We are 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.
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, we hope, the theatre industry continues to thrive.
Lisa Martland, Editor
CHRIS BARTLETT
Jesus Christ Superstar – Palace Theatre, Manchester & Touring
My show of the year is undoubtedly the touring version of Jesus Christ Superstar, seen at Manchester’s Palace Theatre in August. Director Timothy Sheader and designer Tom Scutt remounted and retooled their original Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production to absolute perfection.
From the opening bars of the bracingly discordant Overture to the harrowingly bloody horrors of its closing sections, this was musical theatre at its most visceral and vital.
Led by a brilliant central trio of Ian McIntosh, Hannah Richardson and Shem Omari James, as Jesus, Mary and Judas, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s songs have never sounded better. But the whole ensemble was superb, and even the comparative levity of Julian Clary’s guest appearance as Herod couldn’t lessen its power. It was, by all accounts, a heavenly revival.
Picture: Camilla Greenwell
JEREMY BRIEN
Choir Boy – Bristol Old Vic
My Show of the Year choice is Choir Boy at Bristol Old Vic. Tarell Alvin McCraney’s musical study of Black masculinity in New York was a bold choice for a debut production from new BOV artistic director Nancy Medina. The strong vocals were particularly impressive.
IAN BOWKETT
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Southwark Playhouse, London
As you may have noticed, 2023 has been an outstanding year for London musical theatre. As well as seeing the very welcome returns of favourites from past years like Oklahoma! and Groundhog Day, I was also blown away by countless new productions, including A Strange Loop at the Barbican, Guys & Dolls at the Bridge Theatre, and most recently The Witches at the National Theatre.
Consequently, it has been particularly difficult to choose one single show as a favourite, but for sheer emotional impact and its gorgeous score, I think The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at Southwark Playhouse deserves that recognition. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for this brilliant new piece of writing.
Picture: Manuel Harlan
JEREMY CHAPMAN
Guys & Dolls / The Little Big Things – Bridge Theatre / @sohoplace, London
It’s a dead heat for me: Guys & Dolls, an old classic with a new buzz about it, so full of energy and so moreish I went three times, twice as an ‘immerser’, and The Little Big Things, so life-enhancing and positive.
A superlative team effort, this story of triumph over tragedy truly touched the heart. Both at modern, caring theatres, the Bridge and @sohoplace, where you can see well from anywhere. Very important at today’s prices.
Runners-up: an extraordinary reimagining by Jamie Lloyd of Sunset Boulevard with two frightening Norma Desmonds; and the funniest show of the year, A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, a word-perfect farce doing Sondheim and Plautus proud in Paris.
Picture: Danny Kaan
LEON FERGUSON
Old Friends – Gielgud Theatre, London
Dotted amongst sporadic theatre-going owing to personal circumstances were great plays and musicals. I finally got to see Cabaret with Callum Scott Howells and Madeline Brewer and was bowled over so went back again, twice. Then there was Operation Mincemeat with its brilliantly inventive slapstick and high-speed performances that managed to be deeply moving as well. Twice.
However, the show I must choose, having nearly given it a miss after being less than enamoured watching it on television, is the Stephen Sondheim compilation, Old Friends. Eschewing the sentiment that was present in the original gala, this stage production fields a top-notch cast of musical theatre veterans at the top of their game and a delightful supporting cast of young talent.
Led by Bernadette Peters, extraordinary at 75, who many of us first saw some 38 years ago in the transmission of Sunday in the Park With George, and Lea Salonga who made her West End debut some 30-plus years ago, we have Janie Dee, Joanna Riding, Clare Burt, Jeremy Secomb, Jason Pennycooke and Bradley Jaden. Plus, bringing the show almost to a standstill on each of the three occasions I’ve seen it, Bonnie Langford gives a definitive performance of ‘I’m Still Here’, which truly echoes the story of her life. I first saw her aged ten in Gypsy with Angela Lansbury, and here at 59 she is still giving a superstar performance. Compiled by Cameron Mackintosh and Sondheim before his death, the direction and choreography by Matthew Bourne, Julia McKenzie and Stephen Mear are detailed and inventive, every cast member shining and a full band positioned on high. If I had the time I’d go see it again. And again. You might just have time before it closes on 6 January 2024.
Picture: Johan Persson
MARINA HOLMES
Standing at the Sky’s Edge – National Theatre, London
Standing at the Sky’s Edge really captured my heart this year. No wonder it was nominated for eight Olivier Awards, winning the prizes for Best New Musical and Best Original Score.
