End of year roundups

"somewhat surprisingly, neither includes Angels in America."

I will have truly fallen through the looking glass the day the Graun publishes an end of year list that looks remotely like my own.

We have of course all been waiting for the We Want Plates Top 10 of The Year.

This seems like the right place to post - I was surprised there wasn't a longer thread, as usually we get quite a good list of posters' best and/or worst shows of the year. Anyhow, my lists are below.
I think 2017 was an excellent year for theatre, and look forward to a lot more in 2018. I'll also do my best to post more - promise!

10 An American in Paris (Dominion)
9. Mary Stuart (Almeida)
8. Follies (Olivier)
7. Albion (Almeida)
6. Hamlet (Almeida)
5. She Loves Me (Menier)
4. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Pinter)
3. Beginning (Dorfman)
2. Angels in America - Part One (Lyttelton)
1. The Ferryman (Royal Court) - BEST

There were actually a LOT of good shows vying for the top 10, but the depth of writing and performance of the Ferryman came out top. I think it could be a classic. Beginning was a big surprise, and a wonderful one too.

And for the worst shows of the year:

10 Art (Old Vic) or Young Marx (Bridge)
9. Coming Clean (Kings Head)
8. Sex with Strangers (Hampstead)
7. The Treatment (Almeida)
6. St Joan (Donmar)
5. Oslo (Lyttelton)
4. Committee (Donmar)
3. Against (Almeida)
2. The Philanthropist (Trafalgar)
1. Wings (Young Vic) - WORST

Being picked as one of the Highlights of the Year is my....Highlight of the Year!   


Lovely to meet you too.

The Stage 'Best Plays of the Year'
www.thestage.co.uk/features/2017/2017-best-plays-of-the-year/

The Stage 'Best Musicals of the Year'
www.thestage.co.uk/features/2017/2017-best-musicals-of-the-year/

Exeunt 'Favourite London Shows of 2017'

exeuntmagazine.com/features/exeunts-favourite-london-shows-2017/

Honourable mention – Hamilton (for those who've had the chance to see it already)
10 – Life of Galileo - Young Vic
9 – Angels in America - NT
8 – Mosquitoes - NT
7 – In Event of Moone Disaster - Theatre 503
6 – The Ferryman - Royal Court & West End
5 – This Beautiful Future - The Yard
4 – Barber Shop Chronicles - NT
3 – An Octoroon - Orange Tree
2 – An Anatomy of a Suicide - Royal Court
1 – Hamlet - Almeida & West End

My top 10 (best first):

The Ferryman
Hamlet (Tom Hiddleston RADA version)
The Dresser (I know it started in 2016 but I saw it for a second time in January)
Glengarry Glen Ross
Venus In Fur
Disco Pigs
Mosquitoes
The Kid Stays In The Picture
The Miser
Dublin Oldschool

The worst, by a country mile: The Philanthropist

My top ten (plays and musicals) Best first.

The Ferryman
Sunset Boulevard (Broadway)
Come From Away (Broadway)
Labour of Love
42nd Street
Apologia
The Girls
Angels in America
Groundhog Day (Broadway)
Ink

Also...The Lion King (honourable mention as I hadn’t seen it for many years and was really moved by it.

Finally, my least favourite production this year was An American in Paris. Found it pretty uninspired and missed the point.

Here’s to a great year of theatre ahead!

My take on the year's outings:

Jan 2017

A Christmas Carol (Arts). A hit, nicely performed by Simon Callow.

Hedda Gabler (National). A top ten smash, an engrossing version of a favourite play.

She Loves Me (Menier). A hit, with a bouncy score and obligatory Strallen.

Feb 2017

Round the Horne (Richmond). A muddle, with some laughs and a fab Kenneth W but a lot of it felt forced.

Mar 2017

Lost With Words (National). Improv with aged thesps, which I loved. It seems to have been overlooked by many.

Honeymoon in Vegas (Palladium). Concert version, which suffered from unsure leads but had moments which did justice to the original film.

Amadeus (National). A play I love, but I disliked this production's Mozart too much to class this as a highlight.

Shirley Valentine (Richmond). A hit, in a role Jodie Prenger was surely born to play.

An American in Paris (Dominion). I loved it with its dancing and its sweetness. It should have had a longer life.

Apr 2017

The Goat, or Who is Sylvia (Theatre Royal Haymarket). An inventive hit and a black as pitch play.

Carousel (Coliseum). Dreadful leads couldn't mar the superior material, but when the supporting cast is what you remember, there's something wrong.

May 2017

42nd Street (Theatre Royal Drury Lane). Opulent hit, nicely done songs and red hot tap.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Harold Pinter). Sensational and brilliant but Conleth Hill beat Imelda to the acting gold.

Lettice and Lovage (Menier). Quaintly dotty but quietly fun.

Jun 2017

We saw Rainbow with Sweet at the Stone Free Festival, O2 Arena. The former were great, the latter were better than expected.

Penn and Teller (Eventim Apollo Hammersmith). A new show with old favourites and quirks. Always a pleasure.

