The culture editors of The Guardian have curated a selection of theatrical offerings from around the U.K. that were among the favorites of their readers this past year. Four musicals made the list, including with the London revival of the 1934 show Anything Goes, which began performances in July at the Barbican and will embark on a UK tour at Bristol’s Hippodrome in April, returning to the Barbican for a limited run next July.
The Curve’s Leicester revival of the 1993 Tony-winning Sunset Boulevard earned notice for its inventive streamed reimaging, “with the melodramatic tale now seeming to take place among the paraphernalia of a movie lot and abandoned cinema.” The show is available online through January 17.
The third production on the list is the Sheffield revival of the 2010 musical The Addams Family, whose “momentary breach of the fourth wall made the experience that much more communal” and “raised the performance” during its limited run in November at the Lyceum Theatre.
The final acclaimed production is Amanda Whittington’s original Fisherman’s Friends, based on the 2019 film, which premiered October 13 at the Cornwall Playhouse’s Hall for Cornwall in Truro. This “most joyous, uplifting, feel-good musical” will next tour the UK, beginning at Plymouth’s Theatre Royal in September.