilst Cathy is singing Still Hurting, and having Cathy there playing the piano all through Nobody Needs To Know just adds something that I knew the piece needed but couldn't quantify. 

Southwark Playhouse did the most spectacular job of keeping everyone safe and comfortable, whilst still having a wonderful time in the theatre. I'm glad it got a brilliant return for a month, even if it once again bad to be cut short. 

Jesus Christ Superstar: The Concert @ Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

When I saw the Regents Park production of Jesus Christ Superstar in 2017, I found it distinctly 'meh'. I saw it in daylight, so no lighting or atmosphere, and I always think that did it a disservice. 

That said, it's a good score, and when you have superb voices singing it.

I bloody LOVED this concert staging.

I mean calling it a concert is ridiculous, because all of Drew McOnie's Olivier award-winning choreography is recreated to it's fullest potential. Open Air Theatre really did pull out all the stops, reassembling previous casts, restaging to suit the social distancing requirements, but at no point losing what the core of this production is.

Ricardo Afonso and Pepe Nufrio truly are two of the most talented vocalists I've seen in a long time. Roaring their way through Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's rock score, there are two midshow standing ovations every night (Superstar and Gethsemane) - they sure knew how to write a showstopper.
Backed by an ensemble of some of our greatest talents, it was such a treat, and a well-needed return to the theatre in the summer.

(Full thoughts on this available here )

Romantics Anonymous @ Bristol Old Vic

If I can thank 2020 for one thing, I thank it for this show.

When I walked into this show, I knew it was about chocolate. 
When I walked out of this show, I'd finally found a piece of theatre where I found myself staring back at me, warts and all.

Romantics Anonymous is truly the perfect chocolate box of a musical, with two central characters who are imperfect introverts. Angelique and Jean-Renee spend these two hours finding themselves, with the help of their fellow 'les emotif anonymes' and workers of the chocolate factory. 

It's a riot of a show. It's hilarious and heart breaking. There is a scene so funny that I honestly almost fell out of my chair, immediately followed by a scene that tugged at my heart so hard I found it hard to breathe. Top that off with a score that is every bit as varied, and you have a show that is, to me, perfect.

On top of that, I got to experience this show with dear, dear friends and got new friends because of it. Theatre is such a community and I think that is one of the things I miss the most at this time...

Wise Children, and Emma Rice specifically, have done great things in the face of the year we have endured. As part of their work from now on, all their shows will include streaming options, after 10,000 people across the world watched the streaming of Romantics. This can only be a positive, as theatre will become more accessible to those who cannot travel, or who cannot afford it.

(Full thoughts on what was undoubtedly my show of the year are available to read here)

Waitress @ Adelphi Theatre

Now, lord knows I was not particularly kind about this production when it opened in London. There were just so many bad decisions (or decisions that didn't make sense) but they truly managed to pull it back in 2020. 

I saw Waitress on Broadway in 2018 and was not thrilled by it (but I didn't think the cast were particularly strong...) so I resisted seeing it in London until Sara Bareilles popped by for a bit, and then I realised this show has a huge amount of heart.  You can see yourself in at least one of the characters (I mean, I can anyway) and the score truly has got some absolute bangers in it (I mean sitting in the same room whilst Sara sings She Used To Be Mine like her life depended on it is something I probably won't ever recover from.)

It's a shame it ended sooner than it did, as I feel like it had settled and was finally in it's stride. I hope the tour goes ahead and we get a great cast out on the road with this show.

Ocean At The End Of The Lane @ Dorfman, National Theatre

I had to rearrange my tickets for this 3 times and almost missed the damn thing. 

But thankfully I caught the last matinee of this absolute TREAT. 

I couldn't work out how they were going to put this novel on stage, because it crosses worlds, with huge battle scenes and extensive magic. But they really made a great job of using a small stage, old tricks and some clever staging to truly make you feel as if you'd been transported to another time and place. I  didn't think it was going to be my cup of tea, but I really enjoyed it!

