2015 Year in Review: Gary Naylor's Best and Worst of Theatre

In 2015, I saw 109 shows for BWW:UK, so which were the Christmas crackers and which were the Christmas turkeys?

The Railway Children was the first of a number of shows I saw produced specifically for its location, in this case a shed in London's gentrified King's Cross hinterland. The uniquely appropriate location was extended into the show itself with its Victorian station waiting room and steam train a-huffing and a-puffing in to close Act One. Tooting Arts Club's production of Sweeney Todd (one of my three top highlights of 2014) returned in a Shaftesbury Avenue pop-up reconstructed with touching fidelity to its South London pie shop roots and was as thrilling as ever.

Perhaps the scariest venue of the year was The Brunel Museum a few miles downstream and a million miles in comfort from the National Theatre. On hands and knees, one crawls through a square access passage on to scaffolded steps and descend on to the circular floor on the shaft sunk for the Thames's first subterranean crossing. I saw an excellent production of L'Italiana in Algeri, only occasionally distracted by thoughts of what would happen in a fire...

Fear of a different kind - and the best example of how a space can shape a play's reception - was provoked by Tooting Arts Club's revisiting their 2012 production of Barbarians, this time in the derelict Central St Martins building in Charing Cross Road, a space that has echoes of 70s revolution in its very walls. Thomas Coombes gave one of the performances of the year as racist skinhead Paul, the leader of the lads being led astray as much by their times as their misconceived ideologies - a powerful lesson from the past for those happy to close off opportunities for the youth of today, while politicians and press happily drip poison into their ears.

Comedy is difficult to get right and that might be why there may be many laughs in shows, but very few thoroughgoing comedies from curtain up to curtain down. Clarion was a spectacular evisceration of (thinly disguised of course) gentlemen of the press, with Greg Hicks (pictured) perfectly cast as the newspaper editor from Hell. Hatched 'n' Dispatched was also very strong, anchored by Wendi Peters' monstrous matriarch, and Stop - The Play channeled a little of The Play That Goes Wrong's vibe to gather the giggles at Trafalgar Studios. I'd be delighted to see them back for runs in 2016, as fringe theatre needs comedy.

Musical theatre is another genre in which boldness in conception and confidence in delivery is key to avoiding its many pitfalls. Amongst the best productions I saw this year were West End smash hit Beautiful - The Carole King Story (and what a joy to be reminded of her immense talent), London Theatre Workshop's Yarico, with an outstanding central performance by Liberty Buckland, and The Stationmaster, an eerie adaptation of a 1930s allegorical warning of the coming of Nazism.

Operas were a delight again in 2015, with the Charles Court Opera Company's Ruddigore both technically accomplished and very funny indeed. English Touring Opera continues to take medium scale shows around the country, the best of its programme being a Fritz Lang inspired Tales of Hoffmann. And the Royal Opera House's and New York Met's live cinema presentations continue to offer grand opera at reasonable prices, the best of which was a funny, boozy, life-affirming The Merry Widow - of course, it's not like being there, but it ain't so far off either..

London theatre never ceases to surprise and there's little I enjoy more than taking a chance on a show that might not look too appetising and sitting transfixed for a couple of hours, as any expectations of duty fulfilled are blown away by pleasure received. That was certainly my feeling about A Level Playing Field, in which a cast comprising non-professional teenage actors absolutely nailed Sixth Form life today. Set in a similar environment but a couple of generations earlier, Little Malcolm and his Struggle against the Eunuchs was an extraordinary, visceral political black comedy driven by a magnificent cast led by Daniel Easton who would have got my 2015 Best Actor Olivier. I also really enjoyed Molly Wobbly, a show that had gone through a tricky development phase, but still delivered great songs and real laughs.

So to the accolades.

Christmas turkeys.

I never enjoy criticising a show - no production goes up without huge amounts of hard work, great skill and commitment - but it's pointless to pretend that all shows will succeed or appeal to everyone. I did not care for American Buffalo, a revival of a dull, humourless play about nasty people that, unlike "Malcolm" above, did not seem to have anything to say about 2015. In contrast to the previous paragraph's expectations exploded, sometimes I think I'm in for a long night... and I am - certainly the case with Duncton Wood's warring mole kingdoms. And falling into the category of a good idea that proved too difficult to pull off is Nutcracker! The Musical, which has a couple of good songs and an awful lot that needs an awful lot more work before its ambitious transformation of Tchaikovsky's ballet music into a musical score succeeds.

Christmas crackers.

Little Bulb Theatre's Orpheus was a delight from beginning to end, continually surprising, beautifully executed musical entertainment that packed more into 100 minutes than anyone had the right to expect. This show is almost uncategorisable, but could only be found in the theatre, a reminder of our art form's almost inexhaustible capacity for creative opportunities. Little Malcolm and his Struggle against the Eunuchs reminded me of how many plays there must be consigned to dusty scripts on shelves that may speak more to our time than to their own. And, just to show that there's plenty in theatre that's so up to date that there are ad libs about current news stories worked into the script, Clarion was funny, sharp and skewered exactly those whom its audience wanted to see roasted over a Christmas hearth. Even Charles Dickens, I think, would approve.

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