This show breaks the bounds of what musical theatre can be. It’s filled with emotion and depth and a heartwarming yet heart wrenching story, paired with masterful direction, set over three time periods in the exact same flat in the Park Hill estate in Sheffield. The music by Richard Hawley has everything – emotional ballads, retro/pop performed like a gig and rock numbers.
There has not been a day when I haven’t listened to the soundtrack and thought about this outstanding production. A truly original and exceptional musical and I cannot wait for it to return in February 2024.
Picture: Manuel Harlan
SCOTT MATTHEWMAN
Sylvia / Operation Mincemeat – Old Vic Theatre / Fortune Theatre, London
This year saw the emergence of two West End shows based on British history, that could not have been further apart in style or subject matter but which also showed how great new musicals need time to gestate.
Sylvia first hit the Old Vic’s stage in 2018, a work-in-progress that saw Act II being performed book-in-hand. But the combination of Kate Prince’s trademark ZooNation storytelling choreography and a race-flipping casting technique straight out of Hamilton showed promise. In 2023, a fully refined and polished production saw Sharon Rose deliver the goods as Sylvia Pankhurst, and Beverley Knight do the same as the domineering Emmeline. As the two women came to stand for different sides of the fight for suffrage, the imagery and potency on stage mirrored 21st century concerns in a show that deserved a longer run.
The serious messages of Sylvia are a world away from the madcap silliness inherent in Operation Mincemeat, in which a cast of five retells the story of an unlikely, but true, piece of Second World War propaganda tactics. SpitLip’s musical was first staged at the New Diorama in 2019, being refined in subsequent Off-West End runs at Southwark Playhouse and Riverside Studios. It arrived at the Fortune Theatre this year and shows no sign of ever leaving, its combination of humour and warmth making it an essential, and vital, part of London’s theatre scene.
Picture: Mark Senior
LEE MOTTERSHEAD
La Cage aux Folles – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
I could very easily have nominated Crazy For You, having now lost count of the number of times I’ve seen the show and marvelled at the brilliance of Charlie Stemp, both at its original Chichester home and then in London. That, however, would have been bending the rules, for it really belongs to the class of 2022.
Therefore top of the class for me in 2023 was the sumptuous Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production of La Cage aux Folles, whose extension into the early autumn was as predictable as it was merited.
Good fortune allowed me to see two different La Cages within the space of two months. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the Australian touring version that quite rightly earned a warm reception at the Melbourne Arts Centre. It was clean, crisp and performed with passion. It was, however, a little way short of memorable. What we saw in Regent’s Park was unforgettable.
Here was a La Cage that was gloriously over the top and embraced the excess the story demands. It was also spectacularly different. Carl Mullaney’s Albin was a star of Saint-Tropez who just happened to have a thick Lancashire accent. Billy Carter’s Georges possessed more than a hint of Northern Ireland in his voice, while Debbie Kurup’s Jacqueline could hardly have been more Geordie.
This was a production filled with love and about love. In amongst all the laughs there was also a powerful message that rang as true as when Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein launched the show four decades ago. These may not be the best of times but this year’s London La Cage was wonderful in every way.
Picture: Johan Persson
BILLY NICHOLLES
Cabaret / Miss Saigon – Kit Kat Club, London / Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
One West End and one regional production stand out to me as musical theatre highlights this year.
In the capital, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club has gone from strength to strength, with four star-studded cast changes fuelling demand. The musical will undoubtedly play throughout the coming year too. With stage and screen favourites from Everyone’s Talking About Jamie’s John McCrea and Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood to It’s a Sin’s Callum Scott Howells and pop icon Self Esteem (Rebecca Lucy Taylor), the diversity of talent from these casts has kept the piece as fresh and striking as ever.
The attention to detail in this immersive production, combined with new choreography, vocal choices and character interpretations from each cast, makes Cabaret a fascinating repeated experience. With the current cast working towards their second extension, and booking open until September 2024, the momentum behind the exceptional production is still staying strong. If there’s one show you should see next year, this is it.
This year also saw the first ever regional non-replica production of a classic of the genre: Miss Saigon. The musical’s enduring success is perhaps only matched by its ongoing controversy: since its inception in 1989, the show has been criticised for its problematic portrayal of Vietnamese-American relationships at the end of the Vietnam War.
This production, led by a majority-Asian production team and billed as one of the first to truly tackle these concerns, proposed an interesting question: can art that clashes with evolving ideas of social justice still be performed respectfully and enjoyably?