I am not a fan of the Dorfman at the National cause the sightlines are a nightmare unless you're in the expensive seats. But for this show, it worked a treat because I had the most interesting view. I could see the show, but I was at such an angle I could also see the audience, and thus the kids in the audience. Watching children at (for some of them) their first proper piece of theatre was so great. I knew how some of the tricks worked, and how the magic worked, but seeing the wonder on their faces trying to work out how a woman kept appearing from different doors was so heartwarming. 

Very pleased this will transfer to the West End in 2021 - I will absolutely be returning to see it again! 

Turn Up London

It would be wrong in this year of streaming to not include at least one piece of streaming. And the one to pick was obvious.

In response and support to the Black Lives Matter movement, creatives Ryan Carter and Nicole Raquel Dennis (with the backing of Fourth Wall Live) produced Turn Up London: an artist fundraising event in reply to the outcry that happened across the summer after the death of George Floyd. The idea of black people, built by an incredible array of black artists.

Set against the backdrop of the beautiful Cadogan Hall (which I miss TERRIBLY), we were given over two hours of astonishing performances (both virtual and live from the stage.) There are too many to list them all, and the concert was about us as a  collective, but a few highlights that I can still clearly remember are: 

• Obiama Ugoala's blistering rendition of Make Them Hear You from Ragtime
• The astonishing duet of For Good from Wicked's first black Elphaba and standby Glinda (Alexia Khadime and Brittney Johnson)
• A four Motormouth version of I Know Where I've Been
• Claudia Kariuki and Danielle Steers show-stopping version of No More Tears

It was one of those things during the first lockdown, when we couldn't get into an audience anywhere. But we felt like we still had theatre, evenif we had to watch it on a screen.

Bring on Turn Up London 2021!

City of Angels @ Garrick Theatre

No matter how hard it tries, City Of Angels never seems to run for as long as it should do. The original production ran on Broadway for just over two years, for four months in the West End, and the first incarnation of this revival ran for only two months.
The West End revival got less than two weeks of shows before it was forced to close due to the pandemic.

In just two weeks of shows, the cast were well on their way to having this tricky material cracked. I saw second preview so there were a few things to tighten up but the thing that really shone with this show was it's cast. Some of our absolute best performers were in this show: Hadley Fraser, Rebecca Trehearn, Rosalie Craig and Rob Houchen, alongside newbies to the West End Vanessa Williams and Theo James. It truly was a delight of a cast.

There's rumours that once we can get audiences in theatres again, we are going to get this cast together again for a concert of the show for a week or so, which would be utterly fabulous. It's a brilliantly funny show, that really packs a punch with a cast this talented.

A Little Night Music: In Concert @ Holland Park Opera

For five years, I have been asking for a repeat of the 2015 concert production of A Little Night Music that Alex Parker conducted, with Janie Dee and Joanna Riding. I honestly didn't think we'd ever get them together to do it again.

What I really didn't expect was for the first live piece of theatre after lockdown to be... this!
(Full thoughts on this wonderful day are here)

I love A Little Night Music. I love it's premise, its music, it's simplicity and it's poignancy. But what I love most about the show is when a spectacular cast bring it  to life. 

Janie Dee and Jo Riding are two of my absolute favourites and they show it in spades why they are so good. Their comedic timing, their ability to pull on your heartstrings, their wonderful voices; all just so great. Accompanied a cast that was outrageously good (getting to see a heavily pregnant Laura Pitt-Pulford blast out The Miller's Son once again was a real treat) and a orchestra battling to stay afloat, it was magic. 

Truly a night I will never forget. As we sat in the grounds of Holland Park Opera, 200 people were at the chateau awaiting the arrival at the Armfeldts for a weekend in the country. Being there with friends, seeing people I admire perform this material, and sitting through a biblical rainstorm to get to the end of it. I truly will never forget the evening for as long as I keep going to the theatre (which I hope will be many years to come.)

*

I see a lot of theatre in a normal year (somewhere around 90-100) and even in the most abnormal year, I still managed to see 56 pieces of theatre. As a result of that, it's impossible to remember all the shows that I see in great detail. But this year will be different. In this year I think I will remember almost every single show I saw, and how it made me feel in the worst of times. 

