Theatre – 2019 Plays – Ranked
In 2019 I managed to see 49 different productions, of which I saw one (Present Laughter) 10 times, and another (Betrayal) 5 times. It was a lot of 3 play weekends, which was unusual, mainly because there were so many plays that were good/I wanted to see. I don’t think the there will be as many this year.. well, hopefully for my bank account there won’t LOL.
- The top 21 were all excellent in their way, and am glad I got to see them.
- The next 15 (22-36) were good, and worth the time to watch.
- The next lot (37-46) were ones that were ok, but if I hadn’t seen them I wouldn’t have worried about it.
- The last 2 (47-48) were ones I wished I hadn’t spent the time or money to bother.
Obviously this is my opinion, and probably/may differ completely from yours.. that’s the joy of art, it’s in the eye of the beholder.
| # | Play | Venue | Snapshot Thoughts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | On Bear Ridge | The Royal Court | The Welsh-ness, the things not said, and the delicious language |
| 2 | Present Laughter | The Old Vic | Noel Coward done right – hilariously heartbreaking |
| 3 | The Lehman Trilogy | 3 actors playing such diverse parts, surprisingly funny, as well as interesting | |
| 4 | Grief is the Thing With Feathers | The Barbican Theatre | Powerful, memorable, dark, but with hope |
| 5 | Betrayal | Harold Pinter Theatre | Intense performances, with a eye catching look, 3 parts on stage at all times |
| 6 | Lungs | The Old Vic | Conveying changes of time or location through minimal words, and real sounding tiffs |
| 7 | Pinter – A Slight Ache, The Dumb Waiter | Harold Pinter Theater | A Slight Ache – a ratio play on the stage with dark foreboding. Dumb Waiter – the build up in enclosed space to good effect |
| 8 | Death of a Salesman | Young Vic | An old standard given a whole new perspective by changing the cast to African Americans, powerful |
| 9 | Leave to Remain | Lyric Hammersmith | A musical with a sweet heartfelt soul, rooted for the 2 lovers throughout and was rightly rewarded |
| 10 | Pinter Plays – The Room, Victoria Station, Family Voices | Harold Pinter Theatre | All with stellar cast, especially Victoria Station?s solo taxi dispatcher |
| 11 | Pinter Plays – Party Time, Celebration | Harold Pinter Theatre | A glossy sheen over a dark foreboding reality |
| 12 | Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime | An excellent production, with imaginative staging, was not expecting it would be as good | |
| 13 | Thrill Me | The Hope Theatre | A tiny theatre venue, but with big ideas – stunning performance by Bart Lambert elevated the production |
| 14 | King John | RSC Stratford | Imaginative production, swapped John to be female but changed no lines and it worked totally. |
| 15 | Duchess of Malfi | The Almeida Theatre | Excellent staging, and intense and engaging cast |
| 16 | Richard III | Alexandra Palace Theatre | Could have gone quite wrong but Tom Mothersdale?s performance was superb and made the whole play |
| 17 | A Very Expensive Poison | The Old Vic | From such a terrible real story comes a brilliant, funny, imaginative, and thought provoking production |
| 18 | A German Life | The Bridge Theatre | Total immersion into Maggie Smith?s solo performance, with a difficult subject excellently written |
| 19 | A Midsummer Nights Dream | The Bridge Theatre | Another excellent Shakespeare at the Bridge – energetic production with hilarious gender swaps that work so well |
| 20 | Gently Down the Stream | Park Theatre | The leads brought heart and soul to the characters and swept you along with their story |
| 21 | The House of Yes | The Hope Theatre | Again this tiny venue delivers so much more depth, and again Bart Lambert shone, along with the twists and turns |
| 22 | The End of History | An unexpectedly moving end, with engaging cast | |
| 23 | The Night of the Iguana | A difficult play to get really right, but this cast and production created a cohesive and engaging production | |
| 24 | All About Eve | A master performance by Gillian Anderson, although the rest do not shine as brightly | |
| 25 | Rosmersholm | Excellent cast, with a truly lovely set, but I dislike the ending which however it?s done marrs the whole | |
| 26 | All My Sons | The Old Vic | An all star cast who take us with them on their journey through tragedy |
| 27 | The American Clock | The Old Vic | Arthur Miller with musical numbers and multiple cast as same character, interesting take which mostly worked |
| 28 | The Price | Could have tightened up the running time, but excellent cast | |
| 29 | Fleabag | Wish I could have seen it the first time it was performed, and unknowing of the Series, but still worked well | |
| 30 | A Day in the Death of Joe Egg | Trafalgar Theatre | Another difficult play to get really right, and on the night seemed not on which took a bit of the sheen away |
| 31 | Dark Sublime | A small production which took a bit too many plot points to do all justice, but engaging, fun and funny | |
| 32 | Sea Wall | Helen Hayes Theatre | Hard to see his with any one but Andrew Scott, decent but when you?ve seen definitive where can you go |
| 33 | Taming of the Shrew | Barbican Theatre | A solid production with gender swaps to have the females doing the chasing of the males, solid performances |
| 34 | Two Ladies | Started quite slow, and when it got the denouement it felt a little rushed, but the two leads were brilliant | |
| 35 | As You Like It | Audience participation, and laughs, not a play I really enjoy as find too many sub plots which blur the main theme | |
| 36 | A Life | Reasonably interesting premise but sickly silver lining ending marred it somewhat, would have preferred darker | |
| 37 | Whodunnit | Lead was not aware of the plot or other?s line until the actual performance which made for fun and games | |
| 38 | Nine Night | All the characters nipped and argued with each other and were generally unlikeable, despite a good cast | |
| 39 | Home I’m Darling | Reasonably fun, but ultimately easily forgotten story, but well produced and acted | |
| 40 | Summer and Smoke | The production didn?t work for me, so despite loving Tennessee Williams, the cast did not engage | |
| 41 | Sherlock and the Invisible Thing | A fun and light production for an afternoon theatre production | |
| 42 | The Tragedy of King Richard II | The Almeida Theatre | Too much of the story removed, and having cast play multiple characters confused, overall not interesting enough |
| 43 | Vienna 1934 – Munich 1938 – A Work in Progress | As this was a Work in Progress can?t really judge, but an interesting peek into Michael Redgrave?s world | |
| 44 | Sydney and The Old Girl | Park Theatre | Miriam Margolyes is a fine actor, but the story didn?t really engage |
| 45 | Vassa | The Bridge Theatre | An interesting set, but the production didn?t stay in the mind for long, despite a good cast |
| 46 | The Doctor | Almeida Theatre | The first part was engaging, but lost it?s way, and the plot twist was easily discerned |
| 47 | Europe | Donmar Warehouse | Not sure what the writer was going for, but there was a really impressive use of fire which is about all I remember |
| 48 | Fairview | Young Vic | Am not sure what this was, and reviews seem to think the same – but the obviousness of the theme missed for me |
| 49 | Sweet Charity | Donmar Warehouse | Could not get past this production?s lead?s singing voice which did not work for me at all, left at interval |