While one production can’t hope to resolve this question entirely, Robert Hastie and Anthony Lau’s take on Miss Saigon proposed a fascinating answer, demonstrating that as musicals age and clash with contemporary mores, they do not need to be abandoned for their antiquity.
Interpretation and debate are still at the heart of this genre, and the show came with a powerful musical performance to go with it. The usual tragedy, drama and soaring musicality of the score was felt in full force, making this an instantly memorable show. Whatever you think of Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil’s show, this won’t be the last we see of Miss Saigon.
Picture: Carrie Davenport
MICHAEL QUINN
Good Vibrations / The Night Before Christmas – Grand Opera House, Belfast / The Mac, Belfast
The distinction between musicals and plays aping musicals with super-charged soundtracks of their own became increasingly blurred on Northern Ireland’s stages in 2023. Allowing for that cross-fertilisation makes choosing just two shows a tough task.
One bona fide musical that stood out was the Lyric Theatre, Belfast’s revival of Colin Carberry and Glenn Patterson’s Good Vibrations at the city’s Grand Opera House en route to a run at New York’s Irish Arts Center. A portrait of fearless, Troubles-era Punk music icon Terri Hooley – forever lauded as the man who found and subsequently gave away Derry troubadours The Undertones – its jukebox collation of era-defining Punk hits sugared with 1960s psychedelia, reggae and Hank Williams (seamlessly arranged by Katie Richardson) was performed live by a crack ensemble led by Glen Wallace and Jayne Wisener. The result was “raucous, rousing and riotously good fun”.
Northern Ireland has a vibrant tradition of Christmas shows liberally laced with music that offer an alternative to the swathe of seasonal pantos on offer. Charming, colourful, clever and joyfully silly at times, Stephen Beggs and Simon Magill’s The Night Before Christmas stood out this year to set the bar high for future offerings. Directed by Lisa May for Belfast’s The Mac, it was lit up by Garth McConaghie’s vibrant score and sound design, and exuberant performances all round. Layering a cautionary tale about abandoning fairy tales and reading with show-stopping set pieces, it proved a warming, welcome and winning combination at year’s end.
Picture: Pamela Raith
MARK SHENTON
The Little Big Things / Next to Normal / Sunset Boulevard – @sohoplace / Donmar Warehouse / Savoy Theatre, London
Undoubtedly the most thrilling – and life-affirming – new musical of the year for me was The Little Big Things, based on the true story of Henry Fraser who suffered a life-changing accident at the age of 17 that left him paralysed from the neck down on his first adult holiday with his brothers in Portugal, but has survived it to live a very different but nevertheless valuable life. (He has become a notable mouth artist as well as writer.)
I watched it frequently on the edge of tears, and sitting in the round of @sohoplace, I could see other audience members brushing them away too. Scripted by Joe White, with catchy pop-based songs by Nick Butcher and Tom Ling, it is performed in Luke Sheppard’s vivacious production by the most inclusive cast in town, including two wheelchair users, Ed Larkin as the handsome post-accident Henry and Amy Trigg as his inspiring physiotherapist. I have seen it four times so far and will be back before it closes in March. The cast album is being released on 5 January.
Picture: Marc Brenner
The best import of the year was the arrival, some 14 years after its Broadway debut in 2009, of Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Next to Normal, given its UK premiere in a brand-new and shatteringly powerful production by Michael Longhurst at the Donmar Warehouse. I saw this wrenching but wonderful show six times at the Donmar (one of them in an understudy run, where Carolyn Maitland stood in for usual star Caissie Levy, and proved equally outstanding). I can’t wait to see it six times more when it transfers to Wyndham’s in June 2024.
And the most thrillingly unexpected revival of the year was Jamie Lloyd’s bold and audacious new take on Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black and Christopher Hampton’s 1993 West End musical Sunset Boulevard, which found new dramatic and musical textures to a famously melodramatic potboiler of a show. Nicole Scherzinger blew the roof off the Savoy Theatre as Norma Desmond, but it was her Monday night cover Rachel Tucker that gave the musical theatre performance of the year in a harrowing portrait of a woman losing her sanity.
Picture: Pamela Raith
NIGEL SMITH
Lizzie – Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester & Touring
Of the shows I have covered for Musical Theatre Review this year, there is one clear runaway winner, and that is Lizzie, which had five stars written all over it from the first scene. Directed and choreographed by William Whelton for Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre, this was the first full UK production of the rock musical by Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer, Tim Maner and Alan Stevens Hewitt.
