West End Musicals
Nowadays, musicals seem to come in three different categories. Big budget blockbusters, jukebox and small-scale, although those in the final category sometimes get reworked for the West End.
Head and shoulders above the competition came Jonathan Kent's Chichester Festival Theatre transfer of Sweeney Todd. Stephen Sondheim's music for this potentially gory delight is guaranteed to please. With Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton both on top form, the production delivered an unforgettable evening.
In a very different mode, Sondheim’s talents were also showcased in the Menier's Christmas musical Merrily We Roll Along. This was an indulgent pleasure that deserves to become yet another of this theatre's many West End transfers in the New Year.
Not too far behind Sweeney Todd was the Old Vic's Kiss Me Kate. Sir Trevor Nunn had the benefit not only of Cole Porter's songs but also the talented Hannah Waddingham who proved to be an exceptional Katherine opposite Alex Bourne as Petruchio.
This show within a show based on The Taming of the Shrew proved to be totally intoxicating with song, dance and comedy combining to tremendous effect.
Top Hat and Singin' in the Rain were the big dance shows of the year, each taking audiences back to days of yore, with sensational routines and, in the latter case, the chance for audience members to get a good old soaking.
On the jukebox front, the very brief touring run of Green Day's American Idiot demonstrated that this can be a real art form, combining the technology behind big rock concert productions with some great music, excellent performances, an operatic book and unlimited amounts of energy.
The Bodyguard will appeal to all fans of the movie , as well as those that miss the late Whitney Houston.
Less successful in the eyes of the critics was Jennifer Saunders's Viva Forever! based on the music of the Spice Girls. The odds are that this will prove commercially successful, allowing fans of the band to relive their girlhoods (or boyhoods?), but even its greatest advocates are unlikely to suggest that the piece represents high art.
Strangely, it fared even worse in critical eyes than the so-called musical Let It Be, which was merely a staging of a tribute band concert with a little bit filmic backing. The fact that the tribute honoured The Beatles almost certainly persuaded some to forget the lack of artistic effort in a show that really could easily (and much more cheaply) have been replaced by a CD purchase or MP3 download.