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

Lewisham College (just a regular FE college) Performing Arts students did that as a final year play. It was wild and brilliant. Thanks for the reminder 🤗.

I’m not a massive theatregoer but I loved Les Mis and am hoping to see it again this year. Sarah Snook in the one woman Portrait of Dorian Gray was fabulous. I really enjoyed the Years and 2:22 a Ghost Story.

Ooh just remembered Dear England with Joseph Fiennes (swoon)

Fiona Shaw as Katherine in the Taming of the Shrew was also amazing.

The Play That Goes Wrong

I have never laughed so much in my life. I couldn’t breathe. I was actually in pain.

Always love a Les Mis production but the best play I saw was The Audience starting Helen Mirren. Watching her transform through the ages was amazing.

Shadowlands with Jane Lapotaire and Nigel Hawthorne. We saw a matinee and couldn’t believe they had to do it again in the evening. It was emotional enough watching it.
The History Boys original cast
The Lehman Trilogy - came home and ordered the script.
The Importance of Being Earnest with Maggie Smith. Even though it was blazing hot, there was no air con and everyone stood outside in the interval.
War Horse.

Jamie Lloyd's Cyrano de Bergerac. It was mesmerising.

Did it have Alex Jennings as Oberon and Stella whose surname escapes me as Titania?

I saw that circa 1995!?

Undermined by Danny Mellor is a one-man show that I once saw at the Fringe too and was incredible. He toured with it for ages.

I saw Singing in the Rain recently and that was such an experience, the energy was infectious and I loved it. I usually enjoy the theatre and go to lots of different shows.

Comedy of Errors by the RSC at the Barbican in the 1990s was amazing. Just seen that the actor who played one of the sets of twins has just died :(.

Les mis, the only show I've paid to see 3 times.

Mama Mia, I was spellbound all the way from start to finish.

Oh we saw Hairspray on tour just after covid the atmosphere was amazing everyone was just glad to be out !

Moulin Rouge had been my favourite so far, there are quite a few more I would like to see. DS loved Hamilton.

Operation Mincemeat was brilliantly done

Also Sideshow and Carrie, both at the Southwark Playhouse. They've done lots of great stuff.

Ooh, Guys and Dolls and My Fair Lady too!

I'm fortunate to seen a lot of great stuff.

My favourite plays are "Ink" (put me off The Sun even more than before), and "Dear England" (brilliant, and I don't even like football!)

I saw a brilliant play at the Edinburgh Fringe about a decade ago about Jimmy Saville. Alistair McGowan was great. Disturbing.

The best musicals I've seen over many decades include The Hunting of the Snark, Napoléon, Come from Away and I'm very fond of Wicked.

Les Miserables, the 10th Anniversary Concert- they call it the dream cast for a reason.
Rachel Zegler in Evita. Watched the balcony scene from outside at the matinee, then went to the evening performance. Definitely goosebumps for both inside and outside the theatre for Don’t cry for me Argentina.
Hairspray just after the theatres had opened after covid. The atmosphere was incredible as both performers and artists were just so thankful to be seeing/ performing live theatre again.

My personal favourite was Nicole Scherzinger in Sunset Blvd. When she was announced, there was a lot of scepticism, which was astonishing to me because she’s so obviously talented. I loved seeing her basking in the triumph of pulling it off.

Seeing Paddington walk out on stage is a moment that will stay with you.

I think that Georgina Onuorah is a star to watch. I saw her in ALW’s Cinderella, and she was great, but then I saw her in a fairly controversial production of Oklahoma, and she blew me away.

Many of my favourites have been mentioned here already - To Kill a Mockingbird, Prima Facie, some memorable RSC performances dating all the way back to the 90s.

Another one that has stayed with me is Kneehigh Theatre's Brief Encounter. DH and I saw the original tour probably getting on for 20 years ago I think, and we were blown away. Much more recently we saw an amateur production of the same play (same script) at our local community theatre - which was very different, obviously much lower budget etc, but still absolutely brilliant in a different way. We go quite often to that theatre and that is without a doubt the best thing we've seen there

It’s crazy that so many of us have seen Les Mis multiple times and want to see it again! What a show.

It's interesting to see so many mentions of various productions of Hamlet. I've seen lots of Hamlets - Branagh twice (87 and mid 90s) and Mark Rylance, and a Welsh one, and someone else, and the Maxine Peake one, and I remember enjoying them at the time - except the Maxine Peake one which I detested so much it's become a running joke with my theatre friend. I wonder if Hamlet is a young person's play, because now I wouldn't see any production of Hamlet if you paid me any money, the character annoys me so much (like Houlden Caulfield).

Mercury Fur in a warehouse by Middle Child in Hull. It was an immersive experience. An ambulance had to be called as someone collapsed at the end, no one was sure if it was real or not, it was. It was a very shocking and powerful performance I will never forget.