Top 5 Shows of 2021

 Top 5 Shows of 2021

In any normal year, I'd be beginning to compile my usual top 10 shows and performances of the year. With performances I think I'll still be doing that, as I've got so many brilliant ones that need highlighting, but I thought I'd do my top 10 shows a little different to normal.

What I've decided to go with is the following:
1. Top 5 Shows of 2021

2. Top 10 Performances of 2021

3. 2021: The Year We Came Back Home

I need to talk about a lot of 2021, and the various highs (and looming lows) and there's too much of it to just have it in the top 10 shows as normal, so it's gonna be split out. It was really hard getting a list of 10 shows, so I went down to 5, and will talk about the year as a whole separately.

So, the top 5 shows in 2021 look like this for me:

5. My Son's A Queer But What Can You Do @ Turbine Theatre

Gosh, this show truly did hit me right in the feels!

It's incredibly brave to put your life onstage and...star in it yourself. But that's exactly what Rob Madge did. They put themselves and their family on stage and told us their life story...

I can't remember the last time I cried as much as I cried at this show to be honest. About halfway through it just hit me, and I could not stop sobbing (like, there were times I actually couldnt see I was crying so much). 

It was also hugely moving that Rob's parents were also in the audience (I was at the final show). Seeing Rob's parents watch how they accepted their child for who they are, never questioning it and never trying to change them, was just...a bit too much for me to handle!

Cracking songs, sensational costumes (honestly the final Disney Parade and the costume changes are...insane), and all of the nostalgia of any kid who grew up a little bit different and was scared of how the world would accept them.

I so hope it comes back - everyone truly needs to see this show!

4. Operation Mincemeat @ Southwark Playhouse

Well, I'll say one thing - the future of musical theatre is in spectacularly safe hands if SpitLip's sensational Operation Mincemeat is anything to go by!

I've had friends bang on about this show for ages, and it took me too long to get on the hype train. But the 2 and a half hours I spent at Southwark Playhouse on a Tuesday afternoon in August was one of my favourites of the year. 

An unbelievably hard working cast, multi-roling like nobody's business, with one of the catchiest scores for years. 

It's back in Jan and Feb, but this is only the beginning. Operation Mincemeat will be a West End sensation before we know it and I cannot wait to be a hardcore fan of this incredible piece. 

3. South Pacific @ Chichester Festival Theatre

No year is complete without the annual pilgrimage to Chichester to see the summer musical. When 2020 denied us of it I was furious, but naturally I got myself rebooked to see South Pacific when it was revived this summer. 

The production is everything I love in a show: a no expense spared glitzy revival of a bonafide classic, with a sensational cast delivering the material at its fullest potential. 

Getting to see Gina Beck and Julian Ovenden deliver some of Rodgers and Hammerstein's most glorious music was a real treat on a Saturday afternoon (like, I'll never recover from Julian singing This Nearly Was Mine). 

It's touring next year, with a summer season at Sadlers Wells (where both of it's leads will again star as Nellie and Emile) and I cannot insist how much you must see it (I'm already booked for the first preview and will be booking more than one visit). 

A perfect revival. 

2. Cabaret @ Kit Kat Klub

To revive a musical that is as iconic as Cabaret is, and has such an iconic look (in both the Sam Mendes and Rufus Norris productions) is a brave move. 

What Rebecca Frecknall needed to do was to be bold, be different, but be as iconic as what has come before. 

By God has she managed it. 

From the moment you walk into the Kit Kat Klub, you're immersed in the world is 1930s Berlin in a way I've never experienced before. 

A fully transformed auditorium creates a truly unique theatrical experience, that I was not fully ready for. 

It is an event, not just a musical. 

Add on to that actors, singers and dancers at the top of their game, delivering material that is proven to be some of the best ever written, and you have a winner. 

There's been outcry at the ticket prices for Cabaret, and honestly I do agree with it. I paid £75 for a stalls seat for the first preview and that seat is now £250... That's not dynamic pricing, that's just creating a show rich people can see... (I'll discuss this more in my post about 2021 as a whole). 

If you can get in at a reasonable price, please go. 

It's queer, it's dark, it's sexy, it's angry, it's gritty, and it's got a leading lady who is screaming her head off 8 shows a week and giving one of the best stage performances I've seen in a really long time...

1. Anything Goes @ Barbican Theatre

This is not a surprise if you are even remotely following what I've been up to this year!

In short, Anything Goes saved me in 2021. 

I found a pocket of happy escapism that I could keep returning to whenever my anxiety and depression went...haywire. A tap dancing woman was waiting at the Barbican and I could lose myself in unadulterated joy for 3 hours. 

