Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, London. Picture: Marc Brenner
At the end of each year Musical Theatre Review news editor Angela Thomas normally puts together a round-up of all the shows that have received four and five star reviews during the last 12 months, but this year we thought a different approach might be more appropriate.
For a start, MTR wants to congratulate all the producers, creatives, backstage crews, musicians and performers (including, of course, the incredible understudies and swings) who have managed to stage productions – West End, London Fringe, Regional in-house openings, UK and Ireland tours – during 2021. That such amazing work, from stunning revivals to the nurturing of new writing, has been achieved in such challenging circumstances is testament to everyone involved.
We are also hugely grateful to our brilliantly talented team of expert critics who remain dedicated to covering musical theatre in all its different shapes and forms up and down the country.
A selection of those critics were asked to choose their ‘show of the year’ although, as you can see below, some struggled to pick just one. After another intensely challenging year for theatre, it seemed churlish not to allow them some extra namechecks here or there.
The shows represent just a small percentage of productions staged this year, but we hope these ‘top picks’ bring back some happy memories.
In the meantime, we wish all our contributors and readers a very Happy New Year, one in which the theatre industry can be allowed to thrive once again.
Lisa Martland, Editor
Carousel at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park. Picture: Johan Persson
IAN BOWKETT
Cabaret – Kit Kat Club, London/Carousel – Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, London
Despite the challenges facing the industry this year, some amazing new work has been produced. The Big House’s Redemption (James Meteyard and The Last Skeptik) and Mario: A Super Musical (Jim Burrows and Winston Eade) were particularly exciting, and for some reason I also enjoyed Sisyphus: A Rock ’n’ Roll Musical (Ian Bowkett – me). However for the sheer extravagance and start-to-finish thrill, my absolute highlight is a big-budget revival of an oldie. Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club is not only a spectacular and timely production of Kander and Ebb’s classic with electric performances by Jessie Buckley, Eddie Redmayne and Omari Douglas, but it also transforms Embankment’s Playhouse theatre into an immersive Weimar experience complete with live musicians and a free drink on the way in. So yeah, a free drink gets you on this list is what I’m saying. More shows bribe MTR reviewers with booze please.
This year’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production of Carousel ingeniously reframed some of the more troubling storylines with surprisingly few changes to the text, and was lead by the pitch-perfect performance of Carly Bawden. Her Julie Jordan had a fierce grit, but by the time she sang the best rendition of ‘What’s the Use of Wond’rin’ I’ve ever heard – now a resigned lament – the entire audience had tears in their eyes. If I could get a cast recording of any show this year it would be this one, and not just for my own enjoyment: as a guide for how future productions should approach this musical and this role.
MICHAEL DARVELL
Anything Goes at the Barbican Theatre, London. Picture: Tristram Kenton
Anything Goes – Barbican Theatre, London
My favourite show of the year 2021 has to be Cole Porter’s Anything Goes at the Barbican Centre. It seems to me that it was the one production which everybody was waiting for, so that they could finally go back to the theatre after lockdown.
It was a superb production by director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall who assembled a terrific chorus line of singers and hoofers who sang and danced up a storm. The leading members of the cast including Sutton Foster, Robert Lindsay, Haydn Oakley, Gary Wilmot, Felicity Kendal, Samuel Edwards and Carly Mercedes Dyer, amongst other great players, were outstanding in a production that probably hasn’t been bettered since the original on Broadway in the 1930s.
Asked to choose my favourite musical film of 2021 I would say West Side Story, in which Steven Spielberg has now finally given us the definitive screen version of a legendary Broadway show that premiered in 1957. Perhaps he could be the man to bring more Sondheim shows to the movies. We can only hope… and wait…
South Pacific at Chichester Festival Theatre. Picture: Johan Persson
JEREMY CHAPMAN
Anything Goes – Barbican Theatre, London/South Pacific – Chichester Festival Theatre
Not technically the best but the most important for me was South Pacific, firstly because it was my first musical back after the long, long Covid jail sentence (we may still only be on parole) and the Chichester audience were so chuffed to see live theatre again they actually starting clapping and chanting before the band struck up; secondly it was the wheel turning full circle as the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic had been my introduction to West End theatre at age 11 all of 68 years earlier with Mary Martin the cast’s biggest name and a young Sean Connery its smallest; thirdly (shame on me) it was my first time at the lovely Minerva; and fourthly, the sun shone all evening.
