MY TOP TEN SHOWS OF THE WEEK

1) Show Boat. London is currently experiencing a rare history lesson in the both where Broadway’s great musical era began with Show Boat in 1927, sales and would land so triumphantly just 23 years later with Guys and Dolls, case possibly the greatest musical of them all in my opinion (and now back at the Phoenix Theatre). But Show Boat is pretty astonishing, view too, not least for one of the most rapturous, enchanting scores ever written; the standards just pour out of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, including ‘Ol Man River’, ‘Mis’ry’s Comin’ Aroun’, ‘Why Do I Love You?’ and ‘Bill.’ Its been given a gorgeous production (pictured right) by Daniel Evans, transferred from Sheffield’s Crucible to the wrap-around intimacy of the New London, and featuring a cast full of stunning voices led by Gina Beck, Chris Peluso and the utterly ravishing sounding Rebecca Trehearn, whose rendition of ‘Bill’ is a real heartbreaker. So is the fact that this incredible production is having its run curtailed, and will now end on August 27 (it was originally booking to January). But you still have three months more to see it! I’ve already been back once — and I’ll be back – again (and again).  See my review for The Stage here. Website: http://showboatmusical.co.uk/

2) People, Places and Things. Last chance to see this before it shuts on June 18. Harrowing, intense, emotional, gripping and exhilarating, Duncan Macmillan’s transfer from the National to the West End’s Wyndham’s even had the critics on their feet for the first night standing ovation. As Fiona Mounford declared in her five-star review for the Evening Standard, “It’s rare to see a group of critics, cynical devils that we are, rise to their feet for a sweeping standing ovation on a press night. But this wasn’t any old opening, or any old leading actress. For my money, Denise Gough gives the greatest stage performance since Mark Rylance in Jerusalem.” And (for once) I entirely concur with Mountford; my review for LondonTheatre.co.uk is here. Gough deservedly won the Olivier for Best Actress; I’ve also written here about what a life-changing performance and show it is. Wbsite: http://www.peopleplacesthingsonstage.com/

3) Les Blancs. Last chance to see this: it shuts June 2. The National is on a roll at the moment: as well as People, Places and Things (see above), and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, there’s also an utterly astonishing production of a virtually unknown play by Lorainne Hansberry. Best known for A Raisin in the Sun, she never finished this play before her death at the age of just 34, of pancreatic cancer. But now the National has visionary South African director Yael Farber directing a ritualistic production that burns with rage and feeling in is portrait of an African country falling apart on the edge of civil war. An outstanding cast is led by the magnificent, towering Danny Sapani, and also includes  Sian Phillips, Elliot Cowan, James Fleet and Anna Madley. Website: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/les-blancs

4) The 3 Penny Opera. Yet another National Theatre show — Rufus Norris directs the great Weill/Brecht musical, first premiered in Berlin in 1928, in a newly revised version by Simon Stephens that makes its blistering satire on corruption bang up to date, full of moody malevolence. A fantastic cast led by Rory Kinnear (pictured left), Nick Holder, Haydn Gwynne and Rosalie Craig give it full value. The score See my review for The Stage here. Website: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/threepenny-opera

5) The Flick. This import from off-Broadway of Annie Baker’s Pulitzer prize winner, again to the National (the number one venue in London at the moment) is a beautiful slow-burn: over three and a quarter hours, we observe the transfixing daily traffic of the lives of three low-paid workers in a Massachusetts cinema that still projects movies on film, rather than digitally. Runs to June 15 only. Website: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/the-flick

6) The Invisible Hand. Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced, seen at the Bush Theatre a few years ago, won him the Pulitzer prize for drama; though The Invisible Hand isn’t quite in its league, its nonetheless a gripping play, part hostage drama and part a thriller about how the money markets are manipulated. Indhu Rubasingham’s production is acted with fierce intensity by a cast that includes Daniel Lapaine as the hostage, with Tony Jayawardena as his Iman captor and Parth Thakerar as his idealistic London-born enforcer. Website: http://www.tricycle.co.uk/current-programme-pages/theatre/theatre-programme-main/the-invisible-hand/