It never got old. Every single joke lands. Every single cast member was brilliant. Every single routine was...other-worldly (there is not a better 30 minutes in musical theatre than the end of Act 1 into the top of Act 2). 

I saw it 6 times in 15 weeks. And I stood up midshow twice every time. 

If you asked me to describe happiness in one musical, it would be this. 

It's back in 2022, on a UK tour and then a summer back at the Barbican.

Go, take everyone you know, and fall in love with musical comedy all over again ❤️

Well there you have it. 

The best new productions I saw in 2021. 

I'll talk about the year as a whole in my roundup of the year but these were the real highpoints for me!

🖤

Frozen The Musical @ Theatre Royal Drury Lane - August 2021

 

I think it's a universally accepted fact that Disney musicals can be a little hit and miss. Whilst there have been commercial successes from Aladdin and The Lion King, artistically I'm much more interested in Aida, Newsies and Mary Poppins. Maybe, to me, it feels like 'live action' Disney shows work a lot better.

That is, until I saw Frozen, London's newest musical now playing at the sensationally restored Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Well, I'll be completely honest in the fact that I expected very little from Frozen. 
It takes a weird kind of bravery to take a new musical, and put it on one of the biggest stages in the West End and for it not to look small.

But Disney are nothing if not brave, and in this instance it's paid off in an unbelievable way.

Frozen is a spectacle, with some of the best things I've seen technically done on stage.
Director Michael Grandage has gone for a really cool blend of style AND substance, with a stunning scenic and costume design from Christopher Oram, who's approach to Arendelle is beautiful to look at and is so rich of colour, texture and life.
On top of all that comes video design from Finn Ross that truly is unlike anything that I've ever seen. What they achieve on film with video and projections is...other worldly. When Elsa loses control of her magic, the shocked reaction from the audience summed it up - disbelief, shock and  amazement. We haven't seen stuff like this in London before and it's thrilling that we now have it. 

Bringing iconic characters like Elsa and Anna to the stage, and turning them into real people is no easy thing, and in a way I don't think they have been entirely successful.
Samantha Barks is a star, and there's no denying it. She metaphorically takes the roof off of the theatre when she belts 'Let It Go', with THAT moment in the middle of it that was greeted by a truly electric reception (it's one thing to see it in a video, but in real life it really is spectacular.) But Elsa never feels three-dimensional, and I don't think that's Barks' fault. There's something in the writing that stops almost all of the characters from feeling fully fleshed-out.
Steph McKeon, however, is the exception. Anna is more real here than she is in the movie, and it's truly like they picked her up out of the film: she just IS Anna. Brilliantly funny, with a voice as clear as a bell, and she's hugely moving. The bond between her and Barks is real - they're evidently very close outside of the show - and it's only strengthens their relationship on stage.

Outside of this the supporting cast does well.
Obioma Ugoala is huge fun as Kristoff, alongside the hugely extravagent puppet of reindeer Sven. Oliver Ormson is on the right side of 'sweet' as Hans, and manages to draw the necessary gasp out of the audience in a fairly underwritten part, and Craig Gallivan gives the people what they want with his joyful portrayal of Olaf.
I'm normally not a fan of child actors, but Asanda Masike and Tilly-Raye Bayer really bought so much out of their portrayals of Young Anna and Elsa: cheeky, playful, but with a brilliant bond that you see reflected in their older counterparts.

There's so much to marvel at in this production, and not all of it stage magic.

Disney have made the super decision to take a film with a running time of an hour and 42 minutes, and turn it into a stage show with only a 30 minute longer running time (and that's including a 20 minute interval!)
It's incredibly pacy of a piece, and never drops its speed for a second. Act 1 zips along at exactly an hour (at such a speed that when the familiar introduction of 'Let It Go' began, I audibly expressed my surprise we were there already.) 
It's an embellished story, more focused on the relationship between Anna and Elsa than it ever was before, and it feels even tighter and more streamlined than it ever did before.

So there we have it: who knew I was going to be such a fan of a new Disney show, especially a Disney film I didn't much care for.
But we are where we are, and Frozen is a smash.

A quick aside to all of this: Andrew Lloyd Webber has done an astonishing job at restoring Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
It truly is an incredible display of what can be achieved (if you have the cash to do it!)
Give yourself an additional 45 minutes pre show to have a proper look around at the gorgeous building...it's quite something!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Rent @ Hope Mill Theatre - September 2021

 

It takes a really talented bunch of people to take a musical that's been around for over a quarter of a century, and find a way to completely reinvent it and make it feel fresh and relevant again.

But that's exactly what the team at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester have managed to do with Jonathan Larson's Rent.

This production was in the works for the last couple of years, and played a handful of performances before the November lockdown hit.

Now it's back!

