AIBU to ask what is the best theatre show you have seen?

It’s hard to pick one, from different genres. DH quite often comes out of a theatre saying that was the best thing he’s seen - we’ve been lucky enough to go to a few shows this year including some which were excellent so Othello (Toby Jones and David Harewood), Into the Woods and Operation Mincemeat. If pushed his best of all time would be The Producers at Manchester Royal Exchange a few years ago.

Mine, on reflection, would be a production of Merchant of Venice I saw in Harrogate well over 30 years go. They’d framed it as being performed by Jewish prisoners in a concentration camp (such performances of plays and music really did happen). The first half was staged as rehearsal, but the second half was the performance, with the viewers in the position of the German audience. The actors playing Jewish characters had grotesque makeup and noses. Towards the end, Shylock addressed his speech directly to the audience and tore off the nose whereat he was shot by a guard. The actors were compelled to continue, with the body lying there - and continued to lie there until after we left. So we were put in the position of complicity with the atrocity.
Im not sure if I've described it adequately but the emotional punch was immense and stayed with me.

Les Miserables!

Overall favourite was Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake.

Musical: Mary Poppins. So many good ones.

Biggest emotional experience: Les Mis. Got a cheap ticket with my sibling when we were teens, knew nothing of the story and were blown away.

Play: Christopher Ecclestone in Hamlet.

We saw that recently, not with him though. Samantha Janus played the psychologist, was pretty good

Probably the first time we saw Wicked. Loved it unexpectedly & my the 7 y/o dd was obsessed with the songs for about a year after. Wasn't quite the same 2nd time around.

We're going to see Fawlty Towers, Back To The Future & Woman in Black this year

Les Mis is my favourite followed closely by Jesus Christ Superstar.

I love musicals, Hairspray is also fantastic.

I've never seen a bad show there- MND, Guys and Dolls, Julius Caesar and the current Into the Woods- all absolutely brilliant.

Probably Macbeth with Dorothy Tutin and Albert Finney.

Perhaps everything at the Bridge is excellent!

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Barbican was fantastic. A long time ago. Ditto Private Lives with Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan. More recently, Guys and Dolls at the Bridge Theatre. Outstanding

I adore come from away for it’s poignancy.
For laughing till I was sore Shucked.
Jesus Christ Super Star at the Watermill for really making me feel I was in the garden when Jesus was arrested.
As the mum of a performer I would just encourage people to see as much live theatre as possible, local theatres, funny quirky venues and the west end. Performers live to transport you away from your every day life and tell you a story.

The Midsummer Nights Dream at the Bridge a few years ago that had Gwendolyn Christie in absolutely blew me away.
The staging, the music I was transfixed.

Musical- Mary Poppins

Non Musical- Brief Encounter

That was an incredible show, I also Christian Slater in it a few years prior and it was just as good then. I also saw him in Glengarry Glenross, then Rob Lowe/John Barrowman, Suranne Jones and Jim Fenner from Bad Girls (cant remember his name). Amazing performances, they are such good actors it was all so powerful.

Jesus Christ Superstar is my all tine favourite, Tim Minchen was particularly good in it but most productions are very good.

I saw Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian in Las Vegas which was pretty special as its a purpose built theatre.

I have seen so many incl Cabaret over the year but bucket list is to see the latest production and sit on front tables.

One I missed but wish I'd seen was the most recent productions of 42nd Street. Its a brilliant show and the main number is quite breathtaking.

James Norton in A Little Life at the Harold Pinter theatre in 2023. Saw it twice alone, it was something else.

The play that goes wrong is absolutely brilliant and so clever, laughed so much. Come from away is an amazing musical and such a poignant time in history, the staging is fabulous and it just makes you laugh and cry, I loved it and highly recommend it (but not sure if it’s still on!)

[SPOILERS] He was caught and jailed, and later did a degree in, I think, Criminology, while taking part in a programme of restorative justice, where he met and became close friends with the parents of the lad he killed. He now campaigns against violence. Remarkable true story.

Yes - Alex Jennings, and Stella Gonet was Hippolyta / Titania. Also the late Desmond Barrit (see post above re the announcement today), Daniel Evans (now Joint Artistic Director of the RSC), and Toby Stephens (son of Dame Maggie Smith), among others.
When it transferred to The Barbican, Lindsay Duncan took over from Stella Gonet and Daniel Evans was “promoted” from Flute to Lysander. This performance was available on DVD.

I’ve been very lucky to see a lot of theatre over the years, I find West End prices so high these days that it’s a much rarer treat. I’m reminded by the posts above of some great shows - lots of shows at the RSC in Stratford on Avon in the 1990s. Guys & Dolls at The Bridge, Return to the Forbidden Planet, Simon Russell Beale as Ariel; Fiddler on the Roof; Sweeney Todd with Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton … I love musicals and would see Les Mis any day of the week. I wouldn’t go and see The Book of Mormon again - unfunny and mysoginistic, and I loved South Park so I’m not easily offended. Saw ‘Ballet Shoes’ recently and it’s great.

Absolute stand-out, shiver down the spine moments though: Paul Scofield and Simon Callow in Amadeus - 1979. Unforgettable.
Copenhagen - can’t remember the actors but an amazing play
Fiona Shaw reading ‘The Wasteland’ at Wilton’s Music Hall in East London
James McAvoy as Cyrano de Bergerac

if we can extend to opera - I’m not a huge fan, but Bryn Terfel as Peter Grimes left me absolutely reeling.

Live theatre at any level is better than tv and we’re lucky to have so much available.

There are two:

A. Miss Saigon at The Theatre Royal Drury Lane with Lea Salonga & Jonathan Pryce. I will never get over the helicopter onstage

B. Othello @ The Donmar in 2008 starring Chiewetel Ejiofor, Kelly Reilly, Michelle Fairley & Ewen McGregor, for which I queued for a £10 standing ticket and after the interval someone left so I got a seat. The only cast member I didn’t rate was Ewen McGregor

Yes! Stella Gonet! The cast were fantastic.

I really I’d seen Billie Piper in Yerma, I’ve only seen the NT Live showing and it was unflinchingly raw. Live it must have been breathtaking.

Anthony Sher in Richard III with the RSC at the Barbican in 1985. It was magnificent. He was utterly fantastic. His book The Year of the King is a great account of how he prepared for it.

I got up at 6am to queue for day tickets. Twice!

David Tennant, Sharon Small and Elliot Levy in Good were also brilliant. Sharon Small was incredible.

Oh and Tristan and Yseult by Kneehigh Theatre Company. I saw it in Leeds in 2005, and then again a short while later (maybe a week or two?) in Salford. I was single at the time and I absolutely sobbed at the chorus of the broken-hearted when they said ‘where does all the wasted love go?’ I met ly now husband a month or so later.
I really miss them as a company. They were innovative and magical.

Without a doubt, Book of Mormon.
Very near the mark and highly offensive, but great characters, great songs and abso-bloody-lutely hilarious!

Years ago I saw 'Death of a Salesman' with Warren Mitchell (best known as Alf Garnett in 'Til Death do us Part'). He won an Olivier award for his performance. Unforgettable.

More recently, 'The Mousetrap' which was brilliant.

Musicals: Les Mis (of course).