By the Numbers.

97 visits, of which 64 plays, 15 musicals, 9 concerts, 4 operas, 4 dance productions and 1 revue... Only two revisits.

My top 10, in the order I saw them...

Hamlet (Almeida)
Limehouse (Donmar)
Angels in America (NT)
42nd Street (TR Drury Lane)
Play Something (Stagewrite at the Fringe)
Gypsy Queen (Kings Head)
Follies (Olivier)
Beginning (NT)
Labour of Love (Noel Coward)
Quiz (Chichester)

201 shows seen this year. Shows below taken from my Word document.

5 Star

1. Rent***** £32
2. Dreamgirls***** £20
3. Dead Funny***** £27
4. School of Rock***** £27
5. The Book of Mormon***** £20
6. The House of Barnarda Alba***** £30 (Royal Exchange, Manchester)
7. An Inspector Calls***** £20
8. Filthy Business***** £30
9. East Is East***** £20 (Northern Stage, Newcastle)
10. Billy Elliot***** £35 (Hippodrome, Birmingham)
11. The Curious Incident of the Dog***** £25 (Bord Gais, Dublin)
12. Abigail’s Party***** £12 (Richmond Theatre)
13. Angels In America (Part 1)***** £60
14. The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia***** £5
15. Angels in America (Part 1)***** £65
16. Angels in America (Part 2)***** £65
17. Tommy***** £10 (Theatre East, Stratford)
18. La Strada***** £20
19. Dreamgirls***** £20
20. Ink***** £20
21. The Ferryman***** £68
22. Half A Sixpence***** £25
23. Angels in America (Part 2)***** £65
24. School of Rock***** £45
25. Follies***** £38
26. Jesus Christ Superstar***** £36
27. Kinky Boots***** £29
28. Glengarry Glen Ross***** £20
29. People, Places, Things***** £39 (Cambridge Arts)
30. Hello Dolly***** $243 (New York)
31. Come From Away***** $300 (New York)
32. Kinky Boots***** $90 (New York)
33. Book of Mormon***** $68 (New York)
34. Miss Saigon***** $40 (New York)
35. Waitress***** $110(New York)
36. Bright Star***** $90 (San Francisco)

70 shows in the North West or London for me, plus 100 more at the Edinburgh Fringe in August.

My top ten:

1) The Nature of Forgetting (Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Fringe)
2) Romantics Anonymous (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse)
3) Little Women (Hope Mill Theatre)
4) The Terrible Infants (Wilton’s Music Hall)
5) All We Ever Wanted Was Everything (Summerhall, Edinburgh Fringe)
6) La Strada (The Lowry)
7) On The Town (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre)
8) I Capture The Castle (Octagon Theatre, Bolton)
9) Glasgow Girls (Liverpool Playhouse)
10) Paper Hearts (Upstairs At The Gatehouse)

Other standout productions included 42nd Street, An American In Paris, Hair, Daisy Pulls It Off and The Grinning Man.

My highlights from the Edinburgh Fringe, in addition to the two shows in my top ten, were When We Ran (Patch of Blue), Laugh Actually (Durham Revue), Atlantic: A Scottish Story and Into The Woods (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Transit (Flip Fabrique), Edges: A Song Cycle (Durham University Light Opera Group), Education Education Education (The Wardrobe Ensemble), This Really Is Too Much (Gracefool Collective), Company (Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group), Little Bitch (Becky Lucas), The Starship Osiris (Willis & Vere), SiX (Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society), Buried (Colla Voce Theatre) and Godspell (University of Manchester Musical Theatre Society).

Total so far 230

Another 3 to go, culminating with New Year in Stratford Upon Avon to see Imperium.

Will give a complete Summary next week.

79 theatre visits in total with 66 different shows (Yes I'm counting Angels/Potter as two separate shows each, since I had to buy two tickets!) My visit to the Blood Brothers UK tour makes it my 13th time seeing the show.