There's something strangely emotive at the decision to have this like an old-school group of players coming together and telling a story, as if round a campfire. The cast all enter together and sit at chairs surrounding the stage, stepping in to play their character(s) and contribute to the telling of the tale. Something about being able to watch Roger sing 'One Song Glory' whilst Mimi looks on, or Mark and Joanne dance the Tango Maureen whilst she eyes them questionably, adds another dimension and is a real highlight of director Luke Sheppard's vision for the piece.

The cast is an embarrassment of riches, so much so that I really don't think I will see a better collective group of actors come together to collectively do this show.

Luke Bayer's Mark is a superb narrator, who's camera acts as the narrative tool to enable us to see into people's lives. Tom Francis adds real grit to Roger, who's One Song Glory builds and builds until it's completion in the finale, in part due to Maiya Quansah-Breed's multi-layered Mimi. Alex Thomas-Smith is giving a truly star-turn as Angel, perfectly matched against Dom Hartley-Harris as Collins.

The star of the piece though has to be Millie O'Connell as the outlandish Maureen. I turned to a friend at the interval and we both said that, despite having seen multiple versions of the show before, Maureen's speech 'Over The Moon' has never been properly funny before. In O'Connell's hands, it's so full of humour and naughtiness that I almost fell out of my chair.

It's also the first time I've ever seen the show with the actors who are actually the age of the characters they're playing. Certainly the original cast were a touch older than playing (I mean they definitely were in the film!) and it only added to quite how believable everyone was in their roles.

The show is in it's final week in Manchester, but I really hope this will make it's way to London in the future - I feel like it's one of the most definitive productions of Rent there has been, and it deserves to be seen on a much larger scale.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Six The Musical @ Oxford Playhouse - August 2021

As soon as theatres were allowed to operate again (albeit socially distanced), the producers of Six bought it straight back out on the road, making it one of the first musicals back on tour in the UK as we emerge from lockdown.

Now playing to full capacity, it's currently at the Oxford Playhouse, where I was lucky enough to catch the show. Originally booked in for a week in August 2020, the show sold so well that Six is now running for a fortnight, and is sold out for its entire visit.

Now, I'm no stranger to Six: I originally saw the show in a cow-shaped tent in Edinburgh at the Fringe Festival in 2018 and fell head over heels in love with it's genius, inventive way of essentially giving a history lesson in an hour and fifteen minutes. 
Since then, I've seen the show multiple times, in both of it's London homes (The Arts and The Lyric) and out on tour in 2019. For me, it's one of the best British musicals of the past decade, and it's stratospheric rise to being a Broadway show just before the pandemic hit is unbelievably deserved. I don't think there's another show in recent memory that has had a journey as fast from 'Fringe show' to 'Broadway smash-hit' - eighteen months from Edinburgh to New York - it just doesn't happen! Writers Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss really have tapped into something with this show - it's got masses of broad appeal, but with some brilliant hidden nuggets for the hardcore musical theatre fan (the reference to Little Shop of Horrors in the opening number makes me smile every time I hear it...)

 

One of my favourite things about seeing this show multiple times is getting to see different women's interpretations of the Queens. One of my favourite things about theatre is how differently people can portray a role with the same source material, and it's so true with Six. 
There's no 'lead' in this show - all six actresses have an equal cut of the show and that's just a great thing. The plot follows the women's search for which of them had the worst time married to their mutual husband, and that Queen shall lead the girl-band they are forming.

It's useless to try to compare the Queens as they're all so different, but it's worth highlighting them all just for a moment. 

Lauren Drew's brilliantly Welsh Catherine of Aragon kicks off the show with fire, sass and attitude, whereas Maddison Bulleyment pulls every ounce of comedy out of Anne Boleyn's brilliant number 'Don't Lose Your Head'.
Caitlin Tipping has the emotional height of the show with 'Heart of Stone' and does great work with it, and then Shekinah McFarlane smashes Anna of Cleeves' no-nonsense 'Get Down' out of the park.
Six superstar Vicki Manser (who started out her journey with the show as a swing and ended up covering and playing all SIX of the Queens at one point or other) plays the queen we arguably know the least about - Katharine Howard - and her account of her life is probably the most harrowing, and Manser hits every beat of the nearly 7 minute 'All You Wanna Do'.
Rounding off the show is Elena Gyasi as the one who survived. Catherine Parr wants no part of the contest by the end of the show: who had the worst time sort of becomes irrelevant once you sit and realise that these women are better together than trying to tear each other apart. Gyasi's 'I Don't Need Your Love' isn't about winning the contest: its about survival and it's really moving.

There really isn't a lot left to say.

