306 posts
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Post by kyvai on Dec 19, 2023 21:16:55 GMT
Hmm has a good think about this :-)
1. Operation Mincemeat
2. Next To Normal
3. Sylvia
4. Sunset Boulevard
5. Love Never Dies in concert
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Post by marob on Dec 19, 2023 22:18:21 GMT
I’m always useless at this, not much stands out as being genuinely brilliant. Top 4: My Neighbour Totoro, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder, and My Favourite Things. Can’t decide on a fifth, but it would be one these: A Streetcar Named Desire, A Little Life, Eugenius, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet, Miss Saigon, Guys and Dolls, Sunset Boulevard, or Shirley Valentine. Honourable mention: “Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet” where I got picked on a few times, including being called onstage to help Juliet commit assisted suicide 🗡️😱. They did say I’d have a redemption arc in act 2/Macbeth, but they left me alone after that thankfully. |
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Post by Dave B on Dec 19, 2023 23:52:53 GMT
It's been a bit of an odd year for our theatre going but this is where I'm sat after a little thought.
George Takei’s Allegiance - Charing Cross
Fun Home - Gate Theatre (Dublin)
Ghosts Of The Near Future - Barbican
A Streetcar Named Desire - Almeida
Blackout Songs - Hampstead
If anyone wants me, I'll be out in left field on my own.
Thanks again David, I enjoy these threads each year.
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Post by adamkinsey on Dec 20, 2023 0:46:04 GMT
Assassins (Chichester)
The Motive and The Cue
Crazy For You
Prima Facie
Rigoletto (ROH)
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Post by Jan on Dec 20, 2023 9:06:47 GMT
I’m always useless at this, not much stands out as being genuinely brilliant. Top 4: My Neighbour Totoro, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder, and My Favourite Things. Can’t decide on a fifth, but it would be one these: A Streetcar Named Desire, A Little Life, Eugenius, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet, Miss Saigon, Guys and Dolls, Sunset Boulevard, or Shirley Valentine. Honourable mention: “Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet” where I got picked on a few times, including being called onstage to help Juliet commit assisted suicide 🗡️😱. They did say I’d have a redemption arc in act 2/Macbeth, but they left me alone after that thankfully. OT You should start a new thread - Called Onstage - where people can list productions they've appeared in as audience members - for example I was in Coriolanus at the NT playing Various Citizens opposite Ian McKellen - we had lines and blocking and everything. |
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Post by Mr Crummles on Dec 20, 2023 10:01:43 GMT
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. This was such a great year for me. I can't believe I had to leave out The Motive and the Cue, Crazy for You, The Unfriend and Dear England from my top 5. In the case of The Unfriend, there was a little bit of prejudice involved. I laughed and had so much fun with it that I suppose it made me feel guilty of including it at the expense of less light-hearted work. And, leaving far from London, I missed the Accident Death, the Macbeths, etc.... I can only imagine the agony of making up my top 5 had I seen everything. |
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Post by zahidf on Dec 20, 2023 14:02:42 GMT
1. Sunset Boulevard
2. The Motive and the Cue
3. Standing at the Skys edge
4. Streetcar Named Desire
5. Accidental Death of an Anarchist
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Post by capybara on Dec 23, 2023 11:01:37 GMT
1. Operation Mincemeat
2. Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends
3. Guys & Dolls
4. Next to Normal
5. Crazy For You
I wish I could have included Sunset Boulevard as it’s utterly amazing. Also, special mentions for Betty Blue Eyes, Babies, Sylvia and Police Cops. Play-wise I’d be looking at Dear England and Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
I was also lucky enough to make return visits to Les Miserables, Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, Heathers, Mary Poppins, Matilda and Newsies but I wanted to keep the focus on shows that opened this year.
