Touring theatre

The Lowry

The big, shocking news at The Lowry in 2013 was the sudden death of its artistic director Robert Robson at the age of just 58. Instrumental in the development of the Salford arts centre since before it opened, his influence on the theatrical landscape of Manchester—especially on dance, a particular passion of his—is incalculable.

A few productions that had been big hits in the region before returned to The Lowry in 2013, including One Man, Two Guvnors, Hairspray and The Woman in Black.

Sheffield Theatres brought its stage adaptation of popular film The Full Monty, which I found rather unsubtle in its characterisation and delivery, but I think some of the actors were trying to compensate for the louder audience members who had clearly come to see male strippers rather than a play. Abigail's Party is probably rather dated now, but this was a very good production of it.

The Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse adaptation of The Ladykillers was funny and imaginative, but the Old Vic production of Noises Off, while fairly entertaining, wasn't a patch on the Theatre by the Lake summer season production in 2011. Craig Revel Horwood's excellent revival of Fiddler on the Roof, starring Starsky himself, Paul Michael Glaser, as Tevye, showed what a great piece of musical theatre this rarely performed show is.

All-male Shakespeare company Propeller brought Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew, the latter showing just why this is a "problem" play. Northern Broadsides brought a worthwhile revival of a rarely-produced 100-year-old play, Rutherford and Son, directed by Jonathan Miller and with a very impressive performance from Broadsides artistic director Barrie Rutter in the title role.

The National Theatre brought a couple of productions to Salford, including Alan Bennett's People starring Siân Phillips and Brigit Forsyth. The final production was Robert Robson's biggest commercial success, as the National Theatre's War Horse, spending Christmas at The Lowry, broke all box office records for the theatre's 13-year history and swiftly arranged a return visit for summer 2014.

Palace and Opera House

ATG's sister theatres in Manchester also brought back a few old favourites, including Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Will Young in Cabaret, The 39 Steps and Dirty Dancing, with Ghost - the Musical returning to the place where it began after being taken to the West End and Broadway and Rocky Horror Show coming twice, the second time to celebrate its 40th birthday.

The creators of Dreamboats and Petticoats brought more of the same with its latest jukebox musical Save the Last Dance for Me, and Carnaby Street followed a similar formula.

ATG experimented with curtaining off the rear stalls of the Opera House for smaller-scale productions of plays earlier in the year. One of its bigger successes was Maurice's Jublilee, a play written by and starring comedy performer Nichola McAuliffe which was uneven but impressive in parts, with a great performance from Julian Glover in the title role, and which had already been a hit in Edinburgh.

The latter part of the year spoiled us with big productions of musicals on their first visits to the city, including the teen phenomenon of Wicked, a revival of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, the start of an extremely good tour of Singin' in the Rain from the West End production and, spending Christmas at the Palace, a West Side Story that was at The Lowry five years ago but which now seems much slicker and more enjoyable.

Christmas at the Opera House was once again led by Tam Ryan as panto comic in Dick Whittington, starring the shows writer Eric Potts as dame, which was enjoyable but was lacking in a few areas that one would normally expect to find in a panto.