My year in theatre - 2025

The Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London

I've seen more shows in one year than most people see in a lifetime and my life is all the richer for it. I don't read many books (I never have) so my exposure to new ideas is primarily through theatre and I'm as happy seeing a West End blockbuster as a fringe gem. I'm also happy to try new formats and genres, although I'm still on the fence with 'immersive' theatre but I'll keep trying. I've reviewed a number of shows this year and I'm slowly adding all the ones with my name on them to my blog (I've ghost written and co-written a few as well but am not credited).

Anyway, this is a summary of my year in theatre:

163 shows seen (not including concerts)

Most visited venue - The National Theatre (where I'll be again next week watching Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves in End) but fringe venues also get a decent look-in. 

My smallest venue was the etcetera theatre in Camden with just 42 seats and the biggest, the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith with over 3,000. The Museum of Comedy was a newly discovered gem - a lovely, intimate,, basement venue in Bloomsbury.

About a third of what I see are musicals. I thought it would have been more than that as I do love a good musical.

January and April were my busiest months with 20 and 22 shows seen respectively. November was my quietest month with only 8 shows, but that was down to being away for work for half the month.

And I've even ventured out of London to see a couple of things (must make more of an effort for out-of-London trips next year)

So what's been good, what's been not good and what am I looking forward to in 2026...

Plays: 

1. Punch (Young Vic/West End) (hard hitting, emotional, great writing and a true story from my favourite contemporary playwright, James Graham - a schools tour is coming soon)

2. Kenrex at The Other Palace (booking until end Jan) (I was riveted throughout. Just wow. Also based on a true story)

3. Much Ado About Nothing at Drury Lane  (About the most perfect version of any Shakespeare play I've ever seen and supersedes my previous favourite, The Bridge Theatre's Midsummer Night's Dream)

Honourable mentions: Kyoto (RSC), Til The Stars Come Down (National), Dear England (National)

Musicals:

1. Just for One Day (booking until February at The Shaftesbury Theatre) - it's a great retelling of an important part of modern cultural history with fantastic music. I've seen it three times!

2. Evita - Jamie Lloyd did what he does best with Evita. He threw all his motifs at it, but they all worked. Rachel Zegler and Diego Rodriguez were fabulous in the lead roles. I also saw the balcony scene twice which was also wonderful.

3. The Producers (booking until at least the Spring) - fast-paced and utterly hilarious. I laughed so much that the next day it felt like I'd done a workout!

Honourable mentions: Shucked (Regents Park), London Road (National), Oliver (Simon Lipkin makes a great Fagin in this faithful restaging of the familiar story and it's booking for 12 months-ish so it's doing well) and Tina Turner (now on tour)

Off West End /Fringe

1. Murmuration Level 2 at The Peacock theatre was a clever and beautiful dance production. The cast moved as one organism. Quite something to behold. You can find out more about them here.

2. Dimanche was gorgeous with wonderful puppetry and movement and was part of the annual MimeLondon season (there were many treats as part of the festival such as Moby Dick and Manekine).

3. Sing Street was a lot of fun with youthful energy and great music (I hear rumours of a West End transfer)

Honourable mentions: Salty Brine (Soho Theatre), Tones A Hip Hop Opera by Gerel Falconer at Brixton House, In The Dark (back in the Spring with new immersive music experiences), Ada Campe's Behind The Nightlight (who has a show coming up at Crazy Coqs soon)

Worst show

1. Bacchanalia at Hoxton was not a good experience, not least witnessing some punters and their sordid voyeurism leering at the young cast. Even without that, it summed up everything I dislike about the 'immersive' genre. 

2. Bettie Page (the musical) - good idea in principal but poorly executed. There is a story in there to be told but this version wasn't it. 

3. Stiletto was one of those that looked good on paper and had high production values - the set and costumes were lush with a good band and one of the largest casts I've seen at Charing Cross Theatre. However, this musical lurched back and forth between drama and parody and ended up being neither. And it was so overblown. And why is no-one talking about the 'Thriller' style zombie dance? What on earth was that about? And why wasn't there a counter-tenor on stage? I know they're not that common, but they do exist.

(Dis)honourable mentions: Salome, Saving Mozart 

Overall favourites 

1. Punch

2. Kenrex

3. Just for One Day

Most looking forward to:

1 Paddington - I have my ticket but it's months and months away!

2. Something Rotten - I saw the concert version with Jason Manford and Richard Fleeshman in the leading roles and can't wait to see them again.