Six is a sensation, and it's success in mainstream musical theatre is a real boost for new British musicals. We have so many wonderful composers and lyricists making new work that isn't yet on this scale (in the West End or in large touring venues like this.) 
If I could make one suggestion, it's to seek them out. Go and see shows at places like Southwark Playhouse or The Other Palace (I am there tomorrow to see the new musical Operation Mincemeat on the recommendation of lots of friends and can't wait!) or go to a local 'scratch night' and find these new artists and support them. 

Six is touring nationally, reopening at the Vaudeville at the end of September, and reopening on Broadway later in the Autumn.
Don't miss it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat @ London Palladium - August 2021

 

So listen.

When it was announced that the 2019 revival of Joseph was returning to the Palladium, I had no real desire to see it. I saw the production with Sheridan Smith, and had a nice enough time, but unlikely the rest of my generation I wasn't raised on the Donny Osmond movie and find Joseph to be quite 'meh'.

But then, the legend that is Linzi Hateley was announced to be returning to the production as the Narrator for some 'special performances' when Alexandra Burke (who took over from Smith in this year's production) was otherwise engaged.

 

Returning to the part she originated thirty years ago - of COURSE I was going to have to be there!

At the end of watching this show, I instantly text someone saying "I never want to see Joseph again, because it will never be done better than this," and there is one reason for that.

Linzi bloody Hateley.

Now, it's sort of the dream entrance for any character. Stage goes dark in the middle of the overture, and two spot lights hit a figure facing the back of the stage. That figure turns round, smiles and the audience ERRUPTS. The look of joy on Hateley's face as the wall of love and support was just wonderful to see (I absolutely cried - I am ridiculous).

I had forgotten that the Narrator essentially doesn't leave the stage for the entire show (and quite how hard that means Hateley has to work!) but the woman does not break a sweat and gives a incredible performance.

There's a LOT going on in this production for the Narrator - multi-roling, tap dancing, playing the spoons just to start - but Hateley knocks every element of this character out of the park. It's very "nudge nudge wink wink" comedy (as opposed to Smith's loud and outright humour that she used in the 2019 production) and it works a lot better in my eyes; the Narrator is in on the humour of it all, rather than the slightly bonkers alternative that we've seen before.

But the thing that really shines in this production is Hateley's sensational voice. Whilst I don't listen to Joseph regularly, if I do it's the Prologue from the 1991 recording - there's something really magical about THAT voice, and the way it elevates the material. 
Thirty years on, and the voice sounds exactly the same. There's been some tinkering with keys here and there because of the Narrators before her in this production don't have the incredible range needed, but it doesn't stop Hateley from really getting to belt her face off in moments like Pharaoh's Story and Go Go Go Joseph (I literally shouted 'go on Linzi' at the end of Act 1 as she's doing 'ahead of your time' up the octave!) 

There's something quite emotional about getting to see Hateley reunited with Jason Donovan - this time taking on the role of Pharaoh. Their friendship has been well documented across the years, and it's great to see them together on stage. In the fleeting moments the two characters spend on stage at the same time, you can see they're having a ball.

Add into that mix Jac Yarrow, back again as Joseph and better than ever. That man is really going to one of our biggest leading men in the next few years and it's great to see. He properly stops the show with a truly wonderful rendition of Close Every Door 

So the production itself is essentially still the same as it was in 2019. 

The Narrator is now more of a Pied Piper character, who uses the children that she's telling the story to bring it to life. You've got kids playing Potipher, some of the brothers, the Butler and Baker and so on. 
It's an approach that I still don't think fully works on every level. There something a little odd having Potipher played by a child, and Mrs Potipher by a grown woman - I know we suspend all belief in theatre but it still doesn't gel with me. But I cannot deny there's something really wholesome about the kids being some of Jacob's sons, and them just generally being around and fully in the story.

It's a week or so until the end of this revival, but I really don't think I'll see it again. I've seen the ULTIMATE Narrator, and an absolute top notch Joseph in the same production - short of casting Lady Gaga as the Narrator I don't think I'd get anything else out of it other than what I've already got.

My suggestion though?

Try to get in to see it - if you can get in to see Linzi please do, but it's a really fun couple of hours and a  great way to get back into the theatre after such a long time away!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

South Pacific @ Chichester Festival Theatre - August 2021

 

The annual pilgrimage to Chichester's summer musical is one of my favourite days of the calendar. It's nearly a 10 hour round trip in a day, but usually worth it for a really brilliant revival in the glorious Festival Theatre.

2020 denied me of my trip, but last weekend I made the journey, to see the wonderful revival of South Pacific. 

