REVIEW

Best read monstagigz content of 2023 starring Lemons, Lemons, Lemons

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

  1. Lemons, Lemons, Lemons starring Aidan Turner and Jenna Coleman

Our most read content of 2023 was this preview review of a play by Sam Steiner about a society where spoken words were rationed to 140 a day in a two-hander starring Aidan Turner (The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Noel Coward Theatre) and Jenna Coleman (All My Sons, Old Vic). Our review also caught the attention of Mail Online (see below).

  • Read on for reasons including Cabaret starring Jake Shears and Self Esteem, Guys And Dolls and The Motive And The Cue

2. Cabaret starring Jake Shears and Rebecca Lucy Taylor

Cabaret opened 2 years ago at The Kit Kat Club at the Playhouse Theatre in London, transfers to Broadway in 2024 and it was our review of its latest cast which caught your attention here. We said: ‘The casting of Shears and Self Esteem will hopefully bring a whole new audience to an electric production of a classic that deserves to be seen as we have done, time and time again. In the words of 1 of the Scissor Sisters’ best-loved songs, it remains both filthy and gorgeous.’ Tickets

3. Guys And Dolls starring Marisha Wallace

As we write, this production is shortlisted for Best Revival, Best Theatre Actress and Best Supporting Actor in our 9th annual monstagigz awards, or monstas. Opening in March at the Bridge Theatre, shortlisted for Best Venue, it has since extended to 31 August 2024 and we said: ‘This 1st preview won a well-deserved standing ovation and we’d recommend embracing the chaos and insanity of the Pit in this promenade production which is 1 of the best revivals we have ever seen.’ Tickets

4. Jack Thorne’s The Motive And The Cue

We return to Thorne’s look at rehearsals of Richard Burton’s Hamlet directed by Sir John Gielgud at the Noel Coward Theatre in London’s West End in January 2024 after its transfer from the National where we saw a preview in April starring Johnny Flynn (True West, Vaudeville) and Mark Gatiss (ITVX’s Nolly). We said then: ‘The emotional highlights of this piece inevitably revolve around Gatiss’ rounded portrayal of Gielgud who can be very funny, often at his own expense, yet struggles with his homosexuality and, in a moving scene with a male prostitute, bursts into tears when offered a simple hug.’ Runs through 23 March 2024. Vote for Gatiss to win Best Supporting Actor and for the show to win Best New Play. Tickets

5. Cabaret starring Callum Scott Howells

Scott Howells played the EmCee in Cabaret between October 2022 and February 2023. His performance also featured in last year’s best read list at number 3. We said then: ‘Scott Howells made us laugh more than his predecessors, bares more flesh including his bottom during a racier than we remember Two Ladies and has a warm Welsh tone to his singing voice despite his German accent.’ Tickets

6. Kenneth Branagh’s King Lear

This production transfers to Broadway next year and we said of the piece in October in which Branagh starred as Lear and directed: ‘We can see the appeal, but like McKellen who returned to Lear with much greater success 2nd time around, we think Branagh very much needs to do the same. While we appreciate the motivation, in the words of his latest cinematic success, we think his Lear was less A Haunting In Venice and more a vanity in London.’

7. A Streetcar Named Desire starring Paul Mescal

We saw Rebecca Frecknall’s vision of the Tennessee Williams’ classic at the Almeida Theatre following her Cabaret at the Playhouse Theatre and before the production transferred into the West End. We said of the piece which starred Mescal and Patsy Ferran: ‘Things unravel for Ferran’s Blanche and although Mescal’s character is complicit in her mental health decline it’s intriguing that Mescal continues to explore this theme in his work albeit from a completely different angle here.’ It won 2022’s Best Revival monsta.

8. Dancing At Lughnasa at the National

In a strong year for the National Theatre with its production of James Graham’s Dear England just missing out on this top 10, we absolutely loved this version of the Brian Friel classic re-imagined by Josie Rourke and starring 2 of the cast from TV’s magnificent Derry Girls, Siobhan McSweeney (The Alchemist, Barbican Theatre and Louisa Harland (Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp, Royal Court). We said: ‘We shared the joy with the music brought to the Mundy house thanks to the wireless, loved the communcal dancing and revelled in the laugh-out-loud comedy that this brilliant evocation of complicated family life explored.’ Vote for it to win our Best Revival and McSweeney to win Best Theatre Actress.

9. La Cage Aux Folles at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

This outdoor venue is 1 of our favourites to see theatre and this almost British cabaret spin on the classic musical is 1 of the best shows we’ve seen here. Vote for its big number I Am What I Am to win Best Performance Of A Song at our 9th annual monstas, the theatre to win Best Venue or for the show to win Best Revival. We said: ‘La Cage Aux Folles is 1 of our favourite ever musicals, we’ve seen it many times but this drawing on the best of British cabaret breathes new life into it and for us, puts it up with Guys and Dolls at the Bridge as London’s best revival of the year to see.’

10. Cabaret starring Aimee Lou Wood

Wood (TV’s Sex Education and Uncle Vanya at the Harold Pinter)starred as Sally Bowles in Cabaret this year which also features on this list at 2 and 5 and we said of her: ‘We loved Jessie Buckley‘s angry and gutsy singing in the original cast of this revival back in 2021 and, for us, no-one has come close to topping it since but Wood is so naturally funny in the role we’d love to see her perhaps in something even more challenging like the lead in Funny Girl.’

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  1. Pingback: Best read monstagigz content of 2024 starring Sigourney Weaver in The Tempest | monstagigz

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