Theatre Top 10

[Marmora Man]

I couldn't decide on my top ten films - so I thought about top ten theatre performances. This is just as difficult, here's a starter for ten - but it'll be different once I've had time to think further:

1968 ? Hair

1968 ? Caberet - Judi Dench as Sally Bowles

1968 ? Oh What a Lovely War

1973 - Equus - Peter Firth & Alec McCowen

1981 ?Amadeus (Frank Finlay as Amadeus)

1985 - Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead (revival at NT)

1987 - Anthony & Cleopatra (Judi Dench as Cleo)

1986 - Breaking the Code ? Derek Jacobi

1998 ? Chicago ? Ute Lemper & Ruthie Henshall

2008 ? Much Ado about Nothing (Simon Russell Beale & Zoe Wanamaker)

Edited to add correct actress in Much Ado.

PS: Would add - Guys & Dolls, Evita, Cats as great pieces of theatre / musicals as well.

[Jah Lush]

Unfortunately I've never been much of a theatregoer but seeing Peter O'Toole in Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell in 1989 was just brilliant especially as I knew Jeffrey Bernard quite well.

[fiskaroo]

what about FAME?

[Brendan]

I'm gonna live forever

[cdonline]

I'm gonna learn how to fly.

HIGH

[Jah Lush]

Oh no you're not.

[Bellenden Belle]

Ahhh now we're talking ....

Blue Heart - Caryl Churchill (Out of Joint) - a double bill, one half featuring an entire dialogue consructed out of the words Blue and Kettle. Genius!

Scenes from the Big Picture -Owen McCafferty - National theatre - a beautiful ensemble piece

Medea with Diana Rigg - probably around 1990 - she was simply breathtaking

Street of Crocodiles - Theatre de Complicite - inventive, witty, touching

Spunk - Royal Court Theatre around 1990 - long before Five Guys Named Mo came to the West End, this was a winner

Hamlet - Peter Brook's production with Adrian Lester at the Young Vic

Burn this - John Malkovich and Juliet Stevenson around 1990 - angry, raw and bloody sexy

The Producers - the musical .... sheer joy

Carousel - the National Theatre production with Joanne Riding

Far Side of the Moon - Robert Lepage, National Theatre, 2001 - extraordinary

I could go on......

[Bellenden Belle]

Must add that I am terribly envious of Marmora Man's list.... would love to have seen Judi in Cabaret - and absoutely agree about Ute Lemper in Chicago - it's also always worth catching her one-woman shows..... she ooooooozes sex!

[Marmora Man]

Giggirl pointed out elsewhere that "top 10" was too restricting - so I'll add a few more.

Adrian Lester in Henry 5, Dianna Rigg in Stoppard's Night & Day, Blue's in the Night at the Donmar with Clarke Peters and Maria Friedman - and as a "special" Dustin Hoffman in Merchant of Venice.

Agree BB - Ute Lemper just oozzzes sex and Judi Dench as Sally Bowles had just the right, not quite trained, voice to play Sally as a down on her luck English girl in Berlin. Beat the pants of Liza Minnelli - tho' the latest Caberet with Anna Maxwell Martin was pretty good with a much harder ending.

[PeckhamRose]

Oooh I am impressed by your list, Marmora Man.

I remember in the 80s a friend said London was divided between those who had seen David Copperfield and those who had not. I did not. Tended to spend what little money I had on seeing gigs. Another list beckons!

MY list so far would be

1) Royal Court - Jonathan Pryce in all 4.5 hours of Hamlet when the Equity Minimum was ?90 a week and that, apparently, is what he got!

2) A play about the American physicist Richard Feynham at Hamsptead 2 years ago. Brilliant and funny.

3) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Greenwich a few years ago. Actor playing Player King was Brilliant.

4) Being in the 2nd row of the audience at the very first preview of Romans in Britain at NT and the next day after the press night wondering what the fuss was about.

5) Anthony Hopkins in Pravda NT.

6) Sus, a little play I think at Royal Court Upstairs in 80s. Changed my teenage views about police and the state more than the very wordy and worthy and LONG piece at NT by David Hare did a few years ago!

7) Restoration by Edward Bond. Royal Court.

8) Stephen Berkoff's Metamorphosis at Mermaid theatre starring Tim Roth.