7) Guys and Dolls. Frank Loesser’s immortal Broadway musical jut gets better and better. Chichester’s transfer to the West End has recently moved from the Savoy to the Phoenix and has a new cast who are just wonderful. Oliver Tompsett (pictured left), who is possessed of one of the best male voices in British musical theatre, has stunningly inherited the role of Sky Masterson from Jamie Parker, and Samantha Spiro has taken over brilliantly as Miss Adelaide. It is also simultaneously on a UK tour I can’t wait to see, too, because Louise Dearman and Richard Fleeshman are playing the roles of Miss Adelaide and Sky there. It has long been my absolutely favourite of any musical: as I wrote when this production premiered at Chichester in 2014, “Guys and Dolls is, to my mind and even more my heart and soul, simply the greatest of all the classic musicals of Broadway’s golden age of over half a century ago. No show for me summonses a mythical, virtually mystical version of its own mean but colourful streets with as much serious style and witty panache as Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’s incisive, clever distillation of Damon Runyon’s classic story and characters, set to Frank Loesser’s irresistibly tuneful but acerbically pointed songs. ” My review for The Stage is here. Website: http://www.guysanddollsthemusical.co.uk/

8) A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare’s Globe has a new artistic director Emma Rice — who has admitted that not only has she not read all the plays but doesn’t understand them, either. But her debut production is a rollicking romp that is full of her own directorial trademarks yet also honours the play and its audience. I’ve seldom had such fun at the Globe — one of the happiest shows ever. See my review for londontheatre.co.uk here. Website: http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/globe-theatre/a-midsummer-nights-dream-2016

9) Funny Girl. London’s Menier Chocolate Factory is currently riding high on both sides of the Atlantic with hit transfers of The Color Purple (to Broadway, where London star Cynthia Erivo has been Tony nominated) and Funny Girl (to the West End’s Savoy Theatre, marking this 1960s show’s first appearance in the West End since the original transferred from Broadway in 1966). Though star Sheridan Smith has temporarily (we hope) withdrawn from the show owing to ill-health, the show goes on with her brilliant understudy Natasha Barnes in the title role — I saw her do it at the Menier, and she, too, was amazing, as I wrote here at the time. See my review for The Stage here. Website:  http://www.funnygirlthemusical.co.uk/

10) Mrs Henderson Presents. Transfer from Bath Theatre Royal of this touching, terrific new musical version of the 2005 British film set backstage and frontstage at the Windmill Theatre, which offered audiences live, nude (but completely immobile) women. The cast includes Emma Willimas (pictured right) as one of the showgirls, plus Tracie Bennett in the title role, originally played by Judi Dench in the film. It runs to June 18 only. My review of the original production at Bath last summer for The Stage is here, and my review of the West End transfer is here. Website: http://www.mrshenderson.co.uk/

 
MY TOP TEN SHOWS OF THE WEEK

1) Blue/Orange. Joe Penhall’s bruisingly brilliant play about a conflict over the treatment of a mentally ill black man by two doctors is played with a ferocious intensity in a set that resembles a boxing ring and has the audience arranged on all four sides around it. Michael Xia’s production is superbly played by a cast that comprises the amazing Daniel Kaluuya, advice David Haig and Luke Norris. Running at the Young Vic to July 2. Website: http://www.youngvic.org/whats-on/blue-orange

2) The Spoils. After recent vanity projects in the West End for actors-turned-writers like Matthew Perry (The End of Longing) and Zack Braff (All New People) that could have only made it there thanks to their commitment to also be in it, patient it’s a serious relief to find that Jesse Eisenberg (right) earns his place as both writer and star of The Spoils, which comes to the West End’s Trafalgar Studios after a successful Off-Broadway run. My review for The Stage is here. Website:  http://www.atgtickets.com/shows/the-spoils/trafalgar-studios/

3) The Deep Blue Sea. This is the play that literally changed my life — it was seeing it when I was 14, in South Africa where I grew up, that turned me onto the theatre. I’m not entirely sure how my 14-year-old self understood, instinctively, what a co-dependent relationship would look like, and how painful unrequited love would be, when I had not yet experienced either. But now that I have experienced both, more than once, the play cuts even deeper. It is exquisitely staged at teh National with a devastating performance from Helen McCrory.  My review for Londontheatre.co.uk is here. Website: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/the-deep-blue-sea