Boasting one of Rodgers and Hammerstein's finest scores, South Pacific is lead to perfection with a truly astonishing cast, who really are an embarrassment of riches.
As Ensign Nellie Forbush, Gina Beck delivers a beautifully complex performance of a woman struggling with her inbuilt prejudice. She has the hopeful and joyous sides of Nellie with her glorious, glistening soprano voice, and then emotionally delivers in the climaxes of the two acts. Opposite her as Emile de Becque is the magnificent Julian Ovenden. Ovenden is unquestionably one of our finest musical theatre actors, and it's showcased to perfection here. His voice is like hot chocolate, and his performance of 'This Nearly Was Mine' (centre stage, in a spotlight, stood still), is the definition of a showstopper and the emotional highpoint of the piece.

Joanna Ampil is a different Bloody Mary to anything I've seen before - she's a driven mother wanted the best for her child rather than the usual shouting islander she is sometimes portrayed to be, and it works an absolute treat.  Zack Guest (standing in for Rob Houchen) gives a strong yet subtle performance as Lt Cable, the young man who joins the war and is the one to cut through the racism with the excellent 'You've Got To Be Carefully Taught'.

Chichester's Artistic Director Daniel Evans has produced a production of the highest quality, with performers and creatives at the top of their game. Ann Yee's choreography is gritty and cuts to the heart of the piece right from the start, with the use of Bloody Mary's daughter Liat as the thing to pull the show full circle. Cat Beveridge conducts a wonderful orchestra of 17 (including a harp!) which make this sumptuous score soar to the it's fullest potential. Add in an almost constantly moving revolve, and a set design from Peter McKintosh that continues to surprise at every turn, and you have all the ingredients come together for a first rate revival.

There are conversations that have begun to occur as to whether we should still be putting on productions of musicals that we find to be 'problematic'. Shows like Showboat, Carousel and South Pacific deal with difficult topics and issues like  racism and domestic violence. They are shows that would, in today's society, more than likely not be made. And that presents a wider discussion as to how we present these shows when we want to revive them. 

Regent's Park have revived Carousel this summer, in a radical new setting, arrangement and ending. People are loving it, but I didn't. What they have done with their tampering with the ending is fundamentally change what Carousel is. Being clear, I take nothing away from the performances in this piece - Carly Bawden and Joanna Riding particularly knocked it out of the park (if you'll pardon the pun!) 

However, the creative team obviously aren't happy with the message of the original ending, which honestly is fine. But they have radically changed the final 30 minutes so much that it no longer bears any resemblance to what Rodgers and Hammerstein actually wrote, and the story they were trying to tell. If you're not happy with the ending of a show, to the extent that you want to change it so much... do a different show! 

Going into South Pacific, I was worried what Evans might have done to the piece to address this. What he has cleverly done, is present it in a completely traditional way, as a period piece. It's set firmly in it's original time and location, and whilst you can feel echoes of it's relevance because of the context of political and world movements over the last few years, it's presented in the way it was intended, and thus it works perfectly. 

There's a moment at the end of the first act, where Nellie's ingrained racism is put on full show when she is introduced to Emile's mixed race children. When she reacts horrified at discovering they are the children of the man she loves, over half of the upper middle-aged, middle-class, white audience at Chichester laughed. It was enormously uncomfortable that, 70 years on since the premiere of this masterpiece, audiences are still having reactions like that...

Revivals are the way to my heart, and they don't come much more grandly cast and presented than this. There are a few houses it'd fit nicely into in the West End, if Chichester wanted to line up a transfer...!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

John and Jen @ Southwark Playhouse - August 2021

Almost 30 years after it was first performed, Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald's two-hander musical has made it's way to the UK. Having previously been led in earlier productions by Carolee Carmello and Kate Baldwin, the show is now in the hands of a third redhead: the wonderful Rachel Tucker, alongside newcomer Lewis Cornay. The first half centres on brother and sister John and Jen and their childhoods. Following a tragedy, Act 2 follows Jen and her new son John (who she named after her brother.)

The piece has changed setting slightly since it's original outing and spans 1985-2022 (rather than the original 1950-ish to 1990), but its story and score, as far as I understand remain largely the same.

It isn't very often that you get to sit in somewhere as intimate as the Little at Southwark Playhouse and see someone as talented as Rachel Tucker up close, but that's exactly what we are being treated to at the moment. 

Tucker (soon to be jetting off back to Broadway to reprise her Olivier-nominated performance in Come From Away) takes Jen on a real journey across the two hours. Starting as a child playing the full range of one character up to being a mother of an college-headed son, her Jen is both head-strong and gentle. It takes until the 11 o'clock number for Tucker's signature belt to really get a time to shine, but 'The Road Ends Here' really is a moment in which  she is able to fully let rip and its thrilling to watch.

Lewis Cornay matches Tucker at every turn with his excellent performance too. He slots into the younger side of John very easily, and manages to find all of the comedy that you'd expect to come out of a five year old, but give it some real heart too. 

