My Top Five Shows
I think I may have reached burn out with 10 days of this challenge to go. I’ve had my laptop open on my lap for thirty minutes hiding from my lack of ideas by watching Facebook reels. But I’ve gotten this far and I’ll be damned if I fall off the horse now!
So today I’m going to share my top five shows I’ve ever seen and a little bit about why I loved them so much.
In no particular order, my top five shows are:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
This is, by far and away, the best show I’ve seen this year. I’m a sucker for a folk-style musical and Button is that. It integrates the actor-musicianship seamlessly, the performances are outstanding, the design is stunning. The one flaw it has is its tendency to tell rather than show, but in a largely ensemble piece it’s understandable. And it tells beautifully.
Come From Away
The second musical with a folk-music flavour. I don’t know how else you could make a musical based on such a tragic event (no spoilers here, don’t worry). It doesn’t follow the orthodox structure of clear plot and subplots, instead weaving multiple threads of narrative into a spell-binding tapestry. Plus it has some really catchy tunes!
The Lion King
I know, I know. But this one has some nostalgia for me okay? This was the show that made me realise I wanted to be an actor. I was on a school trip. Sitting in that auditorium during the opening number - the vibrant colours, the stunning puppetry, the music filling every cell in my body…It was such a visceral experience. And at the end of the number I though, “This is how I want to make people feel when I perform.”
Operation Mincemeat
Back to a more recent show. This show I’ve only seen whilst covering Front of House back in the day. And god is it good! It’s the perfect blend of bombastic humour and and sincere truth. Dear Bill had me in tears. The opening of act two is so over the top in the best way. And there are some cracking hooks it terms of the music (Making a Man and Born to Lead leap to mind). It’s no wonder it got a transfer.
A Disappearing Number
This is another nostalgia pick, as well as the only play. I saw Complicité’s A Disappearing Number on a school trip to The National Theatre. It was the first time I’d had an emotional reaction to a play as strong as any musical I’d seen. It was the most innovative play I’d seen before with it’s use of movement and projection. And there’s some beautiful writing in it too. It also spoke to my nerdy as well as my sentimental side (it’s a play about maths). It stuck with me so long that five years after I’d seen it, I bought the playtext when I spotted it randomly in Waterstones. I should give it another read…