The best show, no contest, was Anything Goes. Five stars nowhere near enough. Not the most intellectual but sometimes silly can be exhilarating. Sutton Foster was simply extraordinary.
High-octane, non-stop showbiz royalty – a superstar from the moment she danced her way on to the stage in a dazzling show that was entertainment with bells on from start to finish. And Cole Porter… say no more!
The Last Five Years at the Garrick Theatre. Picture: Helen Maybanks
PAUL VALE
The Last Five Years – Garrick Theatre, London
For me, the best show of 2021 has to be Jonathan O’Boyle’s production of Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years.
I saw the show at the Menier in 2006 and found myself underwhelmed for various reasons. I was in no rush to see it again but went as a guest to see it at the Southwark Playhouse in 2020.
I couldn’t quite believe how O’Boyle’s slick, stylish production had transformed the material for me. The production transferred to the Garrick in 2021 and for such an intimate production, it filled the space perfectly.
Passionate, nuanced performances from Oli Higginson and Molly Lynch and an exquisite design by Lee Newby made this, in my opinion, a definitive production.
CATHERINE FRANÇOISE
Les Misérables – The Staged Concert – Sondheim Theatre, London
Despite the challenges faced by the theatre industry during 2021, companies have persevered and producers have jumped through seemingly insurmountable hoops to bring us some wonderful, creative productions. This has been particularly true of smaller scale Fringe theatre. Frankly, any production that managed to open deserves an award!
In the West End, the Les Misérables Staged Concert is my spine-tinging, awesome favourite – the show itself holds a very special place in my heart but I never expected a staged concert to equal (possibly surpass?!) the fully staged production. I was fortunate to see it three times during this year including the electric very last performance on 5 September.
Godspell at Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre
CRAIG GLENDAY
Godspell – Ye Olde Rose and Crown, London/A Little Night Music – Buxton Opera House
Godspell was just a scintillating expression of unadulterated joy from a young cast loving every minute of being back on a stage. Their infectious energy really brightened my week and reminded me that musical theatre can be such a powerful, uplifting art-form.
And A Little Night Music, with Janie Dee as Desiree, oozed class and sophistication, reminding me just how perfectly crafted this show is. It was also the last fully staged Sondheim show I saw before we lost the great man, so it will have a special poignancy for me. (And talking of Sondheim, I’d like to give a special nod to West Side Story by the other great S.S. – Steven Spielberg. It’s a wonderful version of a wonderful show – what a dynamic way to end 2021!)
SCOTT MATTHEWMAN
U.Me – BBC World Service
Some of my initial candidates for the show that made the most impact on me in 2021 are actually holdovers from 2020: Hilmi Jaidin’s Shift+Alt+Right was streamed live last year, but I only caught the rebroadcast in January. In person, Zoonation’s Message in a Bottle returned to the Peacock Theatre after its first run last year.
Its tale of refugees struggling to make a new life in the West is both the company’s strongest narrative work yet and also a heartbreakingly current tale, as the British government brought in measure after measure to prevent real-life refugees from trying to make Britain their home.
In the movies, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie beat out tick, tick… BOOM! and West Side Story for me in stage-to-screen adaptations – but only just; there’s barely a stiletto’s width between them.
But the one show that has stayed with me, which I have listened to on endless repeat until I know every word uttered and sung by every character, was Theo Jamieson’s U.Me, commissioned by the BBC World Service.
Telling the long distance romance of London-based Rose (Anoushka Lucas) and Kenji (Kevin Shen), a San Franciscan sitting out quarantine in his parents’ home country of Japan, Jamieson captured both how life in the age of Covid seemed to be permanently stuck on pause, yet also had to move on.
The burgeoning relationship is sweet without ever being sickly, and the vivid portrayal of supporting characters creates images of the principal characters’ home lives with superb clarity. And rarely for a drama set in pandemic times, it dared to deal with loss and grief, yet never felt exploitative while doing so.
While the pandemic looks to be with us for some time to come, it seems unlikely that the world will retreat back into the lockdown state captured in this musical. I hope, though, that U.Me retains a life beyond this moment in time. It deserves to not just be a historical artefact of a moment in time, but celebrated as a truly great original musical.
