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Post by Being Alive on Dec 21, 2021 13:24:07 GMT
70 theatre trips this year - contrary to others I think it's been a pretty good year - but I guess a lot of this is from the joys of theatre returning and a lot of the reopening nights. But my top 5 shows of the year would be:
1. Anything Goes (Playhouse) 2. Cabaret (Kit Kat Klub) 3. South Pacific (Chichester) 4. Operation Mincemeat (Southwark Playhouse) 5. My Son's A Queer But What Can You Do (Turbine)
Only a couple of real duds for me which would be:
Priscilla (UK Tour) Back to the Future (Adelphi) Cinderella (Gillian Lynne)
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Post by Someone in a tree on Dec 21, 2021 13:56:00 GMT
A little night music - opera North Operation mincemeat Anything goes John and Jen Best of enemies
No howlers (I've stayed away from AlW and NT! ) but I was disappointed with DEH and Singing in the rain. Incidently this pair was the most expensive out of all of them. I've seen 30 shows and my average spend is £18. My average spend for the previous year was £33, so like the Lib Dems I'm winning!
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Post by londonpostie on Dec 21, 2021 14:19:11 GMT
Yep, not a great 6 months or so for me, either. Also seeing Spring Awakening on New Year's Eve but lets do the leg work anyway: 1. Happy Days (Sam Beckett, Hammersmith Riverside) 2. Anything Goes - presumably the winner this year 3. What If If Only (Caryl Churchill, Royal Court) 4. Rigoletto (Verdi/Mears, ROH) 5. tba
Difficult 5th choice but I'll go with a second piece of new writing - Old Bridge at The Bush for several reasons but mostly its interesting perspectives on memory and remembrance.
Out of my hands but I might end up on 50 shows at an average spend of £18.43, conincidentally the year I was born.
2/3 were plays, 1/3 opera/musical, contemporary dance, ballet and panto.
Most visited were the ROH and Old Vic.
All activites from end of June to end of year.
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Post by n1david on Dec 26, 2021 15:15:34 GMT
So it's Boxing Day, the telly's rubbish until Anything Goes comes on tonight, this might be a good time to come up with you 5 best shows of 2021. So far we have a total of 140 votes, there are some very strong shows you'd expect towards the top of the table and a few surprising Fringe-ish shows just bubbling under.
I can do mine now that everything left in my diary has been cancelled. Given the reviews for some of the stuff I've had cancelled, that might have made my selection more difficult - I got to a Top 9 very easily, but getting it down to 5 proved more difficult. But my votes are for (in chronological order)
Cruise (Duchess Theatre) - really hoping this gets another life, probably my surprise of the year. South Pacific (Chichester) Crisis What Crisis (New Diorama) The Tragedy of Macbeth (Almeida) Cabaret (KitKat Club, honest guv it's not the Playhouse Theatre)
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Post by zahidf on Dec 26, 2021 16:40:03 GMT
Top 5 plays of the year!
1. Normal heart (NT) 2. Macbeth (almeida) 3. Anything Goes (barbican) 4. Pride and prejudice (sort of) (criterion theatre) 5. Shark is broken (ambassadors theatre)
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Post by amuseical on Dec 26, 2021 20:05:59 GMT
Of the 49 shows I managed to see in the past five months, my top five (in no particular order) are:
Operation Mincemeat (Southwark Playhouse) Indecent (Menier Chocolate Factory) Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) (Criterion Theatre) Red Riding Hood (Theatre Royal Stratford East) Mario: A Super Musical (Union Theatre)
Special mentions for Little Women, John and Jen, Yellowfin, and Amélie.
Four first previews, three closing nights, and somehow zero of the shows I booked were cancelled.
