With all the lists having been published for the New Year, I thought that I would cast a glance over my personal year in theatre and consider the best pieces of 2014. Now that The Stage are including a star system with their reviews, it seems that my job has been made somewhat easier. Certainly one of the high points included a trip to Chichester to see Imelda Staunton scale new heights as Momma Rose in Jonathan Kent's five-star production of Gypsy. I can't wait to see how the transfer fares at the Savoy in March.
As for my four-star reviews, they were a good deal more
varied across the board, from the quirky delights of Iris Theatre's production
of Alice Through The Looking Glass - one
of three Lewis Carroll adaptations I saw this summer - to the gory pleasures of
the Theatre Royal Plymouth's production of GrandGuignol at the Southwark Playhouse. The Donmar revival of My Night With Reg was one of the few 'straight'
dramas to garner four stars from me and in fact, I am seeing it again next week
when the transfer opens at the Apollo.
TheBlack Cat Cabaret transferred to the Speigeltent from its usual home at the
Cafe De Paris for an exceptional summer season and Christmas saw the return of Meow Meow to the Southbank. Tim
McArthur's excellent production of IntoThe Woods at Ye Olde Rose and Crown in Walthamstow was a revelation that
will undoubtedly stay with me longer than the movie ever will.
Writing for Musical Theatre Review has meant that I have
managed to catch some other great shows including the ill-fated I Can't Sing at the Palladium; In The Heights at the Southwark and Altar Boyz at the Greenwich.
Before the star system was introduced, I had also seen
exceptional productions including FingsAint Wot They Used T'be at the Theatre Royal Stratford East; the hilarious Gay Naked Play, Above The Stag and Phil
Willmott's Lost Boy at the
Finborough - still for me the most moving production commemorating the Great
War.
There have been a few turkeys of course and unsurprisingly -
for me at least - they are not confined to the fringe only.
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