Favourite shows 2021 (in-person)

It’s quite nice to go back to this, although when I had a look through my list of shows it wasn’t too hard to choose a top 10 – the hardest thing was getting them in the right order… I haven’t seen all of the shows that have been put on since things reopened, for […]

Wuthering Heights: 2021-22 UK tour diary

As you’ll have probably guessed, this is pretty much the show I’ve been looking forward to for the past 18 months or so. I first read Wuthering Heights in 2018 and immediately thought it was ripe for adapting by a certain Emma Rice – and my wish must have reached her telepathically, as not too long […]

Shakespeare’s Globe: “Parting is such sweet sorrow”

Reading that the Globe may struggle to come back from this current crisis without the help of donations and emergency funding didn’t seem quite real. When they announced their forthcoming summer shows back in January, I must admit that I did wonder whether the rather bland programming had come about because there were some financial […]

Wish list: National Theatre At Home

Following on from the instant success of the first National Theatre At Home streaming event on Thursday night (Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors, starring James Corden), it’s got me thinking about all the other wonderful NT Live screenings that I’d love to come to the small screen as part of this series. Over the next […]

Day 1: Musical choices for 2020

It looks like it’s going to be a bit of a bumper year for musicals, both in London and across the country. The usual big hitters are still around, including the new production of Les Misérables which has recently begun performances at the Sondheim Theatre (formerly Queen’s Theatre), and a few imports will be making their […]

#MindTheBard 2019: round-up

Well then. I think it’s safe to say that this particular challenge week didn’t go according to plan! I did do a Shakespeare thing every day, to be fair, and this was the first challenge week to head outside of London for the last couple of shows – so that’s an achievement. I was on […]

#MindTheBard 2019: A Summer of Dreams

“What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?” A plethora of productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, that’s what! Yes, every year it seems that one or other of Shakespeare’s plays is the one to get your teeth into, and this summer that honour appears to have fallen on the much-loved comedy with fairies and mechanicals. At […]

Day 1: “Frailty, thy name is woman”

Ever since I started frequenting the Globe in 2016 and ramped up my Shakespeare intake, I’ve found myself embroiled in arguments over casting – more specifically, gender switches. I know I should leave well alone in the majority of cases, but it can be really hard not to challenge some of the ignorance people spout; […]

2019 mid-year update

Once again things started off steadily and sensibly, but then too much interesting sounding stuff (both in & out of London) came up and ended up taking over my diary… I may have again gone down in terms of the amount of shows I’ve seen in six months (103 different shows, 126 individual visits to theatres), but I […]

Day 4: Favourite musicals

No musicals week would be complete without a list, right? So that’s what today is all about – trying to figure out what my favourite musicals are. As I’ve seen hundreds of the things now (and that’s no exaggeration), it’s a slightly more difficult prospect than you might think; there’s an increasing range of genres […]