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Post by David J on Dec 27, 2021 20:40:50 GMT
My top 5. Haven't seen many this year and am including ones I've seen before. - The Play That Goes Wrong (London back in June)
- Anything Goes
- South Pacific
- Spring Awakening
- A Christmas Carol (Old Vic)
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 27, 2021 21:47:28 GMT
I'm impressed that people have seen enough to have a top 5. I've only seen 7 different shows in 2021 (though I have seen 2 ballets multiple times with different casts) & of those 7 only 2 are ones I'd never seen before. Thinking before attending each show "Do I really want to see this enough to risk getting covid" really helps to concentrate one's theatregoing!
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Post by peggs on Dec 27, 2021 23:37:31 GMT
Me too, I have sat/stood there and thought this was not worth risking covid for several times, it's the new judgement it seems for me and more often than not for the I think nine things I saw it was not remotely worth it.
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Post by Mark on Dec 27, 2021 23:49:11 GMT
81 theatre visits for me. Lots of repeats as I've tried to see everything again as they've reopened.
No Particular order -
Bedknobs and Broomsticks Leopoldstadt Spring Awakening Anything Goes Cabaret
(Including Anything Goes here even though I saw the same production on Broadway 10 years back. It really was great).
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Post by Jan on Dec 28, 2021 9:17:44 GMT
Couple of worst show awards for the Orange Tree above I see. They should stop doing new plays, they are hopeless at picking them and their audience aren’t much interested anyway.
Worst thing I saw, and it was really bad, was Miss Julie at Southwark Playhouse. Updated to pander to the identity politics enthusiasts by having the two main characters swap racist insults it embodied the very thing it was trying to oppose. One felt sorry for the actors. And Strinberg.
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Post by londonpostie on Dec 28, 2021 19:51:53 GMT
How about disappointing theatres?
At this rate the Dorfman will end up as a community centre, specialising in Covid jabs and jumble, and over-50s Pilates on Wed mornings. I loved the place for its artistic ambition, can't bear to see what's happened. Ended my membership because of it.
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Post by nottobe on Dec 29, 2021 17:30:34 GMT
My Top 5 shows this year are 1- Carousel (Regents Park) 2- Afterlife (National Theatre) 3- Cabaret (Kit Kat Club) 4- A Christmas Carol (Old Vic) 5- The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage (Bridge Theatre)
A very close for 5 is South Pacific at Chichester.
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Post by robertb213 on Dec 30, 2021 22:09:10 GMT
55 visits for me, not too shabby as I only resumed activities in June. Also over half of them were free (either volunteering or reviewing), so pretty pleased with that.
My favourite 5 (no particular order):
The Hunchback Of Notre Dame @ Manchester Cathedral A Chorus Line @ Curve The Life Of Pi @ Wyndhams The Ocean At The End Of The Lane @ Duke Of Yorks Bedknobs & Broomsticks (tour)
I decided to exclude Anything Goes, I think it was a little overhyped and it'll undoubtedly win anyway so I thought I'd give some love to other shows 😁
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Post by romeo94 on Dec 31, 2021 0:36:38 GMT
Mine are:
1. Afterlife (National) 2. The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Lyric Hammersmith) 3. South Pacific (Chichester) 4. Spring Awakening (Almeida) 5. Anything Goes (Barbican)
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Post by theatrefan77 on Dec 31, 2021 1:23:30 GMT
My top 5 this year:
- The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage (Bridge) - The Normal Heart (National) - Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike (Charing Cross) - Anything Goes (Barbican) - Cabaret (KitKat Club aka Playhouse)
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Post by n1david on Dec 31, 2021 9:27:09 GMT
Last call for votes please! As some people have surmised, we have a runaway winner this year (unless the "Manor" fans stage a guerrilla action on the board today), but it's very tight underneath that with about a dozen shows jostling for the Top 5. In terms of overall votes we are slightly ahead of last year but it would be nice to get some more. Remember, you don't have to have a whole Top 5, if you just saw one or two shows and loved them, please let us know so that I can include your views.
Cutoff is midnight tonight, I will post the results tomorrow after my socially-distanced New Year hangover recedes.
