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Jan 11, 2008 8:40:14 AM Archived Entry: "Live performances, 2008"

Last year I saw the most shows ever - seventy-eight! I'm off to a bit of a slow start for 2008, thanks to having a houseguest and now a powerful cold. You can find reviews of most of the shows I've seen on my Wordpress weblog.

January
1. "Les Patineurs" and "The Tales of Beatrix Potter" (both choreographed by Frederick Ashton) - The Royal Ballet - Royal Opera House
2. Othello - The Donmar
February
3. David Mamet's "Speed the Plow" - The Old Vic
4. Annie Get Your Gun - Union Theatre, Southwark
5. Chita Rivera - Shaw Theatre, London
6. The Mikado - Carl Rosa Theatre at The Gielgud
7. Chroma (ballet, again, because it rocked) - Royal Opera House (and I was horrible and left before the other two pieces even started)
8. Shen Yu Performing Arts Ensemble - Royal Festival Hall
9. Homecoming - The Almeida Theatre
March
10. Dealer's Choice - Trafalgar Studios
11. "The Lover" and "The Collection" (two Pinter one-acts) - Comedy Theatre
12. Spring Dance at the Coliseum - City Ballet's Jerome Robbins Program (Four Seasons, Moves, The Concert)
13. Spring Dance at the Coliseum - City Ballet's "Four Voices: Wheeldon ("Carousel"), Martins ("Zakousi"), Bigonzetti ("In Vento"), Ratmansky ("Russian Seasons")
14. Royal Ballet Mixed Rep (Wheeldon's "Electric Counterpoint," Robbins' "Afternoon of a Faun," and Balanchine's "Zigane" - there was also an Ashton piece that I skipped in favor of sleep)
15. Cor Blimey, a Cockney Knees Up - Bethnal Green Working Men's Club
16. The Importance of Being Earnest - The Vaudeville Theatre
April
17. Royal Ballet's "Sylvia" - Royal Opera House
18. Timecode Break - Toronto Dance Theatre - Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House
19. Nederlands Dans Theater - Jirí Kylián's Wings of Wax and Tar and Feathers; Lightfoot and León's Signing Off - Sadler's Wells
20. Ballet Black - Linbury Theater - Royal Opera House
21.Carlos Acosta and Friends (the friends being the Danza Contemporanea de Cuba) - Petipa's "Don Quixote Pas de Deux, George Cespedes' "La Ecuación" and "El Peso de Una Isla," Acosta's "Tocororo Suite"- London Coliseum
22. Wayne McGregor's Random Dance company - "Entity" - Sadler's Wells
23. Slippery Mountain - Not So Loud Chinese Opera Company - New World Restaurant, London (great fun!)
24. Contains Violence - Lyric Hammersmith (bah! too cold and boring to boot)
25. Fram - The National Theatre (vile, avoid at all costs)
26. Major Barbara - The National Theatre (really good show though a bit speechy at the end)
27. Northern Ballet Theatre's "Hamlet" - Sadler's Wells (very good)
28. Dina Martina - Soho Theatre
May
29. Good Soul of Szechuan - Young Vic
30. Lady from the Sea - Arcola
31. The Birthday Party - Lyric Hammersmith
32. New Works in the Linbury - Royal Ballet ("What If," choreography Ernst Meisner, danced by Romany Pajdak and Sergei Polunin; "b," choreography Viacheslav Samodurov, danced by Sarah Lamb and Ivan Putrov; "Of Mozart," choreography Liam Scarlett, dancers a cast of hundreds (or rather eight); "Agitator," choreography Matjash Mrozewski, danced by Isabel McMeekan and Thomas Whitehead; "Monument," choreography Vanessa Fenton, also many dancers; "Stop Me When I'm Stuck," choreography Jonathan Watkins, danced by Yuhui Choe, Lauren Cuthbertson)
33. The Only Girl in the World - Arcola Theatre
June
34. "The Peony Pavilion" part one - Suzhou Kunqu Opera company - Sadler's Wells