3. Waitress - I've never seen the whole thing, only clips on YouTube and I love the song She Used To Be Mine so I'm looking forward to catching it on tour.

4. Avenue Q - I never saw it in the West End but know some of the songs which are so funny.

5. Cats - I never saw it back in the day but know all the songs and I need to expunge the dreadful movie version with something (hopefully) much better from Drew Maconie at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre.

City of Floating Sounds by Huang Ruo and the BBC Concert Orchestra at Southbank Centre

You're going to pique my interest immediately when you have a performance that combines mobile technology with art, music or theatre. I've been working in mobile technology for 25 years and I love to see and experience new ways of using existing technologies in an effective, interesting, useful or unusual way. So when I saw the following blurb, you can imagine I was interested to know more:

"Picture the scene: dozens of strangers meet at select locations around London and walk through the city together, playing different strands of Huang Ruo’s City of Floating Sounds out loud from a bespoke app,creating a full symphony as they go. Sound intriguing? Grab your phone and some comfy shoes and join a moving orchestra!"

I rallied a few friends, organised our tickets and we met on a gorgeous, sunny, warm evening at Victoria Embankment Gardens and joined the crowd to form this so-called moving orchestra. The weather could not have been better for it. I can't imagine it would be much fun in the rain. We set off in a somewhat higgledy piggledy fashion along the north bank. We weren't given any instructions although there were clearly visible Southbank reps on hand. A QR code with a link to download the app would have been useful. A reminder that the sound would be better if we stayed closer together (after all, each phone was playing a different sound) and that you needed to have your volume on full and your screen on low to conserve battery power would have been helpful. As we walked along the road to Embankment Gardens, it was hard to hear any music due to traffic noises, other pedestrians and lots of chatting amongst ourselves. Maybe that's the point that we just heard snippets at this point as we adjusted to the immersive nature of the experience. 

Once we hit the gardens, the experience was infinitely better. We had more critical mass in terms of people together and there was much less traffic noise to contend with. It was also really fun to walk past bemused people in the park wondering what it was that they were witnessing. Some paid no attention whatsoever and carried on with their conversations, phone calls and doom scrolling but others were really intrigued and were watching us quite intently. 

As we headed towards Hungerford Bridge, we lost critical mass again as people dispersed across the bridge at different speeds. This was a shame, but my group did get talking to passers by to explain what it was they were witnessing. At the culmination in front of the Southbank, the sound grew. There were large speakers on the terrace, and the sound grew as people arrived. However, many people turned the app off or put their phones away once they arrived at the Southbank which was a shame. Our phones were still playing different things, and if more people had kept their phones out playing the music, the experience would have been better. Again, signage, a QR code and encouraging those milling around the Southbank to join in might have been good.

After a short break, we headed into the concert itself, where we enjoyed a full, live orchestra performance of the piece by composer Huang Ruo. We also heard two shorter pieces by Advaith Jagannath and Arvo Part. The acoustics in the Festival Hall are fantastic so it's always a pleasure to experience a full orchestra in there. For the two shorter pieces, we were treated to fantastic percussion. I do love a bit of timpani. 

I find writing about music quite hard. Although I sing a bit, play piano (albeit extremely rustily) and can read music, I don't have the vocabulary or depth of knowledge to truly describe it to someone else. The main piece was meditative - multiple loops that fitted together but were ever so slightly discordant. Not dissimilar to many of our lived experiences being in a city. We can wonder at the majesty of the River Thames, admire the skill and beauty of the architecture and art around us, yet baulk at the sweaty tube, busy roads and grumpy people around us. It's every so slightly jarring, and I felt that in the music. The structure of the piece sounded like it was perhaps in rounds, with repetition of themes. It made me wonder if you could create a similar effect using a loop or sampler pedal. The overall effect of the music felt representative of a tidal river, perhaps, as it ebbs and flows or even the microcurrents that may exist within it. Ultimately, it was a meditation on city life.

The immersive element of the programme was my favourite part, and it would have been good if more could have been made of what was almost like a flashmob. Would I listen to Ruo's piece again? Possibly not but I would most definitely participate in another mobile phone moving orchestra.