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Post by dontdreamit on Dec 31, 2021 9:58:11 GMT
I managed 23 performances this year, many were repeat visits. Not bad considering that was in the second half of the year when theatres began to open back up again.
1. Joseph, specifically with Linzi. Her first show back... absolutely magical! 2. Bat Out Of Hell tour- for a while I didn’t think the tour would ever actually happen but it did and I managed 2 dates on the first leg. 3. Carousel 4. Hairspray 5. Six
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Post by jgblunners on Dec 31, 2021 14:56:32 GMT
I got to 53 performances this year, a small improvement on 39 in 2020. It's been a really challenging time for theatre makers and I'm immensely grateful to everyone who persevered and continued to provide stunning productions despite little to no support for the creative sectors during the pandemic. My top 5 is:
1. Anything Goes (Barbican) 2. Carousel (Regent's Park Open Air) 3. The Last 5 Years (Garrick) 4. Joseph and the... (Palladium), specifically with Linzi Hateley! 5. Wonderful Town (Holland Park)
Happy New Year everyone and may 2022 bring us all may more wonderful theatrical experiences!
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Post by Wilf on Dec 31, 2021 15:07:32 GMT
Only managed a few shows mainly local. 1 What’s new pussycat? Birmingham Rep 2 &Juliet 3 Jersey Boys The Alex Birmingham 4 Heathers The Alex 5 Chicago The Grand Wolverhampton
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Post by david on Dec 31, 2021 16:11:39 GMT
My top 5 -
1. Anything Goes 2. South Pacific 3. What's New Pussycat? 4. The Normal Heart 5. Joseph
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Post by jamb0r on Dec 31, 2021 17:21:34 GMT
1. Spring Awakening 2. Life of Pi 3. Bedknobs & Broomsticks 4. Anything Goes 5. Cabaret
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Post by supongo on Dec 31, 2021 19:11:14 GMT
1. Jenufa (ROH) 2. Macbeth (Almeida) 3. Come From Away 4. Constellations (Atim/Jeremiah) 5. Anything Goes
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Post by lichtie on Dec 31, 2021 21:29:14 GMT
I've excluded things I've seen in previous years (or else Christmas Carol and P&P Sort of would be in here too somewhere). Note sure about the order of the rest but here goes... 1. Operation Mincemeat (SP) 2. Afterlife (Dorfman) 3. East is East (Lyttleton) 4. Camp Siegfried (OV) 5. Anna X (Pinter)
Turkey of the year probably goes to one of the Globe productions but it's hard to pick which one was poorest.
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Post by n1david on Jan 1, 2022 9:45:31 GMT
Happy New Year everyone!
Thanks everyone once again for your contributions for this, the fourth annual “Pick of the Board”.
This year we had 220 votes in total, which is up somewhat from last year’s 173 votes but still a way short from 2019’s 326 and 2018’s 298.
We had votes for a total of 95 productions, which is quite a lot fewer than last year’s 126, so there’s quite a bit more concentration at the top end - last year’s winner, Uncle Vanya got only 6.5 votes so this year’s winner has absolutely run away with things as earlier predicted.
So without further ado I can announce that the Favourite Show of the Year amongst Theatreboard posters (who cast a vote) is…
ANYTHING GOES with a massive 26 votes.
Tied in second place were the top-rated play, the Almeida's Tragedy of Macbeth, and another of this year's big-budget musicals, Cabaret with 10 votes. Next in fourth came the Normal Heart from the NT with 9 votes. There wasn't much love for the other shows in the Olivier or Lyttleton this year with only one vote across the entire repertoire this year.
In fifth place was the highest-placed non-London show, South Pacific in Chichester with 8 votes. It will be interesting to see whether the tour and London run of this yields some more votes for the show this year.
A nod to Joseph in sixth with 7 votes, and the top Fringe show in seventh with Operation Mincemeat with 6.5. With another run already heavily sold this year, it will be interesting to see if this continues to grow support.
