2020: A few of my favourite things

I’m not going to have a go at anyone who has posted a list of their favourite things from 2020, or what they consider to be the best; we’re all dealing with the current situation in our own way, and for some people it’s easiest to carry on with as many ‘normal’ things as possible […]

Mind the Advent 2020

After a break in 2019, I decided to revive #MindTheAdvent for 2020 – and of course focused on the array of online theatre that proliferated from March onwards… #MindTheAdvent Day 1: I have to begin with the show that started it all… @TSMGOnlineLive's The Two Gentlemen of Verona! Little did we all know how TSMGO would take […]

2020 mid-year update

Against my usual penchant for starting off slowly and then steadily heading for entropy, I went straight in at the deep end this year: my first week back in London (& the first full week of the year) was set down as #MindTheMusicals 2020! That means, of course, I began my theatregoing year by […]

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 […]

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 […]

Coming up in 2020…

What I’d usually do here is say I’m aiming to be sensible again, but that clearly doesn’t work – at the most it lasts about one or two months and then anything goes… So I’ll just say that I’ll think carefully about my reviewing commitments, and then everything else can sort itself out organically. What […]

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 […]

Emma Rice 2018: a summary

After previously taking on Shakespeare and puppetry, there could be no other choice this year than the brilliant Emma Rice – with her final winter season at the Globe coming to a close, and Wise Children taking its first steps, it’s been another eventful 12 months for her. There have also been tours of her […]

Missed The Boat: Amélie

This is another missed opportunity from last year’s New York trip – particularly given that it was still in previews when I was over there, so potentially a slightly lower demand and price range… But it wasn’t to be (as you know, I didn’t end up seeing any show in a Broadway theater) and given […]

Emma Rice at the Globe: top 10

It’s officially into Emma Rice’s last week at Shakespeare’s Globe, and I’m fully expecting to have a meltdown come Saturday evening… So while I’m still functioning, I thought it would be great to celebrate some of my favourite things about her time as the artistic director of the Globe – both from her shows and […]