I think I can confidently say that this year has reaffirmed just how special time in a theatre is. The times we have spent together, as a group, since the pandemic began, have been some of the absolute best of my life. 

Theatre, above anything else, is about a moment. A single moment that you cannot recreate exactly. There are moments this year, performances I have seen and audiences that I've been in that I'd give so much to see again. But we have the future. We are going to be back as we were before. It might take us some time to get there, but the theatre community's unbreakable spirit has proven this year that we will rebuild. We will come back home. And I will be there, with bells on, in the front row, cheering on all the wonderful people who will make it happen. 

Its been a hard year for everyone, but a hard year when your life (work and leisure) completely shut down in March and is getting knockback after knockback on the road to recovery. 

I've never been as proud to work in the arts as I am at the moment. My work colleagues this year have become some of my closest friends. My closest friends have become my family. We have ridden the storm and managed to battle through. We've been some of the lucky ones and I'll never take that for granted. 

Be kind to yourself these next few months. We can see the way out. The vaccine is here and being rolled out. We just have to hold our nerve for a little while longer (and I know that is easier said than done.). 

All my love to your fabulous creatures - I'll see you at the first show of Come From Away with all my best friends. We'll be the ones having another breakdown when the cast walk on stage.

 

Back at the start of a moment❤️

2020: Performance Highlights

Well ladies and gentleman, I think we can all agree that 2020 has been one giant clusterfuck.

I began writing this post earlier this week, as my usual top ten performances of the year. But I’ve had a change of heart as to how I should go about it this year.

Essentially, this last week has been fucking mental and everything changed again. Once again we are back to having to live one day at a time, as this country goes up the spout. My change of heart is thanks to a friend who also reluctantly did a roundup of the year actually, but I guess the sentiment is for everyone.

Basically, it feels wrong to put shows in an order. It’s been a devastating year for the Arts, and it just feels wrong to rank from 10 to 1 like normal. Everyone who managed to make theatre happen in this godforsaken year was, frankly heroic, and they deserve to be recognised as such. It just isn’t fair to pit people against each other right now.

So, I’m going to group together people in the same show in no particular order. You’ll still get the same thoughts from me that you’d normally get, just in a slightly different way

Gavin Creel and Sara Bareilles  in Waitress

It was no secret that I had issues with the London transfer of Waitress - literally none of their casting/marketing decisions made sense, or had any real logic behind them.

But then, at the end of January, two Broadway stars arrived in the West End, and everything changed.

Getting to see Sara Bareilles play the part that she wrote the voice for was hugely moving. Whether or not she is the greatest actress in the world is sort of beside the point, because she pours every piece of herself into the score that she wrote and makes it come alive in a way no one else possibly could. Whether it's in the scenes where she's funny or feisty, or in one of her soaring ballads when she is singing for her LIFE, there isn't a moment that doesn't have a purpose.
Joined on stage by one of her best friends (the utterly delightful Gavin Creel), the audience is treated to one of strongest connections between two people that I've seen for a long time. The material between the two goes beyond a clique, and they show that in spades.

Hadley Fraser and Rebecca Trehearn in City of Angels

When I say City Of Angels assembled the best cast we've probably ever seen in the West End, I don't know that I am exaggerating. It's sort of criminal that they never made it to their opening night, and only got a couple of weeks of previews. But the two people I always think of when I think of the show are Hadley Fraser and Rebecca Trehearn.

Hadley Fraser holds together every show he's a part of, and none more so here as the leading writer, Stine. Ever present, even if not directly involved in the scene, he is shaping the narrative, holding  the focus, and singing up an absolute storm. 
As usual, Rebecca Trehearn walks away with the show with one number. You Can Always Count On Me is the show highlight and Rebecca gets to show just how funny she is. 

I can only hope that more people will get to see this group of people deliver this material in the future. City of Angels is never with us for long enough, and this production is too brilliant to not get the full run it deserves.

Jodie Jacobs in cabaret at the Hippodrome

When we came out of the November lockdown, my first thing back was Jodie Jacobs' cabaret at the Hippodrome. It was literally the stagiest night you've ever seen - I sat down with my pal (socially distanced before you all bark) and realised I knew the people infront, behind and across from me. All the stagey gang were in for a brilliant night.