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Post by cavocado on Dec 24, 2023 14:42:41 GMT
Merchant of Venice 1936 (Wilton's)
All of It (Royal Court)
Romeo and Juliet (Almeida)
Marjorie Prime (Menier)
Infinite Life (NT)
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83 posts
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Post by G on Dec 24, 2023 19:40:36 GMT
My top 5:
1) She stoops to conquer - Orange Tree
2) Life is a Dream - Barbican, Cheek by Jowl
3) The Lehman Trilogy - Gillian Lynne
4) The House of Bernarda Alba - NT Lyttelton
5) Next to Normal - Donmar
The following all got 5 stars from me: Titus Andronicus (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), Infinite Life (NT Dorfman), Dancing at Lughnasa (NT Olivier), Blackout Songs (Hampstead), Medea (Soho Place), Mahabharata: Karma / Dharma (that opera sequence…) (Barbican), Cabaret (Playhouse), Phaedra (NT Lyttelton), Operation Mincemeat (Fortune), Private Lives (Donmar), For Black Boys (Apollo), Dear England (Prince Edward), Noises off (Phoenix)
Good year I thought!
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Post by jacklondon on Dec 24, 2023 23:02:35 GMT
34 shows for me this year. Very much in line with my much reduced theatre going post-pandemic.
My top 5:
1. The motive and the cue - National Theatre
2. Cold war - Almeida
3. Bacon - Riverside Studios
4. Two strangers (carry a cake across New York) - Kiln Theatre
5. Accidental death of an anarchist - Haymarket Theatre
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Post by Fleance on Dec 25, 2023 0:33:47 GMT
In alphabetical order:
Dear England
Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen
La Cage aux Folles
A Little Life
Old Friends
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Post by blaxx on Dec 25, 2023 9:21:19 GMT
Sunset Boulevard
Guys & Dolls
Dear England
Crazy for You
Streetcar
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Post by peterd on Dec 25, 2023 17:41:52 GMT
1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Southwark Playhouse
2. Nutcracker [at the Tuff Nutt Jazz Club] - Southbank Centre
3. Brokeback Mountain - @sohoplace
4. Dumbledore Is So Gay - Southwark Playhouse
5. Operation Mincemeat - Fortune Theatre
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Post by sophie92 on Dec 25, 2023 19:45:36 GMT
1. Next to Normal (so worth the long wait)
2. Groundhog Day (a very welcome return)
3. Once in Concert (getting to see Jamie Muscato excel in a dream role)
4. A Little Life (incredible performances)
5. Dear England (just an all-round great play)
Bonus mention for the Moulin Rouge 2022-2023 cast change performances - a hilarious muck-up matinee and a very emotional evening show.
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Post by andrew on Dec 25, 2023 21:45:11 GMT
1. Sunset Boulevard (I haven't been as enthused about anything like this since before Covid probably)
2. Next To Normal (Just excellent, perfect musical theatre)
3. Motive and the Cue (A great play, it was nice to see the National Theatre doing a proper National Theatre play in a National Theatre way and succeeding enormously)
4. Old Friends (Mainly for the talent on stage and the quality of the source material, how could it fail?)
5. Groundhog Day (seen it before but really enjoyed it, probably more than I did in it's last incarnation)
Bonus mention of Streetcar which was good but didn't quite make the top.
My 5 disappointments of the year (not necessarily lacking any quality but just the things that let me down) would be Phaedra, A Little Life, A Strange Loop, The Little Big Things, Pygmalion.
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Post by dlevi on Dec 26, 2023 6:35:31 GMT
This was a tough list to make - I found 17 shows to be the best of the year, which is damn good. But list making is a ruthless business so here goes.
1.Guys and Dolls
2.Streetcar
3.Motive and Cue
4.Two Strangers
5.Phaedra
honorable mentions to : Next to Normal, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Dancing at Lunghasa, Vanya, A Little Life.
shows that I loathed: The Way Old Friends Do, Lyoneses, Little Big Things, Brokeback Mountain, and The Secret Life of Bees.
