Message In A Bottle

“More loneliness than any man could bear, rescue me before I fall into despair…” There are certain bands and artists that it’s almost cool to dislike or ridicule; Coldplay is probably the best modern example, but often it ends up being a selection of groups or singers from a previous generation – your mum still […]

Day 6: Missed The Boat: Billy Elliot

I’m not sure why I didn’t see this one. Towards the end of its West End life I had the incentive of a Sunny alumnus being in the cast, so I should really have made it there then – the problem was that Victoria always felt very out of the way at that point, plus […]

Day 4: Missed The Boat: Stephen Ward

I very nearly did see this one, but it opened and closed so swiftly that I didn’t really have the chance – I wasn’t living in London at that point, so a bit more planning was required for my theatre trips. I must admit that I was also a little put off by a snippet of […]

Day 3: “All the men and women merely players”

Over the past few years, audience behaviour has probably been the biggest gripe to regular theatregoers (I refuse to continue to use the elitist label ‘theatre etiquette’), but a new contender stealthily emerged during 2019: stunt casting. It’s not like it’s a new thing at all; most big tours will employ a ‘face’ as a […]

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 […]

Most popular posts of 2019

In terms of total views, 2018 was a bit of a freak year – so 2019 hasn’t managed to live up to it. However, it has continued on the trajectory that we would have been on had Mind the Blog 2018 not been so ridiculously popular… And, as ever, I’ve been watching the stats page […]

End of 2019 report

Well, it’s been quite a year, hasn’t it? The less said about the political landscape the better, except for the fact that it’s probably given James Graham enough material to last a lifetime… I can’t help but wish that I had some play writing ability to lighten the load (and for my own catharsis)! Back […]

Favourite shows 2019

Whilst I didn’t see as many shows as last year, I don’t think I had quite such a good run of shows in 2018 as I have this year – so making this list was no mean feat. As usual, there were some which were ineligible for the list as I’d seen them last year; […]

Worst shows 2019

Despite how it seemed at times, my year has actually been top quality in theatre terms. I nominate my likes and dislikes as I go through the year, and this time round only ten made it onto my ‘long’ list for worst show (compared with well over 50 for best show) – so it was […]