Best London theatre 2019: The musicals, plays and West End shows of the year, as chosen by Nick Curtis and Jessie Thompson

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It’s been a close-run thing, but in the end neither Coleen Rooney’s Twitter account nor a last-minute festive general election could stop London theatre from coming out on top in the drama stakes.

From unforgettable star turns from the likes of Andrew Scott and Dame Maggie Smith to blazingly brilliant debut plays and brand new artistic directors, 2019 has delivered another year of exceptional theatre.

Before we look ahead to what we won’t want to miss in 2020, we’re looking back - in no particular order - on the shows that stood out across London’s glorious stages this year.

Cyrano de Bergerac

Playhouse Theatre

Marc Brenner

A late entry into the year’s top shows, Jamie Lloyd and Martin Crimp’s devastatingly bold reinvention of Rostand’s classic as a rap battle that simultaneously occupied the present day and 1897 Paris was a piece of pure theatre. With hardly any set and no prosthetic nose for the superb James McAvoy, this was a delight for the senses and the imagination. Nick Curtis

Fairview

Young Vic

Marc Brenner

On a week when I really needed sleep, Jackie Sibblies Drury’s seminal-feeling Pulitzer Prize-winning play kept me up thinking about it until 2am and stopped me from concentrating on anything else the day after. And I wasn’t even annoyed. It’s the kind of live, transformative experience theatre is made for; some were exhilarated, some discomfited, but everybody felt something. Jessie Thompson

Present Laughter

Old Vic

Manuel Harlan

We all knew Andrew Scott was a great and funny actor but his superlative comic turn as Gary Essendine in Noel Coward’s autobiographical play added entirely new colours to the spectrum of his talent. Matthew Warchus’s production also gender-flipped a couple of characters to better reflect Coward’s own life, making the play speak anew. NC

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Donmar Warehouse

( Helen Maybanks)
Helen Maybanks

A play about the impact of the criminal justice system on women and their families could have been a sanctimonious preach sesh. In Alice Birch’s hands, it was an unmissable triumph of visionary theatre. By writing 100 unnamed scenes, then cleverly selected and shaped by director Maria Aberg, Birch used form to illustrate the random fragments of life, sometimes tender, sometimes not. As one of several productions marking Clean Break’s 40th year (devised show Inside Bitch was brilliant too), it was funny, moving, and always devastatingly human. JT

A German Life

Bridge Theatre

Helen Maybanks

Dame Maggie Smith was a shoo-in for the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress at this year’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards, for her exquisitely-timed, delicately nuanced performance in Christopher Hampton’s solo show about Goebbels’ stenographer. After 12 years away from the stage Smith created a captivating portrait of a woman who had persuaded herself of her own innocence, or at least ignorance. NC

Small Island

National Theatre

Brinkhoff/Mögenburg

Bringing Andrea Levy’s prize-winning novel about the post-WWII experiences of the Windrush generation to the stage was an excellent decision for two reasons. The first was that it made an evening of riveting, epic storytelling. The second was that it felt like a clear articulation of what a National Theatre should be for: an inclusive place that strives to tell stories that are genuinely representative of our nation's history and culture. Levy’s death in February, mere months before the show opened, added an unbearable poignancy. JT

Come From Away

Phoenix Theatre

Matthew Murphy

This delightful Canadian musical by married couple Irene Sankoff and David Hein was the perfect antidote for our vile times, recounting how a tiny town in Newfoundland looked after the passengers and crew of 38 planes diverted to their local airport after 9/11. Simply staged, with Ceilidh-style music, it reminded audiences that more unites us than divides us. NC

Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp.

Royal Court Theatre

Johan Persson

Caryl Churchill’s imagination is so vast, so audacious, that I honestly wonder what the post-it notes on her fridge look like. She seems incapable of writing anything that isn’t completely exhilarating, as she proved again with four fairy tale-like new plays at the Royal Court. There was an astonishing alchemy to this mix of magical realism, mischief, poetry and politics that saw it rightly shortlisted for Best Play at this year’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards. JT

Sweat

Donmar and Gielgud

Johan Persson

Winner of Best Play at this year’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards, Lynn Nottage’s heartfelt script not only showed how economic hardship leads to racism and other hatreds, but gave prominent roles to three middle-aged, working class women. The West End transfer for Lynette Linton’s stirring production was richly deserved. NC

Chiaroscuro

Bush Theatre

Johan Persson

In terms of sheer emotional power, nothing came close to Lynette Linton’s first show at the Bush Theatre. Her production of Jackie Kay’s rarely revived 1986 play was a soulful blend of theatre, poetry and music that opened up discussions about sexuality and colourism within the POC community. Tender music by Shiloh Coke (who also performed in the show) communicated feelings that couldn't be expressed with words, from fears of prejudice to falling in love. JT

