Critics' Choice: Franco Milazzo's Top 30 Immersive Shows of 2024
The BroadwayWorld reviewer picks his favourite immersive shows of 2024.
By: Franco Milazzo Dec. 31, 2024
In 2024, the immersive genre in London and beyond grew and grew and grew, with the independent sector overshadowing the biggest names.
It seems that Punchdrunk has been the king of this jungle since forever but they are in something of a state of artistic limbo since the financial failure of 2022’s The Burnt City. Their latest effort was the promenade show Viola’s Room was well-received by critics but was felt to be unambitious by their previous standards. Their latest accounts paint a picture of a company cutting back on creative staff, looking both at home and abroad for their next ventures and, after failing to make scheduled payments on a multi-million pound loan, at the mercy of Arts Council England.
Archrival Secret Cinema has had a very quiet year. Since being bought by TodayTix in September 2022, their only major London film experience has been that year’s Guardians Of The Galaxy followed by last Christmas’ Wishmas and several corporate gigs. They gained the local council’s approval in January to use a bingo hall as a permanent venue in Camden but by July had decided not to proceed and no future productions have been announced since. Likewise, The Everywhere Group (who created The Great Gatsby and Peaky Blinders: The Rise) had little to tell the world in 2024 beyond a deal with Hasbro to produce a Peppa Pig experience.
In contrast, Layered Reality had plenty of news. They are behind two of the biggest immersive shows in the capital with the symphonic War of The Worlds and its Tom Felton-starring follow up The Gunpowder Plot. Next up is Elvis Evolution which will bring the King back "through the power of AI and holographic projection, augmented reality, live theatre and multi-sensory effects"; initially planned for this November, the opening date was later shuffled back to next March and then to May. In August, the company announced a £1.75m “media for equity” deal with Channel 4. Their crowdfunding drive in October revealed a new experience called Jetpack Odyssey is on its way.
In contrast, smaller names have risen to fill the gap with innovative propositions. The Wild West-like frontier town of Phantom Peak in Canada Water has gone from strength to strength, building out dramatic arcs across the year while introducing 11 new missions or “trails” every season for its dedicated fanbase. Manikins: A Work In Progress builds a nightmarish world around two actors and a single audience member and proved to be the underground hit of the year. The team behind Immersive 1984 replaced both cast and creatives and came back with a tighter and more powerful show.
Meanwhile, in deepest, darkest Wales, the ingenious Key Of Dreams from Lemon Difficult pulled us into a 24 hour-long adventure of pulsating Lovecraftian horror. Two cabaret-style shows (Rhythm & Ruse and The Magicians Table) blended close-up magic, cocktails and music. Foodies got stuck into the Batman-themed Monarch Theatre while global travel was the theme for Gingerline’s The Grand Expedition. Those with a taste for the luxurious boarded Neil Kelso’s Dead On Time to solve a cunning murder-mystery, moseying through the Kent countryside as the clues piled up. Musically, there were options for fans of clubbing, classical or jazz; even the Royal Ballet joined in for their Dark With Excessive Bright.
Below are thirty of the year’s top immersive shows as described by writers of BroadwayWorld, the UK’s leading mainstream source of reviews for this exciting genre.
Photo credit: Alex Brenner
1. 1884, Shoreditch Town Hall
“What is the difference between a house and a home? And who gets to write history? Interactive experience 1884 provokes challenging answers to these questions in the context of an almost-forgotten historical event that had significant consequences for two continents.” Full review
2. The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Barbican
“Charles Mingus originally intended for his iconic 1963 jazz album Black Saint and The Sinner Lady to be accompanied by dancers and, thanks to performance company Clod Ensemble and the Nu Civilisation Orchestra, it becomes the inspiration for a vibrant and inclusive show.”
3. Bound, Bargehouse
“As shown in Amber Jarman-Crainey’s Bound, talking to the dead is not solely the preserve of spiritualists and mediums. Her immersive meditation on grief manifests in the form of nine storylines where the living pour their hearts to those who have passed.”
4. Bridge Command, Vauxhall
“Ever wanted to captain a spaceship on a mission to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilisations and perhaps shoot up some enemy ships along the way? With the aid of a shiny new £3.5m set, Parabolic Theatre’s Bridge Command realises every sci-fi geek’s dream.”
Photo credit: Kat Gollock
5. Club Life, Omnibus Theatre
“Stepping out from behind the ones and twos, Lemon Jelly DJ and club promoter Fred Deakin takes us on an odyssey through his own life and times. Club Life was one of the Edinburgh Fringe’s word-of-mouth hits last year, an immersive theatre piece that takes his career as a starting point and allows the audience the chance to jump on the dance floor.”
6. Come Alive! The Greatest Showman Spectacular
“Based on the 2017 hit film about PT Barnum, Come Alive! The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular is a mishmash of circus, story and song that somehow manages to do a disservice to all three.”
7. Dark With Excessive Bright, Royal Opera House
“Appearing as part of their Festival of New Choreography, the Royal Ballet partners with the National Ballet of Canada for this extraordinarily intimate experiment which allows audience to experience the art form in a radical way.”
8. Dead Hard, COLAB Tower
“If there was an award for the most art forms smooshed into one show, COLAB’s Dead Hard could be a winner. This blend of adult panto, comedy and drag wrapped around the classic Die Hard plot is a satisfying mess that somehow (just) works.”
Photo credit: The Other Richard
9. Dead On Time: A Moving Murder Mystery, Belmond Trains
“It’s 1951 and, as the nation prepares itself for the Festival of Britain, a heinous crime has been committed. After a murder most foul, ten suspects, a killer hiding in plain sight and around two hundred passengers-cum-amateur detectives find themselves all aboard the same train. It’s fair to say that Dead On Time knows how to set a scene even before we step aboard.”