It's a beautifully orchestrated piece, with an orchestra of 4 under the direction of Chris Ma. Lippa and Greenwald's score is expertly played by 3 strings and keys, and it enables it to be care-free to begin with, but then to really drive home the emotional numbers. Be under no illusion that this musical is light and fluffy; there are really adult themes of domestic violence, war and loss at play here. 

Whilst the score itself is a little hit and miss for a good portion of the first half, it really is the two performances that elevate the material above and beyond.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Baghdad Cafe @ Old Vic Review - July 2021

 

When faced with the prospect of what to come back in a full production with, I'm sure the Old Vic had many an option to choose from. 
Whether it was conscious or not, what they've chosen could not be more perfect to welcome back people into their auditorium for a full run of a show for the first time in 16 months: Wise Children's adaptation of the cult 1987 film, Baghdad Cafe.

It's a straight forward enough plot: following an argument, and subsequent separation from her husband, a German woman (Jasmin) arrives at the Baghdad Cafe, just as the owner (Brenda) is throwing out her own husband. Despite incredibly frosty first impressions and a lengthy altercation, the two women eventually become strong friends.

At this time, it's a really wonderful thing to see a story about isolation that is so full of hope. In this little place in the middle of nowhere, two people who are absolute opposites find a way of putting their differences aside and developing a real friendship that they wonder how they managed without. 

Sandra Marvin and Patrycja Kujawska give really special performances as Brenda and Jasmin. Marvin is very grounded in her matriarchal performance of Brenda - a mother who, in her own way, is trying to do the best for her daughters Phyllis and Salome, whereas the mystery of Kujawska's story takes a little while to become clear (possibly a touch too long). Le Gateau Chocolat puts in a solid supporting performance as Brenda's long suffering husband Sal, and Gareth Snook (a Wise Children staple) is sweet as Rudi, a longterm resident of the Baghdad Cafe.

Haunting the 90 minute piece is the beautiful 'Calling You' by Bob Telson. It is fragmentedly used throughout the narrative, showing the internal pain of the characters at various moments of the story, and culminates in a really moving moment at the end of the piece.

It's a gorgeously designed show by Lez Brotherson (in 'cahoots' with Vicki Mortimer). The stage is sparse to begin with, with a caravan on stage and a car in the audience (!). But through director Emma Rice's signature style of production, the stage is soon filled and the stage begins to feel like it's bursting at the seams. It unashamedly screams that it's a Rice piece of theatre, with all her usual devices used in a superb way. From seeing pieces like Wise Children and Romantics Anonymous, they're familiar, but there's something so warm about them, even when you know what to expect.

There's scope for an argument that this piece is an example of 'style over story'. Having not seen the film that it's based on, I can't really comment on whether they've sacrificed some of the story to enable Rice to really put her signature stamp on it. If they have, I still think it works. The relationship between Jasmin and Brenda could probably be fleshed out a little bit before they come to an understanding, and an eventual friendship, but in a 90 minute piece I think it worked well.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Times Have Changed!" Anything Goes @ Barbican Theatre Review - Summer 2021

There is absolutely no way that this 'review' is going to be coherent in any way, because it is days since I saw this show and I literally have thought of nothing else every waking moment. 

So let me tell you a story.

Ten years ago, sixteen year old Ryan fell in love with a YouTube video, of a Broadway star doing a performance at the 2011 Tony Awards. Repeatedly watching that video on at least a weekly basis, until that tap routine was so engrained in his head, that he knew every single beat of it (despite not being able to tap dance a step). He obsessed over it, and every piece of info about that production.
 Never, ever in his wildest dreams did he every think that he'd ever get to see that performance in real life, let alone a decade later.

But that's exactly what happened to me on Friday night, when I went to the first preview of Anything Goes at the Barbican, starring the one and only Sutton Foster.

First previews of new productions are always special. The audience are always super-hyped, and the atmosphere is always superb. But because we've been starved of theatre for so long, this was a night for the history books.

I don't think I've ever been in an audience that has given two standing ovations mid-show before. Like, this stuff happens on Broadway, but it doesn't happen here. And yet, TWICE on Friday night. 

At the end of the title number, the audience leapt to it's feet (I mean I was yelling like a football hooligan before Ms Foster had hit the octave jump at the number) and the cast stood there with massive grins on their faces as the curtain came down for the end of Act 1. It's the definition of perfection. I've never seen anything like it.

My friends and I stumbled out of the auditorium at the interval and were in various states of shock... a mixture of admiration, sobbing, joy and shaking occurred, and I do not regret it in the slightest! No one could really speak at the genius we'd just witnessed.

