Theatreboard Top 5 of 2023

Here we are - The shed
Abomination: A DUP opera - Southbank
Old Friends - Gielgud
Ariadne auf Naxos - Opera North
La Cage - Open Air Theatre


Special mention to Candide at welsh national opera. Good but not good enough!

It was tough choosing a top 5 let alone putting them in any kind of order but here's my best effort:

1. My Neighbour Totoro
2. Guys and Dolls
3. Sondheim's Old Friends
4. Infinite Life
5. Next to Normal

Honourable mentions: Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors, The Effect, Crazy for You, and the two operas I saw this year, Blue and Peter Grimes.

I've seen 34 shows this year and I've at the very least liked all of them which makes it my best year since I started earnestly keeping a record of what I see in 2019 (though in terms of numbers I still haven't beaten that year when I saw more than 1 show a week on average). I've only got one more show booked before the year's end and it's My Neighbour Totoro again so that's a pretty perfect way to close things out (it would have actually acted as nice bookends to the year if I hadn't seen Paradise Now on the 18th of January the day before I saw Totoro).

1 Next to Normal
2 Sunset Boulevard
3 The play that goes wrong

I didn’t see a lot this year. I loved the above 3 and having such good memories from all three makes me feel like it was a great year, despite the other things I saw being duds for various reasons.

1. Sondheim’s Old Friends
2. Sunset Boulevard
3. Dear England
4. Stranger Things

All 4 of them (the first to a lesser extent) have used technology in an innovative way. Lot’s of LED screens and the likes . It seems this is the future of theatre? I don’t know how I feel about that prospect but it’s cool nonetheless m.

Not in an order but best 5 things I've seen this year are

Next To Normal
Standing At The Sky's Edge
Sunset Boulevard
Motive and the Cue
Guys and Dolls

Thanks everyone for your input so far - we are at 265 votes so far so on track for greater participation than last year!

Plenty of time yet though as I won't be closing the books until the end of the month. I've still got two of the hottest shows to see before the end of the year so my Top 5 can't be finalised yet. It will come as no surprise if people have been looking at the lists that the musicals are absolutely nailing it this year. Musicals always score higher than plays, that's largely because there are fewer musicals so they tend to get higher scores, whereas a larger number of plays overall get listed - so that the total votes for musicals vs plays normally ends up about even, but the votes for plays are spread more thinly. But maybe that won't be the case this year...

A Little Life
A Streetcar Named Desire
Pygmalion
Guys and Dolls
Sunset Boulevard

And, even if they don't get the full point (I just couldn't bring myself to leave them out):

Operation Mincemeat
The House of Bernarda Alba

In no particular order:

Standing at the Sky's Edge
Marjorie Prime
Patriots
Dear England
The Grand Old Opera House Hotel


Honourable mentions to The Brief Life and Mysterious Death ofBoris III, King of Bulgaria and Meetings

1 Hamilton (touring - Manchester)
2 Drive Your Plough Over The Bones Of The Dead (touring - Salford)
3 The Merchant of Venice (1936) (Manchester)
4 Betty! A Sort Of Musical (Manchester)
5 The Book of Will (Bolton)

Apparently I've only seen five plays/musicals this year, plus a couple of ballets, one orchestra and a radio show.

The first one with the very long name ends with Bulgaria (Edinburgh fringe) the second is "Meetings" which was done at the Orange Tree.

1. Sunset Boulevard
2. Dear England
3. The Motive and the Cue
4. A Little Life
5. Accidental Death of an Anarchist

Honourable mentions to A Streetcar Named Desire, Next to Normal, Patriots and The Unfriend.

Assassins - Chichester
Sondheim's Old Friends
Sunset Boulevard
The Lehman Trilogy (enjoyed that new cast a lot)
The Motive and the Cue

And because I can't make up my mind - honourable mentions to Crazy For You, A Streetcar Named Desire, Next to Normal, and (if it's not cheating) the touring production of My Fair Lady. Worked much better on tour than it did at the Coliseum.