Jul 2017

Half a Sixpence (Noel Coward). Joyous fun with great songs, even on Charlie Stemp's week off.

The Tempest (RSC at the Barbican). Video projections and holograms were gimmicky but worth it for SRB.

Aug 2017

IAAF World Championship Athletics with my Sport Personality of the Year, Hero the Hedgehog.

The Mentor (Vaudeville). A strange play, but one I enjoyed.

Sep 2017

Follies (National). Musical of the Year, beautifully done and almost perfectly cast.

Oct 2017

Girl from the North Country (Old Vic). A stunning Dylan score made up for any story deficiencies.

Wings (Young Vic). Loved it, and Juliet Stevenson was terrific in that flying harness, remembering a tricky script.

Heisenberg (Wyndham's). Two actors at the top of their powers in an engrossing and curious romance of uncertainty.

Nov 2017

Beginning (Dorfman). Another strange romance in real-time, nicely played and well-written.

Big Fish (The Other Palace). Superlative in every way.

And we saw Bananarama, who were far better than expected.

Dec 2017

Glengarry Glen Ross (Playhouse). A mini-hit, but not spectacular.

Moscow State Circus (Ealing Common). It's got a big top and suspension stunts. What's not to like?

Mother Goose (Questors Theatre). Fun and boos and don't look behind you!

We also saw Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott - formerly in The Beautiful South - and they were excellent.

Shows missed due to illness this year - Art, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Grand Mort, Salome, Julius Caesar and Ant & Cleo.

It's been a vintage year for theatre IMHO. My top 10 for 2017, in no particular order, is:

The Ferryman (Royal Court + West End) - probably the best play of the year for me. When I caught it again a couple of weeks ago, I enjoyed it even more than I did the first time.

Consent (Dorfman) - classy stuff, and what a cast!

Twelfth Night (Olivier) - I think this might be the first time I've ever watched a Shakespeare and was enjoying it so much, I didn't want it to end.

Angels in America (Lyttelton) - For me, Nathan Lane was the stand-out - there was a bit near the end where a tear trickled down his face, and it's something I'll always remember. Actually, there are lots of bits I'll always remember...

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (West End) - a masterclass of acting, though for me, Conleth Hill's was the performance of the night.

Big Fish (The Other Palace) - I LOVED this - my most moving show of the year. I do hope this isn't the last we've heard of it.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (West End) - managed to bag a front row seat for this, which really made it quite an intense experience...

The Life of Galileo (Young Vic) - I loved the energy and sheer verve of this - a really memorable show.

Albion (Almeida) - like The Ferryman, a big, long, meaty play to really get your teeth into, with some cracking dialogue and a great lead part that Victoria Hamilton totally owned.

After the Blast (the little theatre at the top of the Lincoln Center - I think it's called the Claire Tow Theater?) - this was a play I saw during a visit to New York in October, which I really hope someone brings over to the UK soon. It's by the actress/playwright Zoe Kazan, and it's a post-apocalyptic sci-fi tale meets domestic drama, featuring a very cute R2D2-like robot. The scene where Cristina Milioti (I've probably spelt that wrong!) and the robot sing a duet of Islands in the Stream (as in the Dolly and Kenny classic) might be my theatrical high point of the year!

I'll be splitting mine into a number of sections, they take up a lot of space! Coming up will be - Musical, Immersive Theatre, Performance in a Play, Performance in a Musical, Supporting Performance, Disappointments and a Special Mention.

These are not in order of preference, just my top five from each category.

ORIGINAL PLAYS

The Ferryman – Jez Butterworth – Royal Court and West End

Compelling and atmospheric treatment of an all too present past. Mendes expertly shepherding a large cast through a liminal land to a shocking, yet inevitable, conclusion. A brilliant ensemble of performers, from the oldest dementia addled elder right down to the smallest child.

Albion – Mike Bartlett – Almeida

Laying bare the state of a hopelessly divided nation, symbols abound in Bartlett’s tale of our green and pleasant land - who owns it, who tends it and who may or may not inherit it. Hamilton stands out but this is another excellent ensemble of performers who live and breathe their roles as well as the country air that the physical production of trees and flowers and plants and rain so beautifully evokes.

Labour of Love – James Graham – West End

The master of the political play dissects the travails and schisms of the Labour movement with precision. As someone from the type of constituency he writes about Graham gets it absolutely right for me, the fragile coalition of voters that stand between victory and defeat, the egos that forget that in the battle for power, both national and local. Freeman and Greig are a formidable team and deliver laughs, messages and more.

Anyone’s Guess How We Got Here – Jack Perkins for Barrel Organ – Monkey House, Zoo, Edinburgh

No longer a one writer company (Lulu Raczka previously) this is a wonderfully slippery narrative that wears its theme of debt (both of the wallet and the heart) lightly. Like David Lynch, if he was a millennial, moving from a road you think you know into a nightmarish cul de sac and back. Will be out on a tour of studio theatres in 2018.