The Doctor

Almeida (and transfers to the Duke of York’s in April)

Manuel Harlan

With The Doctor, Robert Icke did not so much adapt an obscure Arthur Schnitzler play as bend its central drama into a riveting disquisition on modern identity politics and blame culture. Juliet Stevenson, in the lead role, just gets better and better. NC

& Juliet

Shaftesbury Theatre

Hearing the songs of my adolescence turned into a West End musical soundtrack was a bit like seeing a Jacqueline Wilson book adapted for the screen by Pedro Almodovar. Banger after banger by songwriting supremo Max Martin - from Britney to the Backstreet Boys - marked a moment when the tectonic plates of what a West End audience can look like seemed to shift. Added to that a story where Shakespeare had to admit the ending to Romeo & Juliet was nonsense and a star-making performance from Miriam-Teak Lee, it was the most fun I had at the theatre all year. JT

Rosmersholm

Duke of York’s

Johan Persson

With barely a word changed, Ibsen’s 1886 play proved the most telling drama about populism and Brexit on the London stage this year. Tom Burke was very good in the lead in Ian Rickson’s production, but the evening really belonged to Hayley Atwell as a heartbreaking Rebecca West and Giles Terera as the malevolent Kroll. NC

The Watsons​

Menier Chocolate Factory

Manuel Harlan

Lucky London audiences have another chance to see Laura Wade’s brilliant meta-theatrical play which is ostensibly a stage adaptation of an unfinished Jane Austen novel, but actually far more. After opening in Chichester last year, it had a hit run at the Menier Chocolate Factory this autumn; next year it transfers to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End. Directed by Samuel West, it's an intelligent and philosophical show delivered with a delightful lightness of touch. JT

Evita

Open Air Theatre (and transfers to the Barbican in June)

Marc Brenner

Smashing. That was the word I used to describe this second Jamie Lloyd production on this list when it opened in Regent’s Park. This was a pared-down, sexed-up staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s unlikely evergreen hit about Argentina’s Eva Peron, with a belting central performance from Samantha Pauly. I had the songs in my head for days afterwards. NC

A Doll’s House

Lyric Hammersmith

Helen Maybanks

Another theatre, another new artistic director. Rachel O’Riordan, a director of deep sensibility, marked her tenure at the Lyric Hammersmith with an Ibsen that pushed at questions of empire as well as feminism. Adapted by Tanika Gupta, the setting was 19th century Calcutta, Nora became Niru (Anjana Vasan was exceptionally good) and her husband an English colonial officer. It was the kind of exemplary production that shows how effective a dialogue with the theatrical canon can be. JT

Downstate

National Theatre

Michael Brosilow

Bruce Norris likes to discomfit audiences and plays don’t come much more challenging – or more humane – than this tale of four sex offenders in a halfway house. Co-produced with Chicago’s Steppenwolf it featured superb performances from US stars Francis Guinan and K Todd Freeman but also from Hackney-born Cecilia Noble as world-weary police officer Ivy. NC

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Bridge Theatre

Manuel Harlan

We had productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream coming out of ears in London this year, with a spooky take at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre that was a real treat. But I’m awarding the fairy crown to Nicholas Hytner for his promenade production at the Bridge (Bunny Christie pick up Best Design for it at our Theatre Awards). It had enthralling acrobatics, an obscenely funny performance from Hammed Animashaun as Bottom, Gwendoline Christie regally swinging over the audience's heads, and a real sense of adventure. JT

Death of a Salesman

Young Vic and Piccadilly

Brinkhoff/Mogenburg

There were many Arthur Miller adaptations in 2019, some weak (The American Clock ) and some strong (All My Sons ) but none better than this majestic production by Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell which reimagined the Lomans as a black family in a white neighbourhood. Wendell Pierce fathomed startling depths of emotion as the disintegrating Willy, but was matched every step of the way by the magnificent Sharon D Clarke. NC

seven methods of killing kylie jenner

Royal Court

Helen Murray

It’s common for ‘social media’ to be discussed as a catch-all term for that thing young people do. But Jasmine Lee-Jones’s blazingly prodigious debut play brought the internet to life to show that an emerging language of memes, gifs, hashtags and emojis needs to be understood as an entire culture of its own, where the rules are different. It won Lee-Jones this year’s Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright and I’m full of joy that the Royal Court have promised it’ll be back next year. JT

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