Another month – another lockdown. When I began my online theatre reviewing back in March it didn’t seem possible that I’d still be at it eight months later…. And without missing a day. I also assumed the need for my Online Theatre listings would have passed; looks like it’s going to be handy for at least another month, if not more…
Anyway, the stats are certainly piling up now:
Continuous number of days reviewing online = 214
Online shows reviewed = 275
Most popular page = Online Theatre listings – accessed 2,500 times (with 1,500 downloads)
Top three reviews
The Turning Point (Sky Arts short play featuring Benedict Cumberbatch), Coriolanus (Donmar Warehouse with Tom Hiddlestone) Faith Healer (The Old Vic live stream with Michael Sheen)
Last night my reviews blog had it’s 15,000th view this year
And now – the summary for October 2020
In the circumstances it seems inappropriate to offer star ratings for theatre productions as the same criteria simply cannot apply. However – all shows received a full review. Click on titles to access them.
Theatre
| Love Never Dies | Andrew Lloyd Webber, Glenn Slater (with input from 3 others) |
| No Masks | Rebecca Lenkiewicz |
| Doing The Book Club | David Spicer |
| Riders To The Sea | John Millington Synge |
| The Shadow Of The Glen | John Millington Synge |
| No Milk For The Foxes | Conrad Murray & Paul Cree |
| Sunnymead Court | Gemma Lawrence |
| How To Occupy An Oil Rig | Daniel Bye |
| Crongton Knights | Alex Wheatle adptd. by Emteaz Hussain & Conrad Murray |
| Mr Poe’s Legendarium | Clown Funeral |
| The New Tomorrow… | Various |
| Funny Girl | Jule Styne, Bob Merrill & Isobel Lennart (book revised by Harvey Fierstein) |
| In A Nutshell | Ben Duke |
| Night | Harold Pinter |
| Adding Machine: A Musical | Jason Loewith & Joshua Schmid (based on Elmer Rice’s play) |
| Globaleyes | Devised |
| Apollo 13: The Dark Side Of the Moon | Torben Betts |
| Cats | Andrew Lloyd Webber & T.S. Eliot |
| Time | Jessica Butcher |
| Water | babirye bukilwa |
| Rage | Chloe Todd Fordham |
| Nine Lives | Zodwa Nyoni |
| The University Of Wonder And Imagination | Paul Bosco McEneaney/Cahoots NI |
| Continuity | Gerry Moynihan |
| Viper Squad | CtrlAlt_Repeat from a story by Sid Phoenix |
| War Of The Worlds | Jeff Wayne (based on H.G. Wells’ novel) |
| Cookies | Emily Jenkins |
| Artemisia: Light And Shadow | Nahma Sandrow |
| Dr Faustus | Christopher Marlowe |
| Frighteners: Three Wise Monkeys | Lucy Kaufman (from a story by Chris Murray) |
| Frighteners: The Nightmare | Jonathan Kaufman |
| Frighteners: The Strange Tale of WW | Jane Walker (from a story by Edgar Allan Poe) |
| Frighteners: Waiting Room | Julian Kaufman |
| Frighteners: Shall I Be Mother? | Darren Bird |
| Frighteners: The Signalman | Ida Tidy (from a story by Charles Dickens) |
| Frighteners: The Puppet Master | Lucy Kaufman |
| Frankenstein: How To Make A Monster | Conrad Murray, David Cumming and Germane Marvel |
| Host | Sam Essame |
| The Rocky Horror Show | Richard O’Brien |
| Bump In The Night | David Spicer |
The rest of the year’s online theatre reviews can be accessed via the index here
Books
One, Two, Three, Four: the Beatles In Time by Craig Brown. A thematic biography of the Beatles**** (Review here)
The Mirror And The Light by Hilary Mantel. The final instalment of her Cromwell trilogy**** (Review here)
Best Of The Bunch
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For my Theatre Online list (suggestions and news of newly released productions) please click here. This list is supplemented by regular updates on Twitter (@johnchapman398)
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