Past the halfway point, how are you holding out?
So I've had a whine about how ordinary I found the Manchester theatre scene this year, and I've made my case for my theatrical highlight. Except that it wasn't, quite; because as much as I love big, serious and challenging theatre and wish there was some in Manchester more than once a year, my theatrical highlight in the city last year was off the scale as far as entertainment went.
Billy, The Monster and Me! was frankly the most enjoyable time I've spent in front of a stage all year. Energetic, charming, genuinely funny and heartfelt. Watching it with friends helped, but in fact we were all friends five minutes into the story. The image of Gramps asleep in the chair, the monster scoffing- aww, I can't give too much away.....
Because you too have a chance to be a member of Team Billy! Get yourself along to rePlay at the Lowry later in January; I promise you it's a real treat. Anything that can keep me and a bunch of kids entranced must be doing something right.
While I'm at it, you should also check out The Man Who Woke Up Dead, which gets an honourable mention; seeing this piece develop earlier in the year was fascinating and while at the time I wasn't sure if the final show quite lived up to the initial potential, it was a stylish and intriguing story brilliantly produced and performed, and probably the only other show I saw on the local fringe that genuinely felt like a worthwhile way to spend time. Further development can only have improved it in the meantime. Both this and Billy are at rePlay.
http://www.thelowry.com/events/tag/replay%20festival
And of course I didn't see everything; on my list are One Hand Clapping and Lunch, both of which I've heard good things about. Let's see if they make an impact for this time next year....
There's one more theatre show to come in this list, and if you've spoken to me at all about theatre in the second half of this year you'll know what it is already....
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