35. "The Peony Pavilion" part two ("Romance and Resurrection") - Suzhou Kunqu Opera company - Sadler's Wells
36. Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens - some pub in Bedford
37. "The Peony Pavilion" part three ("Reunion and Triumph") - Suzhou Kunqu Opera company - Sadler's Wells
38. "Dances at a Gathering" (Jerome Robbins) - Royal Ballet - Royal Opera House
39. "Rosmersholm" - Almeida Theatre
40. "Marguerite - the Musical" - Theatre Royal Haymarket
41. The Revenger's Tragedy - National Theatre
42. "Noel Coward's Brief Encounter" - Haymarket Cinema (fantastic!)
43. "The Quiz" - Trafalgar Studios
44. "Dickens Unplugged" - The Comedy Theatre
July
45. Jordi Savall- The Apotheosis of the Viol (York Early Music Festival)
46. Emma Kirkby and Peter Harvey - How Shall We Sing The Lord's Song in a Strange Land
47. Yorkshire Bach Choir and Yorkshire Baroque Soloists - Handel's "Israel in Egypt"
48. Hairspray - Shaftesbury Theater
49. Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras - "Sabores" - Sadler's Wells
50. Under Blue Skies - Duke of York Theatre
51. Monkey (Journey to the West) Opera - Royal Opera House
52. Giselle - Mikhailovsky Ballet, London Coliseum
53. They're Playing Our Song - Menier Chocolate Factory
August
54. Wink the Other Eye - Wilton's Music Hall
55. Wizard of Oz - Royal Festival Hall
56. Pygmalion - Old Vic
57. I, Lear - Trafalgar Studios
58. West Side Story - Sadler's Wells
59. Jordi Savall and Rolf Lislevand - BBC Proms Series - Cadogan Hall
60. Miss Behave's Naugty Nighty - The Roundhouse
September
61. Matthew Bourne's Dorian Grey - Sadler's Wells
62. Proprius - Random Dance company at Covent Garden
63. "Landscape" & "A Slight Ache" - National Theater
64. Living Together - Old Vic Theater
65. Helium - Barbican
66. Fat Pig - Comedy Theatre
October
67. Merce Cunningham mixed bill (Crises, Xover, Biped) - Barbican
68. La Clique - London Hippodrome
69. Mariinsky ballet all Forsythe mixed bill (Steptext, Approximate Sonata, The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, In the Middle Somewhat Elevated) - Sadler's Wells
70. Zorro - Garrick Theater
71. Creditors - Donmar
72. Flamenco Concert (El Capullo de Jerez, Remedios Amaya, El Farruco) - El Palau de Musica, Barcelona
73. Now or Later - Royal Court Jerwood
74. Spyski - Peeoplykus at Lyric Hammersmith
75. All Stravinsky Program (Petroushka, Firebird, Le Baiser de la Fée) - Birmingham Ballet at Sadler's Wells
November
76. Impressing the Czar - Royal Ballet Flanders - Sadler's Wells
77. Partenope - English National Opera
78. Firsts (Compania LA, Chisato Minaminura Dance Company, Albert Quesada and Vera Tussing, Helen Stromberger) - Linbury Studio
79. Three Short Works (Voluntaries, The Lesson, Infra) - The Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House
80. August Osage County - Steppenwolf Theater at the National Theatre, London
81. Cinderella - Lyric Hammersmith
82. Riders to the Sea - English National Opera
December
83. Gesthemane - National Theatre
84. A Little Night Music - Menier Chocolate Factory
85. In A Dark Dark House - Almeida Theatre
86. “Mother Goose” - Hackney Empire
87. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - 1927 at the Battersea Arts Centre
88. Emma Kirkby - St. John's Smith Square
89. Dance Dance Revolution -
90. South Pacific - Lincoln Center
91. Klezmer Nutcracker - Vital Theater Company
92. The Nutcracker - New York City Ballet, Lincoln Center
93. Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab - Some Small Theater, NYC

"Only weak men fear able women" - Marion Boyars