The fact that Jodie Jacobs isn't one of our biggest musical stars and that she doesn't just have the pick of the West End is CRIMINAL. Her voice is outrageous, her comic timing is second to none, and she can emotionally sucker-punch you when you're least expecting it. 

She's just an absolute star and I frigging love her. 
WRITE SHOWS FOR JODIE JACOBS AND GIVE HER ALL THE ROLES.

Janie Dee in A Little Night Music

If I hadn't put this in, the person I sat next to at this show would have personally hunted me down and murdered me (with good reason let's be real.)

Janie Dee is one of my favourite performers and she basically single-handedly pulled me from a deep depression (cause by this this godforsaken year.)

The first thing to happen post-lockdown was a concert production of A Little Night Music at Holland Park Opera, produced by Dee and Alex Parker. It was another chance to see lots of the 2015 cast (I'll talk about this all in my other post) but I really have to just briefly mention Janie.

We sat in the torrential rain for nearly two hours, and watch Janie Dee deliver a masterclass. Stepping out from under the canopy into the rain to deliver Send in the Clowns took on such a different reading. We laughed until we cried, as did most of the cast. We almost caught hypothermia but man it was worth it.

Andrew Scott in Three Kings

I didn't watch an awful lot of streaming theatre, because frankly it hurt too much to not be able to be in a theatre watching these shows.

But you make an exception when Andrew Scott decides to do a play.

One man shows are difficult, especially when it's streamed. Trying to hold an audiences attention for nearly 90 minutes is hard. But then you have Andrew Scott, who could honestly read his way through the phone book and we'd probably all still give it a standing ovation.

He's just...incredible. He's funny, he's dramatic, he's moving and he's honest. That's the thing with Andrew, it's his honesty. It makes him one of our finest actors.

Ricardo Afonso in Jesus Christ Superstar: The Concert

Seriously though gang, Ricardo Afonso is one of the absolute best male vocalists working in musical theatre. When we reopen I have a list of shows for him to lead.

Getting to see him rip his way through the score of Jesus Christ Superstar was really bloody special. It was one of my first shows back post-lockdown, and the first time I'd had some singers belt in my face for a while. And it reminded me how much I've come to rely on it. 

Ricardo bookends the show with Heaven On Their Minds and Superstar, and just gets more and more vocally outrageous as it goes along. On top of that, his performance becomes more moving, more desperate and more intense. I saw him in We Will Rock You about 12/13 years ago and he was UTTERLY BRILLIANT. It's just thrilling to watch - I'm really glad that I caught it.

 Carly Bawden and Marc Antolin in Romantics Anonymous

God, where on earth do you even start with these two?

I've talked a lot about why this show means a lot to me (see here: What If We Tried Something New? - Thoughts on Romantics Anonymous (hardtoseethelightnow.blogspot.com) ) but it essentially was the first time I saw myself staring back at me from the stage. In both Carly Bawden and Marc Antolin's performances I saw an introverted person who's questioning their right to love.

Watching Marc Antolin sing 'If She Loved Me' was like being unable to breathe. The journey in the space of two minutes that he takes you on is so moving, I get chills just thinking about it. Add to the mix the slow burner performance of Carly Bawden who begins to flourish as the show goes on and you have two leading performances that you'll never forget.

I saw this show live 3 times in January (twice in a day...!)  and then live again in September when Wise Children bought it back for one night to the Bristol Old Vic. It was a strange bookend to the first lockdown, and getting to experience it with lots of friends was just so wonderful.

The complexities of the performances these two give will stay with me for a long time, and I hope we are allowed to have it back in London again soon...

2020 wasn't what anyone expected, but the one thing it did do was cement to everyone just how important the Arts are.
No matter what the Government say, or don't say, or don't do, we have to keep the faith. Performances like these are going to be part of the healing of the country in 2021 and beyond. The Arts will be there to help the country, and the world, make sense of what we have been through, and be able to put ourselves back together again...