Top 10 Shows of 2022

Man, I really let this slide this year and I didn't mean to at all... I think life just got in the way (and also I have seen in excess of 125 shows this year so like, where the actual hell am I gonna find the time to review them alongside work as well (I have no idea but I promise I will attempt to be better in 2023...!)

But, as is tradition for me, I wanted to record my favourite shows and performances of the year. I have seen some seriously great stuff this year, so picking my top 10 was HARD, but here goes nothing I guess!

 a couple of special mentions...

Sondheim's Old Friends - Sondheim Theatre

Is it hyperbole to call this event one of the greatest nights of my life? 

Not remotely. 

The line up assembled for this was just ridiculous - Judi Dench, Bernadette Peters, Julia McKenzie, Petula Clarke, Imelda Staunton to name A FEW (like, Josefina Gabrielle and Anna Jane Casey were in the featured ensemble if that gives you an idea of how starry we're talking)

I'm so glad this has been immortalised on screen for us forever, because so much of this event was literally life changing (wait till you people see Broadway Baby...I was SCREAMING).

I could write a War and Peace style essay on how brilliant this show was, but just know it was pitch perfect from the beginning to the end.

Who knows, maybe we'll get to relive it sometime next year...

Audra McDonald at the Palladium

The Queen came to town, with a 40-something piece orchestra, and sang just about every composer who ever lived, and it was fucking GLORIOUS.

Audra McDonald is the Queen of Broadway because she can do it all, and has done it all, and won six Tony awards because of it, and good lord did she prove it that night.

This night at the Palladium was one of the classiest things I've ever attended (also the most theatre gays assembled in one place at one time this year - we really all did die a gay death at THAT Roses Turn.) 

10/10 no notes - perfect.

10. Cock - Ambassadors Theatre

An Elliot Harper production is obviously going to be in my top 10 shows of the year, because they created great theatre - Cock was no exception.

The most wonderful cast, and the most brilliant creative team, and a play that felt like it still had something to say (at least I felt it did anyway). The genius of having the set be bare, one costume per character, and no props, just letting the text speak for itself was great.

I was hugely moved at the end of it, largely because of Bailey's performance, but because I understood that character so well. 

Brilliant work by all - glad I saw it twice...

9. A Number - Old Vic

Plays about parents and children are really difficult for me for a magnitude of reasons, so A Number hit deep.

Lenny James and Pappa Essiedu were utterly remarkable in Caryl Churchill's blistering look at the consequences of our parents actions and how we have to live with them. A weirdly imposing set, in menacing red, looms on the stage and you're aware from the beginning that something is going to go wrong...and it does...

The Old Vic have had an absolutely storming year, and it's been a joy to watch everything they've been up to (and boy, do we have a fantastic year to come from them in 2023...!)

8. Into The Woods - Theatre Royal Bath

So we all now that this production had...issues getting to the stage (and that's putting it politely.) But Into The Woods is my favourite Sondheim show and I knew I had to see it, to make my own mind up on the drama if nothing else.

It for sure has it's problems (as almost every production of Into The Woods does) but there was lots to love. Crucially, Act 2 is finally as dark as it needed to be and did begin to feel like a bit of a slasher flick (which it doesn't always). Alex Young proved that The Bakers Wife is one of the greatest roles in musical theatre, and she is one of our greatest talents, and the concept and design of the production was at times so unbelievably brilliant that I just sat, open mouthed at it.

I'd like to see it in the West End on a bigger stage (as it was just bursting at the seams at Bath and that had it's limitations), or I'd actually rather we just got a transfer of the current Broadway production...

7. Kathy and Stella Solve A Murder - Edinburgh Fringe

Edinburgh Fringe is always a joy - I'm very lucky I get to go for work and have a really lovely week of shows. I saw 22 shows in four days this time round, but the highlight of the festival was the INSANE Kathy and Stella Solve A Murder.

It's a true crime musical - two women run a true crime podcast and then...end up having to solve an actual murder and chaos ensues.
Rebekah Hinds and Bronte Barbe are enormous fun as the title characters, but (as with everything show they are in) it's Jodie Jacobs who walks away with the show.

It's madness that Jacobs is not the leading player of the West End - their voice is BANANAS (like, you name it, they can sing it, and will probably sound better than the original) and the fun they are having in this show? Unparalleled.

