Out With The Old, In With The New

Another year draws to a close and a new year beckons. Almost as the clock turns between the years we say adieu to Idina and say hello to Kerry, wave a fond goodbye to Caroline or Change and The Producers and welcome the brief return of The Rocky Horror Show and The History Boys. As we sing Auld Lang's Syne, it gives cause to look back on and look forward to the respective years in London theatre.

Amongst the many highlights of London theatre in 2006 were brilliant transfers from Fringe or out of town theatres to the West End - Sondheim's masterpiece Sunday In The Park With George to the Wyndham's from the Menier and John Doyle's highly effective interpretation of Jerry Herman's Mack and Mabel from the Watermill to the Criterion; great new plays such as Frost/Nixon and Tom Stoppard's magnificent Rock'N'Roll; superb recreations of classic plays such as Martin Sherman's harrowing and poignant Bent at the Trafalgar Studios and Eugene O'Neill's A Moon For The Misbegotten at the Old Vic (the image of the set alone will live long in the memory); great Fringe productions of musicals, including the long awaited Jason Robert Brown gem The Last Five Years at the Menier and a truly fantastic intimate staging of Sondheim's Follies at the Landor; great revivals of musicals, notably Michael Grandage's Evita, Jeremy Sams' The Sound of Music and Trevor Nunn's noble attempt to transpose Gershwin's Porgy and Bess from opera to musical. And, of course, 2006 was the year of some great musical transfers from across the pond, including the hilarious and almost irreverent Spamalot, the brilliantly innovative Avenue Q and the undoubted blockbuster of the year, Wicked.

It was a year of great performances too. Everyone will have their favourites, but for me those that stand out are Kevin Spacey in A Moon For The Misbegotten, Rufus Sewell in Rock'N'Roll, Alan Cumming in Bent, Janie Dee in Mack and Mabel, Tonya Pinkins in Caroline Or Change, Lara Pulver in The Last Five Years, Claire Moore in Follies, Connie Fisher in The Sound Of Music, and - for me THE stand-out performance of the year - Daniel Evans in Sunday In The Park With George.

Outside London too it was a memorable year for theatre. In particular, memories that stand out are the Royal Scottish Academy's production of Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens at the Edinburgh Fringe, Caroline O'Connor's amazing performance as Judy Garland in The End Of The Rainbow (again at the Fringe), Craig Revel Horwood's delightful staging of The Hot Mikado at the Watermill in Newbury, and a very unique evening at the Cardiff International Festival Of Musical Theatre - a concert performance of Gershwin's Treasure Girl with a cast including Patricia Hodge, Glyn Kerslake and Helena Blackman. This rare gem had been lovingly recreated largely from manuscripts discovered in George Gershwin's attic and all but three of the songs had not been sung anywhere since they were performed in New York by Gertrude Lawrence and the OBC in 1928. This was a seriously special night.

So, what does 2007 hold in store for theatre fanatics in London? As well as the aforementioned stagings of The Rocky Horror Show and The History Boys, upcoming highlights include Jessica Lange in The Glass Menagerie, Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe in Equus, Edward Albee's Lady From Dubuque, an all-star Follies concert, revivals of Rent, Joseph and Grease, Michael Ball in Kismet with the ENO,   and, perhaps the most eagerly anticipated of all, next year's mega musical, The Lord Of The Rings. If these, and other new productions, live up to the overall standard of 2006, it will indeed be a happy new year in theatreland.