- U.Me is available on YouTube and on bbcworldservice.com/musical
Bedknobs and Broomsticks at Milton Keynes Theatre and Touring. Picture: Johan Persson
HANNAH GRIMMETTE
Bedknobs and Broomsticks – Milton Keynes Theatre and Touring
My show of the year has to be Bedknobs and Broomsticks, which ran at Milton Keynes Theatre in September 2021. It is a stunning, beautiful and moving adaptation of the popular Disney film, re-created perfectly for the stage. Mesmerising for adults and children alike, the show had me hooked from start to finish. The audience is transported to the magical world of witchcraft and fairy tales. Pure, unadulterated escapism – I’d 100% watch it again.
JULIE WATTERSTON
Brief Encounter – Watermill Theatre, Bagnor
Having recently re-seen the Watermill production of Amelie at the Criterion Theatre, the Watermill’s production of Brief Encounter in October was an inspiring reminder of why this delightful theatre is so innovative as a producing house and how these seemingly innocuous productions have the capability of transferring to the West End. Most importantly though, was the fact that Brief Encounter was the first production to be performed back in the Watermill’s auditorium after a summer season in the garden. It was a sentimental journey not only for me but for the loyal Watermill audience reflecting on how much live theatre had been sorely missed.
Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World. Picture: Pamela Raith
CHRISTOPHER WILEY
Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World – MAST Mayflower Studios, Southampton and Touring
A fantastically great show about an inquisitive 10-year-old pupil, Jade, who stumbles upon an unopened gallery during a school trip to a museum.
Educational as well as entertaining, it profiles 12 extraordinary women from history including Jane Austen, Emmeline Pankhurst, Marie Curie, Amelia Earhart, Frida Kahlo, Rosa Parks and Anne Frank.
The show features inspired performances from Jade Kennedy, Renée Lamb, Frances Mayli McCann and Christina Modestou all playing multiple roles, and four talented young actresses alternating as Jade – as well as a cameo by Bearonycé as Jade’s favourite soft toy! Definitely one to watch out for in 2022.
LEON FERGUSON
A Little Night Music – Leeds Playhouse
Returning to live performance in 2021 began with Leeds Playhouse’s inventive production of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s A Little Night Music in July. Josephine Barstow, so compelling as Heidi in the National Theatre’s Follies, was the dramatic core of this production, inventively staged by James Brining. Her final scene, centre stage with light fading to a halo of grey hair as her life fades away, seemed to sum up the hopes and fears, the regret and optimism of this musical. Wary of opera singers in Sondheim? This cast rose to the challenge, lyrics and acting to the fore, matched by musical precision, conducted by James Holmes. Stephanie Corley as a Hollywoodish Desiree, Quirijn de Lang a handsome debonair Frederick, and a standout performance from Amy J Payne as Petra in a uniformly excellent cast. As a callow youth I saw the starry original London cast. This production may have lacked Broadway grandeur, but it gained in intimacy and pathos. And best of all? They’re reviving it for two weeks in July 2022.
CHRIS BARTLETT
Rent – Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester
When it finally arrived for its first fully fledged, uninterrupted run in August, Hope Mill’s much-postponed, eagerly-anticipated revival of Rent didn’t disappoint. It would be easy to put its success, the energy of the performers and the ecstatic way it was received down to the show’s long and eventful production history. But this was a top-drawer production even before the pandemic hit, with an undimmed message of hope and friendship that made it the perfect show to welcome full capacity audiences back to theatres.
MIKE TILLING
Burlesque at Vibe Bar, Scarborough
Never having been to a burlesque show, I had no expectations. However, as a young man I remember my mother rolling her eyes at the word so I knew it was not ‘respectable’. Surveying the audience, I was surprised that approximately 60% were women, but their presence did nothing to diminish the ribaldry. Until, that is, Francesca Santamaria opened the show by singing ‘Never Enough’ from The Greatest Showman. Now it is my habit in reviewing any show, to turn and observe the audience’s reactions. Accustomed to indifferent MCs slaughtering some standard, the whole audience, one by one, fell silent in open mouthed appreciation. The same thing happened when Santamaria opened the second act with ‘Touch-A, Touch-A, Touch Me’ from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Great voice, and considerable stage command, and quite a surprise.
Critics’ Honourable Mentions:
Public Domain – Vaudeville Theatre
Pippin – Charing Cross Theatre, London
Operation Mincemeat – Southwark Playhouse, London
John & Jen – Southwark Playhouse, London
Top Hat – The Mill At Sonning
The Wiz – Hope Mill Theatre
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.