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London Theatre 2016 highlights: the best of the best

By Lucy Brooks on 16/12/2016

Ever inventive, reliably talent-packed and typically sold out, London Theatre in 2016 was full of delights. Here, in no particular order, is Culture Whisper's selection of the very best of the best plays 2016 had to offer.


Escaped Alone, Caryl Churchill Royal Court rerun

Potent new writing: Escaped Alone, Royal Court Theatre

The mighty Caryl Churchill did not disappoint with her hotly-anticipated new play at the Royal Court. Escaped Alone was fiendishly smart, but not at all alienating. And luckily for those who missed the story of tea and catastrophe in 2016, it returns for a short run in January 2017 before transferring to New York.

Read more ...
WHEN
25 Jan 2017 – 11 Feb 2017, 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM
WHERE
Royal Court Theatre
Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AS
Yerma, Billie Piper: Young Vic 2016

Astonishingly fresh: Yerma, Young Vic Theatre

Yerma was the best thing we've seen at the Young Vic since A Streetcar Named Desire, (maybe ever?). Lorca’s tragedy was dragged into modern day London with an astonishing urgency, Billie Piper was a sensation and a yuppie blogger version of the infertile heroine, and day ticket queue snaked down The Cut.

Read more ...
WHEN
28 Jul 2016 – 24 Sep 2016, Monday - Saturday: 7.30pm (except 29 Aug) (except 12 & 19 Sept) Wednesday & Saturday matinees: 2.30pm (except 30 Jul, 3, 10, 27 Aug, 8 & 21 Sept)
WHERE
The Young Vic
66 The Cut , Waterloo, London, SE1 8LZ
From Fringe to Barbican: Encounter, London 2016

Mind-boggling: The Encounter, Barbican

Complicite Theatre Company really got inside our minds with this extraordinary immersive soundscape telling the story of an explorer stranded in the Amazon rain forest. The story and methods through which it was told was full of surprises.

Read more ...
WHEN
12 Feb 2016 – 08 Mar 2016, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM
WHERE
Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS
Meow Meow as Titania and Nandi Bebhe as First Fairy in Emma Rice’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; photo by Steve Tanner

Sexy, subversive Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Globe

New Globe artistic director Emma Rice began with a bang: Beyonce, Bowie, Bollywood & cabaret made for a drastically different, delightfully subversive Midsummer Night's Dream. Traditionalists were outraged; everyone else was thrilled.

Read more ...
WHEN
30 Apr 2016 – 11 Sep 2016, 7:30 PM – 10:30 PM
WHERE
The Globe
21 New Globe Walk, Bankside, London, SE1 9DT
First look cast photo: Jamie Parker as Harry Potter

Predictably magic: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Palace Theatre

The return of The Boy Who Lived is just about the biggest thing to happen to the West End. Cue herds of Harry Potter fans, queuing around the Palace Theatre, eagerly awaiting more J.K. Rowling magic. We (as avid enthusisasts of Theatre and the wizarding world) were not disappointed).

Read more ...
WHEN
07 Jun 2016 – 27 May 2017, Times vary for the two shows
WHERE
Palace Theatre
Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 5AY
Groundhog Day Musical Poster

Funny over again over again: Groundhog Day, Old Vic

Back off Broadway, we had the best new musical since Hamilton – right here in London. Thanks to the mighty talents of Tim Minchin, Matthew Warchus and Danny Rubin, hit 1993 film Groundhog Day was transformed into a subversively funny delight of a musical.

Read more ...
WHEN
15 Jul 2016 – 17 Sep 2016, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM
WHERE
The Old Vic
The Cut, London, SE1 8NB
Review: The Deep Blue Sea, National Theatre revival. Photo by Hubert Smith

A new kind of blues: The Deep Blue Sea, National Theatre

Terence Rattigan's tender tale of depression and failed love affairs in 1950s London was made achingly alive in Carrie Cracknell's atmospheric revival at the National Theatre. And Helen McCrory's as suicidal Hester was one of the most touching, understated performances of the year.

Read more ...
WHEN
08 Jun 2016 – 21 Sep 2016, 7:30 PM – 9:45 PM
WHERE
National Theatre
South Bank, London, SE1 9PX
Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart: No Man's Land play, photo by Luke Fontana

All-star Pinter: No Man's Land, Wyndham's Theatre

When living legends Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart joined forces, it was always going to be a theatrical event. They did not disappoint in Pinter's perplexing, poetic masterpiece.

Read more ...
WHEN
09 Sep 2016 – 17 Dec 2016, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM
WHERE
Wyndham's Theatre
32 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0DA
Harriet Walters in all female Shakespeare

Who run the world: Donmar's Female Shakespeare Trilogy

Phyllida Lloyd's masterful re-imagining of Shakespeare within a women's prison has already featured in many a 'best theatre' round up when first Julius Caesar then Henry IV premiered at the Donmar. But now with The Tempest completing a trilogy of all-female Shakespeare plays with a remarkably talented cast, the result was one of 2016's most unmissable theatrical experiences.




Read more ...
WHEN
23 Sep 2016 – 17 Dec 2016, Performance times tbc
WHERE
King's Cross
On the corner of King’s Boulevard and Good’s Way King’s Cross, London, N1C
Jaygann Ayeh as Avery and Louisa Krause as Rose, The Flick: photo by Mark Douet

Millennial malaise: The Flick, National Theatre

Annie Baker's polarising, Pulitzer-winning play The Flick divided opinions. But everyone agreed that it was a long, slow slog. But it was the sheer quotidian and banality that was so striking. Easily the least thrilling play by traditional standard, yet strangely compelling.

Read more ...
WHEN
13 Apr 2016 – 15 Jun 2016, 7:00 PM – 10:15 PM
WHERE
National Theatre
South Bank, London, SE1 9PX
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Best of 2016

Theatre

West End

We Love

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