The show did absolutely everything right, from standout casting and the high-end production values we’ve come to expect from Hope Mill, to sound design that made every syllable of the sung-through text crystal clear against the powerful instrumental background. The piece was witty, gritty and layered with a variety of styles, emotions and textures.
It’s easy to understand why Hope Mill has decided that the venue’s has outgrown the scale of the Ancoats venue, but I will miss the immersive thrill of seeing musical theatre in this sort of intimacy.
Picture: Johan Persson
PAUL SZABO
White Christmas – Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
I always consider myself very fortunate that I have an opportunity to see as much theatre as I do, and there have been some terrific shows doing the rounds this year. An honourable mention should be made of Treason The Musical which had phenomenal vocals, some well-crafted songs and an absolute abundance of atmosphere.
However, maybe it is the season, maybe it is the feeling of warmth and nostalgia that the show instantly conjures or maybe it is the fact that I am an absolute sucker for a good, old-fashioned musical, but White Christmas at the Crucible was my favourite show of the year by far. I am always curious to see what new spin will be put on a show that I have seen many times before and this production did not disappoint. The smelting pot of design and style couldn’t have suited my tastes better.
From the 1950s Americana sprinkled with some art deco touches to the sight of the cast tap dancing their way down an illuminated staircase in true 42nd Street style, I sat nestled in my theatre seat with the biggest smile on my face throughout the show’s runtime. Irving Berlin’s songs are just utterly delightful, and the variety of big production numbers, the constantly surprising stage design, and the charismatic cast all combined to make such an enjoyable evening at the theatre. There are so many reasons I love musical theatre, and White Christmas managed to pull them all together, and for me personally, I can think of no better production to round off a tremendous year of theatre-going.
Picture: Pamela Raith
PAUL VALE
Eugenius! The Musical / Unfortunate / Bigmouth Strikes Again – Turbine Theatre / Southwark Playhouse / Soho Theatre, London
Amid a seeming onslaught of welcome musical theatre revivals this year, there are a few productions that stood out as either new, refreshed or rewritten. Eugenius! The Musical by Ben Adams and Chris Wilkins has undergone several incarnations since the concert versions of 2016 at the London Palladium. This year’s production at the Turbine perhaps proves that some musicals flourish in an intimate environment. It’s perhaps still not fixed, but this comic book romp through 1980s movie culture is a real treat packed with power ballad pastiches and themes of friendship, love and self belief.
At the tail end of the year, another musical that has benefited from rewriting is Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch. I first saw this production by Robyn Grant, Daniel Foxx and Tim Gilvin in Edinburgh in 2019 and while it was amusing, it needed some decent dramaturgy and a stronger sense of identity. The production running at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant and subsequently touring the UK fixes all those early problems. The result is a beautifully designed and performed production with a stronger focus and inspired casting – Drag Race UK star River Medway plays Ariel.
On the cabaret front, there was one show in particular that really took me by surprise. Salty Brine is an American performer who has developed a cabaret series called The Living Record Collection. Essentially Brine uses a classic album to tell a seemingly unconnected story, while also commenting on his own life and work. For his UK debut at the Soho Theatre Bigmouth Strikes Again – The Smiths Show tells the story of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in tandem with his own attempts as a New Age romantic poet. The style and dramaturgy of this show is off-the-scale, coupled with a striking, assertive baritone voice that belts out re-interpretations of The Smiths with an almost evangelical energy.
CHRISTOPHER WILEY
The Railway Children: A Musical – Electric Theatre, Guildford
For my show of the year for 2023, I’ve chosen a local production from January, The Railway Children: A Musical at the Electric Theatre, Guildford. Featuring an all-star cast led by Anna Vardy as the Mother, this fantastic production demonstrated the great potential for community theatre to present high-quality performances. The theatrical premiere of a newly developed work by the long-standing musical theatre writing team of Alex Parker and Katie Lam, whose award-winning partnership has yielded five stellar shows to date, this adaptation really does justice to E Nesbit’s classic novel and its prior versions for stage and screen, while artfully introducing new elements such as the character of Miss Connolly (played by Rosie Hatton), who works to exonerate the children’s wrongly imprisoned Father.
It was wonderful to catch up with Alex Parker later in the year as musical director of a production of Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George by Quick Fantastic, of which Parker is artistic director, in the intimate Mill Studio of the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford in September. This show featured some of the same cast as The Railway Children: A Musical, including the extraordinarily versatile Laura Sillett, who played eldest child Bobbie in the former, and Dot, the muse and mistress of the eponymous painter (and, in Act II, his wheelchair-bound 98-year-old daughter Marie) in the latter.
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