Starting in 2018:

Frozen (WE): Let it go was amazing, although I suppose it could have been more visually spectacular. It’s certainly no flying carpet in Aladdin. But Caissie Levy sang and acted the hell out of it, the projections and curtains really did look great and the audience was not at all disappointed, roaring its approval. Generally I enjoyed it, but it does what it says on the tin, it’s a slick Disney production. The acting saved it. Patti Murin as Anna is phenomenal, not the world’s strongest belt but she sells the role incredibly well. Caissie is stupendous, both singing and acting-wise, and she has two big numbers in Let it Go and Monster, but it’s Anna’s story, really. Story-wise, Hans’s motivation for acting as he did was really not explained, but you kind of have to run with it. Act 2 was ok, but the world-building in Act 1 was preferable for me. 

Heathers (Other Palace): I thought it was great fun, and much better than Mean Girls. I felt very old and North American as I was the only one laughing at a number of the jokes, which are highly specific to time and place. Carrie Hope Fletcher was fantastic from start to finish, great acting, singing, everything. Jamie Muscato was very good, but needs to work on the American accent a bit. I thought Jenny O’Leary was outstanding as Martha, and made the most of her big number. 

Company (WE): I adored it from start to finish. It was extraordinarily polished for a first preview (rogue bench and drifting balloons notwithstanding) and I think it is going to be an enormous hit. I loved the gender-switching, and I have to think more about that. Patti was Patti (to the point of glaring at my area of the stalls because we dared to laugh at the pre-written jokes about Chicago (it’s Chicago for god’s sake, try not to let the meat jokes hit you on your way out) but she was very good for all that. As was Rosalie Craig. But the star of the show for me was Jonathan Bailey, whose big number was perfect and perfectly performed (especially for a first preview).

A Very Very Very Dark Matter (Bridge): Oh dear oh dear oh dear. I’m afraid it reminded me of Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, but without any verve or energy. I suspect the “Pygmy in a box” is the new “dead n-word storage.” It was controversial in 1994, and tying it superficially to the Belgian Congo in 2018 isn’t going to make it any more palatable. Just because the woman in the box is clever (and might ultimately win, in some hypothetical scenario that doesn’t make any sense) really doesn’t make this acceptable. The scenes in London were marginally preferable, but only because the thing in the cupboard was literally a skeleton and the characters’ interaction was more or less among equals. I see what he was trying to do, but it wasn’t sophisticated or (in my opinion) very intellectually interesting. I may be too North American to get this, but I can pretty much promise that it will never, ever transfer to New York in its current form.

Sweat (Donmar): Oh, i thought this was just phenomenal. I’m really surprised that Oslo beat it to the Tony (although even more pleased that A Doll’s House Part 2 didn’t win, because that would have been an utter travesty) and not surprised at all that it won the Pulitzer. It was a beautifully constructed play, tackling complex American issues of race, class, deindustrialisation and nationalisation. It made me despair for both that country and this one, because I think things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. And the acting was great. Some minor accent wobbles, but overall very good.