Anatomy of a Suicide – Alice Birch – Royal Court

Katie Mitchell at the peak of her powers with maybe the best direction of any piece this year. Birch writes as the child of Kane and Churchill (pace Billington), arranging her words and sounds like a beautiful, yet challenging musical score. Another play about how past and present interact, along with the above, Follies and others. Like watching a waking dream.

PLAY ADAPTATIONS

Persuasion – adapted from Jane Austen by Jeff James and James Yeatman – Royal Exchange, Manchester

I doubt many saw this, given its lack of a transfer or tour but I hope it does travel. Austen’s words, a modern social setting and the friction between the two made for hilarious and thoughtful messages about the way we live and love today. James and Yeatman have worked alongside Van Hove and Complicite, this is what you get when you grow up with the best. Who would have thought that you'd get a set piece in an Austen adaptation that takes place at a foam party?

Paul Auster’s City of Glass – adapted by Duncan McMillan – Home, Manchester and UK Tour

Maybe the most astonishing lighting and projection design of the year, backed up by its part Chandler part David Lynch narrative (more on the latter later). Almost unadaptable, McMillan does a brilliant job and you have to really work to keep at times with the invention. The effort really pays off though and I left stimulated and sensorily challenged.

Network – adapted from Paddy Chayefsky by Lee Hall – National Theatre

Talking of Van Hove, here’s the real thing working with all the stops out. A salutary tale for our media obsessed yet media acquiescent society. The overload of sound, image, screen and live (see ‘plethora’, as codified in Lehmann’s incredibly influential book on Postdramatic Theatre) replicates how we see everything but take in virtually nothing. Cranston is superb, if I didn’t know I’d believe he was actually a Dan Rather/Walter Cronkite figure who’d moved into acting.

The Suppliant Women – new version by David Greig from Aeschylus – Royal Exchange, Manchester and UK tour

One of the other important themes of the year, the treatment and subjugation of women, found a production already made to reflect its concerns from millennia ago. Greig highlights the relevance and the chorus are a marvel (and mostly amateur, changing at each venue) and their movement and sound brings the ancient into the contemporary arena.

Jubilee – adapted by Chris Goode from Derek Jarman and James Whaley – Royal Exchange, Manchester

A very short run in preparation for its London debut in 2018 and I think Goode will make it even better, more anarchic, more musical. What exists at the moment is a screw you to pretty much anything. As the MC Travis Albanza is brilliant, plus you get Toyah as Queen Elizabeth thrown in. It’s not there yet but it could be and should be (the one production that I saw this year that had me dying to get my hands on it to make it so).

PLAY REVIVAL

The Rover – Aphra Behn – Swan, Stratford

A hilarious romp that kept threatening to spill off the stage, perfectly showing how high energy performance in a small space can work. Behn’s text doesn’t half help, of course, and we should see more of her other plays. Millson bestrides the show like the lothario that he aspires to be but the women are the ones who win the day.

Hamlet – William Shakespeare – Almeida and West End

Almost the opposite, Icke makes the play so natural that you start believing that it is the Scandi Noir that the design suggests. Not just the incredible humanity of Scott's portrayal either, which mints every word and phrase as if thinking them for the first time (as Adrian Lester did before him in Brook’s other modern classic production). For me, Jessica Brown Findlay was his equal and made an often thankless part vibrate with longing, grief and beyond into breakdown.

The Life of Galileo – Bertolt Brecht, translated by John Willett – Young Vic

Wright’s production makes the play communal and the salutary fable that Brecht wanted it to be. In an age where science is questioned by those who don’t just have little knowledge but who seek to destroy the actual concept of truth, this is as important a play as it ever was. From the moments when we can stare up at the stars (with the wonderful projection work), to the sickening way that truth is denied, this was as big a political play as it maybe even was when written.

Angels in America – Tony Kushner – National Theatre

Perfection in cast and pretty much the same in direction and design. At the time I wrote at length about what it meant to me and it remains as the most memorable production of this and many years. Put simply, the play, as Walt Whitman wrote in ‘Song of Myself’, contains multitudes; the comparisons, the contradictions, the rough, the smooth, the laughter, the tears, the real, the dream, the sadness, the joy but above all, the hope. The hope that we might survive, somehow, against all the odds. ‘More Life’. Please…..

The Seagull – Anton Chekhov, new version by Simon Stephens from a literal translation by Helen Rappaport – Lyric, Hammersmith

Lucid and moving, a seasonal journey through the year that, as has recently been the case, puts Chekhov into a contemporary design. Lesley Sharp was excellent, as were the other older actors and the generational schisms just made this feel so much of now. Nice design too, especially the spectral, chilly, wintry final act.


Overall I'm not pleased with the gender balance for writers (only three with one ‘adapted from’ whilst over half of performers cited are women) and ethnic balance overall (only one writer and three perfomers alongside the majority cast of two immersive productions). Partly that’s my fault but also partly the lack of opportunities given.

For some reason Twelfth Night was missed off my post above. Brilliant version, fresh and original.