10. Flight, Pleasance Dome
“If you’re afraid of flying, this may not be the right show for you. ”
11. Fuertza Bruta: Aven, Roundhouse
“Feeling like the wildest circus party in town, Fuerza Bruta (Spanish for “brute force”) returned to the Roundhouse with their new show Aven.”
12. Gingerline: The Grand Expedition
“Like some latter day Phileas Fogg, immersive dining specialists Gingerline’s revival of The Grand Expedition leads us on a merry virtual journey around the world all while sat in a hot air balloon gondola.”
13. The Great Murder Mystery, The Lost Estate
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are on the hunt for a mysterious killer in this theatrical dining experience.
Photo credit: Maggie Jupe
14. Immersive 1984, Hackney Town Hall
“Watching this reboot of Immersive 1984, a thought comes to mind: if, as we’re constantly being informed, we’re all living in the post-privacy, post-truth and post-politics world foretold in 1984, aren’t we already inside an immersive version of George Orwell’s seminal book?”
15. Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience
“Martians, music and mayhem: who could ask for more from an immersive show?”
16. Jury Duty, Theatre Deli
“In an anonymous room in the City, a group of people is summoned to discuss the crimes of a man who swears his innocence. Jury Duty is as immersive as it gets.”
17. Kagami, Roundhouse
“Thanks to some nifty “mixed reality” technology from Tin Drum, the late Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto is brought back to some semblance of life in Kagami.”
Photo credit: Lemon Difficult
18. The Key Of Dreams, Treowen
“With tickets costing £400 each and a Lovecraftian storyline stretching over 24 hours, is Lemon Difficult’s The Key Of Dreams the ultimate in immersive theatre?”
19. The Magicians Table, Tanner Street
“From the outset, its clear that The Magicians Table is too cool for school. It’s certainly too cool for a helpful apostrophe but it becomes obvious very soon that we’re talking about multiple illusionists including the recently departed Dieter Rotenburg. This show is his wake and we, the dearly beloved, are gathered here to pay tribute to his final trick and enjoy the company of his fellow professionals.”
20. Manikins: A Work In Progress, CRYPT
“Deadweight Theatre’s The Manikins: A Work In Progress is many things. It is interactive. It is intimate. It is thought-provoking. And, despite the misleading title, this is a polished work of hidden depths.”
21. May Contain Food May Contain You, Woolwich Works
“May Contain Food May Contain You takes audiences on a journey through dance, spoken word, song and, of course, food.”
Photo credit: Park Row
22. Monarch Theatre, Park Row
“Almost as secretive and hidden away as the Batcave, Soho’s Park Row is a restaurant dedicated to the Caped Crusader. At its heart lies Monarch Theatre, an immersive dining experience which combines projections, magic and a sumptuous tasting menu.”
23. Monopoly Lifesized, Tottenham Court Road
“‘Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.’ Attributed to Nobel Prize-winning economist and Ali G interviewee JK Galbraith, this is the phrase that rolls around my head as I take on the Crystal Maze-like Monopoly Lifesized, a highly entertaining take on arguably art's single greatest monument to the pursuit of personal wealth.”
24. Orchestral Forest, Smith Square Hall
“Featuring works as diverse as Michael Nyman’s ‘Strong on Oaks, Strong on the Causes of Oaks’ and Felix Mendelssohn’s ‘Overture’ from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sinfonia Smith Square’s environmentally-minded concert The Orchestral Forest is an enchanting sonic experiment.”
25. Phantom Peak, Canada Water
“It is not the only impressive immersive show in town but its near-peerless execution and boundless imagination puts it up there with the more well known Punchdrunk.”
Photo credit: Rhythm & Ruse
26. Rhythm & Ruse, The Vaults
“On top of an exciting live band and plenty of close-up magic, there’s a hefty Punchdrunk pedigree in the creative team behind this Jazz Age theme party.”
27. Sophie’s Surprise 29th, Underbelly Boulevard
“As well as the traditional risk of getting picked for a dose of benign audience interaction, there are scorchingly hot flames, high-speed flying skates and even some full-frontal near-nudity to contend with.”
28. Selecting A Ghost, Stanley Arts Centre
“Selecting a Ghost is a fantastic example of a site-specific performance with some brilliant actors that struggles to combine the genres of horror and hip hop to make for a fully cohesive show.”
29. Vegetables, Clerkenwell
“Tucked away in a secret location in the heart of Clerkenwell, Vegetables is a weird one. The production is shrouded in mystery, with the address given only upon booking and its exact plot begged to be kept hush-hush in the press.”
30. Viola’s Room, One Cartridge Place
“In a sudden lurch away from their epic 2022 creation The Burnt City, immersive specialists Punchdrunk’s next effort is a far more cosy affair.”
Photo credits (left to right then top to bottom): Rachel Patrice Fallon (Bound), Alex Brenner (Bridge Command), Andrej Uspenski (Dark With Excesive Bright), Alex Walton (Dead Hard), Kat Gollock (Club Life), Luke Tyson (Come Alive!), Johan Persson (Fuertza Bruta: Aven), Manuel Harlan (War Of The Worlds), Gingerline (Gingerline: The Grand Expedition), Sophie Oliver (The Orchestral Forest), Lemon Difficult (The Key Of Dreams), Chris Nash (May Contain Food, May Contain You), Jury Duty (Jury Duty), Alistair Veryard (Phantom Peak), Julian Abrams (Viola's Room), Craig Sugden (Sophie's Surprise 29th).
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