CityLife

Theatre review of the year

OBVIOUSLY, many of the theatrical highlights of the year were spotlighted at this year's Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards at the beginning of December. But some particular memories and high points either simply aren't suitable for that glittering occasion or actually happened after the cut-off point for this year's awards. In at least one case, they actually occurred at the awards themselves!

In that latter case, I'm talking about Sir Ian McKellen's two speeches at the awards, both of which were masterclasses in brevity, wisdom and wit. Before reading out the nominations for Best Supporting Actress, Ian talked winningly about his theatre-going days here in Manchester (and his school-boy crush on Cliff Richard) as well as his more recent days as a guest on Coronation Street. Then, after accepting his own award for Best Actor In a Visiting Production (for The Cut), Ian sang the praises of Manchester theatre-going audiences in general. Riveting stuff, as was Cathy Tyson's tearful performance after winning Best Actress In A Visiting Production.

Opening in town just too late to be considered for this year's awards was the dazzling Merchants Of Bollywood. The dance spectacular is inspired by the hugely successful "Bollywood" film industry in Mumbai and one of my personal highlights of the year was visiting that extraordinary city to see the production in rehearsal. It was wonderful to see the finished show but it was, if anything, even more thrilling to watch these incredible dancers and artists actually putting the show together.

In a state-of-the-art rehearsal studio at one of Mumbai's newest film studios, where the temperature was chilly compared to the sweltering heat outside, they went through some of their routines with such commitment and energy that the temperature rose to boiling point. I was exhausted after 10 minutes, just watching!

Just as thrilling in a different way was seeing the much-praised version of Sweeney Todd on Broadway in New York. Even after many more hours in the air than I'd been anticipating and arriving with less luggage than I'd have liked, thanks to the usual inept US baggage-handlers, the spare, but brilliantly inventive and compelling show was even better than I'd been led to believe.

The only downside was that, when seeing the same show here a few weeks later, Jason Donovan's perfectly fine performance could hardly help but suffer by comparison.

A production which did win an award (as Best International Show) at this year's Theatre Awards was Slava's Snowshow. We were honouring the performance at The Lowry, but I had earlier ventured to see the show in the exotic wilds of Stoke-on-Trent, where I was so overwhelmed by the brilliance of the show that I nearly suffered a serious injury! As those of you lucky enough to see the show will recall, the show finishes with Slava and the clowns propelling giant balloons into the enraptured audience for them to bounce around between themselves. In Stoke, I was so intent on bouncing any giant balloon in my proximity high into the air that, in an unwary moment, one caught me off-guard and I distinctly heard my finger go "snap!" as I awkwardly pushed it away. Fortunately, it was merely bruised rather than broken.

Before 2000 Years, the first play in too many years by Mike Leigh, came to The Lowry, he wanted to talk about it to local journalists such as myself. Inevitably, that meant first having to see the show, but the National Theatre, where it was playing, had been sold out since the project was announced. The only performance that it was possible to wangle tickets for was, as it turned out, a special show for the hard-of-hearing, complete with a side-stage signer and surtitles above the stage. This, it has to be said, added a unique and somewhat surreal edge to a play about international politics, inter-generational conflicts and a middle-class family's internal affairs.

In such a highly personal list of theatrical highlights, it would be remiss of me not to mention the Exchange's announcement of the winners of the Bruntwood new writing competition where, after Pete Postlethwaite had discussed with me at length a production he eventually recalled was still supposed to be top-secret, host Ben Keaton kindly made me the butt of his jokes. I chose to take this as a compliment and, fortunately, Ben's subsequent performance as Cyrano de Bergerac has turned out to be utterly brilliant.

Finally, the increasing success of the mid-year 24:7 Theatre Festival was very pleasing. The standard this year, the festival's third, was higher than ever.