But, what followed 30 minutes later was something I wasn't anticipating. The cast gave a sensational performance of Blow Gabriel Blow, which stopped the show dead in it's tracks. The number ended and the audiences went bananas. Because it's not the end of an act, we were able to go absolutely mental for as long as we wanted. And my god we did!
It's was minutes but it felt like weeks - the sheer bliss and euphoria that comes from a big production number is unmatchable and the adrenaline rush that comes from it is something I have missed an obscene amount.

Two words.

Sutton. Foster.

In 2008, I first discovered Shrek the Musical and fell head over heels in love with the woman playing Princess Fiona. She sang like a dream, she was funny AND she could tap dance - these are literally my three characteristics I look for (hence why I'm obsessed with the entire cast of Follies). But I never really thought I'd get to see her live.

I don't know really what my expectation was. The woman is a bonafide legend, has two Tony Awards, and one of them is FOR the role that she was about to reprise. Like, I knew she was going to be good, but honestly nothing could have prepared me for the performance that I witnessed.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a leading performer who can dance with the ease and coolness that Sutton has got. She gives real heart and grounding to Reno not just through her acting and her singing, but through the way she moves. The fun Reno is having during Anything Goes, as she's tapping with a bunch of sailors, is exhilarating, but with a real focus on the character we've grown to know over the 90 minutes that have led up to this moment.

She's just bloody wonderful, and I honestly haven't stopped talking about it to anyone who will listen since I walked out of the Barbican...

It's been a long time since I saw a cast that I universally loved this much too (not just cause we had hardly any theatre for over a year too...!)

Theatrical legend Robert Lindsay stars opposite Foster as Moonface Martin (public enemy number 13), who stows away on the ship. Lindsay's signature charm and comedic chops come into full play here. 
Samuel Edwards and Nicole-Lily Baisden are charming as the secondary couple of Billy and Hope, with the 'will they/won't they' storyline keeping you guessing right up until the end. Alongside them is the ever excellent Haydn Oakley as Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, a British socialite engaged to Hope. Oakley's big Act 2 number "The Gypsy In Me" is a real highlight of the show, which is impressive to be able to steal focus from the rest of the show!

Felicity Kendal and Gary Wilmot offer great comedic relief in small character parts, perfectly suited to their strengths, whilst Carly Mercedes Dyer (who pre-pandemic was a sensational Anita in West Side Story) is scene-stealing as the mischievous Erma, with a brilliantly ballsy number towards the show's finale.

Last night I went back to the Barbican for a second trip in less than a fortnight, and it's every bit as good as the first time I saw it. Foster seemed to be enjoying herself even more and the whole cast have relaxed into it even more. Even more on show was the brilliance of Robert Lindsay, and his sharp wit. He evidently changes a few lines each show (because you saw Foster properly laughing at some of his one liners) and it's a joy to see such a brilliant duo bouncing off each other.

In what other show, on a random Tuesday night would you see two mid-show standing ovations, other than this one? Well you just wouldn't.

Times truly have changed, but if you're wanting a show to go back to that is a proper warm hug, with some of the best dance numbers you'll ever see, and one of the tightest and most talented casts in recent memory,  you cannot miss this show.

I don't think I've ever given a show 6 stars before, but today I do. 
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Oh, and I think I'm going again on Sunday!

 

"Tonight We Honour What Was Lost, But We Also Commemorate What We Found"

Sixteen months ago, when the world closed down, I had a conversation with some of my closest friends, about where we wanted to be the night that theatres reopened their doors. That first show needed to be big and it needed to be special. 
We couldn't have anticipated that it would take as long as it did to get there, but we all knew that the show we needed the most to "lead us out of the darkness" was the truly inspiring Come From Away.

It's a show that tells the story of ordinary people coming together in the face of a tragedy, which reflects what we've all been through in the last year and a half. It almost feels odd to say that you voluntarily want to sit through a show about a tragedy, but it truly did feel like the only way the catharsis and the healing could begin. We've been just existing for so long, and not really living, but it was tonight where we may have begun to finally start processing this time and what it has done to all of us.

The show itself was truly one of the greatest nights of my entire life.

As the lights went down, the audience erupted with a noise that I wasn't fully emotionally prepared to hear. I knew there was going to be a big reaction, but I don't think I could possibly have imagined quite how big it was going to  be. 1000 people screaming their faces off as 12 people walked on stage. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end just to think about it. The tidal wave of love we collectively threw at that stage was palpable. 

Pushing on through the opening number, I had to grab my friend's hand when we hit the line "you are here at the start of a moment". Because we were. A moment we had all waited for. And there we were.

And then, at the end of the number, the audience erupted once more, but this time to their feet. For almost a minute, we stood, cheered, screamed, cried and collectively let out our emotions as the enormity of where we were hit us. 