4) Show Boat. London is currently experiencing a rare history lesson in the both where Broadway’s great musical era began with Show Boat in 1927, and would land so triumphantly just 23 years later with Guys and Dolls, possibly the greatest musical of them all in my opinion (and now back at the Phoenix Theatre). But Show Boat is pretty astonishing, too, not least for one of the most rapturous, enchanting scores ever written; the standards just pour out of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, including ‘Ol Man River’, ‘Mis’ry’s Comin’ Aroun’, ‘Why Do I Love You?’ and ‘Bill.’ Its been given a gorgeous production (pictured right) by Daniel Evans, transferred from Sheffield’s Crucible to the wrap-around intimacy of the New London, and featuring a cast full of stunning voices led by Gina Beck, Chris Peluso and the utterly ravishing sounding Rebecca Trehearn, whose rendition of ‘Bill’ is a real heartbreaker. So is the fact that this incredible production is having its run curtailed, and will now end on August 27 (it was originally booking to January). I’ve already been back once — and I’ll be back – again (and again).  See my review for The Stage here. Website: http://showboatmusical.co.uk

5) The 3 Penny Opera. Yet another National Theatre show — Rufus Norris directs the great Weill/Brecht musical, first premiered in Berlin in 1928, in a newly revised version by Simon Stephens that makes its blistering satire on corruption bang up to date, full of moody malevolence. A fantastic cast led by Rory Kinnear (pictured left), Nick Holder, Haydn Gwynne and Rosalie Craig give it full value.  See my review for The Stage here. Website: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/threepenny-opera

6) The Go-Between. Original British musicals are having a tough time competing against the onslaught of Broadway imports, and though Richard Taylor’s quiet, understated new musical — first produced regionally in 2011 — won’t be to everyone’s tastes, it is a tender, beautiful piece, and graced with a perfect starring turn from Michael Crawford (right) that knows not to dominate the show. My review for The Stage is here. Website:  http://thegobetweenmusical.com/

7) The Invisible Hand. Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced, seen at the Bush Theatre a few years ago, won him the Pulitzer prize for drama; though The Invisible Hand isn’t quite in its league, its nonetheless a gripping play, part hostage drama and part a thriller about how the money markets are manipulated. Indhu Rubasingham’s production is acted with fierce intensity by a cast that includes Daniel Lapaine as the hostage, with Tony Jayawardena as his Iman captor and Parth Thakerar as his idealistic London-born enforcer. Website: http://www.tricycle.co.uk/current-programme-pages/theatre/theatre-programme-main/the-invisible-hand/

8) Guys and Dolls. Frank Loesser’s immortal Broadway musical jut gets better and better. Chichester’s transfer to the West End has recently moved from the Savoy to the Phoenix and has a new cast who are just wonderful. Oliver Tompsett (pictured left), who is possessed of one of the best male voices in British musical theatre, has stunningly inherited the role of Sky Masterson from Jamie Parker, and Samantha Spiro (to June 26 only, to be succeed by Rebel Wilson) has taken over brilliantly as Miss Adelaide. It is also simultaneously on a UK tour I can’t wait to see, too, because Louise Dearman and Richard Fleeshman are playing the roles of Miss Adelaide and Sky there. It has long been my absolutely favourite of any musical: as I wrote when this production premiered at Chichester in 2014, “Guys and Dolls is, to my mind and even more my heart and soul, simply the greatest of all the classic musicals of Broadway’s golden age of over half a century ago. No show for me summonses a mythical, virtually mystical version of its own mean but colourful streets with as much serious style and witty panache as Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’s incisive, clever distillation of Damon Runyon’s classic story and characters, set to Frank Loesser’s irresistibly tuneful but acerbically pointed songs. ” My review for The Stage is here. Website: http://www.guysanddollsthemusical.co.uk/

9) A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare’s Globe has a new artistic director Emma Rice — who has admitted that not only has she not read all the plays but doesn’t understand them, either. But her debut production is a rollicking romp that is full of her own directorial trademarks yet also honours the play and its audience. I’ve seldom had such fun at the Globe — one of the happiest shows ever. See my review for londontheatre.co.uk here. Website: http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/globe-theatre/a-midsummer-nights-dream-2016

10) Funny Girl. London’s Menier Chocolate Factory is currently riding high on both sides of the Atlantic with hit transfers of The Color Purple (to Broadway, where London star Cynthia Erivo won this year’s Tony and the production Best Muiscal Revival) and Funny Girl (to the West End’s Savoy Theatre, marking this 1960s show’s first appearance in the West End since the original transferred from Broadway in 1966). Though star Sheridan Smith has temporarily (we hope) withdrawn from the show owing to ill-health, the show goes on with her brilliant understudy Natasha Barnes (pictured above) in the title role — I saw her do it at the Menier, and she, too, was amazing, as I wrote here at the time. See my review for The Stagehere. Website:  http://www.funnygirlthemusical.co.uk/