As usual, here is the list of "What The Monkey Saw" in 2024 (which, for a change, rhymes). Graded in time-honoured 90s TV show style. 141 productions, good and bad, as follows:
Out Of This World
Sunset Boulevard (Savoy Theatre)
The King and I (Dominion Theatre) (SO – Standing Ovation)
Plaza Suite (Savoy Theatre) (SO)
Manon (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden)
Standing at the Sky’s Edge (Gillian Lynne Theatre) (SO)
Side Show In Concert (London Palladium)
Minority Report (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith)
Swan Lake (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden)
People, Places & Things (Trafalgar Theatre) (SO)
Kiss Me, Kate (Barbican Theatre) (SO)
The Secret Garden (Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park) (SO)
The Girls Aloud Show (The O2)
Alma Mater (Almeida Theatre) (SO)
Celebrating Lionel Bart (JW3)
Rogers & Hammerstein’s Carousel – A Concert (Royal Festival Hall) (SO)
Hello, Dolly! (London Palladium)
A Jaffa Cake Musical (The Other Palace Theatre Studio)
Fiddler On The Roof (Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park (SO)
A Chorus Line (Sadler’s Wells Theatre) (SO)
Into The Woods (Southwark Playhouse, Elephant)
Bernadette Peters, Live From London (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane) (SO)
The Years (Almeida Theatre)
Oklahoma! In Concert (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane) (SO)
Coriolanus (Olivier Theatre)
A Raisin in the Sun (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith)
The Devil Wears Prada (Dominion Theatre) (SO)
Magic Radio Christmas Show (London Palladium) (SO)
Title of Show (Southwark Playhouse, Borough)
A Christmas Carol (Old Vic Theatre) (SO)
Beauty and the Beast (Richmond Theatre)
Goldie Frocks and the Bear Mitzvah (JW3)
Robin Hood (London Palladium)
The Wonder Years
Ulster American (Riverside Studio 2)
The Homecoming (Young Vic Theatre)
The Hills of California (Harold Pinter Theatre)
Drop The Dead Donkey (Richmond Theatre)
Cruel Intentions (The Other Palace Theatre)
This Might Not Be It (Bush Theatre)
Till The Stars Come Down (Dorfman Theatre)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Theatre Royal, Haymarket)
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Peacock Theatre)
Pretty Woman – The Musical (New Wimbledon Theatre)
The Barber of Seville (London Coliseum)
Cable Street (Southwark Playhouse, Borough)
King Lear (Almeida Theatre)
Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Wyndham’s Theatre)
Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) (Criterion Theatre)
Machinal (Old Vic Theatre)
Nye (Olivier Theatre)
London Tide (Lyttelton Theatre)
Ushers The Front of House Musical (The Other Palace Theatre Studio)
John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers The Play (Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue)
The Cherry Orchard (Donmar Warehouse)
Julian Clary – A Fistful of Clary (London Palladium)
Barry Manilow – The Last, Last UK Concerts (London Palladium)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (New Wimbledon Theatre)
Jerry’s Girls (Menier Chocolate Factory)
Fun at the Beach Romp-Bomp-A-Lomp!! (Southwark Playhouse, Borough)
A View From The Bridge (Theatre Royal, Haymarket)
Starlight Express (Troubadour Theatre)
English (Kiln Theatre)
Kathy & Stella Solve A Murder! (Ambassadors Theatre)
Faulty Towers, The Dining Experience (President Hotel)
Next To Normal (Wyndhams Theatre)
Babies (The Other Palace Theatre, main auditorium)
Skeleton Crew (Donmar Warehouse)
The Hot Wing King (Dorfman Theatre)
Something Rotten - In Concert (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane)
Shifters (Duke Of York’s Theatre)
Our House – The Madness Musical (Southwark Playhouse, Elephant)
The Real Thing (Old Vic Theatre)
Cable Street (Southwark Playhouse, Elephant)
Here You Come Again (Richmond Theatre)
Waiting For Godot (Theatre Royal, Haymarket)
Giant (Royal Court Theatre Downstairs)
Jane McDonald, With All My Love Tour 2024 (London Palladium)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Ambassadors Theatre)
Barcelona (Duke of York’s Theatre)
Oedipus (Wyndhams Theatre)
Lord of the Dance (New Wimbledon Theatre)
Amaze (Criterion Theatre)
The Fear of 13 (Donmar Warehouse)
Avenue Q: 18th Birthday Concert (Sondheim Theatre)
Rigoletto (London Coliseum)
Look Back In Anger (Almeida Theatre)
The Royal Variety Performance 2024 (Royal Albert Hall)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels In Concert (London Palladium)
Jack and the Beanstalk (New Wimbledon Theatre)
The Tempest (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane)
The Producers (Menier Chocolate Factory)
California Dreams
Peter Pan: The Arena Spectacular (Apollo Hammersmith)
Kin (Lyttelton Theatre)
Cold War (Almeida Theatre)
Hadestown (Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue)
Dear Octopus (Lyttelton Theatre)
Power of Sail (Menier Chocolate Factory)
Underdog: The Other Other Bronte (Dorfman Theatre)
Player Kings: Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 (Noel Coward Theatre)
Andre Rieu In Concert (Wembley Arena)
Jesus Christ Superstar (New Wimbledon Theatre)
