The National, the RSC, the Old Vic the Barbican and the Globe
The National goes from strength to strength. While there is the odd production has not quite hit the highest of standards that the theatre naturally leads on to expect, the vast majority certainly do and, yet again, one of the very best nights out in London this year emanated from there.
While the combination of Sir Nicholas Hytner and Simon Russell Beale is almost always successful, it was still something of a surprise to see what they managed to achieve with Timon of Athens, hardly one of the most popular works from Shakespeare's canon.
In modern dress, making allusions to contemporary social and political life, the play suddenly made perfect sense where it never had previously.
Another piece from a much newer playwright making his National debut in the Cottesloe before a transfer to the Olivier was James Graham's This House.
Again, on the face of it a play about behind-the-scenes politicking in the late 1970s does not sound like material for a rave review. In fact, it proved to be engrossing throughout, helped by Rae Smith's design which turned the theatre into the chamber of the House of Commons.
Another potentially risky venture that came off was the revival of Howard Barker's Scenes from an Execution starring Fiona Shaw. Both the acting and staging by Tom Cairns ensured a highly entertaining evening. Having said that, the failing stage machinery on opening night almost meant that it didn't finish
The news that Alan Bennett has written a new play always raises expectations to fever pitch. If People, his comedy about ageing gentility, did not quite get the rave reviews that one would expect, that is only because he has raised his own bar so high.
In fact, the comedy was rich and absolutely characteristic of one of our greatest playwrights.
Looking much further back, Jamie Lloyd directed a solid if not sensational revival of Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer with the younger members of the cast particularly strong in support of TV favourite Steve Pemberton.
Sir Anthony Sher made a relatively rare stage appearance in Nicholas Wright's Travelling Light, a play that took a witty look at the early days of cinema through the medium of an impoverished Russian Jewish family around the turn of the last century. The combination of humour and education proved intoxicating.
Covering a similar period, George Bernard Shaw's The Doctor's Dilemma received a very welcome revival in the hands of young director, Nadia Fall. With the assistance of Aden Gillett and a strong supporting cast, she made viewers realise what a good play this is.
The National always takes its responsibilities seriously and in addition to a Shakespeare and other revivals of relatively modern classics, ensures that there is at least one Greek tragedy in most years.
In 2012, young director Polly Findlay provided a punchy Antigone set in modern-day central Europe starring Jodie Whitaker in the title role with Christopher Eccleston as King Creon.
Another theme that the National has actively pursued under its supremely successful Artistic Director is shows for younger audiences. Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has proved to be an implausibly popular novel. It was however never going to be an easy one to stage but the combination of Simon Stephens adapting and Marianne Elliott directing created a strong theatrical work that is due to transfer into the West End early in 2013.
Lucy Prebble's The Effect came with high expectations since, like her epic success Enron, it was directed by Rupert Goold.
While there is much to commend in this play about scientific experimentation and human foibles, it did not quite live up to the hype.
This year's Christmas show was Arthur Wing Pinero's The Magistrate starring American favourite John Lithgow. His accent was accurate throughout a breathless farce given a mildly eccentric but totally logical makeover by Timothy Sheader.
The RSC had a busy time at an assortment of London venues, partly as a result of the World Shakespeare Festival.
Early in the year, they occupied their new London home, The Roundhouse, for a season of three shipwreck plays.
The season opened with two comedies, The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night. Both were exceedingly funny and benefited from a stage space that thrust its way right into the heart of the audience.
The former, in the hands of Amir Nizar Zuabi, became "not so much a Comedy as a Carry On Farce of Errors" and great fun it was too.
Twelfth Night also kept spectators richly amused throughout, with Jonathan Slinger proving to be a worthy Malvolio. He also played Prospero in The Tempest both under the direction of David Farr.
The company's biggest hits of the year came in the form of two adventurous re-stagings and re-settings of Shakespeare plays.
Greg Doran, who is soon to take over as Artistic Director in Stratford, presented an entirely fresh take on Julius Caesar by moving it to a tinpot African dictatorship. While this sounds like an unlikely idea, it worked perfectly.
This was followed by an Asian take on Much Ado about Nothing, directed by Iqbal Khan who somehow manage to combine the cultural sensibilities of contemporary India and the comic problems of 16th century Italy in a single production.
After some rocky early years, Kevin Spacey has gone from strength to strength at the Old Vic.
In addition to Kiss Me Kate which is covered under musicals, there were three strong productions of straight plays from different eras.
John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi was graced by a superlative performance from Eve Best in the title role with Mark Bonnar particularly memorable as sinister Bosola under Jamie Lloyd's direction.
Anna Mackmin was asked to direct Hedda Gabler and cast Sheridan Smith to play Ibsen's tragic lead. She was not ideally cast for this role but delivered a solid performance.
Coming much closer to the present time, a co-production with Sheffield Theatres allowed Michael Frayn's Democracy to grace the stage in a revival that was not overshadowed by memories of the original production at the National and later in the West End.
The Barbican is becoming increasingly adventurous or eccentric in its programming, depending on taste.
This means that when it is on song, it presents samples of the very best theatre from around the world.
Philip Glass's epic opera Einstein on the Beach finally reached these shores a generation after it was first seen. Without a scheduled interval, it was one of those artistic ordeals that last five hours but somehow by the end leave the viewer / listener uplifted and enthusiastic for more.
Two international film stars headed to the venue to show off their talents. Cate Blanchett gave an awesome performance in Big and Small (Gross und Klein) by Botho Strauss in a new English version by the prolific Martin Crimp. This turned out to be a highly unusual but intrinsically thoughtful performance from an actress who definitively proved that she is far more than merely a screen celebrity.
Juliette Binoche then arrived to play Mademoiselle Julie in a modernised French language version of Strindberg's ever popular classic. Once again, the actress demonstrated stage skills that are now rarely seen, given her busy on-screen schedule.
Calixto Bieito can be guaranteed to offer something out of the ordinary and Forests, based on pieces of Shakespeare set in woods, was just that. The performance turned out to be a heady, intoxicating and dreamy experience that fully lived up to the director's reputation.
Complicite is another adventurous company led by a leading auteur, Simon McBurney. Its version of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita did a wonderful job of putting a novel that surely contains far too many dreamlike elements to be staged fully into a package that won almost universal plaudits and deservedly returned for an additional pre-Christmas run.
Continuing the international theme, Peter Brook brought across a new version of The Suit, a short story by Gogol translated into an African setting to give it added resonance.
In the Guildhall's theatre next door, Cheek by Jowl in its English incarnation introduced a lively modernised version of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore that will particularly have appealed to a younger generation of non-theatregoers, who were well served by directors in 2012.
After playing host to the Globe to Globe season, which included all 37 of Shakespeare's plays in a variety of styles and languages, the home season was relatively truncated.
Henry V was a direct descendant to the previous year's Henry IV, Jamie Parker once again taking the title role.
Toby Frow's Taming of the Shrew proved to be a wild affair, with Simon Paisley Day making an unforgettable Petruchio and sharing with his namesake Mr Russell Beale the award for the least desirable thong wearer of the year. He did though make audiences laugh in the company of the ever frustrated Samantha Spiro as Katherina.
The summer was rounded off by the two all-male productions, Richard III and Twelfth Night that later transferred to the West End.
Richard contained a most unusual performance by Mark Rylance, seemingly determined to make the King completely different from any other incarnation seen on stage. The far stronger Twelfth Night is reviewed in the West End section.