London's Little Opera House at The Kings Head (pictured) has produced some of the most sparkling shows of the year, with Madame Butterfly in January and The Coronation of Poppea the highlights of an extraordinarily wide-ranging and ambitious programme. 2011 opened my eyes and ears to opera - the mission of OperaUpClose - and made me hungry for more, especially for the visceral quality of the superb singing no more than a few feet away in which this company specialises.
The National Theatre continues to provide a wonderful environment for theatre professionals and audiences. Not everything was up to the very highest standard one should expect, but productions like London Road, Alecky Bylth's extraordinary fusion of verbatim speech and music, was as innovative and challenging as the NT's heritage demands.
Shakespeare was performed in all kinds of venues in all kinds of productions and appears as popular as ever with young and old. My favourite Shakey of the year was Pilot Theatre's Romeo and Juliet at The Unicorn, on a beautiful set, acted with the passion it needs, without spilling over into bombast. Funny, sad and poetic, it held the largely teenage audience, and me, spellbound for a couple of hours.
My beat takes in big touring productions at New Wimbledon Theatre one evening and small venue (but definitely not small ambition) productions the next. Best of the big shows was Buddy - as vibrant as ever and now almost as long-lived as its eponymous hero. Best of the often magnificent work produced in the tiniest of venues was The Provoked Wife at the consistently excellent Greenwich Playhouse.
Speaking of consistent excellence, amongst the mid-sized venues, Southwark Playhouse's year was as good as the national press has claimed. Though Parade gathered the plaudits, Howl's Moving Castle was a production that realised enormous ambition and captivated as diverse an audience as one could find in theatre. Though not quite as consistent, The Riverside Studios continues to surprise and delight with its musical version of The Importance of Being Earnest rounding off its year on a high note after Slave's emotional rollercoaster had transfixed audiences in the Autumn. Highlight at the Union Theatre was a romantic revival, The Baker's Wife, closely followed by a raucous Fings Ain't What They Used To Be.I look forward to more big productions in a mid-sized space there next year.
Not all productions were housed in theatres of course, with churches proving spectacular venues for Hamlet and a shocking and stunning re-imagining of some works by Edgar Allan Poe. In a chilly cavernous South London warehouse, The Lights captured the decaying cityscape of the USA in a venue that exemplified its UK counterpart.
2011 was, need I remind you, a grim year on so many fronts, so perhaps the most remarkable aspect of my year was not just the variety and universal technical excellence of the productions seats for which cost little more than a multiplex cinema ticket and a tub of hideous popcorn, but the sense of confidence that beamed from stage to stalls. Here, there and everywhere, talent had its day. It will have plenty more days in 2012 and beyond.
My thanks to everyone who provided me and my lucky sons with tickets, to the performers and technicians who made it all happen, to my editor Carrie Dunn and to westend.broadwayworld.com's readers. A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.
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