There are a few accent changes in the show - basically Jenna Boyd's passenger character is now a Scouser and it's the best thing in the entire world. But otherwise it's still the exactly same show as it always was, just now with an even deeper resonance than it had before. It was my first time seeing the second cast who took over in February 2020, and they are all doing a smashing job.

There are so many lines now that have a different meaning, that reflects the world we are currently living in. Proving the material transcends the moment it was written for, and is so universal.

There are people in your life who, when you meet them, you wonder how your life ever functioned without them. These are your people, and they will be there for you in the good times and the bad. These people were the ones I clung on to for 495 days, and who helped me to ride the storm. Through quizzes, film nights, and general nonsense24 hours a day, this lot are why I am still here.

I've never been more grateful to have such wonderful people in my life. Most of us met because of the theatre, but I don't think that I've ever been in the same room as them all at the same time. 

But Thursday was that day, where we all got to be in the same room at the same time.

It's been a long time since I saw a lot of people, and to be catching up at this show of all places was super emotional. Getting to hug people I haven't seen in a really long time (multiple years for some) was everything that I needed it to be. 

Because we come from everywhere, we all come from away 💛💙

I truly didn't believe that we'd actually get back into a theatre on Thursday. Even when I was stood in the auditorium, waiting for the show to start, I was convinced that something was going to go wrong. It's weird that we've been conditioned for so long now to expect everything to all go haywire.

But we are back. God knows for how long, but I'll be there enjoying wonderful nights at  the theatre for as long as we can.

"We all look the same, but we're different than we were"

Everything's As If We Never Said Goodbye...

I don't know why I'm frightened.

I know my way around here.

Well, I wasn't really aware quite how poignant that song from Sunset Boulevard  was going to be when I thought of it as the title of my 'return to the theatre' post.
It's been a fortnight since I returned, but I needed to let it all sink in, and properly process how I feel about it all.
Because I feel a lot of things.

So, on  the 20th May (Eliza Doolitle day to all who celebrate), I returned to the theatre for the first time in 153 days, and sat in an audience for one of the most cathartic, overwhelming, and healing evenings in recent memory.

Amelie the Musical has made it's way into London's West End, in a perfect sized theatre, right on Piccadilly Circus (the rather gorgeous Criterion). It's a show I raved about when I saw it in 2019 on tour, but I longed to see it in a theatre that worked for it (500 seats rather than 1800 seats...it really did look like a postage stamp on the New Theatre Oxford stage).

Amelie is also one of those rare shows (much like Romantics Anonymous), where introverts find themselves staring back at them from the stage. When the title character finishes her working day, and returns home to solitude, it hits a nerve (especially more so after the last year).
It's a story of isolation, and of our desperate need for connection, and I don't think I'd fully prepared for quite how intensely moving that was going to be. 
We haven't been able to properly connect in the way we normally do for over a year now, and whilst we've managed (some of the time), the true toll it has taken, and continued to take is now becoming apparent.
I've reviewed Amelie before (Amelie Review) and my thoughts on the show are largely the same. It's lovely to see it in a sensible sized theatre, where it fits perfectly and feels cosy. The cast (a mixture of new and old performers) is great, and the piece is still perfectly led by the exquisite Audrey Brisson. I'll forever shout that she should be an Olivier award winner and Amelie should have won Best New Musical, but Brisson's performance now has an even deeper level of nuance, charm and cheekiness. Now paired with her real-life partner (Chris Jared) as Nino, moments like Stay take on an even more human meaning, as a real life couple talk about their fears of opening themselves up. 

Emotionally, I've not let it all out very often - I feel like my crying has been turned off over the last year, along with most of my emotions. I kinda stopped feeling...anything for a long time. And whilst I have a lot of theatre booked for the next few months, I can't let myself excited or hopeful. Self preservation, eh? But I did have a proper cry at the last 15 minutes of Amelie, as we begin to look towards our collective healing from the hell we have been through (and basically still are but I won't turn this into an attack on the government).

"Will there be troubles? I don't know.

Will you be with me? I hope so." 

On another note - WORK HAS REOPENED IT'S DOORS!

We've been working quietly behind the scenes to get things ready for Stage 3 of the Roadmap, and in the first two weeks of reopening exactly 1000 people have been to either an indoor show/film or one of our outdoor film screenings (like so many we're trying new things this year and running some outdoor cinema - it's going down a treat, even if I do have to swallow my artistic pride and put on Pretty Woman and The Greatest Showman!)

I can't tell you what a difference it has made, not just physically, but also mentally, in having an audience back. 
Working in the building for the last 5 months, but there being nothing happening, and no-one in the auditorium has just been odd.

But this time we'll be bigger.

And brighter than we knew it.

Yes, everything's as if we never said goodbye... 💗💙