Can't wait to see what happens with this show - it's got the potential for a massive future!

6. Blues For An Alabama Sky - Lyttleton, National Theatre

I wasn't going to bother seeing this show, but word of mouth had been so good that I had to snag a ticket to the final matinee of Blues For An Alabama Sky, and thank god I did!

I truly wasn't sure what I was going to think of it, but it's as up my alley as any show I saw this year.

Beautifully realised characters, all with their flaws but all that you can't help but fall in love with. Giles Terera and the whole company were utterly sublime, with terrific musical numbers pushing you through the nearly three hour running time.

5. The Doctor - Duke of Yorks Theatre

I see an obscene amount of theatre each year - so much that lots of things blur into one and it takes something special to properly make me sit up and take notice.

The Doctor is one of those shows.

It tests every moral you have, and forces you to look at yourself and how you would react in this situation, and where you'd align yourself in a way I haven't felt for a long time. Add into that a sensational central performance like the one Juliet Stevenson is giving, and you've got a really compelling three hours that had me on the edge of my seat.

4. Much Ado About Nothing - Lyttleton, National Theatre

The fact this is on my list will probably surprise a lot of people, but I cannot tell you how much fun I had watching this.

Simon Godwin is an absolute legend when it comes to Shakespeare - his productions of Twelfth Night and Anthony and Cleopatra at the Nash were both absolutely bloody wonders, and he's gone and done it again with Much Ado About Nothing. I basically never want to see Shakespeare if he isn't directing it...

Future Dame Katherine Parkinson is a joy.

John Heffernan is a comedic marvel.

It just made me so happy for two and a half hours.

More of this please National Theatre, less of The Crucible.

3. To Kill A Mockingbird - Gielgud Theatre

I bloody love a courtroom drama, and no one writes a courtroom like Aaron Sorkin.

The novel of To Kill A Mockingbird had eluded me (don't worry it's on my TBR pile for January), so I pretty much went in blind, and my LORD what a ride to go on when you don't know what is going to happen.

Rafe Spall was a bloody sensation as Atticus Finch, Gwyneth Keyworth was a delightful Scout, and the whole company really rallied together and made an unforgettable piece of theatre - can't wait to go back and see it again.

2. Crazy For You - Chichester Festival Theatre

A big, flashy revival of a tap dance musical, directed and choregraphed by a Broadway legend, starring one of our best song and dance men?

Yeah, Crazy For You couldn't have been more up my street if it tried.

The show confirmed what we already knew, but got to show it even more perfectly: Charlie Stemp is a star. The ease with which he leads this show as Bobby Child is just astonishing. He dances like no one else I've seen, and is the ultimate showman - just wait until he does The Music Man in 15-20 years time...IT'LL BE INCREDIBLE.

Susan Stroman understands build in a musical like no one else, and so she creates a musical supernova in the act 1 finale I Got Rhythm, which fizzes over to a firework of joy and you have no choice but to stand up for.

When I first saw it, I saw both shows that day at Chichester - I loved it THAT MUCH.

And then I went back to see it's final performance.

I'm so thrilled that it's coming in to London for a season next year - if you were a fan of Anything Goes, you're going to love this show. I got that level of joy from it, and it's got a performance at the centre of it that is as joyful as the ones we got from Reno Sweeney.

1. The Band's Visit - Donmar Warehouse

The Band's Visit is a masterpiece, a marvel and a miracle, and I'm so glad it was in my life this year.

I had the opportunity to see it on Broadway in 2018 and for reasons unclear to me, I saw Waitress instead (I know, still trying to work out why). But I think I was waiting for a production like this that I could fall in love with...

What Michael Longhurst achieved at the Donmar with this show is remarkable. 

Assembling a truly authentic, gorgeous cast to deliver this material in such a unique way is something I will never forget. I've said it before and I'll say it again - watching Miri Mesika cast a spell over the audience as she delivers Omar Sharif is something I will never forget... ever.

Each time I watched it, I wept as Mesika was cast away into a dream, howled at the roller-skating, and then slowly dissolved into a puddle from The Park to the end of the show... (if you know, you know...)

Above anything I saw this year, this show deserves a future life.
More people deserve to see this show.

