With a setlist that covers different moods, a striptease, some audience participation, a fair sprinkling of upstaging, and a large dollop of nostalgia through a prism of parody, A Night At The Musicals is fun all the way.
Rev Stan chooses her Top Ten Plays of 2022
This feels like a moment; I haven’t been able to do a best of theatre list since 2019 because of ‘you know what’. It’s been huge fun revisiting the plays I’ve seen – nearly 50. And while that total is down on pre-pandemic levels, it was still tricky to narrow down my choices, but here goes.
‘An intriguing show’: WE WERE PROMISED HONEY! – Soho Theatre ★★★★
If you’re looking for a show with a happy ending, We Were Promised Honey! makes it clear from the outset that this isn’t something they’re going to provide. The audience will get to see into their future – from the immediate (a standing ovation seconds after the show) to the very distant (a romantic reunion in several decades’ time) – but it will end the same way for everyone. Sam Ward is the writer and performer of the show, which is in the middle of a limited engagement at the Soho Theatre.
‘Delivered with engaging energy’: BROWN BOYS SWIM – Soho Theatre
Most impactful in Brown Boys Swim at Soho Theatre is the unexpected ending where the actual stakes are revealed, after have been largely masked by the frivolity of the premise. There’s some brief foreshadowing, but this is glossed over by the boys’ vivacity and focus on impressing their peers so it’s easy to miss.
‘Deeply human & beautifully performed’: AGE IS A FEELING – Soho Theatre
Hayley McGee’s monologue Age Is A Feeling at the Soho Theatre, narrating an unnamed person’s life, from age 25 through the years after the they die, hones in on key episodes that irrevocably define them and their future, as well as drawing attention to death’s inevitability. As sombre as this piece is, it also adeptly encapsulates moments of joy. As a whole, it’s deeply human and beautifully performed.
‘There’s a joyous post-pandemic vibe about this gig’: BANGERS – Soho Theatre
Bangers at the Soho Theatre has a fine buzz of the contemporary and a real sympathy for sexual confusion and other experiences such as the loss of a parent.
‘It is refreshing to see a play like this’: THE MINISTRY OF LESBIAN AFFAIRS – Soho Theatre ★★★★★
The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs at the Soho Theatre is one of those plays that unashamedly bursts off the stage, much like the lesbian choir around which the story revolves.
‘Platonic love is perhaps the hardest kind of emotion to write about well’: SHEDDING A SKIN – Soho Theatre
Feel the love as great staging enlivens this well-written monologue about a cross-generational relationship.
‘This is no mere imitation or hagiography’: AN EVENING WITHOUT KATE BUSH – Soho Theatre
I wouldn’t call myself a Kate Bush fan, one of the shoal of ‘fish people’ who revere her, yet her songs have soundtracked my formative years. So she’s always been there in spirit.
Sarah-Louise Young, a fellow 70s baby with boundless energy, perform…
Year in review: Ian’s 10 favourite shows of 2021
Just a little bit late… Here’s 10 of my favourite shows, both online and onstage but fully acknowledging that I saw a lot less than usual, I might actually have broken the back of this theatre obsession – it just took a global pandemic to do it…!
‘The writing is always perceptive & convincing’: SESSIONS – Soho Theatre
Intense, but inconclusive: this powerful new play about black men’s mental health fails to reach a satisfying resolution.
‘A searingly honest portrait of motherhood’: MUM – Soho Theatre
Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s new play is a raw and physical exploration of how motherhood can be tough, and how some mothers can be failed by the system set up to protect their children.
‘Humorous then utterly heart-rending with much to say to all of us’: MUM – Soho Theatre
Following on from the brilliant Emilia, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s new play Mum is a powerfully bracing experience at the Soho Theatre.
‘A reminder that what we do & who we are matters’: SHEDDING A SKIN – Soho Theatre
by Laura Kressly Whilst feeling uncertain and lost may well be something everyone goes through at least at one point in their life, thats no consolation in the moment. Everyone else seems to have purpose, direction and a place, and the sense of not having that can be debilitating. That’s certainly the case for Myah. […]
‘What comes across incredibly strongly is a sense of hope’: SHEDDING A SKIN – Soho Theatre ★★★★★
“I’m afraid of the skin I’m in.” Quick out of the blocks in Soho Theatre’s reopening season is Amanda Wilkin’s Verity Bargate Award-winning debut play, Shedding A Skin. The run has socially distanced seating, but for those who can’t attend in person there will be a live-streamed performance on 15 July.
‘Friendly, open & honest’: SUNRISE – Soho Theatre (Online review)
Jessie Cave’s show Sunrise was recorded in the empty venue in April, but still retains the comedy of a professional mum navigating the thorny paths of a postpartum love life.
‘Certainly hits the mark’: HERDING CATS – Soho Theatre (Online review)
This is a timely revival of Herding Cats from the Soho Theatre who have pushed back the barriers to find another new way to innovate.
‘Strangers can share the most profound things’: OPEN MIC – Soho Theatre (Online review)
This is a curious show: announced as a semi-improvised production with audience participation, Open Mic is streamed live from the Soho Theatre’s Cabaret Space.
‘You’re left with lots to think about’: BIRDS & BEES – Theatre Centre (Online review)
Charlie Josephine’s Birds and Bees captures teenage awkwardness perfectly, in the shadow of a school sexting scandal.
‘Theatre of this quality is not that typical at all’: TYPICAL – Soho Theatre (Online theatre)
Richard Blackwood excels in Ryan Calais Cameron’s searing monologue Typical, the weight of its enduring relevance painfully clear.