Romeo & Juliet (Duke of York’s Theatre)
Mean Girls The Musical (Savoy Theatre)
Bluets (Royal Court Theatre Downstairs)
Cyndi Lauper In Concert (Royal Albert Hall)
Slave Play (Noel Coward Theatre)
Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World (The Other Palace Theatre)
The Grapes of Wrath (Lyttelton Theatre)
The Baker’s Wife (Menier Chocolate Factory)
Death of England: Delroy (@Sohoplace)
Why Am I So Single? (Garrick Theatre)
I Wish You Well – The Gwyneth Paltrow Ski-Trial Musical (Criterion Theatre)
Cake – The Marie Antoinette Playlist (The Other Palace Theatre)
Juno and the Paycock (Gielgud Theatre)
The Duchess [of Malfi] (Trafalgar Theatre)
Dr Strangelove (Noel Coward Theatre)
Come Alive! (The Empress Museum)
The Buddha of Suburbia (Barbican Theatre)
Roots (Almeida Theatre)
Expendable (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs)
The Lightning Thief (The Other Palace Theatre)
Only Fools and Horses The Musical (Apollo Hammersmith)
Ballet Shoes (Olivier Theatre)
Saved By The Bell
An Enemy of the People (Duke of York’s Theatre)
An Officer and a Gentleman (New Wimbledon Theatre)
The Comeuppance (Almeida Theatre)
Dugzi Dayz (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs)
Farm Hall (Theatre Royal, Haymarket)
A Tupperware of Ashes (Dorfman Theatre)
The Other Place (Lyttelton Theatre)
Ben Elton: Authentic Stupidity (Lyceum Theatre)
The Importance of Being Earnest (Lyttelton Theatre)
Bug Juice
The Enfield Haunting (Ambassadors Theatre)
Macbeth (Dock X)
Opening Night (Gielgud Theatre)
Boys From The Blackstuff (Olivier Theatre)
The Constituent (Old Vic Theatre)
Out of Bounds
(shows the monkey saw, but did not assign a rating to)
Twelfth Night (Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park). Saw only the first half due to a fire alert at the interval cancelling the second.
Looking back, the highlights were often higher than usual, and there were several absolute disasters.
If the monkey had to pick just one show last year, it would be “Manon” at the Royal Opera House. If you think ballet is all fluffy tutus and “Graceful men lift lovely girls in white,” you did not see louts sling hookers around like mailbags, so hard they almost rebounded off the orchestra pit rail (which is, at the Royal Opera House, about 5 metres from the stage front). Heartbreakingly sad and three hours flew in seconds. The monkey was lucky enough to get a poster, now on its office wall forever.
Back in plays, “Plaza Suite” had the wonderful SJP / MB duo in a slick comedy that reminds London it needs more Neil Simon again. Denise Gough astounded us all by taking “People, Places and Things” to a level surpassing even her first time in the role.
In new writing, “Alma Mater” at the Almeida dared to ask new questions of an old topic. “The Secret Garden” at the Open Air, Regent’s Park was a gem of period acting and personal growth. “Minority Report” put the monkey in a tiny minority who loved it – science fiction can work on stage.
Musical theatre also saw the monkey in the minority who found “The Devil Wears Prada” an hilarious romp deserving a fashionably long run. Almost matching it, “A Jaffa Cake Musical” was almost impossible to review – the monkey’s carefully taken notes proven to be scribble thanks to laughing too much.
Revivals too dealt sucker punch after sucker punch. “Standing At The Sky’s Edge” should by rights still be running, “A Chorus Line” cannot end its tour without a West End return and both “Fiddler On The Roof” and “The King And I” were reminders of Broadway glory that still shine as bright today.
One-off concerts, “Bernadette Peters” ticked off the monkey list, “Girls Aloud” a firework tinged with sadness. Finally, Rachel Tucker’s face crumpling with emotion as she and Louise Dearman “stopped the show dead” with an all-levels standing ovation at the London Palladium during “Side Show” has to be the image of the year.
Moving to the dead zone, the lows of the year proved lower than usual. “The Enfield Haunting” set the bar so low in January that nothing got further under it. The brave determination of the cast to get through the performance had to be applauded. The fact the script was absent simply gasped over.
Same applied at “Opening Night,” a blameless cast locked in a hapless battle with a story and staging beyond the comprehension of anyone except possibly the director.
With an inexplicable “Macbeth” at Dock X, a venue probably never going to see theatre again (to mutual relief), a “Boys From the Blackstuff” probably the most anticipated and second biggest disappointment of the year, and James Cordon bellowing his way through a thin “The Constituent”, 2025 has little to live down to.
According to Sir Cameron Mackintosh, the West End has finally recovered from lockdowns to be busier than ever. Here’s to hoping 2025 continues in the same form.
Next Wednesday, the Goodmonkey Awards for the 2024 season will be announced.
Before that, a special treat by guest associate writer Anastasia Glagoleva. A contrasting view on a theatregoing year from a person spending her first full one in London, in "Theatre Highlights of 2024 – A Year in Numbers": Read it here.