What a year it's been - we really have had a great variety of stuff, and boy is there some fun to come next year xx

Top 10 Performances of 2022

Putting this list together this year was unbelievably difficult - I began this list with 24 names, and I whittled it down to 13 (which for a top ten isn't massively helpful...)

So, I'm gonna talk about the three that just missed out on my top 10, and then my top 10, because we've had some pretty outstanding performances this year and its been thrilling to be able to get to watch them all.

Jonathan Bailey as John in Cock

Jonathan Bailey on stage is always a treat, and for him to be leading a new Marianne Elliott production was a double delight.

He doesn't leave the stage for the entire show, and carries it squarely on his shoulders. The play is pretty intense (whilst also being suitably hilarious) and Bailey goes on quite a journey through it, giving him the chance to flex every acting muscle he has - proving that he is such a wonderful talented presence on stage. 

Bertie Carvel as Donald Trump in The 47th

It's a performance I couldn't imagine before seeing it, and once you saw Carvel come on stage as The Donald, you forget within seconds he was playing a character.

Bertie Carvel's performance was grotesque, hysterical, disgraceful and you couldn't take your eyes off him - whilst the play for sure had its problems, you couldn't really fault the performances.

Kerry Ellis as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes

Anything Goes saved my life last year - there's essentially no other way to put it.

A piece of heaven that will stay with me forever entered the UK theatre scene for the summer and I got to live in this perfect cocktail of joy for 16 weeks.

What I hadn't anticipated was the production returning to my life for 5 months this year, and for the woman who made me fall in love with musicals making her triumphant return to theatre by leading the show as Reno Sweeney.

If you know me at all, you know how much I love Kerry Ellis, but getting to see her play this part was just unbelievable.

I've never seen her do anything like this, and I don't think I breathed the first time I saw her lead that tap number.

Ultimately, the thing that made this performance so wonderful is the fact that she was having the absolute time of her life. Reno in this production is HARDCORE, but every single time I saw Kerry play her, she was just having an absolute ball.
More of this please - may this be Ellis' great return to the West End stage and we continue to mount productions around her.

Top 10 performances of the year

10. Patrick Vaill as Jud Fry in Oklahoma!

Look, Sexy Oklahoma was great fun - mainly to watch the old people in the audience having an absolutely horrendous time at Daniel Fish's extraordinary reinvention of a classic.

Mainly though, it was worth watching for the absolute marvel that is Patrick Vaill as Jud Fry.

You're normally led to believe Jud is the villain in Oklahoma, but the way Vaill portrays this broken shell of a man in the production is nothing short of revolutionary. I was team Jud from the get go, willing things to get better for him. His rendition of Lonely Room  is heartbreaking, and then...well you know.

Thankfully, he's back for the West End transfer from February, and I cannot emphasise how much you have to see this man's performance. 
He's a sensation - don't miss it.

9. Alex Young as The Bakers Wife in Into The Woods

With her luminous performance as The Baker's Wife, Alex Young secures her place alongside Imelda Staunton, Joanna Riding and Rosalie Craig as one of our greatest interpreters of Sondheim's material.

The Baker's Wife is one of the greatest roles in musical theatre for a woman - it has such depth in both humour and drama, her material is hysterical and heart-breaking and she's the emotional heart of the show. I truly believe if you nail The Baker's Wife, you can walk away with Into The Woods and steal the show from The Witch and The Baker, and that's exactly what Alex did.

I cannot wait to see what else is in Alex's future in terms of Sondheim roles - we are all going to die when she gets round to playing Sally Durant Plummer and Desiree Armfeldt.

8. John Heffernan as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing

If John Heffernan isn't remembered when we get round to Olivier's next year, I will kick up such a fuss the likes of which you have never seen.

Heffernan was just having so much bloody fun in Much Ado and as a result, so was the entire audience watching him. The scene with the gelato (if you know, you know) was so funny I seriously thought I was going to wet myself.

He's just an absolute joy - there was real warmth to his Benedick and to achieve that in a role that largely can just be played as a blistering fool was just terrific to get to see (twice!)

7. Katie Brayben as Tammy Faye Bakker in Tammy Faye

I have many, many problems with the musical Tammy Faye. The entirety of Act 2 needs to essentially be thrown out and start again, and the lyrics are woefully inadequate almost the entire way through, but it does have one massive positive going for it - the barnstorming central performance by Katie Brayben.

