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

[IVantToBeAlonee]

It’s National Theatre Day today.

For me, I think Nye, staring Michael Sheen is the best I’ve seen, thus far. Though, my answer is subject to change since I have a few shows coming up soon.

What is the best theatre show you’ve ever seen?

Ooh, Guys and Dolls and My Fair Lady too!

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

Operation Mincemeat was brilliantly done

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

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

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

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

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 :(.

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.

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.

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

I saw that circa 1995!?

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

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.

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.

The Play That Goes Wrong

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

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

Ooh just remembered Dear England with Joseph Fiennes (swoon)

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.

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).

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

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.

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.

Yes! Stella Gonet! The cast were fantastic.

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

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.