REVIEW: STAGE
THE BEST OF 2021 STEFAN KYRIAZIS
ARARE lockdown silver lining was the banquet of archive material online. I feasted on The Bridge Theatre’s adrenalised Julius Caesar and intoxicating A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and wept over The National Theatre’s flawless War Horse – all three still streaming on The National Theatre At Home. Sky Arts also treated us to the Bristol Old Vic’s thrilling adaptation of Jane Eyre.
Amid many valiant attempts to stage and stream new shows, Sunset Boulevard shone, with Ria Jones swirling around the balconies, corridors and stage of Leicester Curve as Norma Desmond.
Theatres reopened in May, reaffirming the joys of SIX and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, also now a fabulous film with Richard E Grant on Amazon Prime.
Amelie The Musical at The Criterion Theatre and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe both enchanted.
It was electrifying to see Ian Mckellen tackle Hamlet at Theatre Royal Windsor, although the production underwhelmed. Don’t miss On Stage, his sensational one-man show on Amazon Prime.
In August, Broadway legend Sutton Foster smashed Barbican box office records in an exhilarating Anything Goes, while Charing Cross Theatre’s revival of Pippin was a triumph on a smaller, intimate scale. I loved the retro fun of the Back To The Future musical complete with flying car but the biggest blast from the past was the hilariously brilliant The Shark Is Broken, sinking its teeth into the making of Jaws. Pure genius.
In September, Disney’s Frozen and Andrew Lloyd-webber’s Cinderella duked it out for a big-budget fairytale ending, with the former taking the glittery crown.
The real magic lay in two wildly different shows which moved me above all others. The visceral attack of The Almeida’s thunderous Macbeth with Saoirse Ronan left me reeling, while Life Of Pi stirred and swept me away into a waking dream.
My dance highlight was Kate Prince’s overwhelmingly beautiful Message In A Bottle, a tale of love, family and hope set to Sting’s music. I also adored the English National Ballet’s exuberant Jolly Folly, the Royal Ballet’s flawless delivery of Crystal Pite’s staggering The Statement, and Matthew Bourne’s haunting The Midnight Bell about 1930s Soho. Eddie Redmayne in the new Cabaret fittingly ends the year and starts the next, an extraordinary affirmation of the immersive, transformative power of live theatre, old chum.