10) ANDDDDDDDD NEXT YEAR I already have tickets for Dame Judi Dench as Madame de Sade. I already know it's on the list!

[giggirl]

PeckhamRose Wrote:

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> 5) Anthony Hopkins in Pravda NT.

OMG - I saw this too. I had forgotten all about it until I read your list PRose. What a jewel this was. I remember it was at the same time as the Daily Mail had helped "procure" a British passport for Zola Budd (does anyone remember that?). The Anthony Hopkins character was South African and I think they did a re-write so they could slip in a line about him "buying" a British passport. It brought the house down. Brilliant play and great to remember it after all these years.

[PeckhamRose]

Aha yes indeed. He did not enter the stage for a good 20 mins into the play and his character (a Murdoch media type) was built up. When he enters the stage he was nearly all in shadow, moved a bit, scared the life out of everyone, and he got a standing ovation before he'd opened his mouth. Astounding.

ooooooo I am so looking forward to seeing Judi de Sade!

[mattham]

Blimey, some highbrow stuff here. Don't go to the theatre nearly enough but the plays I've enjoyed most in recent years include:

Copenhagen and Democracy ??Michael Frayn

Rock n Roll ??Tom Stoppard

Hitchcock Blonde and Piano Forte ??Terry Johnson

Food Chain...can't remember by whom but it was at the Royal Court about five years ago. In fact most of these were at the Royal Court. Also enjoyed A Matter of Life and Death (last year?) at the NT.

[Moos]

I admire those with the energy and well-regulated memory to come up with 10 - I'll start with 1, and add more if I remember more:

- Antony Sher in Cyrano de Bergerac

Sublime.

[Bellenden Belle]

It's interesting - I remember theatre far more easily than I do either books or films. I think it is something to do with the experience for me.... I've been fortunate to see tons of theatre - mostly because of earlier jobs - and there is a point when I literally feel my heart in my mouth when I see something extraordinary. So I might not often remember the plot but I will remember the sometimes shaky, sometimes joyful walk from my seat to the exit. It's the only medium that really does that for me. Occasionally live music might hit the same spot, but rarely.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I remember going to see Shadowlands with Nigel Hawthorne and Jane Lapotaire. I just sat in my seat and wept at the end of it. Highly embarrassing.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

Noddy and Big Ears-Central London-1962.Sorry can't remember who played the lead roles but I doubt if it was Olivier and Gielgud....

[Moos]

Funny how a theatre thread (and from memory the poetry thread) can be an invitation for mockery. I don't see people posting advertising jingles on the music thread, or Cinderella on the movies thread.

Strange. Why do you think that is?

[Marmora Man]

- Antony Sher in Cyrano de Bergerac

Sublime.

And his Richard III - he looked like a mad, bad spider scuttling around the stage hunched over two crutches and two long black sweeping sleeves

[Jah Lush]

Inverted snobbery perhaps?

[Brendan]

For some reason that term always gives me an image of Princess Anne standing on her head.

[Marmora Man]

Shadowlands with Nigel Hawthorne and Jane Lapotaire

The recent revival with CHarles Dance and Janie Dee was excellent and moving too

[cdonline]

Tomorrow Was War at the National

Pravda (again)

Carousel, Joanna Riding and Patricia Routledge (saw this again and again)

Follies, Julia McKenzie, Diana Rigg

The Normal Heart at the Royal Court

Hamlet, Mark Rylance

Arcadia, Felicity Kendal, Rufus Sewell

Three Sisters at Greenwich. Joanna Whalley was simply staggering.

Angels in America

Henry IV parts 1 and 2 at the Old Vic with John Woodvine as Falstaff

and err, 11. The House of Bernarda Alba, Glenda Jackson and Joan Plowright

[mattham]

Quote:

"I remember going to see Shadowlands with Nigel Hawthorne and Jane Lapotaire. I just sat in my seat and wept at the end of it."

Did either of them offer you a tissue?

[Moos]

Marmora Man Wrote:

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> And his Richard III - he looked like a mad, bad

> spider scuttling around the stage hunched over two

> crutches and two long black sweeping sleeves

I was at school when that production was on - we talked about it but didn't get to go.. would have been wonderful. Cyrano was indescribably elating and moving. When he died, you could almost see the light going out in his eyes. I wept without any shame, as I think everyone else did too.

Mattham - hee hee :))