New Musicals (20 shows)
(Broadway): War Paint, Come From Away, Anastasia, Hello Dolly! Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812
(London): An American in Paris, Yank! The Girls (x5), The Wild Party Committee…, Everybody's Talking About Jamie (x2), Follies, Big Fish, Working, The Life, The Woman in White, The Grinning Man
(UK Tour): Thoroughly Modern Millie, Nativity!
(Sydney): My Fair Lady,

Repeat Viewings (23 shows)
(Broadway): Phantom of the Opera, Groundhog Day, Dear Evan Hansen, Waitress,
(London): 42nd Street (x3), Young Frankenstein, The Toxic Avenger, Wicked, School of Rock (x2), The Book of Mormon, Promises, Promises, Les Miserables, Dreamgirls (x3), Half a Sixpence (x2), Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Kinky Boots, Hamilton
(UK Tour): Wonderland, The Addams Family, Mamma Mia! La Cage Aux Folles, Blood Brothers
(Johannesburg): Priscilla: Queen of the Desert

Panto (1!)
Dick Whittington

New Plays (20 shows)
Apologia, The Ferryman (x2), Beginning, The Boys in the Band, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (x2), Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, Rotterdam, The Glass Menagerie, The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? The Play That Goes Wrong, This House, Ugly Lies the Bone, Labour of Love, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, Limehouse, Angels in America Part 1 - Millenium Approaches, Angels in America Part 2 - Perestroika, Don Juan in Soho, Ink, Oslo

Repeat Plays (2)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Part 1, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Part 2

Right, 2017 shows concluded. 224 seen. Some highlights for me:

Best plays: Hamlet (Almeida), An Octoroon (Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Washington DC – I didn’t see the Orange Tree production, but the WMT production was outstanding), Out There on Fried Meat Ridge Road.

Best musicals: 42nd Street, American in Paris, Rent, On the Town.

Funniest opera: Red Mary (National Theatre, Prague), followed by Barber of Seville (ENO)

Most enjoyable opera: Mitridate, re di Ponto (ROH)

Best dance: Untouchable (Royal Ballet), followed by Trois Grandes Fugues (Lille Opera House)

Most delightful unexpected surprises: Out There on Fried Meat Ridge Road (again) and La Boheme (coincidentally both at Trafalgar Studios 2)

Most thought provoking: Groomed (Bloomsbury Studio Theatre – a one man show by a survivor of child abuse), followed by An Octoroon.

What shows made me rebook them (a rare thing for me) – only 3: 42nd Street, Hamlet, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Royal Ballet)

Peculiarity of the year: The Frogs (Jermyn Street Theatre)

Wish I had kept my eyes closed: Rigoletto (Copenhagen OH), Madame Butterfly (La Monnaie, Brussels) (both great singing, but appalling staging choices)

Wish I had seen: Sovremennik Theatre’s Three Comrades at the Piccadilly Theatre (having caught Three Sisters later)

Why did I go?: Salome (NT) (but I loved Knives in Hens!)

15 musicals, 9 plays, 5 NT Live screenings and 3 concerts (Cynthia, Audra and Rachel Tucker)

Theatre-wise, last year wasn't a particularly good year with only 39 visits, an all-time low compared to 70 in 2016 and even 107 in 2014.

Of these 39 visits, 22 were in the UK, 12 in the US and 4 in Germany (in my defence, two of those were the International tours of Evita and Billy Elliot).

New shows were Love Story, In Transit, Lizzie, Schikaneder, Wedding Singer, Evita, Band Stand, Come From Away, Bat Out Of Hell, Big Fish and Everybody's Talking About Jamie.

Shows I didn't like and wish I had left at the interval were Love Story and Lizzie (at least I finally got to see Eden Espinosa on stage), and the highlights were In Transit, Band Stand, Bat Out Of Hell and A Bronx Tale.

2018 seems to become even less busy with theatre going. I've only booked two trips to London so far (one in March and one in June - in the good old times it was at least one trip per month) and yet I don't know how to fill them, as there are almost no shows that interest me. Even my usual longrunners have put me off with their unoriginal casting decisions. I do hope that Bat Out Of Hell extends, though, and that the rumours of a new Rock of Ages tour are true.

56 is the "grand total" for me. About average for the last few years. Skewed slightly by the "Angels Factor" meaning I was erm distracted for a big chunk of the year.

Running total since 2004 now stands at 536. I appreciate that's what some of y'all see in a year and probably sounds a bit pathetic, but we can't all be the 'big men' of theatre who go every other day....

I'd love to go to the theatre a couple of times a week, but I can't afford it.  I almost bankrupted myself seeing all the shows I saw this year.  As a rule I don't attend musicals, but I imagine that they are even more expensive.  Seriously, how do people manage it?