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4,805 posts
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Post by Mark on Dec 26, 2023 11:20:09 GMT
Sunset Boulevard
Next to Normal
Standing at the Sky's Edge
A Streetcar Named Desire
Dear England
Honorable mentions from across the pond:
Shucked, Parade, Sweeney Todd
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Post by wannabedirector on Dec 28, 2023 13:58:28 GMT
My top five for the year (in chronological order):
A Streetcar Named Desire (Almeida)
The Motive and the Cue (NT Lyttelton)
Dear England (NT Olivier)
Grenfell: in the words of the survivors (NT Dorfman)
Macbeth (Donmar Warehouse)
Good year all in all, especially at the NT (where the other three major plays in the Lyttelton, Phaedra, The Effect and Bernarda Alba, are all unlucky to miss out on this list), and quietly for the Donmar (where I enjoyed Private Lives and Clyde’s).
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2,761 posts
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Post by n1david on Dec 28, 2023 14:16:58 GMT
After ticking off my last show of the year last night I've now got my five, and in keeping with others I seem to be voting more for musicals this year than plays, even though on the whole I'm more of a plays person.
After the Act (New Diorama)
A Strange Loop (Barbican)
Accidental Death of an Anarchist (TR Haymarket)
Vanya (Duke of Yorks)
Sunset Boulevard (not sure anyone else caught this...)
We've now had over 400 votes cast, which is a new record, you still have just over 48 hours before I reveal the surprise winner, so if you haven't already given us your thoughts then please do so.
Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and, if you didn't, well at least it's over for another year...
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167 posts
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Post by cherokee on Dec 28, 2023 22:04:37 GMT
Top 5 of the year would be
The Motive and the Cue (National)
Standing at the Sky's Edge (National)
The Way Old Friends Do (Criterion)
Accidental Death of an Anarchist (TR Haymarket)
Good (Ambassadors)
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Post by theatrefan77 on Dec 29, 2023 1:43:11 GMT
My top 5:
The Motive and the Cue
She Stoops To Conquer
A Little Life
The Circle
Ulster American
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Post by FrontrowverPaul on Dec 29, 2023 2:16:17 GMT
The Railway Children - Electric Theatre, Guildford.
Cats - The Point, Eastleigh.
Daddy Longlegs - Gallery Studio Theatre, Ipswich.
Carousel - Royal Academy Of Music, London.
Holiday Inn - Wyllyotts Theatre, Potters Bar.
Five non-professional productions of the highest standard. So enjoyable I wanted to see them all again but could only do so for Carousel.
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Post by aspieandy on Dec 29, 2023 7:55:55 GMT
I barely see musicals and it was still difficult to get it down to ten. Listing 1-5, then 6-10 separately
A Streetcar Named Desire (Almeida) - Ferran doing T. Williams full justice. I feel sure he would have loved this.
Woolf Works (ROH/Ballet) - in pieces within 5-minutes. Scale of creativity to support the wrenching emotional plane ..
Public Acts: The Odyssey: Episode 5 - The Underworld (NT) - I want to remember the Norris era this way. A magnificent commitment and realisation, with many lives enriched across the country.
Swan Lake (ENB, Coliseum) - Powerful, feminine, marvellous, filled the largest stage
Motive and the Cue (NT) - new writing choice: could have been the next listed but giving it to the back/front creative ensemble and also to the NT for doing NT things.
Infinite Life (NT)
Tannhauser (ROH/Opera)
Dancing at Lughnasa (NT)
Standing at the Sky's Edge (NT)
Don Quixote (ROH/Ballet)
Disappointed to not have more smaller venues on the list. Big year for the behemoths.
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1,485 posts
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Post by mkb on Dec 29, 2023 12:41:43 GMT
I still have one play to see, so this is a bit premature. (Surely January is the time to be doing all of this?)
Top five:
Crazy For You (Gillian Lynne)
Eurovision Song Contest, Grand Final (M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool)
The Motive and the Cue (Lyttelton)
Next to Normal (Donmar)
Old Friends (Gielgud)
Other five-star productions:
Backstairs Billy (Duke of York's)
Cruise (HOME Manchester)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Lido 2 Paris)
In Loyal Company (Pleasance Beyond, Edinburgh)
Private Lives (Donmar)
Pygmalion (Old Vic)
Romeo and Juliet (Dorfman)
Shirley Valentine (Duke of York's)
The Unfriend (Criterion)
The Witches (Olivier)
If Eurovision does not count as a theatrical production, then add A Funny Thing ... to the Top Five.
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