Look, we know Brayben is a sensation - she won an Olivier for her performance as Carole King in Beautiful, and I'd put money on the fact that she's probably secured her second with her portrayal of Tammy Faye Bakker.

It's sort of everything you can hope for in a performance - confident but vulnerable, brassy but reserved, and with a voice like so few others. 

Brayben is stunning in this role, with her performance of the 11 o'clock number If You Came To See Me Cry being something that will stay with me for a long time. I just couldn't help thinking if she was this brilliant with the material she as given, imagine what she'd have been like with material that matched her capabilities...

6. Rafe Spall as Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird

I am one of the four people on the planet who hasn't ready To Kill A Mockingbird, so I got to go in to this remarkable play blind, which I'm really thankful for.

Rafe Spall was a complete revelation for me in this. I knew him to be a good actor, but I'd never seen him really soar in anything before, and that I saw him as Atticus Finch, and he's simply sensational.

The driving force of the whole play, the focus point, and my god what a powerful performance. It's been 8 months since I saw it and I still think about moments of his performances and the raw honesty in which he did it. 

Stunning work, one of the highlights of the year.

5. Charlie Stemp as Bobby Child in Crazy For You

Oh Charlie Stemp, you wonderful, wonderful man.

Half A Sixpence at Chichester launched him to stardom with it's transfer to the West End, and made him a leading man. 

Crazy For You at Chichester has cemented him as a star, and it's West End transfer will only strengthen this.

Stemp is the real deal, although this was the first time I saw him as a true triple threat. We knew he could dance, we knew he could sing, but he radiates showmanship throughout this joyous three hour show. He's the lynchpin and he does it with ease: charming, vulnerable, brassy and brash, he's going to take London by storm and walk away with all the awards - London is incredibly lucky to have this coming in.

4. Mark Rylance as Rooster in Jerusalem 

Well, it's on my top ten performances a decade later than everyone elses (!) but I finally got to see the incredible Mark Rylance in Jerusalem this year.

There's sort of not much to say that hasn't been said but it truly is a performance for the ages, and all of the superlatives are worth it. It's a mammoth 3 and a half hours for Rooster, and it's a remarkably grotesque look at a character that we all know someone like...

It's also the kind of role he can never really age out of so I'll see you for round three in 2032.

3. Juliet Stevenson as Ruth Wolff in The Doctor

Remarkably, I've never seen Juliet Stevenson on stage before this year, but good lord was it worth the wait.

Her performance in The Doctor is one of those performances that you don't really understand how she does it, or where she even began to put it together. She's mesmerising to watch on stage, and is the glue that holds the whole thing together. You're rooting for her at the beginning, but like any flawed human she makes mistakes along the way and you are tested to your absolute moral limit, and that's down to Stevenson's superb portrayal.

2. Miri Mesika as Dina in The Band's Visit

Miri Mesika as Dina is the musical performance of the year and I will debate anyone who says different - in fact, its one of the musical performances of the decade.

What Mesika did on stage at the Donmar is the definition of a masterclass. She commands the stage in the smallest details and is utterly mesmerising to watch. The way in which her voice moves through David Yazbeck's sensational score is a marvel. In particular, her performance of Omar Sharif is like a film in four minutes. Mesika places the audience under her spell and was unforgettable.

It's such a specific performance that says so little, yet means so much. If you saw it, you know, if you didn't you REALLY missed out.

1.  Jodie Comer as Tessa in Prima Facie

I'd be surprised if this isn't at the top of everyone's 'best performance' list this year to be honest.

The superlatives for Jodie Comer in this show were ridiculous, but in this rare case she deserves every single one of them.

It's a prime example of 'leaving it all on the stage.' A one-woman show, for an hour and forty minutes, of a subject matter that is so utterly relentless is no mean feat, and Comer attacks it head on. She is dynamic and devastating -she leaves everything on that stage and more. It's quite simply one of the best performances I've ever seen on stage (and it is STAGGERING it is her stage debut.)

An instant sell-out, with a Broadway run for 2023 planned, and the NT Live screening SAVED Event Cinema and made it the most watched event cinema in history (grossing more than 3.5 million at the Box Office) - occasionally, the performance matches the hype: this was one of those times.

Top 10 shows of the year to follow between Christmas and New Year - have a lovely festive season xx