At the time of writing, theatre is just about in full swing again post Covid. Already there have been some brilliant shows. The following awards are for shows I’ve seen since the re-opening.
The Comeback Noel Coward Theatre
This show is clever and hilarious. It starts slowly. The set up takes a while but it then develops into a masterly farce, full of theatrical tricks and slapstick brilliance. I laughed a lot. It was the first show I saw after re-opening and a perfect example of what a live show can do that film and TV can’t. Award goes to both writers/performers, Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen.
South Pacific Chichester Festival Theatre
I saw a different production of South Pacific a few years ago and felt that the show was past its sell by date. Great songs but the bits in between really dragged. Not so this time. The production had a fresh, modern style and the contemporary relevance of the story was very clear. There’s a problem in that the show kind of expects you to forgive the heroine’s racism or regard it as a temporary moment of madness when she changes her mind. There’s no getting round this. The dancing, as always at Chichester, was superb and I have never heard these songs sung so well. Award goes to everyone involved.
Cruise Duchess Theatre
I am not usually a fan of one man shows but this was stunning. It’s a cleverly constructed story in which the storyteller glides into being all the characters in the story as well as himself. The award goes to Jack Holden whose performance of his own play was an absolute tour-de-force. Joyful and moving.
Anything Goes Barbican Theatre
This was Broadway at its best. I can’t remember a show getting a standing ovation at the interval before but that’s what happened the night I attended. It was well deserved too. The ‘Anything Goes’ number which ends Act One was accompanied by some of the most sustained brilliant dancing I have seen. I note that the show’s director and choreographer were one and the same, Kathleen Marshall. The award goes to her and to Sutton Foster for her outstanding performance in the leading role.
Big Big Sky Hampstead Theatre
This was presented in Hampstead’s downstairs theatre and was a brilliant example of how engaging a show can be in a small space like this. It was a simple story with only four characters living ordinary lives but it packed a powerful emotional punch, very warm and lovely. It sent me out of the theatre feeling good. The award goes to everyone involved.
Leopoldstadt Wyndhams Theatre
I finally got to see this when it re-emerged after Covid and it was worth the wait. It was quite different from most of Tom Stoppard’s well known plays. There was little clever wordplay or intellectual fireworks. It told the story of the Jewish community in Vienna from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th and was as horrifying and as moving as you might expect. The extra punch, of course, came from the fact that Stoppard was writing about a thinly disguised version of his own family. There was a long, stunned silence at the end before the applause started. To give Tom Stoppard one of my awards seems presumptuous but nevertheless.
Our Lady of Blundellsands Everyman Theatre, Liverpool
What joy to be back at the Everyman watching a local story by a local author with a local audience. It took me right back to the early days of Willy Russell and Alan Bleasdale. The award goes to the tour-de-force performance of Josie Lawrence, hilarious, moving and at times slightly scary, backed up by a brilliant supporting cast. I hope this is not this show’s only production. It deserves a wider platform.