Then three productions tying in joint 8th with 6 votes - two new ones Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) and Spring Awakening - the latter topping a good year for the Almeida given the number of cancelled shows before Christmas. And Come From Away in there too also on 6.
As ever, the scores are not really the important thing, and it’s been great to see the diversity of shows that posters have enjoyed, there being a long list of 60 productions, often in small venues or for short runs, which each got 1 vote from somebody. That shows such an impressive range of theatre-making in this country, and I hope all our theatre-makers know how much their work is appreciated, even if the final product doesn’t always meet with universal approval.
Let’s hope (again) I have more votes to count next year - same place same time?
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Post by stevemar on Jan 1, 2022 12:10:26 GMT
Thanks for compiling the votes n1 david - hope you had a lovely new year!
That has got to be the biggest landslide number 1 hasn’t it? Glad I got to see most of the top shows there (Cabaret to come). Obviously I’m a man of impeccable taste..🙄.
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Post by n1david on Jan 1, 2022 12:44:54 GMT
That has got to be the biggest landslide number 1 hasn’t it? In 2018, Company actually got a larger share of the votes in total than Anything Goes but didn't have as big a margin over the no.2, The Inheritance - that ended up 31 to 21. 2019 was a bit closer but Come From Away still finished up nearly 10 votes ahead. So it seems like each year there's one big musical that just about everyone agrees on. Voting on plays tend to be more diverse and we seem to end up with two or three plays that vie for the position of top play. Totally unscientific of course but I do find it interesting each year what bubbles to the top. Shows that run over Christmas suffer as some people will see them in Nov/Dec and others in the New Year, and in 2018 and 2019 there seemed to be a recency bias, with people voting for shows that ran later in the year, maybe forgetting what they'd seen earlier in the year. It'll be interesting to see next year if the new runs of Anything Goes and South Pacific have any significant impact, and whether Cabaret's recasting prompts fresh votes or not.
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Post by Jan on Jan 1, 2022 13:17:56 GMT
That has got to be the biggest landslide number 1 hasn’t it? In 2018, Company actually got a larger share of the votes in total than Anything Goes but didn't have as big a margin over the no.2, The Inheritance - that ended up 31 to 21. 2019 was a bit closer but Come From Away still finished up nearly 10 votes ahead. So it seems like each year there's one big musical that just about everyone agrees on. Voting on plays tend to be more diverse and we seem to end up with two or three plays that vie for the position of top play. Totally unscientific of course but I do find it interesting each year what bubbles to the top. Shows that run over Christmas suffer as some people will see them in Nov/Dec and others in the New Year, and in 2018 and 2019 there seemed to be a recency bias, with people voting for shows that ran later in the year, maybe forgetting what they'd seen earlier in the year. It'll be interesting to see next year if the new runs of Anything Goes and South Pacific have any significant impact, and whether Cabaret's recasting prompts fresh votes or not. My impression is there's usually a bias towards musicals ?
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Post by n1david on Jan 1, 2022 13:35:37 GMT
My impression is there's usually a bias towards musicals ? Only slightly. This year (based on my back-of-envelope calculation) we got 120 votes in total for musicals and 90 for plays (the rest being operas, ballet, concerts etc). But there were a total of 34 musicals named and 49 plays. So the "average" musical got 3.5 votes but the "average" play just 1.8. There's a slight bias in the overall voting towards to musicals, but the final result is generally more influenced by the fact that plays tend to have limited runs, compared to a musical which might run all year, so they have a smaller audience overall. Also anecdotally on this board there seems to be more of a tendency for people to see a musical more than once, which is more unusual for plays. So someone might see five musicals three times and that's how they list their Top 5, but someone who sees more plays sees 15 plays over the same period, but can only vote for 5 of them, so ten of the plays don't get a vote. If that's repeated amongst multiple members, then the musicals will inevitably end up ahead. But that's conjecture.
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