Hamilton

 

Hamilton, Norwich Theatre Royal, 2025.

Cast: Marley Fenton, Billy Nevers, Casey Al-Shaqsy, Km Drew Boateng, Chastity Crisp, Ashley J Daniels, Jonathan Hermosa-Lopez, Shak Mancel James, Naomi Katiyo, Akmed Junior Khemalai, Louis Maskell, Jonathan Andre, Simeon Beckett, Melad Hamidi, Imogen Rose Hart, Bethany Kate, Richard Logun, Tamara Morgan, Jago Mottart, Patrick Munday, Antoine Murray-Straughan, Chris Otim, Castell Parker, Eva Phillips, Izzy Read, Harry Robinson, Phoebe Samuel-Gray, Samantha Shumba, Sydney Spencer, Sylvie Stenson, Michael James Stewart, Ethan Vijn, Jack Whitehead, Lashane Williams, Ynez Williams, Sian Yeo.

Author: Lin-Manuel Miranda

Director: Thomas Kail

I'd avoided this in London as the fuss put me off - airport style security for a musical? Get over yourselves! But I did want to see it and was glad when it finally came to Norwich. In the end I had mixed feelings about it: it's a good half hour too long, and if I didn't know his style of work from the film and cast recording of In the Heights I'd have found it difficult to understand. But it is clever and really well done, but perhaps it needed a lot of editing.

Backstroke

 

Backstroke, Donmar Warehouse, 2025.

Cast: Tamsin Greig, Celia Imrie, Lucy Briers, Anita Reynolds, Georgina Rich, Chloe Hart & Tamilore Lawson, Rhashan Stone.

Writer & director: Anna Mackmin.

This was irresistible: I really like Tamsin Greig and had never seen Celia Imrie before. The chance to see them playing mother and daughter in a small theatre was not to be missed. The reality was a bit disappointing. Celia spent some of the time in bed, and other times being slightly difficult and unlikeable. It occurs to me now that she must have gone to film The Traitors just after this.

Kinky Boots

 

Kinky Boots, Norwich Theatre Royal, 2025.

Cast: Johannes Radebe, Dan Patridge, Courtney Bowman, Kara Lily Hayworth, Joe Caffrey, Newton Matthews, Kathryn Barnes, Lucy Williamson, Jonathan Dryden Taylor, Scott Paige, Liam Doyle, Cerys Burton, Kaya Farrugia, Kofi Dennis, Ru Fisher, Liam McEvoy, Ben Middleton, Ashley-Jordon Packer, Colt Dunn, Deena Kapadia, Joshua Beswick/Leo Hollingsworth/Lonan Johnson, Sekhani Dumezweni/Jesse Manzi/Lawrence Ndola-Myers.

Book: Harvey Fierstein

Music & lyrics: Cyndi Lauper

Director: Nikolai Foster

I love this show, have seen it a few times, and would definitely see it again. It's so English that I always forget that it was written by Americans, and it feels so much like a musical that I still can't quite believe that Cyndi Lauper wrote it. Surely her greatest moment.

I didn't know what to expect of Johannes - I knew he could dance but what about the singing? He might not be the strongest singer but his version of I'm not my Father's Son moved me to tears.

2025 bag

 

This was the year things changed, probably the last year which will have a significant amount of London theatre in it.

I met a man and decided to do things differently. Instead of fitting him into the leftovers of my life I prioritised him and put other stuff on hold. It's not easy and I'm sure I've missed lots of good stuff but it was the right decision. It helped that the trains to London had gotten so unreliable I just didn't want to go. And maybe this week I turned another corner as I started unsubscribing from emails from London theatres. Going to one of the shows in this bag nearly made the relationship fail and I won't let that happen again.

Robin Hood

 

Robin Hood, London Palladium, 2024.

Cast: Jane McDonald, Julian Clary, Paul Zerdin, Nigel Havers, Marisha Wallace, Charlie Stemp, Rob Madge, Tosh Wanogho-Maud, Tonto Appiah, Charlotte Bazeley, Chrissy Brooke, Katie Dunsden, Mike Fellows, Demmileigh Foster, Ruby Hood, Emma Hunter, Ediz Ibrahim, Thomas Inge, Tyler Lotzof, Louis Mackrodt, Amonik Rance, Grant Thresh, Zinzile Tshuma.

Devised by Michael Harrison, Julian Clary, Paul Zerdin, Rob Madge, Ed Curtis.

Director: Michael Harrison

Always a joy, and this fulfilled my need to see Jane McDonald onstage who was every bit as fabulous as you'd imagine. Again there are slightly too many people for them all to be used successfully but that's how these shows work. I hope they never stop.

Guys & Dolls

 

Guys & Dolls, Bridge Theatre, 2024.

Cast: Owain Arthur, George Ioannides, Jonathan Andrew Hume, Ryan Pidgen, Cameron Johnson, Dashaun Vegas, TJ Lloyd, Eamonn Cox, Dominic Lamb, Filippo Coffano, Pierce Rogan, Nathan Rigg, Dale White, Samuel Routley, Alex Given, Niall Buggy, Cornelius Clarke, Celinde Schoenmaker, Saffi Needham, Lucie Horsfall, Hollie Jane Stephens, Kamilla Fernandes, Tori Scott, Timmika Ramsey, Sian Nathaniel-James, Tanisha-Mae Brown, Katie Bradley, Sophie Pourret.

Music & lyrics: Frank Loesser

Book: Jo Swerling & Abe Burrows

Director: Nicholas Hytner

This is one of those productions that's so good and which reinvents the way something is performed - in the round, definitely immersive - that I left wanting never to see a conventional production of a musical again. But of course not everyone can afford to do this type of thing and before you know it we're back to the same productions as before. Change really is glacial.

This must have saved the Bridge. Nicholas Hytner has a liking for the kind of serious/dull dramas he did at the National which are never going to be big hits, whereas this seemed to go on forever. I wish people would learn a lesson from that.

Murder on the Orient Express

 

Murder on the Orient Express, Norwich Theatre Royal, 2024.

Cast: Michael Maloney, Bob Barrett, Mila Carter, Debbie Chazen, Rebecca Charles, Simon Cotton, Jean-Baptiste Fillon, Christie Kavanagh, Paul Keating, Iniki Mariano, Rishi Rian, Alex Stedman, Antony Gabriel, Jasmine Raymond, Beth Tuckey.

Writer: Agatha Christie

Adapted by: Ken Ludwig

Director: Lucy Bailey

The obvious first thought about this is, "how will they do the train on stage?" Well when I first saw this at Chichester they did small carriages, about the size of a golf cart, that didn't particularly work. For the tour they did a much larger representation of a train that worked a lot better.

Lucy Bailey is back, because she's obviously the Queen of Christie, and Bob Barrett is back too (Casualty) who also keeps popping up in these adaptations. Interesting to see Paul Keating, who was in the original production of the Pet Shop Boys Closer to Heaven, who didn't seem to have aged much in all that time.

Some of the characters are omitted to make it easier to stage but I think it still works well. There's no stopping the Christie plays.