It’s been quite the year, it’s almost Christmas and what would the festive season be without some recognition of the best of 2023? Over the next 2 months we’ll shortlist five nominees in each of 16 categories for our Oscars, or monstas if you will, of 2023.
The 80s-set Netflix sci-fi series of the same name won our 2016 Best TV monsta and so we’re very much looking forward to its theatrical counterpart promising to turn back the clock to Hawkins in 1959 ‘before the world turned upside down’. Stranger Things: The First Shadow invites us to explore the history of Hawkins and the origins of some key characters. Runs at the Phoenix Theatre 17 November through 25 August 2024. Tickets Preview review
You, dear reader, are given the chance to vote in 16 categories from November this year to tell us your favourite theatre, music, TV, film and podcast of 2023.
By Aline Mahrud
WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2 RUNTIME: 100 minutes (no interval)
WHEN?: 5 August, opens 9 August and runs through 7 October 2023
Clinical psychiatrists Dr Lorna James and Dr Toby Sealey are setting up a trial to discover whether they have found a ‘Viagra for the heart’.
This year’s glorious Victorious Festival in Southsea runs across 3 days from Friday 25 August through Sunday 27 August with A Humdrum Mum’s names to look out for including Kasabian, Friendly Fires and The Charlatans as well as Jamiroquai, The Divine Comedy and Sigrid. Although we’re excited for newcomers Welly, this year’s UK Eurovision entry Mae Muller and Cian Ducrot whose debut album is appropriately titled Victory and out 4 August 2023. Tickets Day 1 review starring album chart-topper Cian Ducrot. A Humdrum Mum’s day 1 review Day 2 review Day 3 review
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHEN?: Tuesday 13 June, runs through 11 August 2023 RUNTIME: 180 minutes (including a 20-minute interval) BREAKING: This production transfers to the Prince Edward Theatre 9 October through 13 January 2024 Tickets
Can it really be true that England’s football team are the ‘premature ejaculators’ of penalty taking and the quick speed with which they take them corresponds directly to their lack of success?
The winner of 2 2022 Tonys is written by Michael R. Jackson and is the story of Usher, a black queer man writing a musical about a black queer man writing a musical. Starring Kyle Ramar Freeman and Jason Pennycooke (Hamilton, Victoria Palace) it runs at the Barbican 17 June through 9 September 2023. Tickets Review
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHEN?: Saturday 22 April, opens 2 May running to 15 July 2023 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (including a 20-minute interval) UPDATE: This productions transfers to the West End 9 December 2023 through 23 March 2024 at the Noel Coward Theatre Tickets
Mark Gatiss (ITVX’s Nolly) is 1 of our finest character actors and here plays Sir John Gielgud directing Richard Burton in Hamlet in 1964 on Broadway.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2
WHEN?: Saturday 8 April, opens Tuesday 18 April runs through 27 May 2023 RUNTIME: 155 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
Our narrator is actor Tom Vaughan-Lawlor who plays Michael, the unseen seven-year-old boy who is being raised by the Mundy sisters in County Donegal in 1936.
By Aline Mahrud
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHEN?: 18 February, opens 21 February and runs through 1 April 2023 RUNTIME: 135 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
Callum Scott Howells (Cabaret. Playhouse Theatre) proves what a versatile actor he is in this story of a single young father struggling to bring up a young child and cope with an alcoholic mother.
